Day 320: Job 25-28 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible Department podcast, powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) - Family, welcome to day 320 here in the Bible Department podcast. I'm super, super excited. Today we've got Job, chapters 25, 26, 27, and 28. Four chapters of the Bible and in my humble opinion. I know I'm letting the count out of the bag early, okay? But in my humble opinion, Job, chapter 28, maybe some of the best reading on wisdom that I've read in all of the wisdom literature of the Bible. It may be my favorite chapter of the book of Job, so far. I'll say so far. It may be my favorite chapter of Job, so far. And it may be one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. Job, chapter 28 is gold. So, hey, if you haven't done the reading today, stop this video, pause the audio, go get the reading done because I promise you, okay? Job, chapter 25, very, very short, 26 to 27, not long, but honestly, Job, chapter 28 is incredible. And I don't wanna short change chapters 25, 26, and 27. It's all great reading, but man, Job, chapter 28, gold. All right, if you have done the reading, let's dive into today's episode.

Like always, I'm gonna give you a context clue or two or three or whatever. Gonna give you context, a historical, cultural, linguistic context, and then we're gonna dive into a couple of nerdy nuggets. I got five written down today. It's kind of been a rhythm I've been in as we have trekked through the book of Job together. And then, like always, I'll leave, leave us off, send us off, kind of, you know, commission us with a timeless truth for the day. Let's dive in. All right, I've already started talking about Job, chapter 28. So, I may as well kind of talk through what's going on with Job, chapter 28 because it is kind of odd, okay? It's an odd, odd chapter, okay? So, most people are gonna assume that Job, chapter 28, is spoken by Job, all right? And why? Well, you know, we've been in this rhythm where Eliphaz is gonna talk, you know, Eliphaz is gonna talk, Bill Dad's gonna talk, so far is gonna talk, right? Like Eliphaz talks, then Job responds, then Bill Dad, then Job responds, then so far, then Job responds, all right? So, because we're in that rhythm, you just kind of assume what's gonna happen

in chapter 25 is Bill Dad's gonna talk. Now, this is the shortest speech that Bill Dad's gonna give, it's only six verses. So, you look at chapter 25 right now, and, you know, you can look at it in your Bible, it's short, man, it's like really, really short. And then Job's gonna start responding, and he's gonna respond in chapter 26. A lot of chaos language, we'll come back to that. And then, chapter 27, I want to actually read these verse for you. So, Job, chapter 26, verse one, just three words in the whole verse, then Job replied, that's it. And then, chapter 27, verse one, says this, and Job continued his discourse, okay, fantastic. Let's skip chapter 28, let's go to chapter 29, okay? Says this, Job continued his discourse. So, we get, you know, Job is talking in chapter 26, verse one, Job's talking in chapter 27, verse one, Job's talking in chapter 29, verse one. Fascinating. So, who's talking in chapter 28? Now, most people assume, since Job is talking before chapter 28, and he's talking after chapter 28, Job's talking in chapter 28, and you would be incorrect if you came to that conclusion. It is not Job, okay? And multiple verses of the Bible are gonna actually, like, low-key get this wrong. Okay, so, in the same way that, you know,

chapter 26, verse one, 27, verse one, and 29, verse one, all tell you, like, who's talking, a lot of verses of the Bible will insert a label here, okay? So, the ESV does it. The ESV is gonna put a little heading. In the NIV, the heading just says interlude, okay? Where wisdom is found, that's what the NIV does. It just says interlude, where wisdom is found. But not every version of the Bible is gonna do that. The ESV labels this, Job continues, whereas wisdom. So, the ESV is making a claim that chapter 28 is written or is spoken by Job. However, the NIV is making it pretty clear that this is not Job. This may not even be a debate that you care about, but it is a debate. Now, here's the next little clue. Is the entirety of the book of Job is a chiasm, and good chasms have something in the center. And the thing that's in the center is actually the whole point, it's the whole purpose. And guess what the center of the entire book of Job is? Times 28. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, you're right. Times 28 is the center of the chiasm. So chapter 28 verse 1 has no beginning. Doesn't tell us who's talking, who can assume it's Job, but that would be an assumption. It's very, very different than everything else that we have in the entire book.

And I, you know, is gonna throw my hat in the ring here. I'm gonna say, I think that this is the narrator. The same narrator who tells us in chapter 1 in the prologue and the epilogue, like, you know, narrates what's happening. The portions of Job that are narrative. I think the narrator is interjecting that human wisdom has gotten everybody to where as far as they can go. And then chapter 28, I actually think that the entirety of the book of Job is built on chapter 28, all right? So that's our big context for the day, okay? Bill Dad, part three is Job chapter 25. Job's response to Bill Dad and all of his friends is Job, chapter 26 and 27. And then Job, chapter 28 is the center of our chiasm in the entire point of the book of Job. And those are the four chapters that we have assigned for us today, okay? So if you kind of want to wrap your head around, what are these four chapters doing here and what purpose do they serve at this point and juncture of the book? Chapters 25, 26, 27, 28 are Bill Dad's, you know, last, you know, he's a thorn in the flesh. It's his last twisting of the thorn in Job's side. Job responds in chapter 26. And then in chapter 27, he's responding to all of his friends, but then chapter 28, wisdom starts to talk.

So with that context, I was diving into our nerdy nuggets, okay? Job, chapter 25, this is Bill Dad, part three. Family, the weight is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and available everywhere books are sold. Literally today, I walked into a Barnes & Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes & Noble or you can go to a books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold in grab a copy if you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective. If you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book and if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. And all I gotta say here is, dude, Bill Dad only gets six verses. And here's the irony. The irony is that Bill Dad isn't wrong when it comes to the nature of God. It's just that he's wrong about Job. So Job, chapter 25, what does it say? It says this.

Dominion and all belong to God. Amen, Bill Dad, he establishes order in the heights of heaven. Amen, Bill Dad, can his forces be numbered on whom does his light not rise? How then can immortal be righteous before God? Most of us would say, yeah, Paul, this is what Paul are using Romans. No, no one's righteous. No, not one. For all of sin and false order of the glory of God, okay? So on, in a real way, Bill Dad's right. Job, what's this right? No one's righteous before God. How can one born of woman be pure? Even if even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less immortal who has but a maggot? God, dang, that's fighting words. Bill Dad calls Job a maggot. You maggot, that's so, that's so mean. A human being who is only a worm. Dang, Job gets called a maggot and a worm. Now, if, here's the irony is that in a little bit, when Yahweh actually comes down to speak to Job, it's no different. The conclusion really is, who's this mortal that dares talk to me? Who is this mortal that thinks he even has the right to like approach me? So again, and this is just what's so trippy

with all the content from the book of Job is that these guys are right. They just happen to be wrong in terms of the application. He's wrong about Job. Job is blameless, okay? So right, but so right. but so wrong. Okay, it says this, Job chapter 26 verse one, then Job replied verse two, how you have helped the powerless, how you have saved the arm that is feeble, what advice you have offered to one without wisdom, and what great insight you have displayed. This is sarcasm if you can't tell who has helped you utter these words and who spirit spoke from your mouth. Okay, this is just straight sarcasm, the dead are in deep anguish, those beneath the waters and all that live in them. Okay, and so then Job is going to break into a creation poem. We got a lot of these in the book of Psalms, right? These what I would call mythological kind of retellings or versions of the creation account. In this creation account, I would say that Job chapter 26 verses seven through 14, I would consider that a creation poem. He spreads out the northern skies over empty space, he suspends the earth over nothing. Okay, this stuff is beautiful. And like always, if we're going to have creation language or creation poems, we're going to get this mythological language. So what does Job say in Job chapter 26 verses 12 and 13? He says this, by his power, he turned up the sea, by his wisdom, he cut Rahab to pieces, by his breath, the skies became fair, his hand pierced the gliding serpent. This is deeply mythological language. This is this chapter chapter 26 with the creation myth and a focus on the deep and a particular sea monster named Rahab. Job is kind of foreshadowing chapters that we're going to get later on where God is going to respond. It's almost like God's responding to what Job says here in Job chapter 26. He's like, I'm so glad you know how about the creation and about these sea dragons and sea monsters. Let me tell you some stuff that you don't know. Okay, let me use this foundation of understanding that you've displayed here in chapter 26 and let's expand it. Let's build upon it. It's crazy to me that in the middle of Job's chaos, he is commending a God who contained chaos. I love this. And I don't want to steal my thunder, but this is our timeless truth for the day. John the Baptist wasn't able to do this in the New Testament. Based on his own personal experiences, he made an assumption about Jesus based on personal experience.

So since Jesus wasn't delivering him out of his suffering and his prison, he sent people to Jesus to ask, are you really the one or should we be looking for somebody else? Bruh, am I the one? You are the one that said I'm the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. What are you talking about? You're the one that baptized me. What are you talking about? So your personal offense with me is causing me to doubt who I am. There should be a massive firewall between your personal experiences with God and what you just know to be true about God, right? I say this all the time. Whether or not God provides for you has nothing to do with whether or not he's a provider, period. Whether or not he heals you has nothing to do with whether or not he's a healer. And people's personal testimonies are amazing and we don't want to discredit anybody's personal testimony. But personal testimony can't be the only reason that you believe all these amazing things about God. We don't believe in these amazing things about God just because another person can prove that they happen. No, we believe amazing things about God because the Bible tells us amazing things about God because this is the first cultural value at the garden. The Bible is how we know God. My personal experience is not how I know God. The Bible is how I know God. Okay, so that's kind of my timeless truth of the day. I'm just so impressed that Joe was dealing with chaos and he can still say by his power he turned up the sea. By his wisdom he cut Rahab into pieces. He can still acknowledge this is a God that crushes chaos. Low-key shameless plug for this book question chaos. Job admits Yahweh alone tames chaos. And how do I know that Yahweh tames chaos? Because Job is using chaos language, the sea, the deep Rahab to talk about God's dominance over the creation. Okay, next little nerdy nugget is is Job chapter 27. Okay, Job chapter 27 verse two to four we're going to have his oath of innocence. Job is going to give an oath of innocence. Listen here says this as surely as God lives who has denied me. as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not say anything wicked in my tongue, will not utter lies. So I'm not gonna admit that I'm guilty when that's not the truth. Then it says this, first five, I will never admit you are in the right till I die.

I will not deny my integrity. I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it. My conscience will not reproach me as long as I live. Job is like I have to, I'm taking an oath of innocence. Now, this oath of innocence is gonna get blown up and like expanded and he's gonna have to give an oath of innocence in order to talk to the Lord, okay? So we're gonna get more oath of innocence content from chapters 29 to 31. But this is a condensed version of that oath of innocence. All right, and then last, okay? Chapter, dang on 28. I love chapter 28. It starts this way. There is a mine for silver and a place for gold where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth and copper is melted from ore. Okay, so these are all what precious metals, okay? And jewelry, okay, silver, okay, gold, iron, okay, copper. All this stuff, like there's a place where humans like take this stuff from the earth, okay? Mortals put an end to the darkness. They search out the farthest recesses for ore in the blackest darkness, okay? So ore's another ingredient. Silver, gold, iron, copper, or far from human dwellings, they cut a shaft in places untouched by human feet. Far from other people, they dangle and sway. The earth from which food comes. So now we're at food.

Okay, food comes from the earth as well. Lapis lazuli, okay? Comes from the rocks. It does contain nuggets of gold, okay? No bird of prey knows that hidden path. No talking's eye has seen it. Proud beasts do not set foot on it. No lion prowls there. Okay, people assault the flinty rocks with their hands. Bubble, bubble, okay. They tunnel, this is verse 10. They tunnel through the rock. They're I see all its treasures. They search the sources of the rivers to bring hidden things to light. And then it's all gonna shift. Here we go. But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? Drop the mic. Like that is such a freaking dope setup to say but wisdom can't be found on the earth. You can find silver on the earth. You can find gold on the earth. You can find iron on the earth. You can find copper on the earth. You can find ore. You can find precious metals. You can find lapis, lazuli. You can find treasures.

You can find hidden things. You can do all that. Humans can get all that. They can search the sea. They can search the earth. They can find all this stuff, but they can't get wisdom. Verse 13, no mortal comprehends its worth. It cannot be found in the land of the living. The deep says is not in me. The sea says it is not with me. It cannot be bought with the finest gold nor can its price be weighed out in silver. It cannot be bought with the gold of asphere. O fear, O fear with precious onyx or lapis, lazuli. Now the gold nor crystal can compare with it nor can it be had for jewels of gold. Okay, just on and on and on and on and on. And what is the point? Verse 20, chapter 28. Where then does wisdom come from? Since it doesn't come from the earth. You can't, you can't dig for it. You can't mine it. Where does understanding dwell? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing concealed even from the birds in the sky. And then it all culminates in the last verse. And he said to the human race, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.

And to shun evil is understanding. What a good chapter of the Bible. Hey, there is no wisdom found on earth. God is the only one who can make you wise. God is the only one who can give wisdom. You can get gold out of the earth. You can get silver out of the earth. You can get copper out of the earth. You can get ore out of the earth. You can get a lot of things out of the earth. Can't get wisdom out of the earth. Can't dig for it, can't tunnel for it, can't mine for it. The only thing you can do is pray for it and fear the Lord. And God will begin to make you wise. And if he makes you wise, oh man. Then guess what? Everything becomes at your disposal. I don't know if you ever talk to somebody and you just think to yourself, yep. I would have never thought to ask that question. I would have never thought to ask myself that question or look at it that way. That person is wise, they're wise. And it is the pursuit of wisdom. is already a proof that you're either wise or not wise wisdom. You can hear Proverbs being echoed, "Hey, wisdom is more valuable than gold. It's more costly than crystals and Jasper and all these other things." So the price of wisdom but also the person who ultimately holds the key for wisdom is the whole point of chapter 28. And now that we're at the chiasm, okay? Now we're at the halfway point and everything starts to shift from this point out and everything is going to start to

mirror what's come above for it. But that is chapter 28. And we already tackled our timeless truth for the day. We kind of did a little add order. I gave you our context clue and I was giving you nerdy nuggets. And then I kind of slipped our timeless truth in there. And then I gave you my last nerdy nugget for the day. What a good day on the podcast. Tomorrow, we've got day 321, day 321. We're going to be looking at Joe chapters 29 to 31. I cannot wait. Same time, same place. I'll be here. Only question is, will you be here if you're on a streak and proud of you. If you're not on a streak, I love you. There is now no condemnation for those of you who are in Christ Jesus. Anyway, just plain. Love you. Love you. Love you. I'll see you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to the Bible department.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.