Day 321: Job 29-31 | 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 thebaldapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) - Family, welcome to day 321. We are continuing our trek through the book of Job. We just crossed over the halfway point yesterday, Kate. Job chapter 28 is the halfway point, is the center of the chiasm. And so today we've got Job chapters 29, 30 and 31. All three of these chapters are known as Job's oath of innocence. That's right, Job's oath of innocence. If you haven't read today's reading, you wanna stop this video, pause the audio and go get the reading done, then come back. I promise we will wait for you. For everyone who's already done the reading, I hope that you enjoy today's reading. I certainly enjoy today's reading. Obviously it's all Job, okay? So like every day, I'm gonna give you as much context as I can and then we'll dive into some nerdy nuggets. My plan today is to give you three nerdy nuggets and then leave the episode off with a timeless truth. So if you've done the reading, then I wanna dive right into context because today's a context heavy day. I got a lot of things to say. Now that we're over the halfway point of the book of Job,

I feel like there are some things that I probably should have said sooner that I really need to say. And we also just gotta talk through what is going on in chapters 29, 30 and 31. So just let's put these three chapters in context of the whole book, okay? From this point on, we are about to get three monologues, okay, three monologues. That is gonna balance out the three dialogues that we got from chapters three to chapters 27. From Job chapter three, all the way to Job chapter 27, we get three sets of dialogues, okay? Remember, Eliphaz will speak, then Job, then Bill Dad, then Job, then Zofar, then Job, okay? And we're gonna get that same conversation cycle three times. So we've got three dialogues from chapters three to 27. Then, smack dab in the middle of the book, we are gonna get chapter 28, which is an interlude on how to find wisdom and who gives wisdom. From this point on, okay, from chapters 29 and 31, we're gonna get Job's monologue. And then from chapter 32 to 37, we're gonna get a monologue from a gentleman named Elihu, okay, Elihu. If you just wanna go ahead, look at chapter 32, you're gonna see a new name there.

And most people think, maybe he was standing there the whole time, listening to Job and his three friends talk, just kind of saying nothing. He is definitely the wisest of these friends. He's gonna have their perspective though. So we get him from chapter 32, all the way to chapter 37, okay? So a lot of Elihu. And then chapters 38 and 39, God finally is going to talk. So we're gonna get a monologue from Yahweh, okay? So Job's gonna give him a monologue. That's today's reading. The next two days on this podcast is Elihu's monologue. And then we're gonna get to Yahweh's monologue when we get to Job, chapter 38 and 39. And then Job, chapter 40 to 42 is an epilogue, okay? So we had a prologue to the book, which was narrative. And then we're gonna get an epilogue to the book, which is also gonna be narrative. And that kind of frames the book. So if you wanna think, okay, how's the book a Job framed? It's framed with three dialogues at the beginning of the book, three monologues towards the end of the book with a center of the chiasm being chapter 28, which is the interlude on wisdom and then narratives at the very, very, very, very end of the books or beginning and end of the book. So the end of the beginning match up,

the meat to the right and the left of the middle match up. And then the chiasm in the middle obviously doesn't match up. It is smack dab in the middle for a reason. It's the center of the chiasm. All right, hopefully that just gives you context for the entire book and how the book flows from a 30,000 foot perspective. I'm gonna offer a little bit more context, okay? This is an oath of innocence and these oaths of innocence were actually pretty common in the ancient world. There are lots of examples of oaths of innocence. and Hittite records. It is basically an informal legal oath that exists outside of a court or the gates of the city that are seen in Scripture. It is not part of a trial. It involves no witnesses, but instead is a statement of innocence in the form of a thou to the gods or God. This is the heart of Job's claim and vow to the Lord that we actually already saw. Remember in Job 27 verses 2 through 4, we kind of got a small version of this oath of innocence. But this is an actual legal device, all right? This is an ancient legal device that Job is just is like, I have no other option but to plead my case in this formal way. I know that I'm innocent and we got to get to the bottom of what's happening, okay? Last bit of context is kind of wrapping a couple of things up, some loose ends. I should have probably said this on day one, so I should have said this when we were in Job chapter 1 back on day 312, all right? Like nine days ago, but I'm saying it now. The land of us, okay? Where's us? That would have been the equivalent of us as Americans saying like Timbuktu. Timbuktu is a real place, but when we say Timbuktu, we don't really mean it literally. We just kind of mean like middle of nowhere, right? Like, oh gosh, like I had a job for Timbuktu. It's a figure of speech and I think that's just good for people to know. Like us would have been borderline figure of speech and so that doesn't mean that the story of Job is historically true. It just kind of frames it for us to maybe realize there's some literary license. There's some literary creativity. So only because when we think is a person like Job even possible to exist that is super, super blameless. Well, Romans is going to say for all of Cinefon show to the glory of God. Now, again, the point of Job's

blamelessness is essentially that he doesn't deserve what's happening to him. It's not really to showcase his blamelessness as much as to showcase how unfair and unjust treatment he's receiving. Okay, very, very, very, very, very last bit of context, okay? I already warned you it's a context every day is that what tends to happen, you know, when we look at the Satan, okay? So Job is going to have a creature that is known as the Satan. First of all, the Satan is allowed into God's divine counsel into God's divine court. So it doesn't seem like the Satan is like not invited or not allowed to be there. It seems like the Satan figure has an important role, actually. Second, Satan is never used as a name for the serpent in Genesis chapter three. Never. Okay, so I think that there's a misconception that Satan is like some name or like a nickname or like a proper name that we refer to the embodiment of evil, you know, that like the devil, but that's not true, okay? So that's that. Next, it's the Satan. So there's other places in the Hebrew Bible that are going to use that language and it simply means the opposing, okay, the accuser. First Kings 11 is going to be one of those places and Numbers chapter 22, verse 22, it's going to be another one of those places where humans are going to be referred to as the Satan because they are standing in opposition against other humans, okay? So that's just interesting to know. Here's something that Tim Mackey from the Bible project kind of asks. This is a question. Is the Satan figure wrong? Like nowhere in the text itself does it say that he hates Job, that he hates God or that he's fallen? Everything about this actually would suggest that the Satan character has Yahweh's best interest in heart, that essentially Yahweh has a Proverbs and also like a Deuteronomy perspective, like, right? The righteous get blessed and Satan kind of challenges that or the Satan, sorry, the Satan challenges that and says, is that a good policy for ruling the earth? Like, is he really righteous or is it not smart for him to be righteous because you reward righteousness and the Satan brings up a great point. It's like, is Job actually righteous and the suffering that he has to endure proves beyond a shadow of a death. but now we know you're righteous because it's easy to be righteous if there's stuff you get out of it. It's kind of harder to be righteous when you know that you're not doing this to get anything or receive anything.

It's kind of like sometimes in church, I get a little uncomfortable when we only get people to give based on motivating them or inspiring them to believe that if they do give, they'll get something. I do believe that sowing like results in reaping. I do, I do believe that, but however, we have to be careful not to train people to think that, you know, by giving, they are just automatically going to receive. I do think it's important to communicate to Christians. Sometimes I give just because it's the right thing to do. I give because the Bible teaches me to do it and I don't do it in order to get. If I get things that's fantastic, that's a cherry on top, but that's not my primary motivating factor. I think sometimes we can bring in revelation that we get later on in the Bible and then we can read that into the book of Job. But if we just look at Job by itself without any additional information, I don't know that we would come to the conclusion that the Satan character has bad motives. And that's an idea that, you know, that's a question, I'm not saying that's where I land. I'm just saying it's a good question to ask. Does the text in and of itself with no additional outside information outside of the book of Job lend you to believe that the Satan character

has like bad motives or even motives. It kind of sounds like the Satan character is just thinking about how easy it is to take advantage of God if this is his policy, okay? So that is context. All right, now let's get into some nerdy nuggets, okay? In order to even understand Job's oath of innocence and his friend's belief that he's not innocent, you kind of have to understand these three levers or this pyramid, okay? At the top of the pyramid is God's justice. God is just, okay? The second piece to this puzzle is God's policy then of strict reward or retribution theology, okay? If he's just, then the only just way to operate the universe is by a strict policy of retribution and reward, okay? So this is that God is just. This down here, this part of the triangle is God's policy of running the world. And then this over here is Job's innocence or guilt. And so this creates a triangle. Now, I remember one time I went to a mechanic and there was a sign that says you can only have two out of three and it kind of had a list of three things and it was excellence, speed, price. Like if it's gonna be fast and cheap, probably not gonna be excellent. If it's gonna be fast and excellent, it's gonna be expensive. If it's gonna be cheap and excellent,

it's gonna take a long time. Okay? So this same triangle exists between fast, cheap and excellent. Fast, cheap and excellent, okay? Do you want quality? Do you want speed or do you want the right price? You can't have all three. And so what you begin to do is it's like when you toggle speed and cheap, excellence immediately toggles off, if you toggle those two on. So what you begin to see with Job and his friends is that the moment they toggle on, God is just and Job is innocent, okay? That's how Job is gonna toggle it. God's or yeah, no, sorry, this is Job's toggle. God runs the universe on a strict retribution policy and I'm innocent, therefore he concludes God's not just. The friends then are claiming, no, God is just and he runs the world on a strict retribution policy, which then means Job must not be innocent. So based on what they toggle on, there's an automatic toggle on. Here that the whole book of Job is actually getting us to try to understand. The one factor that nobody's willing to toggle off is that God runs the world by a strict retribution or reward policy, that's the toggle. If we toggle that off, then we can have God being just and Job being innocent.

And that is honestly what's gonna happen, which means the book of Job is not just about how to handle suffering, but it's about understanding the kind of world we live in and has God established the entire universe to operate according to a strict retribution and reward policy. That's like asking, has God created the earth And the answer to that question is, yes, gravity is a law. It's like, if you try to defy it, you're gonna be able to creep without a paddle. Well, you're probably gonna be down the creek 'cause gravity still works, but you get what I'm saying, okay? So on that toggle of Job's innocence, God's justice, and it's just policy of divine retribution and reward system, I want us to go ahead and zoom in on Job's innocence because that's what these two shabs are all about. Okay, so three nerdy nuggets. Okay, that was all context. My gosh, that was almost the entire episode just on context. Three nuggets, three nerdy nuggets, we're gonna fly through them. 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 and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a books a million

or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and 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. Job chapter 29 is all about a positive confession of his past life, how awesome his past life was, how blessed he was, but also how innocent he was. And then chapter 30, Job chapter 30 is a confession of his current suffering. He moves from the past into, but what is my status right now? So you could do a good compare and contrast between chapter 29 and 30 and 30. And then chapter 31 is we get a negative confession. These are a series of self-imposed curses. Essentially, Job is saying if I'm guilty, then God now has license to make my life even worse. Okay, so let's kind of dive into these. Job 30 is really self-explanatory. So I'm only gonna really take any kind of time

to deal with Job chapter 29, which is his positive confession of what his life used to be like. And then Job 31, which is a negative confession or a series of self-imposed curses. Job chapter 29, starting in verse 12, okay? Job is gonna tell us that he delivered the poor. That he caused the widow's heart to sing. That I was eyes to the blind. I was father to the needy. I broke the fangs of injustice. Okay, Job's a hero. Now, this is the irony is that all the things that Job was gonna say about himself are all in direct opposition to the things that Eliphaz accused him of in chapter 22. This is what Job out of 22 verses six through nine says, you demand a security from your relatives for no reason. You stripped people of their clothing, leave them naked. You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry. Though you were a powerful man, owning land, an honor man living on it. And you sent widows away empty handed and broke the strength of the father of the fatherless. So Job and Job chapter 22, obviously Eliphaz says all that. And it's almost like Job tucks it all away. And he responds to it here in Job chapter 29. Okay, so this is Job just describing his past life

but also how blameless his past life was and how blessed he was in direct proportion to how blameless he was. Okay, Job chapter 30 self-explanatory, but then Job chapter 31. Okay, Job chapter 31 verses one through four and verses nine through 12. Job proves, he also claims and proves that he's innocent of sexual immorality. Then Job 31 verses five through eight. He proves that he's innocent of dishonesty. He's also innocent in his social dealings. That's Job chapter 31 verse 13 to 23. And then he's innocent of how he uses his wealth. That's Job chapter 31 verses 24 to 25. And then he's innocent of idolatry which is Job chapter 31 verses 26 to 30. Oh, sorry, 26 to 28. And then he's also innocent of being vindictive. That's Job chapter 31 verses 29 to 30. And then Job is also innocent of hiding sin, okay? Concealing sin. That's Job chapter 31 verses 33 to 34. That's Job chapter 31 verses 38 to 40. In other words, he's innocent of all things. So if he is innocent of these, and so God will not judge him for them, then why has God judged him in the first place? So this is an oath of innocence. The point of chapter 31 is that if he isn't guilty,

that's the point. I'm not guilty. So by imposing these self curses, he is effectively swearing by God that he is innocent. If God doesn't make his suffering worse, then he is not guilty of any of these things. Let's move right into our time as truth. I think that it is, you know, since the dawn of time, people have been wondering why do bad things happen to good people? And my challenge today is that you and I aren't even as blameless as Job. Like Job complains. And if you just read the level of innocence that he has in these three chapters, you realize, man, I'm not even coming anywhere close to Job's righteousness. I should probably not complain when bad things happen to me, okay? Not only is Job coming to the awareness that God is holy other than him, I want us to realize we're holy other than Job. Like this is a very, very, very righteous man. I don't want that to get lost kind of in the sauce. And we kind of sometimes have this bizarre sense of entitlement to God's goodness and his grace, but we're not even as righteous as Job. And so Job's just righteousness and innocence alone, I hope, inspires you to not complain, but also inspires you to live a fruitful life,

to live a wise life, to live the kind of life that is even halfway as blameless as Job. All right, tomorrow we've got day 322. We're gonna be looking at Job chapters 32, 33. It's gonna be fantastic. Just two chapters tomorrow. We've got four days left in the book of Job. I'm proud of you, especially if you're on a streak. I 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 thebobaldapartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.