40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Job 16:10-18:21 (Episode 402)

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

Job continues his response and asks that the earth not hide his blood. Job waits for God to act toward him in a way that he recognizes. And Bildad replies with the same error-filled argument. Have a listen. Show Notes: Support 1517 1517 Podcasts The 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 on Youtube What's New from 1517: Bible in One Year with Chad Bird Freedom Lessons Album Your God is too Glorious, 2nd Edition by Chad Bird Schweitzer's Psychoanalysis of Jesus Christ: & Other Essays in Christian Psychotherapy by John Warwick Montgomery NWA Conference May 3rd-4th  More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

welcome to another episode of 40 minutes in the old testament 40 minutes in the old testament is a 1517 podcast network podcast you can go to 1517.org slash podcast check out all the other podcasts are living over there while you're over there make sure you check out the events page to see where chad speak and chad speak at some places you know he had to take a little time off in the cold winter no one likes to travel in the snow all that kind of stuff i'm stuck in the snow but uh but soon and very soon chad's gonna be back on the road going to places maybe near you so check out the events page you can also register for the now uh for the here we still stand regional event over in bentonville arkansas that is the first weekend in may there's still a

couple of tickets left for that, so if you want to come, I recommend you grab those and come hang out with Chad and myself. All right, Chad, we are here in Job 16. We got through a little bit of Job's response. Job has told his friends that they are the most miserable of comforters, and truer words have maybe never been spoken. These are the worst kind of comforters that you could possibly have. And we ended with him making a pretty jarring statement, which is that God is not only against him, but pretty sure that God hates me. And we kind of ended talking a little bit about the sort of Old Testament binary of there is no God is neutral with you. God is either for you or against you. He either loves you or he hates you. He is certainly not indifferent. And

this is how it went with all descriptions of sort of relationships and dispositions towards whether it's god or people that there's love and hate and that's it and uh that's and job says well as i audit my situation what conclusion can i come to other than i'm pretty sure this god hates me yeah and uh he's going to transition in uh job 1610 to talk about how they so that's kind of the vertical dimension dimension but you got the horizontal too because now if god is against you god's attacking you job says then this has repercussions in this world too because that means that everybody who thinks they're on god's side well they're gonna they're gonna start basically doing the same thing thinking oh well you know obviously this guy's uh this guy's

done something wrong look what god's done to him evidently we should kind of imitate that as well and take him to task for for what he's done and that's what job begins to say in in verse 10 so after talking about how god's torment his wrath and gnashed his teeth at him he says men have gaped at me with their mouth they have struck me insolently on the cheek they mass themselves together against me so gaping at me with their mouth that's probably a kind of a mop derision going on is what i what i suspect uh i don't know what english expression we'd use since we don't talk about people gaping with gaping with their mouth but uh that seems to be what's going on here they're uh they're mocking him they're opening their mouth in order to speak

these kind of words now that the striking instantly on the cheek i don't know if he means that literally or if it's uh it's it's just kind of metaphorical for you know we talk about someone getting a tongue lashing and of course that's a that's drawn from the physical but it's actually describing a verbal attack and i i i get a feeling anyway that's what's going on here i don't i don't get the impression that people are walking up to job and slapping him uh but they are speaking evil against him they are giving him tongue lashings they are using words as weapons against him and they mass themselves together against against me he says so it's it's got almost a mob mentality i mean we we see this happen all the time online especially where kind of a mob will gather

together and and attack attack someone for you know what whatever it might be so this is this stuff is built into human nature now here the ones who are massing themselves together and attacking job gaping in him with their mouth they're they're probably these that uh see what's happening to him and think well obviously he's sinned against god and so he deserves it and so we're going to kind of join in this chorus of accusers just like his friends are yeah i think everyone's uh experience being uh slapped across the face uh verbally online that seems like something that probably most people have have experienced you read something you're like ouch uh that's that's an insult right across the face there i i think what's uh what's fascinating is

that as he says this i mean there's a lot of accusation here i would think i mean who's listening to him say these words well these three friends and uh and they are i'm reminded of the pharisees when jesus will tell a parable about you know maybe 10 lending out a vineyard and people uh killing a bunch of people that he goes to the man sends a check on the vineyard and it has this great line where it says uh the pharisees perceived that he was speaking about them and you're like right oh very perceptive i think these friends are probably doing the same thing here where they are perceiving like who are you talking about here job who's uh who's gaping at you with their mouths and striking you on the cheek and who's uh massed themselves together against you

uh we're the only ones here so i i'm assuming it's us and i think that this uh this comes like job really brings it home in verse 11 when he says god gives me up to the ungodly i mean who who is he talking about so this whole time these friends have been trying to say like tell us about your ungodliness job tell us what's the ungodly behavior that you've been engaged in what's the sin job and uh job won't do it because he job knows that if you're just talking about who's the better person that he he's as good if not much better than these guys and so job levels this at them which is uh god gives me up to the ungodly and cast me into the hand of the wicked yeah that's a nice uh i guess nice is probably not the best adjective but a nice contrast

with uh what uh the psalmist says psalm 31.8 says uses the same verb you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy that's what the psalmist says and then job says god has handed me he's given me up to the to the ungodly so just just the opposite and uh yeah i mean it's he's he's looking at his friends as he says that the ungodly but he also is you know looking up to the heavens because he doesn't just say i have fallen into the hands of the ungodly yeah god has done this yeah he's handing me over to the ungodly cast me into the hands of the of the of the wicked so uh for you know a couple of verses there he shifted his attention more to the people around him and what he's suffering from them as far as verbal abuse but he's going to shift right back

to god in verse 12 and man oh man these images that are coming up in 12 and 13 and 14 talk about rough this is uh this is job not holding back whatsoever he says i was at ease i was i was at ease kind of like i suppose at peace is the idea you know i was living a peaceful existence Everything was good. I was at ease. And he, God, broke me apart. He sees me by the neck and dashed me to pieces. He set me up as his target. His archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground. He breaks me with breach upon breach he runs upon me like a warrior so uh i it pretty hard to pretty hard to outdo that i mean job job is first of all saying listen i was i'm i'm alone here it's not like i got a you know

pack of soldiers around me i'm alone and everything was good i was at peace i was at ease and then all of a sudden god shows up not just god but he's got like this army uh lord of hosts shows up here got got his archers with their quiver full of arrows and got the sharp knives and they just go to work you know he grabs me by the back of the neck that's a typical that that expression occurs a few times in the scriptures one is in genesis 49 8 judah your brother shall praise you your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies this is the idea you know you're chasing somebody down and you catch up with them and you grab them by the by the back of the neck so job says what's happened to me god grabbed me by the neck threw me to the ground broke me to

pieces and then as if that wasn't bad enough he made me into his archery target his archers so not just god but his archers surround him plug him with arrows slice open his kidneys and kidneys in the scriptures are most of the time not all the time but most of the time are not just in reference to the the organs themselves i mean you'll have that sometimes like in the uh the sacrificial descriptions in leviticus what you're supposed to do with the kidneys the fat of the kidneys but kidneys uh are typically a way of expressing the like the seat of emotions and affection in the old testament so sometimes a lot of times your translations will do this they'll they'll translate it as heart or mind uh like you have you know you've tested my heart and my mind

or something like that but in hebrew it's you've tested my like my kidneys so they're the organ associated with emotions and affection so when it says he slashed up with my kidneys yeah i mean this might this is kind of a you know bringing up physical pain but it's also like uh i'm suffering emotionally i'm suffering psychologically because of these divine attacks against me yeah and then in the old testament the the sort of the bowels is more the seat of the emotion than the heart yeah heart's kind of your like main operating center you know you you do feel with your heart but you think with it you you reason with it so i mean what we a lot of times would say your mind does the hebrews would say your your heart does so the heart's kind of your epicenter of your of

your being but yeah you got sometimes your your belly is described or here your kidneys are described but the you know we even there's an old english expression about uh bent your spleen and by that uh is meant to just kind of to to state your troubles to state your your your heartaches or your fears or whatever whatever it is and so i mean we still associate emotions with organs but hebrew does that all the time yeah that's quite the image here yeah it doesn't work as well uh nowadays you know i say man i'm just gonna vent my spleen everyone's gonna look at me like i've been reading shakespeare too much go tell go tell uh stacy chad go tell her that you love her with both your kidneys see if yeah right see if she if that works the same way as heart

yeah but the only thing that you know the well we'll sometimes use uh you know uh belly aching let's say uh you know if someone's grumbling their belly aching or of course you know all the time we'll use heart he poured it poured out his heart or he's heartbroken or he's got a hard heart we use heart all the time metaphorically but not so much uh kidneys and spleen and other other parts i guess i guess unless we say something unless we say something like uh like gut punch something like that right like yeah you know and that's kind of kind of what's going on here i mean is that um yeah he's i mean i mean this is yeah if you just read this right this is really graphic uh what it's supposed to be brutal yeah it's supposed to explain to you is

that uh job is uh really i mean you're like of course he's suffering but it's more than that uh job feels not just like oh these boils are terrible and you know all my stuff's gone um but that god has not let up on him right and that like i mean so he's he is uh everything that can be done to him that is terrible is being done yeah yeah then he wraps up the section with uh saying i have i have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and laid my well esv has strength literally it's it's it's horn laid my horn in the dust horn is a typical emblem of strength in the scriptures You know, you lift up your horn or the horns of the wicked are often used for the strong characteristics of the wicked as they attack. So I've laid my horn in the dust.

So all my strength is gone. I've got sackcloth sewn to my skin, basically. My face is red with weeping. On my eyelids is deep darkness. Man, that's something we still see. You know, you see someone's eyes and they're all dark. You know, you know, they haven't slept, have been crying all night or whatever it is there. You know, things are rough when on my eyelids is deep darkness.

So that's the way he finishes the description of all of this. But then he closes it off for 17 with this. So keeping all of that in mind, you know, his body's full of arrows from God's archers. He's been sliced open. He's been thrust to the ground. he's got sackcloth and eyes are dark although job says although there is no violence in my hands and my prayer is pure so that's where he gets back to this protest i mean it'd be one thing if yeah he uh he uh he shook his fist at the heavens and said come on god give me all you got

or if he led a rebellious life and was basically asking for for this or or was engaged in blasphemy whatever job is is saying once more listen i there's no violence in my hands and my prayer is pure what i'm saying to god is is not from impure motives or i'm not hiding some great sin in the closet of my heart that god is now taking me to task for i'm innocent with regard to what i'm going through there's a you know it just it doesn't what i've done i'm not saying i'm sinless but what i've done does not match the horror that my life has become yeah well to say that there's no violence in your hands and your prayer is pure what has happened to job is he's he's suffering the way that somebody who uh had committed great sins would suffer in his mind like

this this sort of uh punishment if you're if you were to look at his payment he's like well i i've been i have not went out and murdered people i've done i've done no violence to other people yet it seems that violence is being done to me uh and my prayer is pure is another way of saying nor have i like forsaken god or worshiped other gods or become an idolater or anything like this right so i um yeah i've done no violence in your hand is i've done nothing to my neighbors my prayer is pure i've worshiped no other gods not done anything to god i've not done anything anybody else this this seems pretty unjust but yeah but but here i am so he wraps up uh 18 through 22 wraps up this chapter by saying oh earth cover not my blood and let my cry find no resting place

even now behold my witness is in heaven and he who testifies for me is on high my friends scorn me my eye pours out tears to god but he would argue the case of a man with god as a son of man does with his neighbor for when a few years have come i shall go the way from which i shall not return that starting that uh verse 18 oh cover oh earth cover not my blood let my cry find no resting place uh that's like that's kind of a genesis 4 cain and abel type stuff going on there you know when God says, the voice of the blood of your brother is crying to me from the ground. So this occurs a few other places in the Old Testament, too. It's this idea that when blood has been shed, that it doesn't matter.

I mean, you can dig an eight-foot trench and cover it up, and it's still going to testify against you that when innocent blood has been shed, that it has this witnessing power to cry out to God for him to do something. and so job is here calling upon the earth says don't cover my blood just leave it there as a testimony for what's happening to me and let my cry keep kind of resounding finding no resting place you know bouncing echoing back and forth until it's finally heard and then in verse 19 i don't know quite what to make of this but it sure seems to be uh job is just found this this this piece of hope that he cries out here even now he says behold my witness is in heaven

and he who testifies for me is on high which seems to suggest that job believes he has a legal legal advocate in heaven uh his his witness he's going to talk about this more in chapter 19 that famous i know that my redeemer lives section um it's it's funny you know how he will he will go from what feels like the just the pits of despair to this cry of of hope you know from from god is attacking me and my blood's everywhere to yet i believe i have a witness in heaven yet i believe that there is someone up there who is on my side yeah it's very strange on one hand god is tormenting me he hates me he's against me he's uh causing all this suffering and yet joe believes that i must believe um that god is just or else he wouldn't be appealing to him and so

in the midst of all that yeah you end up with this line that hey i don't want my blood to just that soak up in the earth uh i want i want to be visible i want someone to maybe uh look down on the earth see it knowing what i know or believing what i believe about god is that at some point he is going to observe this and say there's a great injustice here even though he has no one to to hold responsible for this but god uh he still believe it's almost like he believes at some point i don't want to i don't want to say god's going to come to his senses but like that at some point god's justice is going to overtake him and it's going to be he's going to be vindicated yeah it's kind of the idea that there will come a point where the god he's known in the

past will act toward him in a way that he did in the past instead of this strange foreign god who uh or foreign feeling god who's now attacking him and he wants you know verse 21 where he talks about arguing the case of a man with god as a son of man does with this neighbor i think that's just part of the same kind of argument where job wants to have a conversation with god as a man does with another man or at least a day in court as we can with with one another but that's not happening and He wants it to happen because he feels like he's going to die soon. Verse 22, because after a few years have passed, I'm going to go the way from which I shall not return. So while I'm still alive, let this happen.

Let there be some sort of justice, some sort of indication before it's too late. That's chapter 16. Now, chapter 17, Job continues as the introduction to the chapter says, where then is my hope? so uh chapter 17 begins this way and this is maybe even just kind of a continuation of the same same line of talk that we saw at the end of 16 my spirit is broken my days are extinct the graveyard is ready for me surely there are mockers about me and my eye dwells on their their provocation that that man that opening line is is great uh it's pretty hard to bring out translation but it's like um you got three clauses in hebrew each with two words

uh it'd be something like my spirit broken my days extinguished the grave for me he's trying to capture in just as pithy pithy uh a language as possible how how bad things are broken spirit days extinguished and the grave is uh is ready ready for him and not only that but he's got these mockers around him and they're provoking provoking him the graveyard is ready for me is pretty pretty explicit right okay it's that's some it's pretty powerful language there yeah yeah it's like the the gates open the graves dug the stones in place yeah all that remains is the body yes just waiting for waiting for job to show up um verse three lay down a pledge for me with you who is there who will put up security for me since you have closed their hearts to

understanding therefore you will not let them triumph he who informs against his friends to get a share of their property the eyes of his children will fail that's some kind of some strange stuff going on here um i think what's happening is this so first three when it says lay down a pledge for me with you or who is there who will put up security with me seems to be job saying you know is there anybody who's going to be on my side you know is anyone who's gonna gonna put up security for me or make a pledge for me um because i'm all alone and it would be nice if I had someone who was, someone who was around me. And this whole thing, beginning with verse two is set up kind of as an, as an oath. Uh, you can't really bring this out in translation, but

that surely where it says, surely there are mockers about me and Hebrew. That's the way you, uh, the word that they translate as surely is the way you began the solemn oath. So this is like Joe making an oath to God. And I think he's talking about his friends here, you know, the mockers those who are provoking him and uh then when he says since you he's talking to god here you have closed their heart to understanding therefore you will not let them triumph uh i think that's him talking directly to god about what god has done to them that they they can't get it they don't get it they can't understand because god has actively closed off their heart so they can't understand what's going on and that and that's the reason they speak such

false accusations to job yeah this is quite the accusation in verse five too i mean he who informs against his friends will to get a share of their property the eyes of his children will will uh fail i mean is it you have to assume here that job is talking to about his friends i mean and the fact that he says this right in their presence that now i don't know exactly how this works but this sort of informs against them I would assume this sort of accusation

that he has some sin they're trying to expose some sin in Job but this part where it's like to get a share of his property is quite interesting Job I guess still owns a bunch of land and stuff

but is he are these friends trying to make sure they're in the will i don't know what's going on here yeah i don't know either uh but it sure sounds like that might be a possibility uh that there's more than one motive for why they're doing what they're what they're doing so uh he transitions into verse six saying he that is god he's made me a byword of the peoples and i'm one before whom men spit my eye has grown dim from vexation and all my members are like a shadow let's kind of continue more of this description of his suffering you

know people are making fun of jokes about him uh i am one before whom men spit i mean we still kind of have not often but there is this idea you know spitting somebody's face or spitting somebody's presence it's a a physical way of showing contempt or hatred or derision or whatever whatever it might whatever it might be and his his his eyes are dim his members are like a shadow containing this kind of physical physical description now in verse eight he refers to verse eight and nine he refers to a group of people that he calls by three different names the upright and the innocent and the righteous probably he would he would lump his friends in this category but probably others too and what seems to be communicated here is these people

are uh attacking job for the same reason we saw earlier because they think that god is against him so the upright are appalled at this the innocent stirs himself up against the godless yet the righteous holds to his way and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger i checked the commentaries on this there's there are a lot of different ways that people take people take this uh the way i'm reading it is that job is somewhat sarcastically uh referring to the upright the innocent and the righteous as those who are stirring themselves up against him the quote unquote godless one and the idea at least the way i'm reading this would be that they consider job to be godless they consider him to be a sinner and therefore they consider themselves to be on

God's side, and therefore feel justified in claiming their own clean hands and pointing guilty fingers at Job, whom they consider to be unclean. Yeah, I think that's right. One of the things that's

sort of, you have a contrast in him saying that his eyes have grown dim from vexation, and all his members are like a shadow. This is like he's sort of withering away. But then he says... you know, just one verse, and he says this thing about the upright are appalled, and this, but then

in verse 9, he says, yet the righteous holds to his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger, and so there's this weird contrast between him saying, hey, my eyes are about to give out, I've withered away into nothing, but yet the righteous grows stronger and stronger, and I think there, that sort of stronger and stronger has to do with holding to your way, right, so you you become more and more resolved right so even though your body is you know just withering away to nothing your resolve for your cause is not following the way of your body yeah yeah so uh he goes on verse 10 but you come on again all of you and i shall not find the wisest man among you job is not giving up he's listen to that resolve you gotta you gotta give it to him i mean come on

give me all you got uh uh he's uh he's not gonna he's not gonna stop i shall not find a wise man among you my days are past my plans are broken off the desires of my heart they make night into day the light they say is near to the darkness if i hope for shaol as my house if i make my bed in darkness? If I say to the pit, you are my father and to the worm, my mother or my sister, where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust? So he's saying, basically, I'm nearing the end. At least it feels like I'm nearing the end. His days are past. His plans are broken off. His desires of his heart have passed away and he's dealing with people in verse 12 who uh turn everything backwards and make night

and today and they say the the darkness is near to the light i'm assuming this is uh a metaphorical description of how his friends are turning everything upside down but uh then he then he starts in this kind of downward trajectory towards sheol uh saying you know if if sheol becomes my address, if I'm going to make darkness my bed and claim the pit and the worm as my family, where then is my hope going to be? And who will see my hope? This is Job basically saying, if I go down there, if I go down to the pit, if I go down to the shoal, then all hope is lost. So let something happen before we get to that point, before that graveyard that is ready for me has claimed me. Let God do something to reverse the situation before it's too late.

Yeah, I mean, otherwise, he's saying, me and hope are going to go live in the dust together, right? I mean, the idea of hope is not to take it into the grave with you, right? Now, as Christians, of course, we do this, right? It's exactly what we do. We take, we bury it with our hope uh but uh job is uh not in that place uh job is in a place where he's like okay i'm looking for vindication here and uh what am i gonna do what am i i'm just gonna be buried with this hope me me and hope gonna be uh lying in the in the grave together there there are there's so many situations like this where you uh now knowing what we know you wish you'd go back and say uh kind of sit down beside Job and say, Hey, uh, I hear what you're saying. I hear what you're saying, but let me let

you know what's going to happen. You know, this hope that you're talking about being buried with you in the grave. Uh, I got some great news for you actually. That's precisely what is, is going to happen. Yeah. Because, uh, this redeemer that you're going to talk about in, uh, in chapter 19, uh he actually came and uh he he took hope into the grave with him and he came out again so that he gives us hope every time that we put our loved one in the grave or think about putting ourselves in in in the grave eventually uh hope will not stay buried but it'll bring us forth in resurrection it's just you wish you could go to job and say hey i got some great news for you i mean that's what his friends that's what he needed his friends for they weren't giving it to him so part of me

wishes man i wish i could communicate this to job and give him the hope that that we have this side of the resurrection of the messiah well yeah because i mean hope what jesus says about himself right um that he must go be planted like a seed and uh and this is this is how ultimate hope is right like ultimately hope uh goes into the grave ultimately hope is put into earth and then comes bursting forth uh that's that's how it works you know so yes hope died um the way that every seed that's planted dies and then something springs forth and uh and so yeah that that job says a lot of things like uh that yeah you certainly are like oh man that actually i know i know it doesn't seem like that's how it works joe but that is how it works yeah yeah we've seen several occasions where

where it's like job says more than he realizes or god god is in letting him speak words that are actually prophetic in nature even though they just come across as nothing more than sad lament there's actually a lot of truth and a lot of hope in in his words which is i mean one of the great things about the fact that this book was preserved for us you know uh there's there we can read more out of this book and then job even realized that he was that he was saying uh and we can do that in light of the resurrection yeah absolutely so i guess we uh we need to get to uh buildad um build as is is a blowhard i don't know other i don't even have a nicer way to explain exactly uh what he is so uh this is going to be his response chapter 18 build out the shoe

answered and said how long will you hunt for words i could also be translated how long will you make an end of words uh the the hebrew there is is is uh debated it's it's ambiguous but your different translations will put different things there but how long will you hunt for your words or put an end to words consider and then we will speak i i'm just going to kind of skip over there's a lot of controversy around that verse that that we're not going to get into the weeds about but just some difficult Hebrew there to translate it. Some people think that Bildad's speaking to his two friends. Some people think that he's speaking to Job. But kind of leaving that aside and jumping to verse three, this is where he definitely begins to speak to Job. Why are we counted as cattle,

which I just love? Like, why are you treating us like stupid cows, Job? Are we like this dumb beast here uh and you want to say well you know if the shoe fits uh why are we counted as cattle why are we stupid in your sight i don't know bill dad maybe because you are maybe because you're saying a lot of stupid uh beastly things maybe that's why job is saying uh what he is and then he really he uh he hits below the belt on this one so earlier job had said uh to god about god rather he has torn me in his wrath that's in chapter 16 verse 9 job said he has torn me in his wrath now build that using the same expression turns around and says you tear yourself in your anger so he's like you know what this isn't a god problem with you

job this is a you problem you're tearing yourself up you're the you're the source of all of these problems that you're having you're tearing yourself up in your own anger god's not in anger tearing you up and then he goes on verse four shall the earth be forsaken for you or the rock be removed out of its place by which i think he's communicating you know are we going to like just alter the fundamental orders of creation just to satisfy your protest job are we going to like you know forsake the earth and make rocks be moved around just to fit with the way that you think things ought to be we're going to restructure the whole universe in order to make it align with what you think the way should be job well i think i think part of what is happening here is that

because you see in verse five he gets back to this same hired argument that's like that they keep going back to you over and over again which is indeed the light of the wicked is put out and the flame of its fire does not shine like this whole thing of like well you know this is the sort of thing that happens to the wicked this is their fate joe which we've heard over and over and over again and it seems like maybe one of the things that he's saying when he says like what are we just gonna restructure everything is like we're gonna reconsider everything we believe about good things happening to good people and bad things happening to bad people joe is that we're supposed to believe just because you're the one guy suffering now we have to believe that sometimes

the righteous suffer we're not like we're not going to do that and let me make this argument again now job this is how it goes the light of the wicked is put out yeah that's exactly what's going on uh from verse 5 to the end of the chapter verse verse 21 he just basically repeats the same old worn out shallow uh uh not wisdom foolishness really that he's he's been spouting and his friends i've been spotting this entire time the light is dark in his tent his lamp above him is put out his strong steps are shortened his own schemes throw him down he's cast into a net with his own feet he by the way uh bildad must uh have a copy of the thesaurus because he like looks up trap and then finds all the words that uh are so trapped he's got net mesh trap snare

rope trap all those are different hebrew words to describe traps into which someone can be caught so uh he walks on its mesh a trap seizes him by the heel a snare lays hold of him a rope is hidden for him in the ground a trap for him in the path it's always basically saying you know if you're wicked like you are job you're going to get caught terrors frighten him on every side chase him in his heels his strength is famished his calamity is is is ready for his stumbling so i mean this whole chapter uh i mean i hesitate to even read the entire thing because all it does is it's just rhetorical heaping up of of words all of which communicate the same thing you know whether it's you're gonna die you're gonna suffer your your roots are gonna dry up you're gonna be thrust

into the darkness you're not gonna have any posterity blah blah blah blah blah it's it's nothing more than him saying what he has said all along just uh in more images and more metaphors that hey joe what's happening to you is what happens you know you you play with fire you're going to get burned and you're you've been burned so let's confess that fire so we can tell we can tell what's really going on here yeah and we're not going to reconsider this uh ordering of the universe we're not we are not going to look at you and then decide that we have to change the way we think about all these things and it sort of uh ends like i mean in verse 21 i mean he just he just tells them straight out right surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous such

is the place of him who knows not god right so he's like no like we'd like no dude this is what a godless dude like you has coming and this is this is what theological arrogance sounds like when someone is trapped in this uh this cause and effect mentality where if a bad thing happens to you it's because you've sinned and they're yeah it ultimately they say well you're wrong because you don't even know god you know if you knew god like i do you'd realize this bad thing is happening to you because of what you because of what you've done uh so it's uh yeah unfortunately for job he doesn't have a good theologian there he doesn't have a god he doesn't he needs a preacher he doesn't need a uh a law addicted friend like he like he has he needs a preacher

come along and preach some good some good news to him uh and to point out the fact that yeah the righteous do suffer uh but turns out the righteous one also suffered uh in order that he might give us hope and resurrection and uh light in the midst of these dark days uh that's what i'd preach to joe that's what he preached to us but he doesn't have a preacher so he's gonna have to deal with his friends for now yeah and that's it man we are out of time but uh next episode we will get into uh probably the most famous uh of job lines uh where job is gonna start to put something together right here that uh we've been uh quoting ever since he said it so i'll see you next week chad all right we'll see you then

I'll see you next time.