40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Job 21:17-22:11 (Episode 405)

Episode Date: February 9, 2024

Job continues his response to the empty nothings of his friends. Eliphaz has a strange theology of a God that only looks for people to punish and resorts to slander and lies against Job to make his 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: Remembering Rod Rosenbladt Preorder: Encouragement for Motherhood Edited by Katie Koplin Preorder: Be Thou My Song by Kerri Tom Here We Still Stand 2023 Videos are Available on YouTube Last Chance: 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 and check out all the podcasts that are living over there. While you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing. All the articles, the academies, all the videos that we've put out, all the events that we have. Check out all that stuff. You're going to find a lot of stuff that's going to be useful to you. And, of course, if this show is something that you regularly listen to and you consume other 1517 content,

of course, consider becoming a supporter of that content. It's all free. All the stuff we do is free. and it's uh not free to make it turns out because you know everything costs money and you know these days chad i don't know if you know but everything costs more money than it used to i've noticed yeah i've noticed that uh strange the way that works yeah it's uh more it costs a little bit more uh or in some cases a lot more but uh anyway so that's true for everything else uh everything that we do as well uh but if you want to help fill in that gap you can go over to the donate page or

at the link in the show notes to donate and you can become a supporter and help us keep doing what we're doing and we appreciate all the people that do that all right chad we are in job 21 uh we got about i don't know halfway through this thing and uh job is in the middle of a of a rebuttal yeah his rebuttal is it's pretty straightforward because uh he's had to make it a couple times now. And, you know, once again, the response was, hey, you know, bad things are going to happen to the wicked people. It always does. Look around. Look at how bad the wicked have it. And Job's response is pretty much, you look around. What are you talking about? Who are you talking to? What world are you living in? The wicked do, in

fact prosper you're out of your mind and uh we got about halfway through uh that response yeah and uh speaking of halfway as we were discussing right before we hit record we are halfway through the book of job so that part's kind of wild because you're you got it you as you're just one of the things true about job as you're reading especially this part which is like this is the bulk of job is this discourse like this as you're reading it like if you got to this part you have you'd be like surely this surely this is over about over like wrapping up any minute like how much longer can this go on yeah well you know anyone who sat in on many theological debates knows that uh they are rarely short so this is this is definitely the uh the

theological debate book of the Bible. So we've got a few more chapters to go, even though there's not going to be a lot of new things that are said, especially by Job's friends. Job has a few more things to say. And speaking of a few more things to say... I feel like one of the things

that you could maybe because you're doing chapter by chapter and this has taken, you know, we're doing this over the course of weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks. But you have to understand that, like, this conversation, like, Job's friends get there, they hang out for a couple of days, you know, like it's, they're

chilling, but this is all presumably just like a really one long frustrating day. In fact, I used to a few times, so I live in East Texas now, but when I lived in Central Texas, I would hike in a park called Purgatory and I would listen to Job. I just figured it was appropriate. And on some of my long hikes, I'd be out there for two hours and I could listen to the entire book. so uh yeah you can you can listen to job in two hours so you know this conversation has taken place over a day or it could have been multiple days but anyway yeah it's a it's taken us weeks

to get through it but uh it wasn't like this was a six-month dialogue between job and his and his buddies yeah they weren't like leaving coming back leaving coming back at least we have no evidence of that maybe it's over of course a couple days we have no evidence of that either It seems like it's just once they start talking, it's on. And you're like, man, this is one heck of a conversation going on here, man. And maybe that's why you can start hearing the tone get more and more frustrated. I mean, this is just, they're probably getting hungry. They're probably arguing right through lunch.

No, yeah, they're hangry now, so it's getting worse. yeah so yeah uh job 17 i mean job 21 17 is where we left off and he's kind of the middle of this rebuttal where he's pointing out that things are not as his friends have suggested it's not like you know the wicked all are cut off in the prime of of life and suffer the fruits of their of their evil deeds so he's picking up here with verse 17 by saying how often How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes upon them, that God distributes pains in his anger?

So you're claiming that the lamp of the wicked is put out all the time, they're cut off. Well, show me some evidence of that. When does this happen? When does calamity come upon them when they're in the middle of all their evil doing? I think Job's argument, too, is like, because he does it, how often is that?

Like, the argument isn't that, like, bad things only happen to good people and bad things never happen to wicked people or that wicked people always get away with it and they're never caught and they're never punished. The argument is that, like, there doesn't seem to be any sort of pattern to any of this, right? Like, Job's like, look, dude, bad things happen to good people. Bad things happen to bad people. Good things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. This idea that there's this hard, fast rule, and you can know this, this, and this, is just obviously not true. And so I can ask the question, like, how often does that happen?

And maybe you can come back and be like, well, I've seen it happen. I'm like, okay, but you're arguing that it always happens, and that's obviously not true. Is that 25% of the time? Shoot, 50% of the time. You could tell me that 80% of the time the bad things happen to wicked people, and you'd be like, yeah, but it's still, you know, two out of ten times it doesn't,

because I feel like Job's frustration is that there's not really a rhyme or reason for any of this that he can discern, right? It's like, it all seems pretty random and arbitrary. Yeah, the friends have a very mechanical view of the universe. it's almost almost like a deistic kind of kind of god where he has set things up to where if you do x wise can result yeah so if you do evil evil happen to you if you do good good will

happen to you and they're they're holding to this naive understanding of the inverse despite the fact that we have example after example like you were just describing where that does not happen where the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer so that's of course that's one of job's main point here and he goes on to say how often verse 18 how often does it happen that they're like straw before the wind and like chaff that the storm carries away you say god stores up their iniquity for their children then job job refutes this not refutes it but uh says in response well let him pay it out to them that they may know it let their own eyes see their destruction and let them drink of the wrath of the almighty for what do they care for their houses after them when the

number of their months is cut off so he first of all begins by by quoting uh his friends saying well you know what god does really he's gonna if it doesn't befall the evildoers in their own lifetime well then what's going to happen is god is going to just hold this punishment until they're gone and then he's going to mete it out upon their children sounds like a pretty sweet deal yeah Job's like well what good does that do

if God wants to make a point then let him pay it out to them that is to the evildoers themselves let their own eyes see their destruction let them drink of the wrath of the almighty because I mean if these are evildoers why do they care what happens

after they're dead and gone they're dead and gone yeah you're talking about wicked people it's like it's not like they like have they probably aren't the sort of people that have like are real concerned about what their children are going to do or anything like that that's not that's not what they're worried about i mean and and also i mean for job i think that that just don't worry job it'll be just if we don't if god doesn't get them he'll get their children and you're like that i mean that that doesn't sound just like so what does this sound very just if you somebody murders somebody and you're trying

to find him you can't find him you never find him and then he dies and then you find his son you throw him in the electric electric chair i mean what are we doing here yeah and you say justice has been served i don't think this is correct at all no no and of course ezekiel will make that same point that you don't punish the children for the sins of the father uh and you know speaking of evildoers not caring what happens after they're dead and gone even righteous king hezekiah i was just reading this morning in uh well it's it's recorded in kings as well as in isaiah i'm reading through isaiah right now and it's that part where he's been sick and uh the king of babylon sends a letter you know telling him hey i hope you get hope you get better and then some envoys show up

from babylon and hezekiah takes them all through his stuff shows them all his treasuries all his all his all his things and then isaiah catches wind of this and comes to hezekiah and says hey who were those people and what you show them and he tells them and then has isaiah prophesied that what's going to happen down the road is that these babylonians are going to come and they're going to take away all your things and then hezekiah who is you know one of the righteous King's is like, oh, good, because that means there's going to be peace in my days. He's not worried about what's going to happen to his grandkids or great-grandkids or whoever. He's just happy that in his lifetime, everything's going to be okay.

So even righteous Hezekiah isn't that worried about what's going to happen to his house after him, much less are evildoers going to care about that. So Job's point is, listen, if it's going to be justice, let it be done now before those who deserve justice are dead and gone and don't know what's happening. Job also might be thinking, was my dad – maybe my dad was horrible. Am I just – Maybe it was about my father I was unaware of. I can't think of anything I did, but I agree. That's how it works.

So I may have to go audit his life, too, and figure out if I'm getting punished for something he did. So verse 22 picks up with this, and Job says, Will any teach God knowledge? So are you going to be the instructor of the Almighty here, seeing that he judges those who are on high? Judging those who are on high, I assume, is reflective of other Old Testament passages which talk about god judging the uh the heavenly host who rebelled against him and you have that several different places all the new testament so god is the one who judges those are on high so we're not going to become we're not going to become his his teacher verse 23 one dies

in his full vigor being wholly at ease and secure his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist. Another dies in distress of soul, never having tasted of prosperity. They, so the ones that have everything and the ones who have nothing, they all lie down alike in the dust and the worms cover them. So this is kind of Job wrapping up this part of it, saying basically, listen, you look around and what happens? Well, you got some people who are the haves and some people who are the have-nots. And Job describes the haves here as those who's, well, the Hebrew is uncertain here. If you check the translations, there's all kinds of translations of the first part of verse 24, but ESV has his pails are full of milk. Others translations have his sides are

filled out with fat. I have no idea what this means, but the New Revised Standard Version says his loins are full of milk i don't know how that works but uh king james has his breast his breast are full of milk so some weird stuff going on here in the translations but they're just trying to make sense of the hebrew i think we i mean you capture the essence of it he's got a lot he's you know he's not he's not hurting whether his pails or his his uh body is full of milk well he's not he's not hungry whatever whatever that is it sounds weird just saying the marrow is bone bones are moist yeah i guess if you if you get super super hydrated your marrow dries up i don't know it's uh yeah it's a strange strange metaphors but i mean we get it the sense of

you got everything you need you got all the milk you need your your your bones your marrow of your bones are moist you're uh you're you're good you're rich but another guy he's uh he's got an embittered soul he's never even tasted this prosperity that other people have but you know what joe says it doesn't really matter because they're all going to be dead all of them alike are going to go down to the dust and he has this uh nightmarish image the worms worms covered it's not as bad as uh listen to this parallel this is from isaiah 14 he's talking about how uh the king is brought down to sheol and he says uh maggots are laid as a bed beneath you and worms are your covers so i wouldn't read that verse right before you go to bed because your dreams are going to be

pretty weird yeah you know this is this is back in the day before caskets and uh and whatnot man Like, this is just stick you in a cave. The way decomposition works. Yeah, man. Job wraps up this section by saying, and his main point is that the wicked aren't necessarily going to die in the prime of life. In the end, yes, they will die. And yes, so will also those who are presumably leading righteous lives. In the end, they all end up in the same place.

Then he shifts gears. Verse 27. behold i know your thoughts so he's talking to his friends here behold i know what you're thinking and i also know about your schemes to wrong me i'm assuming he's talking about wrong verbally in the sense of maligning and accusing him falsely of having deserved the things that he's suffering so i know i know what you're thinking i know about your scheming for you say where is the house of prince where's the tent in which the wicked lived so this is a reflective of it's not an exact quote but it's reflective of many of the things that friends have said that basically hey look for

by prince prince here is understood to be a powerful one who abused his office so where's this prince's house well it you know it is no more because god destroyed it or where is the wicked content. Well, it is no more either because God has got rid of him as well. So that's what they say. And Job responds by saying, basically, have you been nowhere? Are you unaware of anything happening in the world? This is what he says, verse 29. Have you not asked those who travel the roads and do you not accept their testimony that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity that he is rescued in the day of wrath so you know even if you're unaware of this do you not talk to anybody you know the guys who travel around and have some experience in the world

because if you you know if you took 30 seconds to visit with someone who has been places what they're going to tell you is that when it comes to the day of calamity, the evil God gets away. And when it comes to the day of wrath, he's rescued. He's let out from whatever danger he's in to rescue.

That's the way it works, Job says. Yeah, I actually had someone just yesterday ask me, do you think there's any... I know we're Christians and everything, but do you think karma is a real thing?

uh and i was like uh no no i don't think so because uh like there's certainly like you know if you're there's like some reaping and sowing principles maybe i mean if you're like nice to people people will probably generally be nice to you and if you're you know good to be around people will want to be around you more if you're if you're not they won't and like i mean there's like some of that kind of stuff this is like kind of natural but but uh i don't know if that's uh if that's karma and it it seems to me of course i got job on the mind for as i know you know we've been going through this forever and we're still in it and it seems like some of what job is talking about this too is that it's like it seems though that people that are sort of uh above and beyond

wicked like the more like the more wicked you are the less it seems that like whatever kind of like thing you think might be like uh some form of karma exists right so like and like if you're like regular people and you're somebody who uh is uh a gossiper you might get a reputation as a gossiper and people might stop telling you things or confiding in you and you'd be like ah that's that's just that's karma or whatever that's you know you've that's you uh you've earned this but if you're like running some kind of like huge cabal and like like you're like a uniquely wicked person you know there's like you're you're putting out hit lists and all this kind of stuff no like those people like those people don't you i mean of course sometimes but it's not it's not

like that at all then you just have people fear you and nobody will tell you the truth and like yeah no it's not you don't have to wait for the day of judgment for most of that stuff and it seems like that's a lot of what job is doing here like where it's like look man like we're not talking about like your average wickedness but like the more wicked you are the more likely you are to get away with it yeah when you were talking my uh my mind went to harrod the great uh i mean And I know, for those who know Herod's story, yes, he died of a grotesque and painful illness. Yeah, sure. But you look at most of his life, and if you know anything about the atrocities of which

Herod was guilty, you're like, that guy didn't get what he had coming. I mean, he was, I mean, it was, Caesar once said that it was safer to be Herod's pig than his son. so uh the he was taking out people left and right but for most of his life he uh he enjoyed i mean he had palaces all over the holy land he had uh you know everything that his his heart's desire he had pleasures he had he was living an opulent lifestyle so i mean he just one example that we could multiply uh today and joe would you know refer to that example of of someone who's not getting what we might deem they justly deserve yeah well if you think about like i mean if you're

running the cartel uh yeah yeah i mean i don't know maybe you go die in some kind of crazy firefight or whatever yeah you've got now you've got all these people that are afraid of you and that do whatever you say and like and all this kind of it's like the the more the more because Because extreme wickedness is usually tied with, or can be, also joined to gaining more and more power. Because obviously the more power you have, the more opportunities you have for doing whatever it is you want. And so some of this is like, okay, to say all wicked people get what's coming to them, you're like, well, all powerful people certainly don't get what's coming to them. and a lot of powerful people are pretty wicked.

Mm-hmm, yeah. That's how they got there. Yeah, so you can understand Job's frustration with the claims of his friends. So after saying he's rescued in the day of his wrath, verse 31, and we're almost done with the chapter here, he says,

who declares his way to his face? And who repays him for what he has done? When he's carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb the clods of the valley are sweet to him all mankind follows after him and those who go before him are innumerable how then would you comfort me with empty nothings there is nothing left your answers but falsehood so he finishes up here by saying uh this these these wicked that you claim are going to to die and receive their just desserts early in life well nobody even declares their wickedness to their face and certainly no one's

going to repay them for what they've done i mean they're they are all powerful so no one is going to take the risk of doing that and then verse 33 to kind of cap off his argument he says listen even when they die it's not as if they're tossed into a ditch and perish in obscurity there's all kinds of pomp and circumstance around it even with their burial yeah when they're carried to the grave he says watch is kept over his tomb so we're gonna have a we have a tomb and we're gonna you know people are gonna be uh all around that keeping watch or you know extending reverence to them or whatever it might be this phrase the clods of the valley are sweet to him uh presumably this is saying that it's like a like a mound or something over their body that's what how one

commentator explains it uh so you know even even the earth itself in being heaped up over them is sweet to them paying homage to them and then when it says all mankind follows after him and those who go before him are innumerable that's the image of a a procession being led to to the grave yeah so even even when they die i mean these people who had it so well even when they die they still have it well in the sense of they're being honored by all of these all of these people so then he finally says basically you guys are worthless uh you're you're all you have are empty empty words empty nothings there's nothing left your answers but falsehood i like empty nothings I'm going to start using that phrase.

It's very redundant, but it gets to the point where it's like, yes, you got a bunch of empty nothings. Oh. Yeah, I do. I like that translation. So that's Job's argument. That's his rebuttal to

the claims of his friends that the wicked are going to get their just desserts in this life and are going to get it early. No, Job says, basically. so that's the end of uh end of job 21 so it's somebody else's turn now job has had his speech and now our friend eliphaz is uh is going to jump back into the rhetorical ring with with job and this is it this is his final speech even though we're halfway through the book

this is going to be uh eliphaz is he was the first guy to speak to job and he's going to be now speaking for the final time chapter 4 chapter 15 and now chapter 22 i do like these i do like the title of this one i know i keep bringing them up but uh that you know the people that did the bible headers didn't always do a good job they did a pretty good job with job maybe it's because it's pretty easy because it's the same thing over and over again but uh this one of course says eliphaz speaks job's wickedness is great and uh so you're like oh shocker he's gonna talk about how wicked job is but uh part of what it is is that uh after job is saying all this it's like uh if they came in to this situation thinking man i wonder man job was pretty

righteous guy i wonder what he did at this point they're like man this guy had us all fooled i mean this guy is like listen to the words this guy is saying this guy's wickedness is out of control And this is where Eliphaz is. Like, Job, you're wicked. You have not confessed anything, but you've confessed everything. I mean, these words that you're saying, I can't believe how wicked you are. Yeah, I appreciate this chapter because Eliphaz, he's kind of up against the wall. And so he has to just start making stuff up.

He's like, man, you, Job, you're so wicked. Here's what I'm, I am certain that you have done these things. I mean, there's no other way to explain what you're going through, except that you have engaged in these kinds of terrible things. And he's going to list those once we get to those. So, but he's going to start out here by saying, can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you're in the right? or is it gained to him if you make your ways blameless is it for your fear of him that he

reproves you and enters into judgment with you and then we'll stop there that's uh through verse four so he's got a it's kind of an odd introduction here um what he seems to be saying is that listen job uh it's not as if your righteousness is going to somehow add to god so can a man be profitable to god uh he's profitable to himself so it's not like your righteousness is going to add anything to to god he's self-sufficient in and of himself uh so if you're even if your ways are blameless that's not going to be some kind of gain to gain to god not just saying that he shifts in verse four to saying so is it because you fear him so much that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you? And of course, the implication is no. It's not because you fear him.

It's not because you have such awe, faith, reverence, hope, and love toward God that he's now entered into judgment with you. It's because of your evil. It's because of your sin. Now, the great irony here is that Eliphaz, unaware of what we know, unaware of that opening scene in heaven between god and satan does not realize that uh yes actually the the reason that job is suffering so much is precisely because he fears god yeah he said eliphaz is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and we say uh yeah kind of i mean that's what started all this yeah job was such a righteous guy that satan said oh yeah yeah well you know the reason he's so righteous is because you've been so good to him but uh make his life miserable you know curse you to your face

and god said okay go for it let's see what happens well here's here like eliphaz like says sort of one thing that's right which is if you're blameless does that does god gain anything it's just like add to god and of course the answer is that it's like well no i mean like my i don't add anything to god but where but he starts out with something wrong in verse three where it says is it any pleasure to the almighty if you are in the right well i don't know like at the beginning of this god seems to be like the whole thing that happens here is that god brags on job it seems like he's taking pleasure in, at the very least, sort of ribbing the devil about how great Job is.

So it does seem like he's taking some pleasure in it. He was sort of reveling in how good of a guy Job was and rubbing the devil's nose in it. And yeah, so nah, man. It seems that God does like that sort of thing. It's not adding to him. It's not making him... he's not gaining something he's not gaining he's not without something if he doesn't have it but is he take pleasure in it it would certainly seem so well yeah i mean uh we have ezekiel saying

or god saying to ezekiel i don't take any pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he turned from his evil way and live well that means that god does take pleasure when the evil man turns his way it lives that's that's what pleases god so yeah i mean god is pleased we're in the right, because we're doing what is imitative of Him as those who are created in His image and likeness. So we do what's right, that means that we're doing what is the will of God. This is kind of a weird theology that he has, too. I mean, you don't see this every day, where the argument here is kind of that, listen,

if you do all the right things, if you are a righteous person, God doesn't care. He only cares if you're a sinner. he's just like neutral like if you it's almost like if you were righteous then he just doesn't concern himself with you god is like and maybe this is a common theology but god's eyes are like roaming to and fro and what he's really doing is just looking for sinners if he's righteous he'll just skip over you like he's not going to concern himself with you uh only thing he's interested is that where the sinners are and so that he can pour his judgment out on them he doesn't so there's no pleasure in like repentance or righteousness or anything like

that like he's just like well that's what you are supposed to do so i won't punish you but god is really just like it makes god uh seem uh very capricious right like where it's just like i'll just who am i going to pour my wrath out on today well it's kind of a with all the without with an apology to all of those in law enforcement out there he kind of portrays god as a policeman you know a highway patrol does not pull me over and walk up there and say sir i just want to thank you because i noticed that you were you know keeping it in your lane and you were going the speed limit i see you're wearing your speed your your seat belt too just wanted to wanted to thank you that's not the way things work he pulls you over it's most likely because you've broken the

law so that's kind of the way that he's portraying god that god is is like that he's only looking for lawbreakers he's only paying attention to lawbreakers and law keepers well he just kind of ignores because that's not his prerogative yeah it's a very uh very negative view of god yeah so uh he has uh he has a postulated that it's uh it's it's because of job's lack of fear that god is reproving him and entering into judgment with him and so he has to go on now with this whole string of accusations against job now keep in mind uh as we hear these that we have zero evidence that job has committed any of these things and in fact we have an abundance of evidence that job has done the exact opposite but again as we started this chapter out

uh pointed out that eliphaz basically according to his own logical or theological system has to claim that job has done these sorts of things because in eliphaz's system there's no way to explain why job is suffering what he is and so here's what he says verse five is not your evil abundant there is no end to your iniquities for and here's here he begins his list for you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing you have given no water to the weary to drink and you have withheld bread from the hungry the man with power possessed the land and the favored man lived in it you have sent widows away empty and the arms of the fatherless were crushed therefore so here's his logical conclusion therefore you know since

you've done all these terrible things. Therefore, Job, snares are all around you. Sudden terror overwhelms you or darkness so that you cannot see in a flood of water covers you. So there's his seemingly airtight argument. Here's what you've done, Job. We know that you've done it. We have no proof, but we are sure that you've done these things because there's no way to explain what you're going through. And therefore, ergo, all of these snares and terrors and darkness and floods of waters are

afflicting you. Job's quite the sinner. It's pretty wild. Because these are like, you know, you move from like, your speech is too lofty, Job. The way that you talk to God is

how, is it any wonder that he hates you? I mean, look at how you speak of him and all this stuff, to very specific things that you've done, right? Like, yeah, dude, and there's, yeah, zero evidence. In fact, all the evidence you have in the book, I mean, it started at the beginning. Like, well, if Job was doing all this, how is it that God's like, have you checked out Job?

And how is the devil not—wouldn't the devil's response not be, have you checked out Job? have you seen what he does the the widows and orphans yeah come on what do you what is going on thirsty guy that he turned away one day like makes no sense at all that god would be like check him out the devil's like hey you check him out this guy's a mess yeah so i i do think it's interesting that all of these sins are horizontal he doesn't say anything about you know he's blasphemed your name and he has trodden your word underfoot and he's refused to worship you and blah blah blah all of these are things he's done to his neighbors this is all kind of a

you know second table of the law stuff lack of it's it's a sins of a lack of love with regard to the neighbor in particular the the neighbors who are in need you know the powerless yeah so he's exacted pledges of his brothers for nothing so rather than you know taking care of his his own family he's exacted pledges of them and this language verse six of stripping the naked of their clothing of course that's the irony if you're naked you have no clothing uh but basically from those who have nothing he's even taken what they have is is the idea yeah uh of course i mean it's it's basic biblical love to give a drink of water to the thirsty and to feed feed the hungry i mean that's matthew 25 stuff right you know when i was thirsty you gave me water to drink when i was

hungry you you fed me nothing more basic than that you don't even need there's some of this stuff is just is like you have to be like uniquely wicked uh that's human decency right yeah like you don't even need to be a christian to be like if you uh if somebody's like dying of thirst and you be like yeah i'll give you some water what right it's just yeah it's common human human behavior i mean you don't typically need like you know jesus to well up inside of you and be like i feel compelled to not let that person you know die of thirst uh anybody's gonna do that if i was super thirsty and i came across an atheist he's not gonna be like nope sorry no water for you buddy yeah of course she's gonna give me some water uh verse eight might be a

little bit strange when it says the man with power possessed the land the favored man lived in it the hebrew is kind of interesting here the man with power is the man of arm because arm is a symbolic of of might and power so the uh the powerful man possessed the land and the favored man in hebrew is the man with uplifted face so these favored and powerful men they possess the land and the implication is the the needy people the poor people did not so took the land away from them widows were sent empty away and the arms of the fatherless were crushed i learned something this morning so the the hebrew word here for fatherless is a often rendered orphan now if we talk about an orphan today we in our modern society mean uh a child who has lost both his

parents right but in the biblical world you can be an orphan if you've lost your father because the father was the one who was to protect you to look out for the family of course all the things that the fathers did and do and so the esv in rendering this not orphan but fatherless has actually done done well uh it's because orphans we tend to think has lost both parents but But an orphan in the biblical world is simply one who has lost his—especially his father. The image you get here is like some orphan reaching out his arms to you, and you—instead of giving him something or helping him or grabbing onto them, you crush them. You're like, that's pretty—yeah, that's pretty wicked. yeah it's the uh i mean this is this is uh kind of the escalation that you see often in biblical

poetry where the first line is well the widows he just sent you know empty sent him away empty he didn't give them anything and the next line heightens it he's like yeah when the when the the fatherless stretched out the arms he didn't just like send him away empty he crushed their arms so you know all of this together is uh what i mean it's really nothing more than slander honestly he's making up things about about job and then and then coming to the conclusion that this is the reason that job is suffering suffering what what he is so uh one more case where the friends seem to be so frustrated now that they are just making up things in order to making up lies and accusations in order to support their claims against job yeah well uh elf has is not

done he's got uh more to say but we're gonna have to get into it next episode uh he will continue and so we will we'll join him for that chad i will see you next week all right see you I'll see you next time.