Alastair's Adversaria - Biblical Reading and Reflections: April 9th (Job 7 & 2 Timothy 3)

Episode Date: April 9, 2021

What is man that you make so much of him? Every Scripture is inspired by God. If you are interested in supporting this project, please consider supporting my work on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/zugzwanged), using my PayPal account (https://bit.ly/2RLaUcB), or buying books for my research on Amazon (https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/36WVSWCK4X33O?ref_=wl_share). You can also listen to the audio of these episodes on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/alastairs-adversaria/id1416351035?mt=2.

Job chapter 7. Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand, like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me. When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise? But the night is long, and I am full of tossing till the dawn. My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt. My skin hardens, then breaks out afresh. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and come to their end without hope. Remember that my life is a breath. My eye will never again see good. The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more. While your eyes are on me, I shall be gone, as the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to shield does not come up.

He returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him any more. Therefore I will will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea or a sea monster that you set a guard over me? When I say my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint. Then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. I loathe my life. I would not live forever. Leave me alone for my days or a breath. What is man that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, visit him every morning and test him every moment. How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?

If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth. You will seek me, but I shall not be. Chapter 7, Job concludes his first response to one of the speeches of his friends, to the speech of Elephaz the Temanite in chapters 4 to 5. However, whereas most of Chapter 6 was addressed to Elaphaz and the Friends, this chapter is mostly addressed to the Lord. Job's suffering has become so all-consuming

that it gives him a perspective upon humanity as a whole. He presents humanity's situation as akin to that of a slave doing hard labour, or a hired hand waiting in vain for his wages. Like such figures, the days are agonizingly long for Job. The slave longs for the shadow, for relief from his labour, and the hired hand waits for his wages at the end of the day, and Job describes his months of emptiness. However, whereas these figures may find some relief at the end of their labours,

Job's toils of the day are succeeded by even more toilsome nights. He tosses and turns and gets no rest. He longs for the day to come and the night to end, even though his days are so extremely bitter. His suffering is Sisyphian. It is futile and meaningless, a cycle that repeats day after day, night after night, and there is no relief to be had.

His flesh is clothed with worms and dirt, as if he were already anticipating his burial. His wounds start to scab over, and then his foul boils break open again. In verses 6 to 10, he expresses the fleetingness of his life. His days move like a swift weavers' shell, through the fabric, and the thread is removed. His life has the brevity of a breath that is soon expired. While the Lord watches him, he will soon vanish away. He has nothing left to look forward to

in this life. His life is as insubstantial and transitory as a cloud. It will soon pass away and leave nothing behind it. We might here recall the image of the vapour at the beginning of the book of Ecclesiastes. Considering the fragility and brevity of human life, it is a source of great anguish to Job, that the Lord seems to be so set upon inflicting misery upon him, in the brief span of life remaining to him. Within the cosmogonic myths of the ancient Ereast, the sea and the sea monster, were both personified forces that were pacified and tamed

in the process of creation. While Job might not be alluding to such creation myths, he here uses imagery that we find elsewhere in the scripture. The Lord tames the might of the sea, keeping it within its bounds. The Leviathan, the great sea monster, is his pet and under his control. Job had spoken of rousing this monster back in chapter 3.

If Job were like the sea, or like the Leviathan, it would make sense for the Lord to pay so much attention to him, to breaking him down and mastering him. But Job is nothing of the kind. He's a short-lived human being of little consequence, and yet the Lord is giving him no respite. He longs for the relief of sleep, but the Lord torments him with troubling visions and dreams.

Toby Sumter suggests that Job is addressing Elaphaz at this point. Elaphaz has related the dream that he had in chapter 4, and the night vision that he described was supposed to terrify Job. I don't think that is actually Job's meaning here. Rather, the wider arguments suggest that Job is addressing the Lord at this point. Harrodden, troubled by the Lord, in every waking and sleeping moment, Job wishes he could be strangled or to die, rather than to continue such an existence. Such an existence has become loathsome to him. more than anything else he just wants the Lord to leave him alone. The Lord's unceasing torment of him is utterly intolerable

and seems so disproportionate to a creature of such small consequence. In verse 17, we have what might be an ironic allusion to Psalm 8 verses 3 to 6. When I look at your heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honour.

You have given him dominion over the work of your hands. You have put all things under his feet. The psalmist marvels at the grace and the condescension of the Lord to take notice of such a small creature. For the Psalmist, the Lord's attention to mankind is a wonderful thing, an expression of the most incredible grace. For Job, however, the Lord's paying attention to mankind is a terrible thing. The Lord's visiting of mankind in the Psalm is expressed in his caring for mankind. For Job, it's a constant testing. The Lord simply won't let him out of his sight. He's exposing him to the harshest trial,

and more than anything else, Job just wants the Lord to ignore him. Why should the Lord even take notice of such a puny creature? The Lord won't even look away from him for long enough for him to swallow his spit. David Klein's argues that Job's point in verse 20 is not that the sin of humankind is so small that it should be paid no attention by a holy God, but rather that any sin committed by the righteous Job, a man teetering on the brink of the grave, cannot be of such extreme significance that it merits singling him out from all other human beings for such horrific treatment. Job at this point is, as it were, calling out to God, stop, stop, I'm already dead.

Whatever sin it is that he might be guilty of, can the Lord not just forgive it and allow Job to die in peace? This is the one hope remaining to him. A question to consider, reading this passage alongside Psalm 8, how can it help us to reflect upon the significance that the Lord gives to humankind? 2 Timothy chapter 3. But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty, for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money,

proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power, avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins, and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Janis and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth. Men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith, but they will not get very far,

for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Listera, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned, and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you

wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. In 2 Timothy chapter 2, Paul had instructed Timothy concerning how he should address the problem of the false teachers. Now in chapter 3, he presents the false teachers within an eschatological framework. They are living in the last days. The old covenant is about to come down in a few years' time with the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and in this time between the times, introduced by Christ's death, resurrection, ascension and Pentecost,

the world order is being radically shaken. And the shaking is increasing as they reached the end of this period, especially around the time that this letter is written in the 60s AD. teaching concerning false teachers in such an eschatological framework is something that we see on a number of occasions within the New Testament, in places like 2 Peter and Jude, for instance. Also in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 to 3, Paul had made a similar point. Now the spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods

that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. In the Olivet discourse Jesus had made similar claims, Matthew chapter 24 verses 9 to 13, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray,

and because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. In this epistle we get a sense of Paul's own experience bearing this out. He's been abandoned by a great many in Asia, and in the following chapter we read of people like Demas, whose faith has been abandoned for the sake of the world. As the eschatological horizon approaches,

it is clear that they are living in perilous times. Wickedness has a freer reign and is expressing itself in more intense forms. Paul provides a lengthy vice list, characterising some of the people that are arising in these times. We might compare such a list to that which we find in Romans chapter 1 verses 29 to 31. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobegent to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

As in Romans chapter 1, the list here plays with particular sounds, from disobedient to parents to not loving good. All of the words begin with the letter alpha, save for the term slanderous. As a list, it moves smoothly from the tongue and lodges in the ear. The characterization begins with the disorder loves of these people. They love self and money. As Paul had noted in 1 Timothy chapter 6, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. From their disordered loves, Paul proceeds to their pride and boastfulness.

From these traits, a torrent of sinful behavior flows forth. In the list that Paul gives, we get a sense that these people are characterized by virtually every single kind of sin. They are cruel and implacable. They are opposed to reconciliation. They slander. They cannot control themselves and are like brute beasts. They have no love for what is good. They are impulsive and impetuous.

They betray those that would rely upon them. They are self-important, filled with ungodliness, and utterly devoid of the gratitude that should be a distinguishing feature of the people of God. Verse four concludes by characterising them as lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, perhaps hearkening back to the beginning of the list in verse 2, where they are described as lovers of self.

Surprisingly, at the beginning of verse 5, they are described as having the appearance of godliness. Despite all of these vices, these persons are maintaining a facade of righteousness, and many around them seem to be taken in by them. Timothy, however, needs to recognize such people. He needs to have a sense of where they fit into the eschatological framework, and he needs to be careful to avoid them.

The last days are a time of great testing. In the times of testing, the hearts of people can be revealed, and the false teachers and their teaching are one form that this testing can take. These false teachers, Timothy's opponents, seem to be having success in certain contexts, particularly with some foolish and spiritually compromised women. We might get a sense of the dynamics

by which such false teaching spread in other parts of the pastoral epistles. In Titus chapter 1 verse 11, they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. The false teachers, like the serpent with Eve,

seem to be focusing upon uninformed women as the weakest link. Through leading astray such women, the women spread the false teaching, and whole communities can become compromised. Perhaps such a spread of the false teaching is also seen in a place like 1 Timothy 5 verse 13. Besides that, they learn to be idlers going about from house to house and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not. The women described here are burdened with sins, and led astray by various passions.

In Paul's understanding, it is their sinfulness that makes them susceptible to the false teaching. Perhaps what they are looking for is teaching that flatters their desires, and the false teachers, as they are doing this for money, are only too happy to flatter the desires of their hearers. They will likely be paid far more handsomely as a result.

There will always be a market for teachers who tickle their hearers' ears. However, such women are doomed to futility in their quest for the truth, as they have no appetite for the truth, their appetites lead them astray, moving them away from the truth, rather than closer toward it. Likewise, if they are seeking to learn from these false teachers, they are doomed to continued and increasing ignorance. The false teachers have nothing true to share with them. Indeed,

further time spent at their feet will only result in the heroes taking on some of the manifold vices of the teachers. Paul compares these false teachers to Janis and Jambres, names that the tradition had given to key magicians that had stood against Moses and Erich. from Pharaoh's court. Just as the magicians had not stood long or successfully against Moses and Aaron, so these teachers will be shown up, revealed in their true character.

It will only be a matter of time before their folly is revealed to everyone. In contrast to such false teachers, infected as they are with many vices, Timothy needs to devote himself to a very different pattern of behaviour and he will learn that pattern from Paul. Paul lists a number of different ways

in which he provides an example. In his teaching, he provides a model of setting forth the truth, forthrightly, powerfully, with integrity and with clarity. Paul's behavior, his commitment and his devotion in his life, his Christian virtues of faith, patience, love, and steadfastness. All provide patterns for Timothy. Paul has described Timothy as his son in the faith. As a son, Timothy is to follow the pattern of his father. In 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 17, we see Timothy described in a way that, suggests that he has done this. That is why I sent you, Timothy, my beloved and faithful

child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere, in every church. In verses 11 and 12, we see that Paul especially wants to spotlight persecutions and sufferings. Suffering has been a continued theme within the second epistle to Timothy. We see it in chapter 1, verses 11 and 12, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Also in chapter 2 verse 3, share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. In verses 8 to 10 of that chapter, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering,

bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I end. I jur everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Timothy was already well aware of Paul's sufferings. As Paul mentions here, Timothy had followed them. He had met Paul during the second missionary journey at Listera and Iconium, which helps to explain why Paul mentions the suffering that he experienced in those places here. Such suffering is what should be expected by all those who follow Christ. The world, the flesh and the devil are set against them, and they will have to struggle against all of these forces. There is an antagonism between light and darkness, between this age and the age to come.

At the end of verse 11, Paul might be alluding to Psalm 34, verses 17 to 19. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their trouble. The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Paul warns Timothy that the evils and the opposition that they face will only increase as the eschatological horizon nears. They are living in the last days and as a result they should not be surprised to find lawlessness abounding. In such a situation, Timothy needs to dig in. He needs to re-entrench himself within the things that he already knows.

He needs to remind himself of the old lessons and he needs to draw from his deepest roots. He was taught in the Christian faith by his mother and his grandparents. her grandmother, keeping them in mind and the example of the apostle who had been like a father to him, he must steal himself for the coming struggle. As Paul is seeing so many people falling away, being picked off, or otherwise failing in this hour of crisis, he is concerned to encourage Timothy to exercise boldness as he faces the future. Now is the time when Timothy's true metal will be proved. The apostle especially singles out the scriptures as that which Timothy must ground himself in.

Timothy has learned the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures, from his early childhood, and it is these scriptures that prepare one to exercise faith in Christ. In a theologically important statement, Paul expresses the usefulness of the scriptures for Timothy's task. The scriptures are described as breathed out by God, all one word in the Greek. This is why we talk about inspiration. The concept here also connects the scriptures closely with the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 21 expressed a similar point For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man

But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear It could be read all scripture referring to the whole body of the scriptures Or it could be read as every scripture Each individual text or passage Scholars also debate whether we should understand it as saying That every scripture is inspired by God and useful or that every scripture that is inspired by God is also useful.

It seems to me that on balance it is more likely that we should understand this as every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness. The reference is not to scripture as a whole body. The scriptures were spoken of in the preceding verse in a plural form. Here it's singular, which suggests to me that it's more likely to be referring to individual scriptures. Each and every scripture is inspired. and therefore profitable, and each inspired scripture, and the inspired scriptures as a whole,

prepare the man of God, the Christian minister, for all the work that he needs to do, for teaching the task of elucidating the truth and instruction within it, for a proof, for addressing the false teachers and opponents, for correction, for exposing and revealing their errors, and for training in righteousness. Besides the inspiration of scripture, a further thing that the final verses of this chapter bring out is the sufficiency of the scripture. It is the scripture that enables the man of God to be complete and to be equipped for every good work. In the scripture, all the instruction that we need to serve God faithfully has been given to us. A question to consider, what other statements in scripture can help us

in developing a doctrine of scripture?