All right, Lord Why, Lord Why, forgetting a title tonight is Why, Lord, Why. We find in, we are in the seventh chapter of Job. Remember, it starts, basic outline is the prologue for one and two, dialogue three through 37, monologue with God, 38, 39, 40, 41, and epilogue 42. So there we are, that's the book of Job. We are working on the dialogue, starting with chapter three, but tonight we're in chapter seven, Is there not an appointed time to man upon the earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hireling? Job is responding to Eliphaz. As a servant earnestly desires the shadow and a hireling looketh for the reward of his work, so am I made to possess months of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro until the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin is broken and become loathsome. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope. May we be challenged, may we learn, may we grow as we've considered the book of Job. Lord, you are wonderful. Thank you for answers to prayer we even heard tonight. You are a great God. May we put ourselves under your authority, submit completely to you. May you use us this week. May we be about your business. May we show love one to another and show love to a world so in need of and looking for someone to actually care for them. May we be that. May we be that. May I be that, and so help us this week. And Lord, as we learn together, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So three things. First of all, on his response, there was the explanation, 6-1-7. There was the expectation, what Job expects from God, 8-13. There was what Job expects thirdly, anticipation from friends, best seen summed up in 6-14. If you would there, please, back to 614, best regarding anticipation. To him that is afflicted, pity should be showed from his friend, but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty. My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as a stream of brooks they pass away. It is sort of like a brook that has, when the water comes, it looks like it's going to be a great river, and yet, at someone's house on Friday and looked at little creeks and said pretty much the creek stays dried up unless there's a lot of rain. And so this is the kind of idea that promises great friendship and yet when the dry season comes it's dry as a bone. And that's why he said your friendship has sort of dried up and starting to dry up. Fourthly was resignation, resigned to God's allotment, starting in chapter 7, the first 10 verses there. Resignation. Now, Job rejects any connection between his symptoms and their usual explanation. What is the explanation Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar have for Job's predicament? He's done what? Sin. Exactly right. That's their overall, immediate mindset, as it was in John 9, who has sinned, this man or his parents, that he's born blind. The automatic assumption, something happened, somebody sinned. Job doesn't do that. Can we say with certainty that Job was living a right life? Yes. Chapter 1, verse 8. Chapter 1, verse 1. Chapter 2, verses 8, 9, and 10, I believe it is, talks about Job. In all this, Job did not Job sin with his lips. Chapter one, verse one. One that was perfect, upright, feared God, eschewed evil. I'm telling you, he was a man among men. Spiritually speaking, that was Mr. Job. So he did not, had not sinned. And that was regarding all this trouble was not because he had sinned. That is in verse three, the months of vanity. We talked about last time how that one man explained it to us, this months of vanity, why some people, the author of the book I'm using a lot of, had been caring for his mother at the time of the writing for 12 years. Why does God allow people to godly people to have to struggle for such a long time. One man said this, there is the reason the Lord leaves them here and it is not for their benefit. God appoints months of vanity to our loved one to polish us. Such appointments are not obstacles or inconveniences, but equally God's appointment for us. And it rests on our submission. What does God want to do in our lives? It's going to depend on how much we submit to what God has given us to do. We have to surrender to his plan if we're going to grow. If God calls you to that kind of a situation, it is not a setback to fulfilling God's will. I believe it is God's part of your ministry. You can have a ministry to your wife or to your husband or to your family in various ways. We sometimes think that ministry comes only in red, white, or blue. These are the three ministries and the greens and the yellows and the purples and the violets and the pinks over here. That's just not real ministry, but it is if God's called you to do it. And remember, what he wants to do is not so much the activity, but it's the spiritual. I've missed so much and Pastor Phyllis taught my son in school. I spent so much of my life. waiting for, looking forward to, when I have all these things done. You know, I've got all my ducks in a row. I'm telling you, my ducks are about as scattered today as they were when they first got married. It's like, man, how are they ever going to get corralled? Kendra's dog comes when they visit. And both of them are Corgis. The young Corgi doesn't care a hoot about anything. But Dylan, he wants to keep everybody in the room. And if you leave the room, he wants to sort of nudge you and follow you around, nudge you back up to it. corrals you to get back with everybody else. God's more interested in me being right with him than all my ducks. And I love having my ducks in a row. But if they're not in a row and I'm right with God, I'm still heading the right direction. So this, don't discount ministries God has for you. I have done that myself. I'm speaking, not from having done all the time the right way by any means, but something we need to work on. Verse four and five, sort of a review. Four and five, it says for us here in seven, four. When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise? The night be gone and I am full of tossings to and fro until the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin is broken and become lonesome. It's interesting in verse five, the reference to worms, ulcers formed by a disease, you can actually have often, it can happen with elephantiasis, if not cared for. Matter of fact, I'm thinking about in Acts chapter 12, verse 23, there was a very arrogant king and he died of what? Worms, eaten by worms. And so little worms can form in the sores. Can you imagine, you have sores from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet, and some of them are getting festered. The skin is broken. Could be that the skin came together and healed and then broke forth again, pus oozing out. One man said, my skin coming together stiff, it's sort of like the idea of a stiffened, like a corpse would appear. Another says it's the rough hoard appearing of elephantitis when it becomes rigid and frightful, frightened by the disease. I'm telling you, no matter how you look at it, it's all bad. What Joe was experiencing was something that people would not even go out in public probably with this, and he's had it for, well, how long has it been? We don't know, but he says here in verse three, is it months? So am I made to possess months of vanity. I've always assumed in the back of my ignorant mind that what happened was that they came on day eight, seven days, or they came as soon as it happened, and they were there seven days, and day eight, they go through this, and it's not that long a time, and as soon as it hits Job, they're there, and just a short couple days after, the Bible doesn't say that. You can't travel as far as they come. It could've been a couple months before they even arrived. We don't know. I'm telling you, we don't put ourselves in the situation of Job. He was just an amazing man. He describes it in gruesome detail. We call it today TMI, too much information. That's not for us. The Holy Spirit records it for us. We find that it wasn't attractive at all for there. And so we find that it was the, resignation. Job expects his friends to help and then he got resigned to God's allotment and then starting in verse 11 is the why Lord why and that's clarification verse 11 therefore therefore I will not refrain my mouth I will speak in the anguish of my spirit I will complain in the bitterness of my soul Job believes himself to be on a dead end street. And by the way, I would have to say, I cannot really find a lot of fault with his logic. I mean, as pitiful as he is, wouldn't you much rather be in heaven? I would have been. And Job is like, if God's not going to be with me, life is not worth living. He wasn't suicidal that way. But if God's not going to be close to me, I've enjoyed that close fellowship. Don't you think he walked with God? We know he walked with God. Now he's not. God's somehow allowing him this time. He's not privy to the throne of God and seeing what's going on there. I was reading, just opened up. It was Tim LaHaye's study Bible. And for some reason I was sitting there and I opened it up to this chapter three of Job and it talked about Satan. And the first thing he says was, the Bible doesn't say a lot about Satan. First time I ever heard that. The Bible doesn't say a lot about Satan. In comparison to the plan of redemption and our wonderful Savior, think about it. The Bible does not say a lot about Satan. There are some things, yes. But that's how it should be. Because the story of redemption is God's word. It's not about, the more you give page time, voice time to the enemy, the more he's gonna like it. He is. God's still in control, and we know that, but he's allowed Satan quite a long chain with Job, but Job doesn't know all these things. He's frustrated. All these things are happening. He's oblivious to his friends, so he starts another prayer, and it's the second singular person here, like in 7-12. that thou set us a watch, 14, then thou, so it's really a prayer to God because we find in it's clear references to the deity in 7, 17, and 18, 7, 20, I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? So in verse 12, we find these words, am I a sea or a whale? Some would even render that, I think it was the Tannin dragon, Septuagint renders it dragon. That thou settest a watch over me, when I say my bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint, then thou scarcest me with dreams. and terrifies me with visions, so that my soul chooses strangling and death rather than life. I loathe it. I would not live always. Let me alone, for my days are vanity." Now remember, you've got to come back every time I say this. I've said it over and over. Hebrew poetry is not about rhyme. It's about saying the same thing in different ways to get the point across completely. Job is in a bad state. Derek Kidner says, Indeed, God's attitude appears to go beyond coolness to a positive hostility expressed in ceaseless rain of blows. And chapter seven in particular has the added bitterness of the conviction that every throb and every tear comes immediately from God. This relationship he has had with God has somehow gone out the window in his thinking, and now God is maybe his chief enemy in some regards. And it breaks Job's heart. Well, again, it was Tozer, I think, that said, if the Holy Spirit were not involved in the church ministry on any given Sunday, 95% of the things would continue on as they are now. Because we don't stop and say, Spirit, help us. Dear God, please help us. And so Job is missing that. In verse 16, I loathe it. I would not live always. Let me alone, for my days are vanity. In a poetic fashion, one commentator has written a poem about this little area of Job. I would not live all way, I ask not to stay, where storm after storm arises, dark over the way. The few fleeting mornings of that dawn on us here are enough for life's sorrows, enough for its cheer. I would not live all way, no, welcome the tomb. Since Jesus hath lain there, I dread not its gloom. There sweet be my rest till he bid me arise, To hail him in triumphant descending the skies. Who, who would live away, away from his God, Away from yon heaven, that blissful abode, Where rivers of pleasure flow, or the bright plain, And the noontide of glory eternally reigns? where the saints of all ages in harmony meet, their Savior and brethren transported to greet, while anthems of rapture unceasingly roll, and the smile of the Lord is the feast of the soul." Why are we so concerned about here? Yes, we are to be concerned. We are to be prepared. Well, listen, we're just traveling through. This is not our home as it is now. Now, eventually, yes, do not understand, I don't know if you realize it or not, but most even Christians today believe they're gonna be gone to heaven and never return to the earth. Most Christians are like, oh, I'm going to heaven, I'll never come back here, you'll never see me again. Yes, we will. Matter of fact, you're only gonna be in heaven perhaps just a little over seven years. Then we're all coming back to rule with Christ and he's gonna rule over you for a thousand years, then a new heaven, a new earth, and then we're coming here to stay. So this idea we're going off planet to never return is absolutely erroneous compared with scripture. It's going to be a wonderful place because he is there. And verse 20 says, I have sinned. Some would say maybe or have I sinned? What shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee so that I am a burden to myself? And why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity? For now shall I sleep in the dust, and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be. Why? Why am I the target? Damien and Steve were talking about targets, and Damien's doing a good job with a BB gun, target practice. Job says, why am I the target of your, I don't want to say hostility, but all these things happening? Have I sinned? I have sinned, or have I sinned? He knows his sinner, but he's not getting all this difficulty because he has transgressed. Francis Anderson says, if he seems defiant, it is the daring of faith. All Job has known about God, he still believes, but God's inexplicable ways have his mind perplexed to the breaking point. Job is in the right, but he does not know that God is watching with silent compassion and admiration until the test is fully done and it's time to stake his approval publicly, as he does in Job 42. So Job, he cannot see it again. It was Ron Hamilton, one of his over 900 songs. When I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold. So Job is being tried, he's being purified, and he comes forth 24 karat gold. I think that's the highest. If in our affliction there is no consciousness of sin, we may be sure God has something new to reveal to us. Wait patiently on the Lord. Well, after Job's counter of Eliphaz, Bildad chimes in for one chapter, chapter 8, and that is the last big word, estimation. Estimation, we find a conventional wisdom of Bildad starting in chapter eight, verse one, then answered Bildad the Shuhite and said, he was very short, he was Shuhite. How long wilt thou speak these things? And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind? Now preachers, and probably aptly so, have a lot of hot air, someone has said, at times. Can you imagine what Job is going through and yet Bildad says these words? They're getting some strange relationship. It's sort of like the folk tale of a group of porcupines. And they were up in Northern Canada, and they were just getting colder and colder. And so they started huddling together, this group of porcupines. But they noticed when they got real close to one another, they started jabbing one another, and they had to separate for a while. And then it got cold again, and they got together, and it started to separate again. And then it got cold, and they started moving together, bringing and started jabbing. They needed each other, but they kept kneeling each other. The same kind of, you want to call it, I want to say dance. The same kind of dance is here in this book with the dialogue between Job's three friends and Job. Bildad gets bolder even than Eliphaz. As Swindoll comments, can you imagine there, you're sitting there, you're fevered. You've got pus running over your body in various ways. You've got probably worms crawling in some of the sores. You smell terrible. You're sitting in the dump. You probably have fever. The memory of your 10 children as you'll gaze out to the hill by your house where all 10 of them are buried. Your wife has said to you, just why don't you curse God and die? And now, Bildad has the audacity to say, you're just a bag of wind. I think I like, again, very practically what Swindoll says. He says, if I'd have been him, I'd have clocked him in the kisser. Aren't you glad it's called the Book of Joe and not the Book of Timothy or Gerald or Steve or George or Jody or anyone else? Because if it had been the Book of Timothy, it would not have been quite so fine, I'm afraid. I'd have told him where to take his camel and go or something like that. Can you imagine this? Of the whirling words of Job in 626, he hurdles them back. Chapter 8, verse 2 says, how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind? And look what he unloads, a double-barreled rhetorical question, doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice? If my children have sinned against him, and he hath cast them away for their transgression, is God doing wrong? Because you know what, Job? You know why your children died? Because they were sinning, Job. I'm telling you, poor Job. Is it not enough that I'm going through all this? Basically paraphrasing, it's plain that your children sinned against God. Otherwise, why would God have punished him? So not only is he broken hearted over the loss of his children, the alienation from his wife, the loss of all his substance, but he's got a very nervy friend who says, you know what, just a big bag of wind. Big bag of wind. Job's silence, I think, is quite remarkable. because you read verse four and then there's no break there. And Job turned and shook his fist at Bildad and said, listen, man, you don't know what you're... He didn't say that. It goes right on to verse five. if thou wouldest seek unto God. Be times, and make thy supplication to the Almighty. If thou wert pure and upright, surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. Though thy beginning was small, yet the latter end should be greatly increased. Listen, Job, I know what I'm talking about. God's on my side, Mr. Job. If you'd listened to me, you wouldn't be in this condition. And if you'll confess your sin, why, God will raise you up again. Job, you just, you just, You're just on the wrong path. I'll give you my prayer phrase. Since you too are sinful, Job, God's not willing to bring you to a state of health and provide you with relief. You're getting what you have coming, man. You're going through this because of divine punishment. And I can imagine Job, no, I'm not. I've been walking with God. God said these were unperfect, upright, shrewd evil of a righteous man. God knows I am those things, so I'm not being punished because of this. It wasn't sinful actions, Mr. Bildad. Verse eight, he continues on. The wisdom of the age is not for inquire. For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age. Prepare thyself to search their fathers. Someone said, we would call that today, old school. Someone mentioned that to me today, old school. Go back and learn what you learned in the past, for we are but of yesterday. And know nothing because our days upon the earth are a shadow. Shall not they teach thee and tell thee and other words out of their heart? And all the earmarks of how God treats the wicked who forget him. Bill Dadd was traditionally urging Job to go back and learn from the past. First, we know nothing by comparison. Second, because our lives are so brief, a shadow, we need the wisdom from the past, or even the wisdom from the present. I put in the light on the back of a Yukon. I watched a video, a do-it-yourself video. Man, that was great. He showed me how to do it, what to take off, what to pop off, in the right order, and it worked. Have you ever sometimes somebody asks you something and you feel it behooves you to try to teach this person something rather than listening? Paul Welter says, a response longer than 12 seconds is usually an effective length, no longer than 12 seconds, is usually an effective length in counseling or helping situation. In 12 seconds, one can say two sentences or a total about 25 words. He says, consistent response length of over 20 or 30 seconds presents a major problem. When we communicate by more lengthy answers, it is, I want to talk to you rather than talk with you. Have you ever had someone do that? You ask them a question? Wow, I shouldn't ask that question because I've got a five minute response. Or someone wanted to train me or teach me or get me to go another direction. I just want to know this. Can you tell me how to do this? One of the reasons we talk rather than listen is that we do not like to face negative feelings. It's the people who can start talking and they talk you around to a completely different direction and satisfied that they know what they think should happen so you have got to side on what they think should happen and you got to be happy with it. That's an ability some people have or think they have. Sometimes we're not comfortable with friends when they're angry at God or feel that their faith is faltering. These feelings challenge our own faith and we do not have easy answers and sometimes we may just not want to answer all the typical questions. But do we listen? When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it's those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. That's why when I was hurt, I didn't run to my dad, because my mom has, I don't know what moms have, and they can make you feel better. Dad would be more like, well, just suck it up, buttercup, and keep going. Or, you know, your arm's wobbling there on the side. It doesn't mean anything to him. Just keep on hauling the garden, honey. We'll look at it in a couple of hours. When you get that hauling the garden, we'll check it and see. It's like, at a bad angle, Dad. I mean, it's all right. But it really hurts. That's OK. It's part of growing up. I'm just going over on that. But Mom, oh, honey, what's hurting? Let me put a Band-Aid on that or something. And so that's what friends remember, your verbal counseling and attempt to get them to change their ways, not what they're asking for. They're asking for your prayers or your help. A man named Faber wrote this little poem, how that to comfort those that mourn is a thing for saints to try. Yet, happily, God might have done less, had a saint been there and not I. Alas, we have so little grace, with love so little burn, that the hardest of our works for God is to comfort those that mourn. To comfort those that mourn. Are you comforting those who are in, we have a lot in our church who need some comfort? Are we comforting those who mourn? Well, Bill, that's not done as we tied up. We got five minutes. If we can do it in five minutes, I believe. Can the rush grow without mire? No. Can the flag grow without water? No. Whilst it is yet in his greenness, verse 12, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb. So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish. Well, it's like, well, Joe, just sit down. This is class 101 on biology and whatever you call it, plant thing, etymology, plantology. What's it called when you study plants? Is no one else no good? Oh, plantology, we'll call it plantology. Listen, so can a rush, a papyrus grow in a mire without a mire? No. Can a flag grow without water? No. It cannot. Implication is Job, you're withering and dying because you're a hypocrite. It only follows that your hope is perishing because you don't have a pure heart and a right relationship with a holy God. Get right with God, Job, and he will come back to you, if you want to say it that way. So are all the paths of those that forget God, verse 13. Job, we've forgotten God. In the hope of the God, this will perish. And just the opposite is true. He called out anybody else in the entire area of the East. One man that walks with God, and it's Job. 507 Heberlin Road, the desert place. Job, it's the one man we know. Of all the people I know, he walks with God. Verse 14, whose hope shall it be cut off? And whose trust shall be a spider's web? Can you lean on a spider's web and be sustained? No, of course not. No matter how confident the web is, it's fragile and it will tear. Job, your confidence is like that. You will soon break and you will fall. Verse 18. but to destroy him from his place. Then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen them. The implication is that's happened to you, Job. God has uprooted you. Look at the verses there. A plant without a root, as you gardeners well know, it's not going to go anywhere. It's just going to die. I've got my salvias there in my plant, and the leaves are turning yellow. I'm not sure if it's because I'm using the city water on them or what's happening there, but their leaves are turning yellow. I'm afraid that all my ones out front are going to die because I don't know. I'm using the wrong one. I don't know what it is. If you have an answer for me, let me know. You have sin, though, Joe, you've been uprooted. Can you imagine while Bildad is meandering around all these philosophical thoughts, Job must be sitting there and trying to piece together, thinking, what in the world can I gain from all this? Not much. Speaking of windbags, Mr. Bildad, speaking of windbags, what's Bildad's conclusion? Verse 20. Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evildoers, till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing. They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame, and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to naught. Job, listen, turn back to God, and he will exalt the righteous, but obviously you're not righteous, because he's not exalted you. I think Bill did, I know. He's missed the entire point. He's missed it by a mile. He has no clue what Joe really needed. Sort of like the man who said to his wife before her birthday, if you could have anything in the world, what would you like, honey? She said, I'd like to be six again. So next day on her birthday, he woke her up real early. And he got her up for her birthday. And off they went to the Waffle House. They had waffles and whipped cream and tall glasses of chocolate milk. And then they headed to the local theme park and rode all the rides. What a day it was. The Tilt-A-Whirl, the Beast, the Son of Beast, the Blue Racer, the Millennium Force, the Banshee, the Diamondback, the Gatekeeper, and the Maverick. And rode them over and over and over. Five hours later, she staggers out of the theme park with her husband. And off they go to a fast food restaurant for burgers, fries, and large milkshakes. After that, they go to the local theater, and they get the latest children's film. It was like Frozen 534 or Toy Story 94. And he sees those things. And at the theater, they have popcorn and Pepsi. And finally, the six-year-old adventures are over. And he goes back home. And she's exhausted. And she falls on the bed. And he's thinking he's done a magnanimous thing. He says, honey, how did it feel to be six again? She cracks her eye open and mutters, actually I was talking about my dress size. Missed the point completely. Bill Dead has missed the point completely. Job does not need ethereal sermons or theoretical solutions. He needs some practical help. He doesn't need about how plants are dying without water and a spider's web will not hold you if you lean on it, or if you don't have the roots around the rock, you're going to die. Job must have been thinking, you know what I need? Can you help with my sores? You got any antibiotics? You got anything I can scrape these worms out of my sores? Can you pray for me that God will deliver me out of this? And all you've got for me is some high-sounding piety. I need you to help me, to comfort me. We get our eyes turned on what we think we know instead of what does God want to do in our lives. May God forgive us. May we walk with Him this week. Lord, I pray that you grant us that his about eyes are closed. Grant us the wisdom to help those who are in need. Lord, sometimes it's best if we could just not say a word, but be there. Matter of fact, we don't have all the answers, and we don't have to have all the answers, but Lord, we can share a love sometimes just by our presence. And sometimes the best thing we can do, Lord, is not to be at some place, but to pray from a distance. So Lord, if we've learned nothing else in the last couple of weeks in Job, may we be true comforters of those who are in need. Give us wisdom. And for those who are going through the difficult time, may you uphold them, sustain them like never before, and help us to see that it is not so much all the activity that you're interested in, but it's the spiritual condition of those involved. And you use these things to polish off the rough spots that we might be used for you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.