Thanks, O. So we're at a very interesting position in this book because, as we've discussed, Job is really kind of a play. It's set. At the beginning, we see the opening scene where God kind of peels back the curtain in heaven. shows us what's going on, says, hey, have you seen, you know, Satan's basically there having a conversation with him. And God introduces Satan to Job, which is interesting. You know, when you really think about the fact that it was, it was God that actually introduced Satan to, to, to Job, not the other way, you know, it wasn't the other way around. And I think a lot of people miss that, you know, that little, that little piece. But We see this calamity that occurs to Joe. First, he loses all 10 of his children. They're killed in this horrible accident. Tornado comes in and there's fire. He loses all of his land. He loses his property, obviously, because, well, he doesn't lose the property, but he loses everything that's on the property. Doesn't have any crops. Doesn't have any animals anymore. And this is a guy who had thousands you know, animals and so forth, and loses everything. And then he loses his health on top of it. Starts getting boils all over his body and, you know, starts scraping himself with pot shears just to, you know, just to kind of relieve the itching and so on. It's almost hard to even imagine this happening. Then he has his three little buddies that come along. And Eliphaz and Bildad and Zofar and they come along and next thing you know those guys are giving them all sorts of really interesting advice. And basically it comes down to one thing. They have a worldview which is built on their own bias and their own background and their own things that were going through that were part of their teaching. I mean, if you really think about it, you get a world view based upon the things you've been taught, the things that you have learned. And most of the things that we learn are accurate. Most of the things we learn are true. But not all that we learn is true, especially when it comes to the things of God. What's really fascinating to me is that when we come to a particular situation that is really difficult, we fall back on the things that we truly believe, truly grasp. And by the way, whether those things are right or wrong. But we tend to fall back on the things that we find comfortable, is another way that another guy wrote it, which I thought was really interesting. And so you're in the most difficult situation, but yet you fall back on what's comfortable. Comfort zone. Yeah, comfort zone. Which is weird, because you would think that in a time of real big stress, that you might be looking for different answers. But inevitably, You don't. So I'm going to give you a sports analogy on this, because I think this kind of will make the point. If you're playing, and by the way, it doesn't matter what sport you're playing. Is that why you're wearing the referee shirt? I am wearing the referee shirt for that reason. Good call. But if you're an athlete, and when you get into a very difficult situation, you know, let's say you're a baseball hitter. and you got three and two count, you got guys on first and second, you're down by a run, you know you gotta make a base hit, if you can make a base hit, you can knock that guy in from second, you tie the game in, maybe you can even knock a double out there and knock both these guys in and take the lead. It's kind of a stressful situation, because here you are, two outs, three, two count, and what happens is, and batting instructors talk about this all the time, is going back to what you know, you hear that a lot. He went back to what he knows. And so if a pitcher knows that tendency, he's going to pitch to that deficiency. Everybody understand where I'm coming from? So if he knows that my tendency is to go to the outside and to want to hit a pitch on the outside, then he's going to throw one, but he's going to throw it a little too far outside. And hopefully he's going to, you know, he's going to catch me swinging at something that I shouldn't be swinging at. Everybody see where I'm coming from? Okay. It's going back to what you basically, you know, and in times of stress, in times of pressure, you tend to go back to that. Some people call it muscle memory. There is no such thing as muscle memory, by the way. It's all just memory. It has nothing to do with your muscles, okay? Your muscles don't have any memory in them. It's just that's the way you react. It's how you react in times of stress, Very hard to teach people who are in a very difficult situation. When you're in a very difficult situation, this is why most people fail in recovery. This is why they fail in recovery. Because it's a difficult situation. Hard to change when things are really screwed up. And so on. So, here we have a situation where these three guys have a world view. And their worldview is that if you got something this bad that just happened to you, you must have done something really, really bad. So we need to discover what it is that you did. Now, there's all sorts of thinking and there's all sorts of theories out there as to why people, you know, in this particular book, why they had these three guys react in the way in which they reacted. And they all react a little bit different. But at the end of the day, they're protecting something. And what they're trying to protect is their worldview. That's really what they're trying to protect. Because you see, if they don't protect that, then this might happen to me. I want you to think about that. Because they're sitting there going, I didn't do nothing wrong. Nothing's happened to me. And I don't want anything to happen to me. So if I admit that this guy had all of this happen to him, and yet he didn't do anything wrong, then this could very well happen to me. And I don't want to go there. I don't want to be in a situation where I lose everything that I have, lose my family, you know, lose my home, lose all my worldly goods, so forth, get sick on top of it. I mean, it's one thing to lose all your possessions, but then you lose your health on top of it. It's got to be, I mean, I can't even fathom how bad a situation that they're making this out or that the author of this book, by the way, we have no idea who wrote the book, We have no idea who wrote the book of Job. Is Job pre-Abraham? We think he's about the same time because there's a lot of things in there that are very congruent with, like for example they talk about the Chaldeans, they talk about Ur and so forth. So most historians, most Bible scholars believe that he's right around that period. But definitely pre-Israel. Pre-Israel, no question. Yes sir. No word. Right. Yes, sir, yes, sir, that's absolutely correct Sure Yeah Right And when you do well, often you experience blessings. I mean, there's some general truth to what they're saying. By the way, almost every thing, almost every worldview, I shouldn't say almost, every worldview, I would go that far, every worldview has a morsel of truth. How could you have a worldview that's 100% a lie? I mean, it doesn't make any sense. This is the note that's in my Bible. It says, we don't know precisely where these historical events took place. The land of Uz may have been somewhere between Palestine and Arabia. The exact time is also unknown, but many believe that Job lived at the same time as Abraham. in what is called the patriarchal age. Nowhere in the Law of Moses or the Nation of Israel, nowhere in this book is the Law of Moses or the Nation of Israel mentioned. The Book of Job was an early part of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, which includes Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and I'm sorry, Ecclesiastes or any other biblical book. Job is recognized even by secular literary critics as being among the world's most magnificent dramatic pieces. It is comprised mostly of poetic passages. Hebrew poetry did not have Western-style meter or rhyme. It was composed of parallel thoughts which are synonymous or contrasting. Only the first and second chapters and the last chapter are prose. This, in prose being defined, is just regular writing. So this idea of this being a play is something that a lot of people have hooked into. So the first debate that took place between these three fellas, Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar, Job is coming back with an argument in each time, and his argument is pretty consistent. I don't know what y'all are talking about. I didn't do anything. You want me to confess something, fine, I'm ready. I'm totally prepared thinking, well, maybe if I confess this, this craziness will go away. I mean, I get that. But he's sitting there going, guys, I don't know what to tell you, but I didn't do anything. So what's interesting is that this then gets us now to this second debate. And the second debate starts off with Eliphaz in chapter 15, and he, I hate to say loses it, but that's kind of what it, when I, I remember the very first time I ever read this, I was like, is the guy just yelling? And then, of course, when I read Stedman's book about it, he sort of says the same thing. It's like he's yelling, he's kind of upset. And I had never really thought, until I read this book, about the fact that the reason he was yelling is because when you are not sure, do you ever think about this? If you are not sure about something, you think that if you can yell, or if you can be the loudest guy in the room, you're gonna be the guy that has the truth. Sort of like, if I yell loud enough, everybody will listen to me, okay? And it dawned on me that that's oftentimes the way we react, when we wanna make a point, when we're not 100% sure of our point. get defensive. Yeah, I mean when I'm 100% sure of my point, I usually get pretty quiet. I don't know if you guys have ever had this experience, but with me anyway, when I feel like I'm pretty 100% confident in what it is, I just let the other guy rant. Go for it, man, have at it. And then I'll try to make, because I don't have to prove my point, it's kind of like because I'm confident in what it is that I believe. Everybody understand where I'm coming from? But when I'm not 100% sure, I even find myself doing this too, is, my wife has pointed it out to me on numerous occasions by the way, that my tone will tend to go up a little bit. And sometimes not just a little bit. And I gotta argue my point. And usually when you argue your point, that's when you're not 100% sure. Well, no, I'm talking about Eliphaz now. I'm talking about Eliphaz and Bildad in particular. Bildad gets legitimately angry, you know, in this section. But yeah, but Job, I think, is actually just in misery. He's just, the guy is just, you know, yeah, I mean, he's just, he's just miserable. I mean, he's, you know, he's, he's at, you know, he's at wit's end here. He's like, I don't understand what's going on. Uh, and, and so forth. But I, but I found LFS, especially in chapter 15, extremely interesting because what we have with LFS is, is a guy who's not sure, but yet wants to think, wants everybody to think he is sure. Well, don't you think, And by the way, I think that's a very common thing. Don't you think Joe is turning his, sort of his opinion? I mean, he's listening to Joe and it's almost like he's losing his argument and he's starting to believe Joe. Which extends his argument. Did you notice that? It just makes LFS go off even more. Yeah, round two. Round two, yeah. I mean, this is a much longer argument now in chapter 15 than we did earlier in whatever chapter it was that... That's what happens when one person gets defensive and they escalate it and the other one's like, I'm not going to let you win. They escalate it. That's what, yeah. Job is just as guilty as they are of bringing this thing higher and higher and higher. Well, yeah. In his defense, I don't think he's just as guilty. as they are. I think he's trying to prove his point in the sense of trying to get them to see. But why? What's his motive? His motive is what you're saying is not true. What they're believing is not true. Because as I said before, Job is constantly examining himself. That's why he can't see what they see. He's constantly reflecting. And he got the time to do it. When you sick, or you in bed, or you going through something, you have a lot of time to reflect, to look back. And I think Job is doing that. And if they put in the same, you must have did something, Job is looking back saying, no, no. Because you can look back and reflect some of the mistakes you made when you made them, when you got time to do that. If you said the wrong thing, if you said a word that was unkind, when you're in a situation, you can reflect that. And I think that's what Job was doing. And they started trying to push it on him. He said, I don't see what you see. I'm not aware. And Eliphaz was really trying to make the case. And Job was saying, no. And I think, well, that's just my opinion, but I think that's what God told you when Job held on to his integrity. That's what this was about, because he reflected, and he was like, these guys are supposed to be encouraging, and yet they started trying to whoop me. So now, remember, there's a little interesting little twist here that a lot of people don't think about when you read, actually even when you read commentaries about Job, it's very rarely ever discussed, and that is, Satan is not mentioned, but he's behind everything. He is behind everything in this book. Exactly. So he's behind everything. But here's interesting, because he's not discussed. He's never brought up. He's not brought up by Job. He's not brought up by the three boys. Not brought up by anybody. I'm sorry, say again? It's brought up throughout the book. No, no, no, no. I'm talking about in this section where these guys are arguing back and forth. That's my point. Yeah, that was true. Yeah. And so the fact of the matter is, is that Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar are agents of Satan without recognizing it, without knowing it even, without even being aware of it. And by the way, I would guess that if they were accused of that, they would go off like, are you out of your cotton picking brain? There's no way. Uh-uh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, no, no. Let's go back to the subject. I can almost see that. Let's go back to the subject. The subject is you, not us. That's pretty good. What amazes me is that this has all taken place before there was a formal faith of Israel, and circumcision, and the covenant, and the law, and anything like that. Right. Let me ask a question, I'm sorry, go ahead. Because I want to know what dispensation is this? Well, this would be somewhere around the Abrahamic era, and so it's before Israel. So it's during that period where God basically took and confused them with the languages, you know, and all that kind of stuff. And so it's so that was dispensation of venison of dispensation of well, I would call it the basically dispensation got the abramic dispensation, then you got the no way no way, you know, ending with Noah. then you got from Noah forward to Abraham, and then you have from Abraham. So somewhere in that period is about where we're dealing. But obviously, what's interesting to me is that obviously somebody out there is teaching about God. Somebody out there is teaching about God. Because these guys didn't just make this stuff up. They recognize there's a God. Yeah, they recognize there was a God. And they're obviously worshiping that God. And they're obviously thinking that they're worshiping, at least, the one true God. So this is not a multiple theistic kind of situation. It's a monotheistic situation. Repentance is a big part of it. Sinfulness is a big part of it. I mean, this is all, you know, so there's clearly been some proper, at least some teaching, whether it's proper or not, I can't really determine, but at the end of the day, these guys, there is not, what I wrote in my notes here was, false accusation always is peppered with generalized truth, but it centers on untruth. It's peppered with generalized truth, but is centered around untruth. And so, in other words, their basic understanding was wrong. And that basic understanding was that blessing brings good stuff to you. I mean, excuse me, good activity brings blessing. Bad activity brings cursing. That's kind of their, what would the word be? Their worldview. Well, their worldview, but what were you going to say? I said theology. Well, their theology, that'd be actually an excellent word as well. Yeah, their worldview, their theology, their presupposition is the word I was looking for. And so they come to the argument And I don't want you to take offense to this word, okay? But they come to the argument with a bias. With a bias. Which, by the way, all of us come to an argument with a bias. Okay? What we have been taught, what we have been, you know, shown, what we have experienced all relates to our bias. I remember years ago, I had a very dear friend of mine who was an attorney here in town, passed away. He used to be a member of our church. And I was telling him how I was struggling with understanding how people could think certain ways. It was just driving me crazy. It was just driving me out of my mind. How in the world could you possibly believe such an insane argument or thought? And he said to me, he said, Don, that's because they have a bias. But bias is good. And I was like, that was very hard for me to get my arms around initially. I said, well, what do you mean, Jim? And he says, Don, he says, if you didn't have any bias, you wouldn't believe anything. You'd just be pushed around like a boat that has no sail. You'd just be pushed by the current and pushed by the wind and pushed by everything and you'd have no way to actually have a concrete thought even. So you have to have a worldview. You have to have a bias. You have to have certain things that you believe. Paul put it this way. He says, I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day. That's bias. There are a lot of people that you just described. Well, certainly. But at the end of the day, everybody has a bias. Everybody. Everybody has a certain bias. And that's what drives your worldview. And so, these guys have a worldview. Now here's their problem with their worldview. Their worldview is based on a belief that God blesses works. That's their worldview. Their worldview is that God blesses works. Now, what's interesting about that particular worldview is that we're talking about before the scriptures were written. I want you to think about that for a second. This idea that God blesses works is something that has been around forever. It's not new. Yep. Well, the Bible tells us he was. We don't, we don't know. We don't know. Hold on, what do you mean you don't know? It never actually says to us that they had any kind of belief in God. Oh, okay. But their worldview of God blesses the good stuff. It doesn't mean, though, that they have the same kind of belief that Job has. Remember, it tells us at the very beginning, he says, have you considered my servant, interesting word, My servant Job, who is, two words used against him, one, Tom, which we have defined as being blameless, Hebrews Tom, and the other is upright. Upright, interesting word. Have you considered my servant Job? who is blameless and upright. And remember, the only other person that this word Tom is used about is Jacob. And again, most people look at Jacob with a bias because they've been taught certain things about Jacob. And so therefore, you know, he must be, he was just an awful guy, robbed his brother and this, that, and the other thing. Yet the Bible doesn't say that in the Bible. It says that in commentary, which is fascinating. to me. I've always thought that that was fascinating. And what it says in the Bible is that he was Tom, that he was blameless. The word Tom actually in modern Hebrew means pious, means religious. That's what it means. I like the word complete. Complete I really like a lot. But the fact of the matter is, is that he was a person that had a relationship with God. That's what I actually think Tom really means. Makes him complete. makes him complete and so he had a relationship with God does not say that about the three jokers doesn't say that about these three guys you know it says that they definitely can talk about God from their perspective they certainly can declare certain things that they have seen in their history he says he says I will tell you listen to me and what I have seen I will also declare that's what Eliphaz said So I'm telling you the stuff I've seen. I've seen this with my own eyes. And by the way, much of our bias is based upon what we've seen with our own eyes, right? And I saw this happen, so therefore it must obviously be true in every circumstance. Very interesting. I was playing golf the other day, and we got to the 17th hole, match was tied. My friend Michael hit off. And he hit this ball, and as soon as he hit it, I'm going, oh, that's going to be good, man. That's going to be really good. It hits like about eight feet in front of the hole, rolls just like a putt, and goes right in the hole for a home run. Wow. By the way, match over, as it turns out. OK? But if that was the first time you'd ever seen that, you would think that every single time you hit a shot right at the green, and it hit before the pin and rolled just like a putt, it was going in the hole. I mean, if that was the first time you ever saw that, right? I mean, that would be your experience. Well, that's how you make a hole-in-one. You make a hole-in-one because every single time it hits, it chucks, and it rolls just like a putt and goes. It's not that hard, right? Okay, yeah, yeah. So I said to Michael, I said, I said, Michael, that's an incredible situation. I've made a couple of hole-in-ones, and I've been fortunate enough to have had that experience happen, believe it or not, where it hit, checked, rolled just like a putt, and went right in the hole. I had that experience. But it didn't look anything like his. Mine was really high. His was really low. Very different. My second hole-in-one actually was even more incredible because it hit on a bank left of the stupid, of the hole almost. shot dead right, and boom, hit the flag, popped, and just fell in the hole. Just the way you planned it. Just the way I planned it, exactly. So my point of this whole entire thing is that if we were saying, well, this is how a hole-in-one is made, you have to hit it right at the pin, it's got to check in front of the hole, it's got to roll just like a putt, right? But the truth is, You never know how a home one's going to get made. Some of them have been made the most incredible way you ever saw. Reminds me, I was in Bermuda once. and it's another one, and my wife actually hit a ball that never left the ground. It was literally a running, like, worm burner, as we like to call it, from about 70 yards. She hit this thing, she hit this thing, and it was just like as horrible a shot as you could possibly imagine, and went and whacked right into the pin. Now, it did not go in, but it could have just as easily gone in, other than the fact that it sat that far away from the hole. The point is that if you are saying, based on experience, this is the way it always is, it's not always this, that way. Did I make any sense there? All in one, I love it. Thank you, Dustin, that was excellent. The windmill was the problem. But the point, that was awesome. The point is that we, do you understand where I'm coming from on this? Okay, I'm just trying to draw an analogy that maybe we can all appreciate. Golfing? Well, whatever, okay. But just because you've seen something doesn't mean that it's 100% accurate for the rest of the time. But just because I hit a ball through the windmill doesn't mean it goes in the hole. There's always a difference between knowing about God and knowing God. Yeah, yeah. My question is, in all three of these guys, like you said, it was way before scripture and all this stuff that we're talking about. So what their bias was is that this is what they saw, that when you did good, good things happen. When you did bad, bad things happen. That was all three of their point of view because that's all they have ever experienced. True, but there's another part of it. And that is, they also couldn't admit that bad things could happen to good people, because that means it could happen to them. Right, I got that point. But I was just looking at what they had been experiencing. So that's why they questioned Job. But then now you brought up the point that during this whole time, Satan is undermining them. And they're not aware of that. Well, the three were blaming Job. Job was blaming God. And they were all wrong. It was Satan. Yeah, that's the point. Yeah, that's the point. And that's really interesting, because that was basically one of the things I wanted to talk about, is Job. Whoops, should not have done that. That was a mistake. OK, there we go. Whoops. But Job's not complaining. I mean, a blamey guy. He's just complaining, right? Wait, question. Oh, no, he's blaming God. Oh, no, he's blaming God. Oh, there's no question. In chapter 17, he basically says, you know, I don't understand, you know, he really is charging God, if you think about it. Look at what he says. I mean, he goes through this whole entire thing. You have worn me out. You've devastated my household. You assail me. Men jeer at me. They strike my cheek and scorn. They unite against me. You've turned me over to the wicked. All was well. Now I'm shattered. You fenced me in. You fenced me in, exactly. I am God's target, he says. In fact, he says, my kidneys are pierced. In other words, you know, the thought there, by the way, most scholars is that I can't even urinate. I mean, just think about where he's coming from in this whole entire thing. But he's blaming God. Because he doesn't know who else to blame. But that's his worldview, too. I've got to find somebody to blame. Absent an understanding of Satan, right? Absent that understanding, if you pull Satan out and you do not have a concept for that, you're going to blame God for doing a bad thing. And that's what he's doing. Now, he comes back around in humility and then acknowledges God as the sovereign. We're going to end at that. Yeah, that is kind of where we're headed. But the fact of the matter is, is that he is so frustrated, and that I think is the only word I can think of, he's so frustrated by everything that's gone on. I can't honestly say, based upon the text, that the fact that he lost his possessions was what was really his biggest issue. I don't believe that was his biggest issue. Right. His biggest issue is, I don't know why this is all happening. That's his issue. Go ahead. I'm sorry. He lost his position in his community. People respected him and he lost that. People thought he did something wrong. Do not batter when you lose your health, you lose family, and that stuff. You're sent out to be abyssed by yourself. He was respected in the community. People looked up to him. One thing I was going to say is that the story that comes to mind when I think of this is Paul when he got bit by the snake on the island and they immediately thought that he was cursed because of that. And so they immediately took it to another level that was completely wrong. That's a really good analogy actually. When you think about men in general, we have pride. Pride is a downfall of men. Really? That's a problem? Oh my gosh. I wish someone had told me that. I'm sorry, Dustin, that was just way too easy. So, so, you know, their, their position is always going to be coming from pride. And these men, you know, looked up to Job, I'm sure, you know, Job was the richest man in that area. And then, you know, it hit them being his friends, obviously thought of themselves as, you know, you know, smart, you know, in position to be this guy's friend. You know, and so now that this guy's not doing well, now they have a little bit of pride in themselves. And they're looking at Job like, well, you know, Job, you did something wrong. You know, we're in a position now to be over Job. finally, you know, and so they're trying to. Wow. That's really good insight. When he had everything. Yes. I think they did beat him. Oh, no doubt. Right now. Well, and there's another interesting verse in here and I forget if it's build that it says or if it's LFS, but, but one of them says, well, you know, there's no way you could have been that wealthy unless you were doing something a little bit cheaper, a little shady. There's no way you could have been that good. Again, it's this whole idea of reward based on works. And prosperity based on works. But the fact of the matter is, is that the Bible clearly teaches something different. But we don't teach that truth. So we end up with a bias, and our bias is that, for example, salvation. Salvation is a result of you had to do something. If you did something, but if you don't do something, well, then you got another problem. And then you got this other thing of, well, you obviously must have done something that you have to repent of. And this whole thing back and forth, missing Grace. And one of the things that God has shown me over the last several decades, but in particular, but clearly in the last 15 years or so, is that my worldview has always been tainted by works. My worldview has always been tainted by this presupposition that God blesses those who do things well. And really, it was my basic worldview for many, many years. I didn't even know it was my worldview, by the way. Really, really didn't. Until I had an episode where I realized, oh my gosh, I did some pretty awful things, and I'm gonna get hammered for that. And then God didn't hammer me. I'm like, whoa, wait a minute. You're supposed to get busted when you do stuff wrong. You're supposed to get blessed when you do things right. And all of a sudden I found I wasn't getting blessed for the things I was doing right and I wasn't getting busted for the things I was doing wrong. What's going on? It was like God had to show me, Don, you need to understand grace. You don't get grace. I'm going to show you how to understand grace. And suddenly, my view of scripture even began to change. I mean, you can actually see it in my notes of my Bible studies, by the way. It's fascinating. I mean, I went back and was reading some of my old notes from way back. They were typewritten. I've got them on my, I can show them to you. It's really interesting. And that shows you how long ago they were. They were before computers, but I typed them. What was fascinating to me about those was that so often, I've thought about this a lot, I would never teach that today. I would not teach that today, because God has shown me that's not accurate. Now, it's not that it was blatantly untrue. See, that's the problem. That's the subtlety of bias. That's the subtlety of worldview. Good defined by relationship with the Lord, where you've accepted Him as your Lord, your Master, your Savior, right? Right. So ultimately, yes, if you follow Him, good does come. And if you don't, bad does come. But here on earth, I still believe God wants to bless His children now. But there's a lot more going on than just simply that. Right. The Lord is an enemy. and that there's things that play in the spiritual realm that weigh into how things go, and God uses all things to our good to those who are called and loved, right? So there's a whole lot to it. In general, there's a lot of truth to if you do good, you will be blessed. Yeah, no question about it. It's a flip side of that because I know bad people that get blitzed. Yeah, that's the point. You know what I'm saying? So it goes both ways. Satan's the prince of this world. Amen. So he actually kind of has domain here. Correct. This is his domain. I'm agreeing. So that's why it's bad. It's rewarding. But in the beginning of the play, God says, have you considered this upstanding? And Satan is the one who says, yeah, that's because he's blessed. You got a hedgerow at him. He's got, look at him, he's wealthy, he's got a family, he's got everything. So God says, okay, well we'll strip that away and then you'll see whether or not it's because of his good works or if it's because of his belief in me. Right. Yeah, and you know, it's fascinating. And that's the proof to Satan that just because someone looks that that is what's doing it. It's their belief that's what's doing it. Right. And isn't it interesting, if in fact the timing is correct, which I think it is, that Job was near or about the time of Abraham, that the only person that we read about in the Old Testament where it says, that his righteousness came because of his belief, specifically. It was Abraham. It says, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness. And that's the message that really is of Job, is it's not what you do, it's what you believe. It's what you have in your heart of hearts. That's what changes things. What's fascinating to me is this 19th chapter, because I don't want to leave today without really focusing a little bit on this 19th chapter. And in the 19th chapter, We see it says, and then Job responded. And he's responding to Bildad, who just basically went off on him. And I don't need to read the whole thing about Bildad. Bildad's an idiot, sorry. He's an idiot, okay? And by the way, you have to have an idiot in every good play, okay? And he's an idiot, okay? I'm sorry, he just is. He's a court jester. He's just a court jester. Anyhow, but then it says, Job responded, how long will you torment me and crush me with words? An interesting expression, crush me with words. See, because again, this is what this is all about. Sticks and stones will hurt my bones, but words will never hurt me. That's a bunch of nonsense. Boy, that's ridiculous, okay? But listen to me. He says, these 10 times you have insulted me, like he was counting them. Obviously, he wasn't counting them. That's just sort of a generalization. These 10 times you have insulted me, you are not ashamed to wrong me. You're not ashamed. In other words, it's like, you're enjoying this. You guys are getting off on this. This is crazy. He says, even if I have truly erred, my error or my error, lodges with me. In other words, this is not your problem, this is my problem. So why are you doing this to me? He says, if indeed you vaunt yourselves against me and prove my disgrace to me, know then that God has wronged me and has closed his net around me. And then he says something very interesting. He says, behold, I cry. And in my Bible it says violence. I'm just curious as to what the other ones say. violence is anybody else got a Thing there I cry I cry What it says in Hebrew is I cry pain Actually is what it really is is indicating is is that I've been hurt That's basically what he's saying. Okay I've been wrong, you know, whatever but I get no answer and that's the key and I don't get any answer. He says, I shout for help, but there is no justice. He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and he has put to darkness on my path. He has stripped my honor from me and removed the crown from my head. He breaks me down on every side. I am gone, and he has uprooted my hope like a tree. He has also kindled his anger against me and considered me as his enemy. And so he goes and he finishes this whole entire thing, and then this is the key, verse 23. It says, oh, that my words were written. This is like he's asking them to write this book. Oh, that my words were written. Now I'm gonna tell you what my words need to be. Listen to what he says. He says, oh, that they may be inscribed in a book, that with an iron stylus and lead, they were engraved in a rock forever. And these are the words. Yes it is. And as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, or liveth, as the King James, you know, says. I know that my Redeemer liveth. And at the last, he will take me, or he will take his stand on the earth, even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God. whom I myself shall behold, and in whom my eyes shall see and not another. My heart faints within me. If you say, how shall we persecute him? And what pretense for a case against him can we find? Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is judgment. I think this is a fascinating section of scripture because I think this is a point of clarity, finally, for him. Extremely prophetic. Oh, extremely prophetic, okay. I mean, you know what he says, like, it says, I'll see him with my eyes, even though previously to that, he said that, you know, even though my flesh will be destroyed, I will see him with my eyes. And he says, yes, my eyes, not the eyes of another. I believe that's paraphrased. Yeah, yeah, no question. This is like a picture of resurrection, I believe. It's Christ, it's the resurrection, it's all of it. The fact that he mentioned that my Redeemer lives and will one day stand on the earth, that's absolutely prophetic. And it's in the very first book of the Bible. The very first, oldest book of the Bible. There's no doubt. In his situation, he encouraged himself. Yeah. And boy, does he need a redeemer at this point? Yes. Right. It's faith. He needs somebody. He knows that his redemption is going to come from God. Yes. No matter what he's facing. And by the way, no matter what these boys tell him. Yes. He's warning them that they're going to feel judgment. Right. Right. I mean, this is the position of a believer and a non-believer. Right. That's a comfort knowing, you know, the truth and then that uncomfort and not knowing the truth. And that's why they, you know, project their voices at him because they're unsure of their own, you know, their own salvation, their own, you know. Yes. They're not convinced they have a relationship with God. Right. I'm sorry. They are not. They may say they are. You know, I'm sorry. Go ahead. It goes back to what Joe said in chapter two. Though he slay me, yet will I serve him. I mean, think about that. Here he is in 19. It's a little snippet of hope through all this that he's going through. God is still, you know, when I say God is solid, but God is not solid. Right there, God is speaking. and he's speaking loud. Right. Because Job is saying, I know to whom I believe in. Right. Well, his family knew of God because his wife told him, curse God and die. Yeah. So they knew of God. Yeah. I mean, the truth is, is that, um, Job is going through what every single person goes through when they're in trial. And that is, I don't get it. He was bewildered. He was shaken up. He was baffled. He was isolated. I mean, I could come up with a hundred different, you know, verbs, right? But at the end of the day, he also had this epiphany. And the epiphany was, I can't do it myself anyway. And I know, and I love the fact that he says, I know that my Redeemer lives. Lives. That's awesome. That to me is just amazing. Not that my, not that my Redeemer, not that my Redeemer might come about. Not that my Redeemer is going to come and help me. Not that my Redeemer is, is on his way. No, no, no, no. My Redeemer's here right now. Nothing you ever did was on your own. You were always having your Redeemer there helping you. Right. You just now realized it. And so what's really fascinating is the word Redeemer... I'm going to read to you what Zafari, the guy that edited my Bible, wrote. And this is because this is such a profound statement. You need to read. You need to just get this. He says, I know that my Redeemer lives are familiar words to Christians because of their adaptation to Christ and several well-known hymns. However, the sense here is different from that which is usually understood when applied to Christ. The Christian idea of Redeemer is of one who is a deliverer from sin. Right? That's what we think of Redeemer. He delivers us from sin and so on. Listen to what he says. But the Hebrew word goel is more appropriately translated vindicator. one who delivers from affliction and wrong, which is not necessarily due to sin. Doesn't mean it's not, just not necessarily due to sin. Job, unable to convince his friends of his innocence, was leaving it to God. He was leaving it in God's hands to prove to them that he was not guilty of the sin for which they accused him. This is the high point of Job's stated trust in God and God alone, and his dependence on him and him alone. Really amazing. That word, no, is really powerful in that verse. Yes, no question. That thinks, that feels, I know. In Romans 4, it talks about Abraham's faith. I mean, it talks about all through most of Romans. But there's a verse, no, I'm looking for it. which kind of reminds me of this. Yeah, so yet with the yet with the respect, let me see here, without coming weak faith that he'll take on his neighbor and Paul's right about it. In hope against hope, he believed so that he might become the father of many nations, according to which he had spoken. sentence without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body you know as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old right the deadness of Sarah's womb yet with the respect to the promise of God he did not waver I believe Booker is strong in faith given glory to God and being fully assured that God that what God promised he was also able to perform I've also seen that written in other versions I'm looking at the English standard version but I've seen it written fully convinced yeah But, you know, no, I know I redeemed him. Yeah. And so here's imagine for a second that we're not talking about Job here, but we're talking about Abraham. And Abraham is basically convinced that he's going to have a son, a real son, because God promised him that. And now three of his buddies come to him and go, hey, Abraham, are you nuts? Are you bananas? Yeah. Dude, your wife is 90. I'm sure they did. Your wife's 90 years old and you're 100. Are you kidding me? Not going to happen. Not going to happen, brother. This woman is through menopause. You know because you experienced it. Yeah. The boat has sailed, right? Exactly. Come on. I mean, you know, and Noah is another good example. I mean, exactly. I mean, the fact is, the fact is, is that you can have all these brainiacs that come in and they have their, you know, their opinions of this, that, and the other thing and so forth and so on. And here's the problem that no one wants to hear. And that is, I might be wrong. I might be wrong. Oh my goodness. I might be wrong. And this is an amazing situation because at the end of the day, we see Job not sure about a lot of things. He really is. He's not sure why this happened, this, that, and the other, but he is sure about one thing. And that is, there is coming a day when I will be vindicated, when My faith is going to allow me to see my vindicator, the person that is going to stand on the earth and is going to make things right. And that is powerful. And it has nothing to do with what I did. It has nothing to do with what I didn't do. It has nothing to do with anything related to me. He does it because of God. It's bigger than me. It's bigger than all this stuff. It's bigger than my children. It's bigger than whatever, fill in the blank. It's bigger than all these things. He stands and redeems me. So, let's get out of here. We've covered, I think, a pretty good thing today, but I have to tell you. Yeah. Just one thing. You've been saved, how long? I will be a believer for 50 years on November the 23rd. And you just, in the last 15 years, got it. It's not what I do, but it's because of what he did. Correct. And that's the belief of many believers. Yeah. Here's the point. Joe got that. Yep. Joe got that even though he was going through all this and I was listening to you. I know you've been a teacher for a good while and yet in the last 15 years when I came home because so often we think I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't do this. I don't do that that make us right. Mm hmm. And that's how we think. That would make us a Christian. Instead of saying it's because of what he did. Totally. Joe got that before learning about the trial too. Yes. So a lot of people have to go through trials to learn that. To get to that point. Chasing those he loves. He's sharpening us. Joe got that before that he got vindicated and got 10 times back what he lost. He learned that before that. So I want to end on this because we talked about this on Tuesday and it said, uh, it says in Romans chapter five that we have been justified by faith and therefore we have peace with God. And then as I said to the guys, then that leads us to eight different things that, that he talks about here. And one is that we have peace with God. The other is that we have access. The other is that we have hope. But the fourth is that we are going to have tribulation. We're going to have issues. And there is a fruit to tribulation. The fruit to tribulation is three things. He says perseverance, proven character, and hope. That's what comes as a result of tribulation. And to me, that is so powerful. because it identifies to us that just because we have a relationship with God does not mean we're untouchable. In fact, it's the opposite. The truth of the matter is, is that the bigger relationship we have with God, the bigger the target. And the truth is that it's hard to get your arms around this. You asked me a great question the other day that I really have been not struggling with, but thinking a lot about. Does it mean that you're going to have more, or does it mean you're going to have less tribulation if you're walking with the Lord? The more I'm walking with God, am I going to have a stronger relationship? Am I going to have more difficulty? Am I going to have less difficulty? And the answer to that question is, I have no idea. But I do know this, that if you're walking with God, part of the trip Part of the, I don't mean that in a negative way, I mean trip in the sense of journey, part of the journey is you're gonna fall off the trail a couple of times, you're gonna get dehydrated, you're gonna have to deal with, and by the way, in the midst of that, here's what's really interesting, I love this analogy that God just sort of gave me here, but you fell off the trail and you couldn't help yourself. and you had to count on him and you had to count on other people around you to carry that pack, to get you through that, you know, and so forth. That's what this trip is all about. That's what this journey is all about. That's true. You understand that. You were born into a world without war. It's a spiritual war going on. Like, we don't really fully understand enough. And so we have to trust God every step of the way. Because hardship comes. One of the things that I expect with your seasons of having certain prayers that I pray mostly, and my prayer lately has been, Lord, give me strength in sorrow. And when the sorrows come, Because, you know, like I've had a hard time to come out of the Lord and, you know, good things have been going on in my life. And I know, you know, that Satan is around the corner waiting to devour me. So I know that the sorrows are coming, but I know I'm going to have the Lord when I get there. But at the same time, I pray that he gives me strength in those sorrows. That's good stuff. That's good stuff.