Well, we'll go over our memory work once and I'll make a few comments about the one that we did for today. This is a large group so we don't get it often a chance to make, you know, make our repair requests known. Though do be assured that I'm praying for you and enjoy having you in this class. And since I get to stand up here, I can share my praises or repair requests and have one of each tonight. I may have mentioned earlier in this course, I know I've mentioned in other classes that this semester I've been doing evangelism explosion with my son, who's a senior in high school and getting ready to go off to college. And since I know he's going to a Christian college, he's going to need to know how to evangelize, you know, because I'm sure he'll run into a lot of people needing it. But that's been very fun for me. This was a horrendously busy semester and so I wouldn't normally have chosen to do it this particular time because I put it off for that reason. And for various other reasons, and busyness is my normal excuse. But it's actually been a very much needed break getting out and talking to real people in the real world has been a lot of fun. And just by way of encouragement, this past, well two weeks ago, we had the opportunity of sharing the gospel with a single father, single dad, who's been raising his daughter for the last seven years. She's now eight years old and through the den of his television and so forth, I think I mentioned this last time. He did accept the Lord. Well, we thought that this past week maybe we should go back and speak with his daughter who was still listening to television while we were talking to him. And the young junior in high school that's part of our team shared the gospel with her and asked if it made sense to her. And being a bright young thing, she didn't just nod, which is normally what you would expect of an eight-year-old girl talking to a junior in high school. Normally if a junior asked you something, oh yeah, yeah, so glad you're talking to me, that kind of thing. But she was very thoughtful and she kind of squinted a little bit and said, nah, I'm not sure that makes sense. And so the young lady, Jenelle, went over the gospel message again briefly to now, does that make sense? And she said, yeah, I think it does. And now again, she's only eight years old but she reads better than I do. And she's in the 99th percentile of her class and so she's very, very bright young lady. And so we saw the privilege of seeing her accept the Lord and watching her father's face as a week after he had accepted the Lord as his daughter. She did the same. So that's very exciting and that's unusual in my life. And I just praise God that I'm having that opportunity to be out and about. And I encourage all of you to do that. I think sometimes we don't realize that our hurting world is really looking for truth and looking for answers. And so I would encourage you to be bold. Don't keep your treasure that is in an earthen vessel hidden so that all people see as your earthen vessel. I'll let them see the treasure from time to time. And God will do His work and it is His work. So that's an item of praise and since I'm the teacher, I get to talk even though you have more important things to pray about. There are too many of you to be able to share them tonight. But let's pray to God and thank Him for what He is doing and help Him. Ask Him to help us keep a sense of why we are studying what the real purpose of it all is. Father, we are humbled indeed by the tasks that you call us to perform. And we recognize very clearly that apart from your spirit, we are fully inadequate to perform them. And we would be frightened indeed if we thought we could do them in our own strength. Lord, nevertheless, we do thank you that you give us the privilege of being involved with you in the work that you choose to do. I want to praise you for the joy of being able to see these responsive individuals respond to the gospel message as they hear it. For it truly is good news. Lord, I pray that we would be about our father's business and sharing the good news of the gospel because it speaks to us, even as it speaks to others. Lord, I pray that you would ground these new believers in their faith and that you would ground us ever more in our faith as we seek to study your word and get to know you better. Lord, help us to understand why it is we study books like The Book of Job and the Book of Ecclesiastes that we'll be looking at later on tonight. Help us to learn their messages and to allow those messages to sink into our hearts that we may be changed by them and that as we are changed, we will also become instruments of change by your spirit. In other people's lives. Father, we also lift up to you all those requests that are on the hearts of people in this room and in our extension science who may someday be watching this film. Father, I pray that you would assure each one that you are a sovereign and loving God and that you will prove your sufficiency in every area of concern and that you will buoy us up in your strength and by your wisdom. We ask Father now that you would be with us in this class that you would help us to do our work well and that the things that are most important would remain with us for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's try our memory work and again it's becoming massive so keep working on it. I'm assuming you're working on it more regularly than I do. So let's try it beginning at the beginning. Remember reference is four and aft. Everyone ready? I'm excited. All right, we begin with Psalm 37-4, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37-4. Psalm 46-10. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46-10. Proverbs 3-5-6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your past straight. Proverbs 3-5-6. Proverbs 3-10-11. My son do not despise the Lord's discipline do not resent his rebuke for the Lord disciplines those he loves as a father the son he delights in. Proverbs 3-11-12. Did I say 10-11? I did, didn't I? I did. You weren't listening. I'm sorry. Proverbs 3-11-12. Okay, I have a B minus so far on the test. Proverbs 4-18 and 19. The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter to the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble. Proverbs 4-18 and 19. Proverbs 6-16-19. There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, false witness pouring out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. Proverbs 6-16-19. Proverbs 9-10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9-10. Proverbs 14-26 and 27. He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress and for his children it will be a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life turning a man from the snares of death. Proverbs 16-3. Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16-3. Proverbs 27-21. The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold but man is tested by the praise he receives. Proverbs 27-21. Proverbs 29-18. Where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint but blessed is he who keeps the law. Proverbs 29-18. Proverbs 29-25. Fear of man will prove a snare but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe. Proverbs 29-25. Proverbs 35-6. Every word of God is flawless. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar. Proverbs 35-6. Proverbs 31-30. Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. I doubt that these are necessarily words that the man is using in praise of his wife although I was ghost enough to say those to my wife as I proposed to her. I hope she understood that I was not saying that she was lacking in beauty or lacking in charm. I was speaking of relative values but what this is saying is that the young man and remember that the book of Proverbs is addressed first and foremost to sons. The son heed your father's instructions and do not neglect your mother's teaching. So we need to recognize that whenever we are reading this book that that was the original audience and so as this now becomes scripture and is addressing sons and daughters then obviously we need to make some transfers and some converse situations would arise. But in addressing sons the father is saying look for what is most important and over and over again in this book of Proverbs obviously it's been the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom that is what young men are to seek in a wife in a noble woman someone they want to join their lives with by implication of course that is what young women or women of any age should most seek to cultivate in their lives. Because that is what gives a woman real inner beauty and inner beauty is the only real beauty that counts Dandoriani once said in a chapel message that by middle age most most everyone is average looking. You know you may start your life looking comparatively better than others but by middle age we all pretty much are leveled out by the ravages of time. It has also been said that at age 20 God is responsible for the way you look at age 60 you're responsible for the way you look. Because there is a sense in which what we are on the inside begins to reflect itself even in our faces and so that inner beauty will shine through in many many ways. Let me share something from Dwayne Garrett in his commentary that I think is interesting. He says that the young man should be careful of the choice he makes. The young man has no choice but to follow one woman or another and he points out that this passage which comes right at the end of the book of Proverbs is a fitting counter part to what came at the beginning of the book of Proverbs where you had the personification of wisdom and folly in feminine terms. Remember woman folly and woman wisdom both making their appeal to the young man and they're going to follow one or the other. It is exceedingly important who the young man chooses or whom the young man chooses. If he chooses an evil woman he has little hope of transcending the context she will make for him. Wisdom is not simply a matter of learning rules and precepts but is a matter of socialization and man is socialized first by his parents and then by his wife. Those of us men who have good wives know that they have had a salutary socializing effect on us and we are thankful for that. But a wife does have a great impact on what her husband turns out to be and vice versa. Here too Wisdom is founded in creation theology he says the woman is the fitting helper. She will either exalt or destroy her husband and for better or for worse he will turn from his parents and cling to her. That is he will go from the world created by his parents to the world made by his wife. Now again the converse is also true she leaves her parents and in a sense enters his world the world that he creates. But it's important to see how formative a wife can be in the life not only of a man but of their family together. In Proverbs Wisdom is not merely or even primarily intellectual it is first of all relational. The young person finds wisdom through three specific relationships a man must fear Yahweh and his fear the Lord. Head parents and find the good wife. In any way saying that every man has to be married or every man should be married the apostle Paul and others have instructed us otherwise. And he says I wish that you were as I am able to devote yourself fully to the Lord for the man who is married is concerned for the needs of his wife. But in a general sense and for the most part it is a good thing for a man to find a wife. One will gain the fear of Yahweh and the good wife in the same way both are gifts from God both are gifts from God. As we think about our lives and as we think about what we want to become and how we want to have an impact on other people. Let's remember that motto of the wisdom literature of the fear of the Lord is the beginning not only of wisdom but really the beginning of real beauty. Charm is deceptive and beauty is vain. There is that other wonderful proverb that talks about like a gold ring and a pig snout is a beautiful woman without discretion. It is such a waste when that happens so let that not be true of any of you women in this room and you men in this room be sure that you reinforce in women the right things not the wrong things. Well we must now move on in class so let's turn to the outline I gave you last time on the book of Job we have not finished talking about the book of Job. So we want to pick up there and I've been neglectful of sending this attendance sheet around so it really hasn't gone around since the mid term which is some long time ago. So if you will sign now under 424 I'm going to go ahead and pass that around. Last time in terms of where we are on the outline we had begun talking about the Elihu speeches the Elihu interruption as it sometimes called that is in Job 32 to 37 that's where we want to pick up so on page two of your outline and you've also had an opportunity to look over the architect tonic outline of the book of Job that I handed out last time from Elmer Smith. We are in the monologues section where after the dialogues are completed Job sort of presented to God his final plea the final words of Job in 29 to 31 and he called upon to call upon God to answer him and Elihu interrupts and that's what we began to talk about last time. And I think I mentioned that there are many who think that these Elihu speeches are secondary for reasons such as the fact that God does not respond to Elihu when he responds to Job and what Job had been saying he responds to Job's friends and what Job's friends had been saying but when the Lord appears to Job at the end of the book he hasn't a word for Elihu. On the other hand he hasn't a word for the accuser either that perhaps goes without saying he doesn't need to respond to him and the same could be true of Elihu. Elihu speeches do seem to interrupt Job's call that God answer him and so that's another reason people think some people think that they may have been inserted. Also Elihu's exact knowledge of what has gone before makes some people think well he must have been working from written transcripts and we dealt with that last time well maybe he was maybe he has one who had been sitting and listening would have been compiling written transcripts. So I don't think it's necessary to assume that these speeches are inserted but you need to be aware that some people do. Even if they are we need to deal with them in the book as they now stand. Now Brevard Childs and this is where we left off and we haven't talked about this yet that other was more or less review. Brevard Childs in talking about this section says that the Elihu speeches provide a transition to the divine response in other words they do serve a function in providing transition from the cry of Job to the divine response, the divine appearance which will come very shortly. And he says he puts it this way. Unlike Job's three friends Elihu while defending the principle of retributive justice does recognize the limitations set by God on human understanding. Moreover and perhaps most importantly Elihu uses the theme of discipline in an attempt to force Job out of the theological dilemma of assuming that if God does not recognize his innocence God is either lacking injustice or in power. That is to say Elihu at least brings up the notion of a third alternative. Now with your permission I'm going to take off my jacket. You know we were freezing for a while. Now we're not. At least I'm not enough. Is anyone else warm in this room? You're all cozy and comfortable. It's so nice. I'm glad to hear that. I'm going to take mine also. It's warm up here. So let's talk a little bit. Let's think a little bit about the major dynamic of the book. What has been going on in the dialogues between Job and his friends? Who wants to make a response in terms of just basically what is the problem? What is the dynamic of the book that's been going on between Job and his friends? I see Eve thinking she may want to respond. Would you like to say something? Oh I would. Oh. Oh. Me. Me. Cut you down. I can't. I wouldn't think of it. Okay. Right. They're saying we understand and he's saying you don't understand. What is it that they understand? Formula recognizes that God is just and he says who does not know it? Hardening you. He's building you up. He's training you for something. Now that in fact is not the answer, but it does at least serve to offer to kind of blow apart the formula. It's either this or that. And Elihu says well maybe it's this or that or maybe the other thing. And the very the very notion that there may be another thing is key and is correct. And to that extent in Elihu the Elihu speech is serve. Elihu introduces the notion of a third alternative. Job has been driven by the persistence of his friends almost to the point of denying God's integrity in order to maintain his own. Now at this point after Elihu falls silent and by the way you may want to have your Bibles open as we look at various passages as we move along. At the end of the Elihu speech he begins in chapter 37 as he draws to a close. He says in verse 19 tell us what we should say to him. We cannot draw up our case because of our darkness. Should he be told what I want to speak with any man asked to be swallowed up? Now no one can look at the sun bright as it is in the skies after the wind has swept them clean. Out of the north he comes in golden splendor. God comes in awesome majesty. The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power. In his justice and great righteousness he does not oppress. Therefore men revere him for he does not have regard for all the wise in heart. Elihu it seems to me is coming very close to saying just about the right thing when he says the Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power. He does not have regard for all the wise in heart. I don't think he's saying that God does not value the truly wise. I think it's saying he doesn't have regard for those who are wise as we would put it in their own eyes. God is not impressed with those who are impressed with their own wisdom. True wisdom is another thing. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so Elihu is saying recognize our limitations. That is an important message perhaps for Job and his friends to hear. Recognize that you are limited human beings with a limited viewpoint and your debates are lacking vital pieces of the puzzle. We as readers know that. We already know that because we know that something went on in the heavenly assembly before any of this got started. Well then in beginning in chapter 38 the Lord appears to Job and he begins this way. Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. Notice that Elihu had almost anticipated that. I'm not sure that we're meant to make a link there but Elihu when it says out of the North he comes in golden splendor God comes in awesome majesty. It's almost as if he's he's he's seeing his approach. He's talking about the sun there but it's almost as if he's anticipating God's arrival. Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge. You just you don't know what you're talking about. Brace yourself like a man. I will question you and you will answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations. Tell me if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions. Surely you know God can be gently ironic in his rebuke. Surely you know you you guys have been going on at length and you as well Job and you've challenged me to come and talk now. Why don't you answer me. Surely you know who stretched a measuring line across it on what were its footing set or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy. Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the from the womb. When I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness you see how God is beginning to answer Job. His first speech and God gives two speeches. He begins again in just a minute but his first speech is really asking Job what do you know. Answer me. You've called on me to answer you and I've come now. Why don't you answer me. Surely you know. So God is basically trying to get Job to understand who he is and to oppose this question what do you know Job as a human being as a creature. What do you know about all of creation. Job's response is appropriate after this first speech which is rather a lengthy one in chapter 40. We come to the end of that first speech and says the Lord said to Job were the man who contends with the Almighty correct him let him who accuses God answer him. What do you know. Surely you know. Answer me now. Then Job answered the Lord I am unworthy. How can I reply to you. I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once but I have no answer twice but I will say no more. And basically Job falls silent but that's not enough. Just forgot to silence Job with an overwhelming display of his superior knowledge. So God begins a second time and in the second speech he begins in verse 7. Brace yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me. Would you discredit my justice. Would you condemn me to justify yourself. Now was that was that Job's first reaction. It was not was it. What was Job's first reaction when when calamity befell him. He was defending God's justice and what did he say. He said exactly said the Lord gives the Lord takes away. He says shall we accept good from the Lord and not calamity also. King James not evil also. God is not the author of evil but evil in terms of evil circumstances or calamity. His initial response was humble submission to the will of God. He was costing in the providence of God, pursuing it perhaps no further. What brought him to the state that he's now in. His friends, his good friends and the theological discussion that was lacking in some elements that would have been important to resolving the dilemma. And so God now must charge him because Job has been driven to this point. Would you discredit my justice. Would you condemn me to justify yourself. Now some people would argue that the reason for Job suffering was his self righteousness and he needed to be ridded and purged of his self righteousness. What do you think of that argument? The scripture doesn't say it. That's a good answer. Anyone want to defend that view. Right. God himself pronounced. He is blameless and upright. That is he is a man. Remember we talked about what blameless means. He is a man who is genuine in his faith. He is genuinely committed to me. He is upright. Turning from evil. He's not sinless. He's not perfect but he is a genuine follower of God. He's not false. He's not a hypocrite. He's not just in it for himself. And God had made that pronouncement. So how could it be then that the punishment brought on Job or the suffering brought on Job was punishment for self righteousness? I think that's a grave misunderstanding of the book. Now by this point Job is beginning to sound self righteous because he has been driven as it worked to distraction by his friends. We can begin to learn some lessons from this. In this second speech then God asked the key question, would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Then he goes on as he develops the speech and he emphasizes underscores the vast difference between Job's puny power and that of God. In the first speech he was talking about Job's knowledge. What do you know? And then in this one he's saying, who would you charge? Whose problem is this and what is your power? What kind of power do you have? And he even mentions those very curious features. Behemoth and Leviathan. A lot of debate hovers around those. Some say we're dealing with rather poetic descriptions of a hippopotamus and a crocodile. Others say, these are mythic figures that are brought into this poetical passage to make a point. I'm not sure which way to go on that. Certainly if we're dealing with simple hippopotamus and crocodiles, they are described in mythical terms, reading smoke and that kind of thing. I think the effect of it, though, is to elevate us into an other worldly dimension where there are these strange creatures that we know little about. And there's kind of a sense that God is in charge even in those mysterious realms that we have little knowledge of. So his power is far superior to our own. Now, Job's response, we read in chapter 42, beginning at the verse one, then Job replied to the Lord, I know that you can do all things. No plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge? Hear that again, without knowledge. Surely I spoke of things I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me. Sorry, I lost my place here. You asked, who is this that obscures my counsel with knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me to know. You said, listen now and I will speak. I will question you and you shall answer me. My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you, therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. The effect of Job's seeing God is that he now despises himself and repents in dust and ashes for his very presumption, that he had been driven to a point in his discussions with his friends of actually calling out to God, challenging God, saying to God, oh that my God would confront me, I would wear my defense on my sleeve. In other words, I can defend my case, I would wear that as a badge before him. But now he has seen God, he had heard many things, but now he has seen God and he falls silent. Now that brings us then finally to the epilogue and we are going to pause after I talk about the epilogue a little bit and reflect on how we apply this but what we can learn from it, because I think we can learn a lot of very important lessons in our lives. Now the epilogue begins in verse 7 of chapter 42. The Lord now turns to the three friends of Job, turns to them in anger for not having spoken of me, he says, what is right as my servant Job has. Now what does he mean by that? I mean, hasn't he just been castigating Job for speaking words without knowledge and yet he turns around and says, comparatively speaking, Job has spoken of me what is right and you have not. Yes, Terry? That's an interesting comment that Job spoke to God and the friends spoke about God. Well that's certainly true, I mean Job was also speaking about God to the friends but he would keep turning his attention, bringing his case to God. And what's interesting, what one thing that we see in Job is as dire as was his distress, he never, he may have even been tempted to shake his fist at God but he never turned his back on God. He kept clamoring on God's door rather than turning and walking away. Now which is of course what the accuser had said he would do. Take away all these blessings and see what he'll do. He'll curse you to your face and be done with you. He's only self-interested. In another sense, I think Job is commended for speaking what is right about God because Job was a man of integrity. He was not satisfied with Pat answers, simplistic answers. Now he didn't have the answer but he didn't settle for a wrong answer, a simplistic answer. And his friends were quite content to just spout off their good theology which was misapplied in his case but they didn't seem to be phased by that. And so they were really dishonoring God, attributing to God a punitive motive that was not at all involved in Job's case. And so they were speaking outright what was wrong about God and God was angry with them. So in this sense Job has spoken what is right, he has maintained his integrity in the face of the misapplication of otherwise decent theology. And also he has now repented for having questioned God. So his relationship is now sort of restored. Right. Well I don't think we should assume that they didn't in the end because they are in the end forgiven after Job praised for them but I hear you. There is a sense in which God and Job have now made their peace and God turns to those whose offense had been great. Job cried out in his distress. He didn't know everything. He said some things that were wrong but in another sense his heart was remained true to God and he kept bringing his distress and his cries and his problems to God. One of the functions I think of the impregnatory Psalms that we saw is that in our distress we have models of those who sort of bring to God the the the severest problems rather than saying I can't cope with this. I'm going to go out and do something drastic. They say I can't cope with this. Therefore I bring it to God. Yes. Michelle. Say again did any well the Job or the friends ever yeah in a sense in a sense Job comes closest to this seeking to discredit God in order to defend himself but that's because he is he allows himself to be driven by this this dialogue with his friends that that is putting the wrong number of pieces on the table. He's trying to put a puzzle together when a piece is missing and it's very important piece. Well I think maybe that in the use of maybe a lesson to learn here is that in the use of God's word we can we can have a right theological tenant and if we misapply it if we apply it to the wrong situation that's as bad as speaking and untruth about God because God punishes sin and they're saying that's what's happening here and it wasn't what was happening there. So in that sense it was an out and out untruth about God and what God was up to. Well yes. Right. Right. Okay. They were actually making it. Right. Okay. The comment is that the friends were making definitive statements. This is it. We know we can instruct you Joe. This is what's happening. Whereas Job was driven by his lack of knowledge to ask questions. Some of those questions were leading an inappropriate directions. But he was still posing questions. Well maybe God is unjust and God calls him up short and says would you discredit me to defend yourself? Not a smart move. You know and Job falls silent and then subsequently repents in dust and ashes. Yes Terry. Yeah. The question is for us to get to know God honestly to get to know God does it take that kind of wrestling. Certainly I would want to say it doesn't take suffering of Job and magnitude to get to know God. But I think it's also fair to say that to to the extent that we suffer and that suffering drives us to God then then that suffering is a has a deepening effect on us. Okay. Okay. Right. Okay. So if I can get get the question right that it's not so much that the magnitude of suffering but the fact that in his suffering Job was driven to ask hard honest piercing questions of God and God honors that kind of honesty and does in this case he does that's one of the interesting things that we sometimes overlook God. God did appear to Joe. Though it took some long time and Job may have thought he's never going to answer me God did appear to him in a rather magnificent fashion. Yeah I think I think that we God does want us to be honest and we need to be honest first with ourselves if we're in denial of deep seated doubts we have or deep seated resentments we have or whatever that's just going to be eating us up inside. Those of you who are doing counseling know far more about that than I do but you know internalizing and repressing things is not good for us and it is it is wonderful for us to bring to allow those real questions and real hurts to surface and bring them to God even when we don't know what to do with them. Now the interesting thing to observe here is you know when we have those questions what are we looking for when we have questions in our life why did this happen? What's going on here what are we what are we wanting answers you know we have questions we want answers. Job had questions his friends thought they didn't have a question but they did they didn't know what was going on. Job had a question he wanted an answer or thought he did what did he get he got God did he get an answer no okay. Now what does that tell us about our questions does it say we shouldn't find any questions to any of our answers? No okay that was an easy question a good answer no it doesn't mean we shouldn't be seeking answers but it may show us that finding answers to all our questions is not the most important thing nor is it something that we should expect to accomplish in this life. One of the things that I and I'm sure many of you have struggled with as much as I have one of the one of the things theologically that I struggled with along the way and periodically over the years is the problem of evil and trying to put that together with the sovereignty of God. Couldn't God have done things a little better so that we don't live in the knowledge that some of his creatures that he made will spend eternity in hell isn't that a frightening thought. You know as the 10 boom sisters were asked in that concentration camp how can your God that you talk about who is all good and all powerful if he's all good and he's all powerful this is the classic question. How can we be here and did they have an answer if you've read the story they didn't answer the question they didn't have an answer to that question all they could say is all we know is I'm not quoting on paraphrasing but something to the effect all we know is there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still. You know that God and I think we can expand that and say whatever the whatever the answer to the question of the presence of evil in a world created by God at least we can say this he did not exempt himself from that evil and in fact in Christ God bore more pain more suffering more evil inflicted upon himself and we will ever know he bore our sin on the tree. So that we can at least say whatever the answer and we don't have the answer we don't have a God who sits in splendid isolation looking down and toying with us but rather he entered into our own suffering beyond what we will ever know. And that should that is an away seeing God and enabling us to fall silent would I would I one thing I draw from this book that I think is maybe the the major message you know we were talking about what's the last time we talked thought about in our groups what is the theme of the book of Job God is still God and we are still not but one thing I have learned is it's okay not to know all the answers in life and that's a tough thing for someone who teaches Bible or studies theology to admit you know because we think we're in the business of knowing things and finding out how life works and how God works and and being able to answer all the deepest issues of life but the book of Job says to me it is okay not to have all the answers. And furthermore it says to me that sometimes we may suffer something or experience anything in life and for the life of us as much as we pursue it and as many people as we talk to and as many angles as we look at it from and as many ways as we try to figure out God what in the world are you doing here. We may never know until we see him face to face Joe didn't know he had a golden opportunity God appeared to him and said a lot of things and had two lengthy speeches Job had began with some questions God never saw fit to answer the question. And he could have he could have explained to Job hey Job I know it seems senseless that you are suffering in this way and having put up with these friends of yours and so forth but if you only knew the challenge that had been issued in the celestial assembly it wasn't just you that was under attack Job but since I had proclaimed you blameless and upright it was it was I I was being attacked my integrity I was being called a fool if I believe that or a liar if I knew better but was saying it anyway. And so in your suffering you are suffering to defend my integrity now you came preciously close to denying my integrity to defend your own but that's because you didn't have all the answers you're speaking words without knowledge. And the way that the application of that in my life I think is that we need to we need to press for as much theological understanding as we can but then we need to recognize when we reach that boundary and to press on would be to dishonor God. To would be to claim that we know more than we do and there we need to fall silent and say God is God his ways are oftentimes mysterious to us and we know we know certain things about God we know that he does work things together for good but we don't know how and we may not see in this life. Yeah Sandra okay right the question is could it also could this book also be about how good God is yeah I think it could and that's an interesting she. Sandra brings up the issue of the restoration of Job at the end now would you believe it may some of you may have felt this way but some people have have suggested that makes the book sort of anti kind of climactic they don't like the fact that in the end in some sense the friend's argument proves right. Job is restored is he not now all along we were saying the friends were not necessarily wrong they were wrong in their application of Job you know explaining Job suffering on the basis of sin but that God is just and that God is good and that God blesses oh they're right about that and so the fact that Job is restored is not something that should vex us but something should that should say yes God is good. It is it is in a sense about the goodness of God after Job had stood the test a test that he that he stood for God's honor as much or more than his own even though he didn't know it. He was restored and he received twofold of everything except his children as children he had another set of children but not double as many and some people are suggest that that may be even reflective of the fact that he would rejoin his children one day. The question of the afterlife and Job is a difficult one but it's at least a curious insight did someone else have it yes they are his Steve sorry right yeah right yeah the comment I'm going to repeat that comment the comment is we need to think if I can paraphrase a little bit we need to think that the restoration made it suddenly all okay because after all he had lost children and even though he received more children that doesn't make you know make up for those lost. As if that was insignificant okay right yeah right yeah is there a compability even greater because he not only claimed to know what God was doing but they claim to have insight into Job's heart yeah yeah I think presumption is is is rampant in the comments of Job's friends I we're going to run out of time here need to take a break what I want to do is we're going to get on to ecclesiasties in the next time period but I want to spend a little bit more time letting you guys do some talking about these last things in item C in our in our outline in terms of whether Job is anti wisdom is it a book that turns conventional wisdom on its head how would we answer those questions so we want to pursue these for just maybe 10 minutes or so when we come back and then we'll move on into the book of ecclesiasties so get your thoughts together and questions or comments that you may have and we'll take about 10 or 12 minutes to do that when we come back.