Who is Listening
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Who is listening
Who is listening
Wisdom thought experiment.
What I mean by that is...
Job could be a real character that existed in history, I don’t have a problem with that.
Job is written as a thought experiment to reveal our thoughts about God
Job is written to reveal
our thoughts about God
So, here is something to consider.
What if Job’s “friends” are different streams of thought in Job’s mind as he goes through this.
In other words, if Job is praying, if all the words of Job are a prayer, then how do his friends fit into this?
Because…Job has...
The courage to be honest
And to be honest in front of his friends.
But these friends could easily be the thoughts in his mind as he is praying.
Have you ever had this experience?
You are praying and your are SUDDENLY INVADED with other thoughts?
“How can you pray, look at
what you have done. Hypocrite!”
“How can you pray, look at what has been done to you! God does not care or listen!”
“You are nothing but dust and
there is no God. Give up and die.”
“Just be patient, God will
make it better. Stop worrying!”
“You helped others with your advice,
but you cannot help yourself. Fraud!”
NOTE: These are the counsel of Job’s friends.
And NONE of THEM know what is going on.
That is important, it is STRIKING!
DECIDE ON THE TEXT...
Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence? Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope? “Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed? My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same.
Eliphaz calls out Job in error.
This is a slight to Job.
“If you are innocent, then why are you in an ash pile brooding over the day of your birth?”
“Where is your faith?”
“You must be guilty of something...”
Job has not done evil…he is a VICTIM of EVIL.
The ORIGINAL REBEL enticed the humans to rebellion in the garden.
This adversarial REBEL enticed God against a human.
“This truth was given to me in secret, as though whispered in my ear.
Gossip...
The spirit stopped, but I couldn’t see its shape. There was a form before my eyes. In the silence I heard a voice say, ‘Can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’
He has received a “visitation” from a spirit to confirm this gossip he has heard.
“God told me...”
I have seen that fools may be successful for the moment, but then comes sudden disaster. Their children are abandoned far from help; they are crushed in court with no one to defend them.
Can you imagine…Job has lost all his children, and this is how this guy wants to make his case?
“Well, they suffered because of you...”
DO YOU SEE HOW THIS CAN BE A MENTAL EXERCISE?
These are things you could tell yourself...
“But consider the joy of those corrected by God! Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin.
OKAY...
Here we have what I like to call a
PRE-SCRIPTURE.
That throw away verse you toss someones way when they are hurting or have done something wrong.
What Eliphas says is a true proverb.
BUT…it DOES NOT APPLY HERE!!!
Why? Job has done nothing WRONG.
Is Job going through CORRECTION?
Is he going through DISCIPLINE for an offense?
The rest of Eliphas’ speech is about how JOB WILL PROSPER if he just humbles himself before God and acknowledges God’s correction.
“We have studied life and found all this to be true. Listen to my counsel, and apply it to yourself.”
Come on Job, just fess up, you GOT WHAT you DESERVED.
Admit it, we all know it is true, a spirit confirmed it, we are all wise men here to visit you.
JOB’s RESPONSE
Then Job responded: “Oh, if only my grief could be weighed, and my misfortune laid on the scales too! But because it is heavier than the sand of the sea, that is why my words have been wild. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; my spirit drinks their poison; God’s sudden terrors are arrayed against me.
Job considered what happened as misfortune, not something deserved.
Yet, he agrees that it FEELS like the DISCIPLINE of God, but he is CONFUSED because he has done NOTHING to deserve this.
“Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant my desire. I wish he would crush me. I wish he would reach out his hand and kill me.
Job is CONFUSED as to WHY he has been allowed to LIVE, while everything has been taken from him, his family is dead.
His wife has BETRAYED him by ALIGNING with the Adversary.
Like any tragedy…why was I allowed to live?
And you have to decide how you are going to handle that.
“One should be kind to a fainting friend, but you accuse me without any fear of the Almighty. My brothers, you have proved as unreliable as a seasonal brook that overflows its banks in the spring when it is swollen with ice and melting snow. But when the hot weather arrives, the water disappears. The brook vanishes in the heat. The caravans turn aside to be refreshed, but there is nothing to drink, so they die. The caravans from Tema search for this water; the travelers from Sheba hope to find it. They count on it but are disappointed. When they arrive, their hopes are dashed. You, too, have given no help. You have seen my calamity, and you are afraid.
He makes a comparison to the unending streams that come from something like a Garden to those streams that are unreliable.
Teach me, and I will keep quiet. Show me what I have done wrong. Honest words can be painful, but what do your criticisms amount to? Do you think your words are convincing when you disregard my cry of desperation? You would even send an orphan into slavery or sell a friend.
IF you know something I DONT, then PLEASE, TELL ME!!!
But what you are doing, it is wrong.
No, it is evil, like selling an orphan or friend into SLAVERY.
In other WORDS...
You are trying to BIND ME to a SIN that I have NOT DONE!
Job declares himself RIGHTEOUS...
Stop assuming my guilt, for I have done no wrong.
The courage to be honest
With yourself
With others
With God
Be kind
Who is listening?
**** Yourself ****
**** Others ****
**** God ****
**** Be kind ****
Conclusion:
It is as if Job is speaking in the presence of others, but his words are also being heard by God. What if it is a prayer.