Gold through Darkness
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Gold through Darkness
Gold through Darkness
Names of the “Friends”
Eliphaz the Temanite - My God is Refined God/My God is agile of the south (Edom/Esau)
Tsophar the Na’amatite - Bird/Winged Creature of the lovely and delightful
Bildad the Shuhite - Son of Love of the wanderers/meditators (Syrian)
Elihu, son of Barakel the Buzite - He is God, son of Bless God, of the despised (Uz)
What would you pay to replace darkness in your life with light?
Job 20-23 a
Zophar Answers...
Then Zophar the Naamathite answered: “This is why my troubled thoughts bring me back— because of my feelings within me. When I hear a reproof that dishonors me, then my understanding prompts me to answer.
What you have said about me is wrong.
I cannot keep my mouth shut!
(I am reminded of what James wrote in the NT. That our tongue is a burning flame of hell fire)
Job has a response to Zophar’s speech that is great!
“Why do the wicked go on living, grow old, even increase in power?
He turns his attention to the wicked.
And this is the comparison he is making.
JOB is NOT WICKED.
And he has not benefited on earth from his faith
At least not in the way we would think
BUT the WICKED.
Gain power
Gain money
Gain children
They sing to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp, and make merry to the sound of the flute. They live out their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace. So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us! We do not want to know your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain if we were to pray to him?’
****They sing
The WICKED...
Job recognizes this is the way of the wicked.
****So they say to God...
Sounds like modern day doesn’t it?
****What would we gain...
This is not just modern, this has penetrated CHRISTIANITY.
THIS IS MODERN THOUGHT.
Eliphaz responds...
Accept instruction from his mouth and store up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; if you remove wicked behavior far from your tent, and throw your gold in the dust— your gold of Ophir among the rocks in the ravines— then the Almighty himself will be your gold, and the choicest silver for you. Surely then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face toward God.
He goes on...
You will pray to him and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows to him. Whatever you decide on a matter, it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways. When people are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ then he will save the downcast; he will deliver even someone who is not innocent, who will escape through the cleanness of your hands.”
As in...
You will have special powers to CONTROL and TAME God and make him do your bidding, even if people don’t deserve it.
This is the kind of preaching that I put in the category of wicked.
But JOB does not CATEGORIZE this as punishment…it is discipline.
But he knows the pathway that I take; if he tested me, I would come forth like gold. My feet have followed his steps closely; I have kept to his way and have not turned aside.
Unlike Job’s friends and wicked, Job does not desire Gold in his hand.
He desires to be refined and tested like Gold.
And to do that, he follows God closely, keeps his way, and does not turn aside.
Job will not let the darkness stop him...
Yet I have not been silent because of the darkness, because of the thick darkness that covered my face.
There was another that was not silent in the face of Chaos.
God, at the time of creation, spoke into the darkness.
Job trusts that the God who can cause light to shine in the dark is IN JOB’s DARKNESS and hears him.
We opened with this question...
What would you pay to replace darkness in your life with light?
Job’s friends would say, “Give it all and God will give it back!”
Job says, “Refine me through the fire so that I become gold.”