The LORD Speaks Part 1
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The LORD Speaks Part 1
The LORD Speaks Part 1
Job speaks without knowledge, yet he is declared an upright man.
For those of you who may believe that knowledge comes with being upright can rest easy. Knowledge and wisdom are not easy to obtain, and knowing everything is not a requirement for being upright.
If Job thought summoning God to trial would lead to a calm, rational, orderly legal process, then he was mistaken.
Here is a mindset that might help as we read through this.
God is responding to Job’s challenge
God does not desire to browbeat and humiliate Job.
God intends to defeat Job in a contest, not to bypass the contest.
God is not using nature to frighten Job either.
God is going to tell Job how it is and it is up to Job to accept it.
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
It is setup as a fight (gird your loins) but it will not be physical. It will be verbal.
The tempest or whirlwind had appeared before. A great wind (ruach) that struck the four corners of the house that killed his children.
Job had requested a location for the ‘trial,’ but God has selected the time and place, and as it turns out...
God meets Job at the ash pile,
tending to his evil sores,
with a piece of pottery.
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
::: Who is this?
God knows who it is, so this is rhetorical.
Meaning: What kind of person would dare do so.
As it turns out, an upright, innocent, and FOOLISH person!
::: Darkens Counsel
The word is darkness and advice, plan, counsel
As if to obscure the plan, the truth.
HOW IS COUNSEL DARKENED?
WORDS...
ALL of THEIR WORDS have been misguided, because they
WERE CERTAIN they knew what was REALLY happening.
Now, in this story, JOB has been judged an UPRIGHT man
He has not been judged a WISE or KNOWLEDGABLE man
::: This is God’s CHARGE AGAINST Job...
obscuring the divine plan
speaking without knowledge
Gird your loins/Dress for action
Tying a belt around your waist to keep the skirt of the outer garment out of the way when you are doing vigorous activities.
CALL TO COMBAT
There are two large sections that capture God’s reply
Section 1 can be grouped into ten groupings about the physical world
That is what we will look at today.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
NOT a question about the JUSTICE of Job’s claim against God
BUT a denial of Job’s competence to raise any question about the way the world is ORDERED
Job was not present during the work of creation.
There were morning stars and sons of God (shout not sing)
And there was one other…Prov 8:30, Wisdom was beside God during the work of creation.
NOW…IMPORTANT for this first LARGE SECTION
::::: The morning STARS and SONS of GOD. Keep that in mind.
When it is done, there is a celebration.
Ezra 3:10-11 when the Second Temple was laid
2 Chron 5:13 when Solomon’s Temple was complete
Morning Stars: Did this take place in the morning?
“Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
Psalm 104:5-9 gives more detail or background on these verses
But the key object here is God’s focuses on His control of the SEA
God shut in the sea with doors.
God is WARNING Job that Job’s opponent, God, has a history of suppressing conflict.
Doors or gates (usually double) with a bar are part of usual defense works of a city.
Whether the doors and the mechanism that shuts it is meant to be:
A barrier to keep the sea out
Or a barrier to keep it in (prison)
Which makes Jesus’ statement to Peter all the more interesting.
Makes Pauls statement to the Thessalonians about a restrainer interesting too.
Most ancient creation stories in ancient cultures have some form of a battle between a god and the sea at creation.
But notice the language here:
Burst from the womb (who gave birth to the sea)
Whatever its mother is, it is not depicted here as God’s handiwork at creation
A swaddling band (as if it is an unruly infant)
Thus far and no further
It is allowed a space but it is restrained
So, we have STARS, Sons of GOD, the SEA
“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment. From the wicked their light is withheld, and their uplifted arm is broken.
This 3rd group has an interesting element in it.
Have you commanded the morning since YOUR DAYS began?
Allusion to Genesis where the big light, the little light, and the stars have been functionally assigned a duty to mark days, seasons, and years.
God commands these elements in Genesis
But in ancient cultures there are gods that handle these things…Ugaritic godess of the dawn
What is interesting is the term, ‘wicked.’
It shows up twice here.
Question: Who are the WICKED?
Have we seen any humans in here yet?
No
And interestingly, humans are conspicuously absent
I DON’T BELIEVE THESE ARE THE HUMAN WICKED...
And the Hebrew scribes of the 8th and 9th century tried to tell us something was up with this too.
The word for WICKED is rashim,
****SLIDE Leningrad Codex
****SLIDE Leningrad Codex
****SLIDE Leningrad Codex
“Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.
Entered into the springs of the sea (God has)
Walked in the Tahom?
Gates of Death and the Gates of Deep Darkness (Shadow of Death)
Then an INTERESTING QUESTION...
Have you understood the EXPANSE of the earth?
AS IF…Heaven and EARTH are connected in some way.
“Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness, that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
Light and Darkness have been personified here…As if they have a territory and a home.
SUMMARY so FAR:
Morning Stars
Sons of God
Sea (Angry infant)
Morning/Dawn (commanded their place)
Wicked (broken arm, shaken out)
Springs of the Sea (location)
The Deep (walked in it)
Gates of Death (seen it)
Gates of Deep Darkness (shadow of death, seen it)
“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?
There is a place where light is divided, apportioned, distributed.
The east wind gets scattered too.
“Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?
The imagery makes me think of the rain shafts that you see stretching between the bottom of a cloud and the ground.
There are ancient storm gods.
Again, links heaven and earth.
Yet, these happen in places where there is no human, on deserts with no human.
“Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven? The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
The language of begetting and birthing, of father and mother, indicate that the text is addressing the belief that other gods do this. (Jeremiah 14:22)
In Ugaritic there are two dieties.
Pidrya “daughter of mist”
Taliya (dew) “daughter of showers”
“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?
Orion in Hebrew is spelled כסיל, which means the fool.
As Genesis indicates, the sun, moon, AND STARS are there to mark days, seasons, and years.
These constellations come out during certain seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter)
There were other ancient cultures that believed the appearance of certain constellations was the appearance of gods who would bring the weather that was associated with them.
Instead of just seeing them as signs.
Can you establish their rule on earth?
God is the SHEPHERD of the STARS
“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’? Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind? Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick fast together?
Here is the image:
God directs the clouds to where they need to be on earth
And then “make them lie down” or tilt them to pour out their water.
Why the IBIS?
Well, in Egypt, the IBIS was an important bird.
They seemed to know when the rains were coming.
It could foretell the rising of the Nile, a very important thing in agriculture.
Amulets and statuettes of IBIS are found in Ashkelon in Israel.
And if you killed one in Egypt, it was punishable by death.
Why the rooster?
J. A. Jaussen has observed that the rooster plays a role in Palestine folklore as children and bringers of rain. As late as the 1920s, a procession for rain, accompanied by a rooster, was held in various places in autumn. When asked about the meaning of the rooster, Jaussen replied: "When our rooster begins to crow, it is heard by the big white rooster, his brother, who hides his head under the throne of Allah. Then the white rooster roosters - out of love for the hens on earth- cries out to ask for rain. Because he is loved by Allah, he sustains the waves of heaven, which make the poor people happy" Jaussen has assumed a pre-Islamic origin of this idea on the basis of various indications. P. (E.) Dhorme used Jaussen's observations to explain Job xxxviii 6b 2).
The assumption of a pre-Islamic origin of the idea must not only be assumed but can be justified. In his writing "De Dea Syria" Lucian of Samosata (120-180 AD) tells of a rite at the sanctuary of Hierapolis in northern Syria (today: Membig), which - like other similar donations of water, marks the arrival of the autumn rain. A large procession went to the sea to fetch the necessary water. "Everyone brings a vessel filled with water; but they are marked with wax (sealed). They do draw lots themselves and then pour out the water, but there is a holy rooster who lives by the lake. And when he gets their vessels and sees the seal... he loosens the band and takes away the wax... Then they themselves bring (the water) into the temple, bestow it and, after sacrificing, come back". The rooster is thus the sign that the rite for promoting the autumn rains can enter the decisive phase.
During the excavation of the Governor's Palace (North Stid-Ost Palace) from the 8th century BC in Nimrud in 1949/50, Sir Max Mallowan found a cylinder seal whose image (Fig. 1) seems to confirm the great antiquity of the idea of the rain bringer and child. At the top the head of the god in the winged disc is no longer completely preserved. Mallowan describes the image as follows: "Three bearded, shaggy, heroes-part-man, part-bull-are holding the heavens aloft. The kneeling figure in the center carries for the moment the whole burden, which consists of the winged sun disc . . . The two figures on either side wear helmets with flower at the top. In the field a winged griffin, and an attendant who stands in front of a bull-legged table. In the sky are water-pots and a rooster".
I have already discussed the main group with heaven and heaven bearers in other contexts. This "symbol of the perfect world" is often flanked by priestly figures whose rites ensure the good functioning of the world is the depiction of their threat from the horned lion dragon. However, as far as I can see, the depiction of the rooster and the water jugs next to the "heaven" alone would not suffice to evoke the memory of Job xxxviii, but the combination with the heavenly warriors also mentioned in xxxviii seems to me to be a strong indication that this seal from the 8th century BC. is based on the idea testified by Job xxxviii 36 f., which knows and which lives on in Palestinian popular piety up to the century, even as recently as 1920.
****BREAK****
What an interesting response to the speeches of Job, his three companions and the young man.
All this bickering and arguing and calling each other windbags.
HAVE I RUINED THIS FOR YOU YET?!
God opens with how he is the one that runs the systems, not other gods, and he is the one to shake the wicked gods from the earth.
Job’s darkening of counsel has be accomplished by all five of them arguing THEOLOGY among each other!
God goes into a lesson on how He IS THE MOST HIGH GOD that has put all of this in place.
One thing I have not mentioned is the use of a term Shaddai throughout Job to refer to God.
When you see Almighty, that is a typical English translation for Shaddai.
Shaddai is used 48 times across all the Hebrew Bible and 31 THIRTY ONE of those times are located where…JOB.
Can mean God of the Field, God of the Mountain, God as Rescuer.
But the concensus is that we are unsure of what it really means.
They assume that:
Their righteous acts makes God bless them
Their sinful acts makes God curse them
IT IS A ME CENTERED EXISTENCE.
And God’s first response seems to be...
You have no idea what I am doing, and
you have no idea what you are saying.
WHICH, i believe, IS A GREAT MESSAGE TO US ALL.
And I think now, we can start to see what is going on in the book.
We equate wisdom to success and good health.
But God does not work that way.