JOB

1
JOB

• THE DIALOGUE
• Job 31-3140

2
Jobs Birthday Curse

• After the 7 days of silence, Job spoke.
• JOB 33 "May the day of my birth perish, and the
  night it was said, A boy is born!'

3
Jobs Reversal of Creation

• Let there by darkness (34-6)
• That day--may it turn to darkness
• may God above not care about it
• may no light shine upon it.
• May darkness and deep shadow claim it once more
• may a cloud settle over it
• may blackness overwhelm its light.
• That night--may thick darkness seize it
• may it not be included among the days of the year
  
• nor be entered in any of the months.
• Darkness evil chaos.

4
Jobs Reversal of Creation

• Rouse Leviathan (38)
• May those who curse days curse that day, those
  who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
• PS 7413-14
• It was you who split open the sea by your power
• You broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
• It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
• And gave him as food to the creatures of the
  desert.
• (cf. Job 411ff)

5
Jobs Birthday Curse

• Job longs for death
• JOB 311-12 "Why did I not perish at birth, and
  die as I came from the womb?
• Why were there knees to receive me and breasts
  that I might be nursed?

6
Jobs Birthday Curse

• Job longs for death
• Job longs for death. What was death like?
• It was a place to lie down be quiet.
• It was a place where everyone goes.
• It is a place free from the raging of this
  world.
• (It is also a place without rescue, i.e. 79.)

7
Jobs Birthday Curse

• Jobs final lament
• JOB 320 "Why is light given to those in misery,
  and life to the bitter of soul?
• JOB 323 Why is life given to a man whose way is
  hidden, whom God has hedged in?
• JOB 325 What I feared has come upon me what I
  dreaded has happened to me. (What?)
• JOB 326 I have no peace, no quietness I have no
  rest, but only turmoil."

8
Job his Friends

• Eliphaz, the Mystic Visionary
• JOB 41-6 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied
• "If someone ventures a word with you, will you be
  impatient? But who can keep from speaking?
• Think how you have instructed many,
• how you have strengthened feeble hands.
• Your words have supported those who stumbled you
  have strengthened faltering knees.
• But now trouble comes to you, and you are
  discouraged it strikes you, and you are
  dismayed.
• Should not your piety be your confidence
• and your blameless ways your hope?

9
Job his Friends

• Eliphaz, the Mystic Visionary
• JOB 47-9 "Consider now Who, being innocent,
  has ever perished? Where were the upright ever
  destroyed? As I have observed, those who plow
  evil and those who sow trouble reap it. At the
  breath of God they are destroyed at the blast of
  his anger they perish.

10
Job his Friends

• Eliphaz, the Mystic Visionary
• Eliphazs Vision (412-21)
• JOB 417 Can a mortal be more righteous than
  God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
• Human wisdom says that Job is wise, but one must
  compare Job with God, not other men.
• Appeal to God (58ff).
• JOB 517-18 Blessed is the man whom God
  corrects so do not despise the discipline of the
  Almighty. For he wounds, but he also binds up he
  injures, but his hands also heal.

11
Job his Friends

• Jobs Reply
• JOB 68-10 "Oh, that I might have my request,
  that God would grant what I hope for, that God
  would be willing to crush me, to let loose his
  hand and cut me off! Then I would still have this
  consolation--my joy in unrelenting pain--that I
  had not denied the words of the Holy One.

12
Job his Friends

• Jobs Reply
• JOB 614-15a "A despairing man should have the
  devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes
  the fear of the Almighty. But my brothers are as
  undependable as intermittent streams . . . .
• JOB 624 Teach me, and I will be quiet show me
  where I have been wrong.

13
Job his Friends

• Bildad, the Traditionalist
• Appeal to divine justice
• JOB 83-4 Does God pervert justice? Does the
  Almighty pervert what is right? When your
  children sinned against him, he gave them over to
  the penalty of their sin.

14
Job his Friends

• Bildad, the Traditionalist
• Appeal to History (88-10)
• JOB 88-10 Ask the former generations and find
  out what their fathers learned, for we were born
  only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on
  earth are but a shadow. Will they not instruct
  you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words
  from their understanding?

15
Job his Friends

• Jobs Reply to Bildad (Job 9)
• JOB 92-3 "I know that this is true. But how can
  a mortal be righteous before God? Though one
  wished to dispute with him, he could not answer
  him one time out of a thousand.
• JOB 915-16 Though I were innocent, I could not
  answer him I could only plead with my Judge or
  adversary for mercy. Even if I summoned him and
  he responded, I do not believe he would give me a
  hearing.

16
Job his Friends

• Jobs Reply to Bildad (Job 9)
• JOB 932-34 He is not a man like me that I might
  answer him, that we might confront each other in
  court. If only there were someone to arbitrate
  between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone
  to remove God's rod from me, so that his terror
  would frighten me no more.
• Hebrew mokiach (?????????). Someone to judge,
  decide, or arbitrate, perhaps like an umpire
  between opposing foes.

17
Job his Friends

• Zophar, the Dogmatist
• JOB 112-3 "Are all these words to go unanswered?
  Is this talker to be vindicated? Will your idle
  talk reduce men to silence? Will no one rebuke
  you when you mock?

18
Job his Friends

• Zophar, the Dogmatist
• JOB 114-5 You say to God, My beliefs are
  flawless and I am pure in your sight. Oh, how I
  wish that God would speak, that he would open his
  lips against you.
• JOB 117-8 "Can you fathom the mysteries of God?
  Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They
  are higher than the heavens--what can you do?
  They are deeper than the depths of the
  grave--what can you know?

19
Job his Friends

• Jobs Reply
• JOB 122-3 Doubtless you are the people, and
  wisdom will die with you! But I have a mind as
  well as you I am not inferior to you. Who does
  not know all these things?

20
Job his Friends

• Jobs Reply
• JOB 1320-24 Only grant me these two things, O
  God, and then I will not hide from you Withdraw
  your hand far from me, and stop frightening me
  with your terrors. Then summon me and I will
  answer, or let me speak, and you reply. How many
  wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my
  offense and my sin. Why do you hide your face and
  consider me your enemy?

21
Job his Friends

• Jobs Reply
• JOB 141-2 Man born of woman is of few days and
  full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and
  withers away like a fleeting shadow, he does not
  endure.

22
Job his Friends

• Jobs Reply
• JOB 147, 10-12 At least there is hope for a
  tree If it is cut down, it will sprout again, .
  . . But man dies and is laid low he breathes his
  last and is no more. As water disappears from the
  sea or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, so man
  lies down and does not rise till the heavens are
  no more, men will not awake or be roused from
  their sleep.

23
Job his Friends

• Jobs Reply
• JOB 1413 "If only you would hide me in the grave
  and conceal me till your anger has passed! If
  only you would set me a time and then remember
  me! If a man dies, will he live again? All the
  days of my hard service I will wait for my
  renewal to come.

24
Job his Friends

• 2nd Cycle of Speeches (Job 15-21)
• JOB 1619-21 Even now my witness is in heaven my
  advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend
  as my eyes pour out tears to God on behalf of a
  man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his
  friend.

25
Job his Friends

• 2nd Cycle of Speeches (Job 15-21)
• JOB 1923-27 "Oh, that my words were recorded,
  that they were written on a scroll, that they
  were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or
  engraved in rock forever! I know that my Redeemer
  lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the
  earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet
  in my flesh I will see God I myself will see him
  with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my
  heart yearns within me!

26
Job his Friends

• 2nd Cycle of Speeches (Job 15-21)
• H. H. Rowley Though there is no full grasping
  of a belief in a worthwhile afterlife, this
  passage 1923-27 is a notable landmark in a
  progress toward such a belief.

27
Job 28The Inaccessibility of Wisdom

• Mans ability to find hidden things (281-11)
• Man can dig precious metals jewels from deep
  within the earth.
• These verses paint man as a resourceful,
  intelligent being.

28
Job 28The Inaccessibility of Wisdom

• Wisdoms inaccessibility (2812-22)
• Man cannot find it.
• The deep, sea, destruction, death do
  not know of wisdoms dwelling.
• These may be godsTehom, Yam, Abaddon, Mot
• Wisdom is beyond all earthly wealth.

29
Job 28Wisdom

• Job 28 serves to delay the harsh challenge
  conclusion of Job in 29-31.

30
Job 28Wisdom

• Gods knowledge of wisdom (2823-28)
• God understands the way to it and he alone knows
  where it dwells, for he views the ends of the
  earth and sees everything under the heavens. When
  he established the force of the wind and measured
  out the waters, when he made a decree for the
  rain and a path for the thunderstorm, then he
  looked at wisdom and appraised it he confirmed
  it and tested it. And he said to man, The fear
  of the Lord--that is wisdom, and to shun evil is
  understanding.

31
Jobs Final Speech (Job 29-31)

• Job 29-30Jobs Past Present
• How I long . . . Job longs for the past.
• JOB 2914, 17 I put on righteousness as my
  clothing justice was my robe and my turban. I
  broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the
  victims from their teeth.
• He longs for his hope (2918-19).
• JOB 2918 I thought, I will die in my own
  house, my days as numerous as the grains of sand.
  My roots will reach to the water, and the dew
  will lie all night on my branches.

32
Jobs Final Speech (Job 29-31)

• Job 31Jobs Declaration of Innocence
• JOB 311, 4 I made a covenant with my eyes not
  to look lustfully at a girl. Does he not see my
  ways and count my every step?
• Sirach 95, 8 Gaze not on a maid, that thou fall
  not by those things that are precious in her.
  Turn away thine eye from a beautiful woman, and
  look not upon anothers beauty for many have
  been deceived by the beauty of a woman for
  herewith love is kindled as a fire.
• Matt 528 But I tell you that anyone who looks at
  a woman lustfully has already committed adultery
  with her in his heart.

33
Jobs Final Speech (Job 29-31)

• Job 31Jobs Declaration of Innocence
• JOB 315-6 "If I have walked in falsehood or my
  foot has hurried after deceit--let God weigh me
  in honest scales and he will know that I am
  blameless--
• JOB 3116-17 "If I have denied the desires of
  the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
  if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it
  with the fatherless--

34
Jobs Final Speech (Job 29-31)

• Final Declaration of Innocence (3135-37)
• "Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my
  defense--let the Almighty answer me let my
  accuser put his indictment in writing. Surely I
  would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on
  like a crown. I would give him an account of my
  every step like a prince I would approach him.
• The words of Job are ended (3140c)!

35
Elihus Discourse (Job 32-37)

• He was angry with Job for justifying himself
  rather than God.
• He was angry with the three friends for not
  refuting Job.
• He had not spoken because he was deferring to his
  elders.
• No one has proved Job wrong(3212)There is no
  mokiach, an umpire or mediator.
• Elihu answers him here that in essence he will be
  the mokiach.
• I am full of words (3218)

36
Elihus Discourse (Job 32-37)

• Elihus Message
• Elihu accuses Job of multiplying words without
  knowledge (3516).
• 3621-22Affliction can be a teacher to the one
  suffering.

37
Why is Elihu Here?

• The speeches describe the proper response to
  sufferingsubmission.
• The speeches form a transition between Job
  Yahweh.
• The speeches were inserted as a type of
  commentary on the dialogue up to this point.
• The speeches point out the ultimate need for an
  intercessor.
• Terrien the necessity of a Christ.