Artistry & Mystery: A Look at the Book of Job Session 1 | Beth Moore

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:05]Let me pray with you and let's get started in the scriptures.

[00:00:09]Lord, I've asked you for so much.

[00:00:13]And now I'm going to ask you, Lord, for what I don't even know.

[00:00:18]I ask you, Father, to make these glimpses and this draw to these pages so meaningful to us.

[00:00:32]So rich to us.

[00:00:37]That turning away from our fear of reading about hardship and suffering, we look to the one, the captain of our salvation, who for the joy set before him endured the suffering.

[00:00:57]We want your guidance, Holy Spirit. We We need you. We need you. And I ask you, Father, as we read through these words, that you will vivify them, that you'll animate them and bring them to life and and make us brave in our look at these chapters.

[00:01:17]And even where it doesn't tidy up, Lord, make us so glad for the time that we spend in this book together.

[00:01:28]Now do what only you can do in the glorious and holy name of Christ Jesus our Lord. Everybody say hallelujah and amen.

[00:01:37]Job and the Song of Songs or the Song of Solomon are easily the most passionate books of the Bible. They are expressions of profound intimacy of the unbridled extremes of rage and love.

[00:01:51]And that is why their distinctive tones differ greatly from what we hear most other places in the Bible. These two books are extended examples of what is called limit language. Limit language.

[00:02:04]Pushing the extreme edges of intelligible religious speech.

[00:02:09]One reason why I wanted to make sure you had that particular quote and that you had it down in your notes is because I want you to see her use the book of Job as one of the two books that have the this kind of profound and advanced intimacy. The one of the things I want to make sure we get out of it when all is said and done and we close up this Bible study in in four more weeks that we leave knowing that there is an intimacy to be had in wrestling, in coming to God with all the questions, with all the doubts, with all the dismay, with all the things that just puzzle and and blow our minds. That is intimacy. When we know where to bring it, when we bring that wrestling. I've said so many times you cannot wrestle with someone and not be in touch with them. The very nature of wrestling is to touch and to hold and to grasp. And that process I want you to picture it as we go through this together that this is as surely as Song of Songs has examples of profound intimacy in it, so does the book of Job rage and love. It's going to push us to the limit. If we can get through a study of the book of Job, even the one we're going to do which is just to be able to hit five major areas or have five lessons together on on uh several areas that we feel like convey the heart of the the If we can get all the way through it, if we could read it from beginning to end and not come to any place that makes us profoundly uncomfortable, somehow we have turned to the wrong book.

[00:04:04]Because this one's going to get us. What doesn't get one of us is going to get the other one. It's going to trigger and it's going to tap into something that we may think we don't want to think about, that we don't want to have to deal with, and we're going to bring all of it before God in the safety and intimacy of relationship.

[00:04:27]Pushing the limits because that's part of what makes it Job. We are not here for Mary Poppins. That is for certain. One reason [snorts] why I wanted to take up this book on Thursday nights is because the actual composition is so spectacular. This This is going to be I mean pure craftsmanship.

[00:04:50]I'm talking that what this book will do is defy our tendency to equate the archaic with the least intellectual.

[00:05:04]That we would assume that because it's old and it's very old, that because it's old, it somehow is not as smart. It lacks the brilliance, that as time has gone on, we've just gotten smarter and smarter and smarter and smarter. We'd have a hard time proving that in the book of Job.

[00:05:23]The IQ and EQ of it can't even be estimated.

[00:05:28]The composition is so entirely beautiful. I'm going to read this paragraph to you. I'm going to put it on the board as well so that you can see it as I go. This is out of the Tyndale Old Testament commentary on Job by Dr. Francis I. Anderson. It's so good. I told Melissa, I said, "If you think that we should maybe we should have this printed out for them for next week because it it says it says what we're trying to convey so much about the beautiful composition of Job." The Old Testament book of Job is one of the supreme offerings of the human mind to the living God and one of the best gifts of God to men.

[00:06:07]The task of understanding it is as rewarding as it is strenuous. For his help, the modern student has a rich legacy of the labors of the past. It is a tribute to the greatness of the book that the work of interpreting it is never finished.

[00:06:24]After each fresh exploration, the challenge to scale the heights remains.

[00:06:29]One is constantly amazed at its audacious theology and the magnitude of its intellectual achievement.

[00:06:37]Job is a prodigious book in the vast range of its ideas, its broad Listen carefully to this. In its broad coverage of the human experience, in the intensity of its passions, in the immensity of its concepts of God, and not least in its superb literary craftsmanship. It reaches widely over the complexities of existence, seeking a place for animals as well as men in God's world. It plumbs the depths of human despair, the anger of moral outrage, and the anguish of desertion by God. From one man's agony, it reaches out to the mystery of God beyond all words and explanations. It is only God himself who brings Job joy in the end.

[00:07:24]When all is said and done, the mystery remains. God stands revealed in his hiddenness, an object of terror, adoration, and love. And Job stands before him like a man, trusting and satisfied.

[00:07:41]So, as I begin to read Job chapter 1, let us shake off all our distraction and behold a masterpiece.

[00:07:51]There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of complete integrity who feared God and turned away from evil. He had seven sons and three daughters. His estate included 7,000 sheep and goats, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large number of servants.

[00:08:14]Job was the greatest man among all the peoples of the East. His sons used to take turns having banquets in their homes. They would send an invitation to their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, "Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts." This was Job's regular practice. Now, I'll look back on this for just a moment. Uh this very likely is something like, if not exactly, a birthday party. So, there's some thought that the daughters still live at home.

[00:08:57]It could be that the seven sons were born and then three daughters. But the the concept appears to be that the sons have these homes, the daughters are still um with their parents, and then they're going to it. So, there's some kind of feasting. It does not appear to be feasts as we see in Deuteronomy and in Leviticus. I'll talk about that at in a little later point of the lesson. But these are just gatherings together where they'd send out the invitations and they would all gather at one of their houses.

[00:09:27]I think it's really interesting that it doesn't appear that the parents are invited, and I think there probably lots of reasons for that.

[00:09:36]In verse 6, it says, "One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord." Now, this is going to be somewhat of a of a heavenly council. Uh this is a quite um um a fascinating idea to us and pushes our imagination. But, the sons of God, and it's talking about uh the the angels, these heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. And the Lord asked Satan, "Where have you come from?"

[00:10:06]And he answers, "From roaming through the earth." Satan answered him, "and walking around on it." Does that sound like 1 Peter chapter 5 or what? Prowling around looking for someone to devour.

[00:10:17]Verse eight, and the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job?

[00:10:22]No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity who fears God and turns away from evil." And Satan answered the Lord and says, "Does Job fear God for nothing?

[00:10:33]Haven't you placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns?

[00:10:37]You blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But, stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face."

[00:10:49]"Very well," the Lord told Satan, "everything he owns is in your power.

[00:10:53]However, do not lay a hand on Job himself." So, Satan left the Lord's presence. Verse 13, one day, we don't know how long it was from that point, one day Job's sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. A messenger came to Job and reported, "While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing nearby, the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

[00:11:22]He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported, "God's fire fell from heaven. It burned the sheep and the servants and devoured them, and I alone have escaped to tell you. Verse 17, that messenger was still speaking when yet another came and reported, "The Chaldeans formed three bands, made a raid on the camels, and took them away.

[00:11:45]They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

[00:11:50]He was still speaking when yet another messenger came and reported, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.

[00:12:01]Suddenly, a powerful wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people so that they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

[00:12:15]And then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground, and he worshipped saying, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will leave this life.

[00:12:27]The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.

[00:12:29]Blessed be the name of the Lord." And throughout all this, Job did not sin or blame God for anything.

[00:12:41]You talk about a bad day.

[00:12:45]I was thinking about uh board of directors meeting I attended.

[00:12:50]This was a number of years ago, probably maybe even 12 years ago now.

[00:12:56]And a dear friend of mine, dear brother that I'd known forever, really honestly like flesh and blood, came in late to the meeting and sat down beside me, and we were eating. We'd not quite started the business at hand yet, and and I said to him, "Oh, buddy." He said, "How are you, buddy?" And I said, "I'm I said, I've had the worst day." He said, "Oh, I bet I've had one worse."

[00:13:18]And I said, "I don't know how that's possible, because" and I begin to list off, and I listed off, I mean, a good six or seven things, and they they kidding.

[00:13:26]And he gets to that, he goes, "No, I'm telling you I I had one worse." He said, "I had to go tell an elderly woman that her daughter was killed by a car.

[00:13:38]Stepped off a curb and was killed."

[00:13:41]And I said, "Buddy, okay, that is terrible." He said, "Oh, I'm not done yet."

[00:13:47]He said, "Then she had a heart attack and passed away on the couch after I told her."

[00:13:55]And I said, "You have had a very bad day."

[00:14:04]I want you to look at these words and I want you to see with me a couple of things. I want you to all first of all to see Robert Alter. He is a a a translator extraordinaire.

[00:14:16]Um he's Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible is his thing and he has translated the entire Hebrew Bible from first to last.

[00:14:25]And so, I want you to see his translation of 1:1. So, this is Job 1:1 that says in my CSB, "There was a man in the country of Uz named Job." He says it this way, get your pen ready, you're going to love it. "A man there was in the land of Uz."

[00:14:44]"Job his name." Would you fill that in, please? "A man there was in the land of Uz."

[00:14:54]It's a very good translation as a matter of fact of how the Hebrew is arranged.

[00:14:59]And I want you to say it back to me.

[00:15:01]Would you say in his in his rendering say that sentence with me, "A man Job his name." Now, I want you to say it again with me and I want you to put like put some poetry with it cuz what I'm hoping is 10 years from now if someone says something about the Book of Job, I want you to be able to think to yourself, "A man there was in the land of Uz."

[00:15:26]Would you say it with me again? "A man there was in the land of Uz." What was his name?

[00:15:33]Okay, a couple of distinctions as the series unfolds. This is the kind of thing that makes Bible study really fun is taking the time to find out what what makes this one stand out. What what are some of the things that make it distinctive and make it particular truly fascinating. There's always something.

[00:15:52]But, the first bullet point is this, we don't know where Job lived. We don't know where Job lived.

[00:15:59]And I'm going to have you go ahead and fill in the second bullet point. We don't know when Job lived.

[00:16:06]We don't know where Job lived and we don't know when Job lived.

[00:16:11]We know that there was a man named Job from the land of Uz, but we have no idea where Uz was.

[00:16:26]It is conjectured that it's to the east side of the Jordan, but it's not really known for sure. The reference to the east could mean anything that is east from any point west. So, we really don't know. We don't know where he lived. But, what begins to be so fascinating is when we've got that bullet point, we don't know when Job lived, it's it's absent of the clues in a number of other biblical books that would help us place it in an era of time. Uh for instance, you'll notice in some of the New Testament books in the Epistles and and and and references uh in Acts that they're constantly looking, "Is there any reference to the temple still standing?"

[00:17:10]That's going to help us plant an era in which that particular book was written.

[00:17:16]Looking for those kind of clues. This particular uh person was the governor of Syria. Okay, that tells us something. It helps us plant the time and the era. There's none of that in the book of Job to go by. So so we don't know when he lived. Here here are some things that I think you're going to find fascinating. There's no mention of Israel in it. Uh there's no reference to the law of Moses.

[00:17:43]Uh and the dating is notoriously difficult for scholars because there are some that think and I had always understood this to be the case that not only was this written in the patriarchal period, but very likely pre-patriarchal.

[00:18:00]And there are reasons why they think that because there there are some words that are that are very very old. Um but there are other reasons why it could be a later dating that is putting it back in time. In other words, it's a story from a much earlier era, but that it was written at a later date. Who knows for sure? Doesn't make any difference to us except that by the absence of those things, there is the presence of a point the Lord is making. And I have to wonder if it's so that we'll be able to somehow fit in the scene without so many descriptions of what the people were like that we can't find ourselves in it. See if that's going to hold some kind of significance as we go. What we do know is that every single person mentioned in it, every single one from beginning to end, the the comforters, the fourth friend that comes into it, Job's wife, all of them are monotheists. So they all believe in what we believe to be the one true God.

[00:19:11]So even though there's no mention yet of the law of Moses, we're not seeing that they're they're doing Levitical feasts here. These are definitely more like parties that they're having, feasts that they're having for special days in their family, but but no reference to that whatsoever. And so, we don't know what time period it was in, but that's part of what makes it fascinating is that all of them show monotheism. There is one God, and they're all talking about him.

[00:19:42]That third bullet point is this, we don't know who God calls to write Job.

[00:19:46]We don't know where he lived. We don't know when he lived. And we don't know who God calls to write Job.

[00:19:52]Now, that's not very unusual. We have a number of books in the Bible that that we're not given exactly who penned them to the page. What we know about Job is that it's about Job. It quotes Job at great length. But, there's nothing to indicate that it was Job himself who wrote it. But, if you're like me, it's like what do we know? Well, here is what we do know, and here is your blank.

[00:20:19]There is so much we don't know.

[00:20:22]This is what it's going to come down to all the way to the very end is that we're going to come out of it going, "Okay, it is a very important part of our theology.

[00:20:34]It needs to be a very, very important part of our doctrine of faith that we understand that there very purposely is so much we cannot possibly understand.

[00:20:47]And will not until we see the face of God. And can we indeed live with that or not?

[00:20:55]Can we endure with our faith with that or not? These are the questions on the table, and they are profoundly important questions. In fact, I'd go so far as to say there's no real intimacy with God without being able to bring those kinds of questions to the table.

[00:21:16]So, the fact that there is so much we don't know is one of the primary points and themes of the book and we got to remember that every single commentary, so if you go to study it from here, if you're a teacher and you go to teach it, uh if you hear uh pastors preach on it, every lesson you ever hear certainly these five lessons, this will be true. At no time at no time can we assume anybody knows everything there is to know about this book because it defies that. The very nature of the book itself defies being a know-it-all.

[00:21:54]So, we can't bring our dogmatism to it because it's inappropriate.

[00:22:01]And so, this was a statement that I wrote down and I thought, "You know what? I'm going to get them to say it with me. I'm going to I'm going to say it to you and then I'm going to get you to say it with me."

[00:22:09]Every tidy interpretation of the book of Job goes audaciously against its grain.

[00:22:17]In other words, for us to be that dogmatic about it is exactly what the book of Job is saying we cannot be.

[00:22:27]Does that make sense? And so, we come to it there's one way to come to our study of the book of Job. And that's with a desire to learn, of course, but also with humility, with humility. I want you to say that with me. Every tidy interpretation of the book of Job goes audaciously against its grain. So, we're going to avoid that at all costs. We're going to learn what we can, but we're going to know at the end of the day that we are going to leave the fact that there is mystery intended in the book and we are not to tread on that like know-it-alls.

[00:23:04]Here's another thing that we know. We also know that Job was a man of God says it himself, complete integrity. He says himself, God says of Job, "There is not another person like him."

[00:23:19]I mean, what are you even going to do with that?

[00:23:21]What what when when God looks on a populace and he is able to say, "This man right here, he's a man of complete integrity.

[00:23:31]There's no one else like him."

[00:23:33]What we see happening in the scene on that day of all the most dreadful days in the life of Job and really in the life of everyone who comes to the scriptures reading Job is that the assault is coming from every direction. One of the things we're not meant to miss is that we're seeing, did you notice it says that the fire would come from here and then a windstorm would come from here and and and this would come from here and then we see the Sabeans, which are a people um foes of of whatever this population is in us um and we see the Chaldeans, we see that it is not only the attack of of of nature and things that are unseen and then heavenly beings and and Satan, but we also see that it's human beings that are taking part in the assault against this man named Job and his family. So, coming from every conceivable direction. Um one of the things that one commentary pointed out is how many points of the compass it's coming from because it says that in verse 15 the Sabeans come from the south. It says then the Chaldeans come from the north and then it talks about a powerful wind sweeping in from the desert, which would have been from the east. So, from every conceivable direction, here comes this full assault of what seems to be heaven and earth, that which is natural and that which is supernatural.

[00:25:15]Now, I want you to look with me at verse five. I tried to pause on it a little bit when I read it so that we would have time to give it a little thought. It says in 1:5, "Whenever a round of banqueting was over," so remember they would have these feasts, and so this was like seven feasts a year. We're not supposed to miss that, either. "When the banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them." Isn't this interesting? "Rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them, for Job thought, 'Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts.'"

[00:25:49]This was Job's regular practice.

[00:25:53]This was Job's regular practice. "Just in case they sinned." And you know, I'm kind of like, okay, at what point is that Well, if they gossip? Or I mean, like, what are What are we talking here? I mean, how much would it be to actually take up sacrifice, to have them all come over, "I'm going to purify all of you, and I'm going to give sacrifices just in case, just in case." I mean, what what what does that take?

[00:26:18]Um I find it intriguing.

[00:26:22]And I I want to repeat, and let's never lose sight of the fact that God himself says no one else was like him. This is a man of complete integrity. But I'm just telling you, if this were me, I'm just saying, if this were some of us, may maybe you could see yourself in this situation, too.

[00:26:41]That at what point does just in case become a complete obsession?

[00:26:51]Is anybody getting that with me?

[00:26:53]At at what point at what point do we see that it has now gone from I'm talking about with with us I'm talking about with me that there's a just in case that is wise and rational then there's a just in case that takes up so much mental space that we become neurotic?

[00:27:14]Would would that be fair to say?

[00:27:16]Just in case that shifts from care and the better part of just pure rational caution to a means of control.

[00:27:26]And this is what I want to throw out to you. Again, man of complete integrity.

[00:27:30]Nobody like him, but he he's not sinless. But even setting that aside for a moment, I just want to pitch this out at you for a moment.

[00:27:40]Is he trying to keep to some degree the status quo?

[00:27:46]That nothing would happen to that blessing.

[00:27:50]That there'd be no reason whatsoever for God to ever withdraw any of that blessing. Job would have been a man that would have known he had been greatly profoundly blessed by God. At what point is he making sure that anything God might be blessing does not change?

[00:28:12]I I wonder if the strange and ironic and merciful gift that comes to those of us in this room who have really blown it and God has continued to be gracious is that we figured out somewhere along the way maybe it didn't all have to do with how well we behaved.

[00:28:38]But imagine if you could get away with thinking that.

[00:28:42]It's been because I've done everything right. I'm not saying that that's true of Job. I'm saying if it were me and I were in this picture right here, I probably if I were doing it every single time they're having a party and all 10 of you line up and I want to make sure you're purified and I'm offering these sacrifice just in case you've sinned.

[00:29:04]Oh, yeah.

[00:29:05]I'm going to tell you something. That is the kind of apprehension that can give you hypertension. Would you agree?

[00:29:18]When it becomes that that worrisome.

[00:29:23]Notice something with me because I think one of the biggest questions that we'll have to face through a large part of the book is this. It's not in your notes or anything. I just want to throw it out at you.

[00:29:39]Is our relationship with God a constant negotiation?

[00:29:45]Like just constantly negotiating, negotiating, negotiating, making sure we stay someone that he could bless.

[00:29:53]And I mean we want to pursue godly lives.

[00:29:58]We want to I mean that's part of our calling. We want to grow in our sanctification.

[00:30:05]But when we start thinking of it as a negotiation, I'll do my part and you do yours, Lord.

[00:30:14]Again, I'm not saying this is what Job is doing. It's like no one else.

[00:30:18]I'm just saying the trap of that could really be something.

[00:30:26]I want you to notice with me that then we see the entrance on the scene of this one called Satan. It says, "One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came with them." Now, I want to show you something and and some of your Bibles may footnote it where you can see it. But in the Hebrew language, um it is the word it it would be literally translated the Satan.

[00:30:53]The Satan. It would and it's cumbersome to say it, but if if you'll adapt to that and when you read this chapter and when you read the second chapter that when you come to it and you're able to think to yourself, present themselves before the Lord and the Satan has got a definite article.

[00:31:12]The Satan is ha Satan, ha Satan and it means the Satan. So it's saying not a a proper name, it's not a proper noun, it is a a title. It means the opposition.

[00:31:27]It means the adversary. Because it's giving a little bit of a courtroom feel to it, it also conveys a prosecuting attorney. But let me go far enough to say much more than a prosecuting attorney. This is a true hater.

[00:31:45]This is someone looking to constantly accuse.

[00:31:50]Constantly say they won't do it, they won't do it, they won't do it. What Satan's basic premise is this.

[00:31:58]No one will be faithful for nothing.

[00:32:04]No one.

[00:32:05]And a relationship with you God is not enough.

[00:32:12]If you don't bless they will drop out.

[00:32:18]And if you withhold enough blessing and there is no evidence of what's of it whatsoever. And if you were to take everything they had they will curse you every single time.

[00:32:35]Write something.

[00:32:37]Said, "Does he obey you, love you, and keep his integrity for nothing?

[00:32:48]You've put a hedge around him. You've blessed everything he's done.

[00:32:51]What else would he do?"

[00:32:53]And God says, "We'll test him and see."

[00:32:57]I want to show you something. Leave something here in Job chapter 1, and I want to go want you to go with me all the way deep, deep, deep into your old Testament, almost to the new. Go with me to the book of Zechariah, the book of Zechariah. So, there's going to be all the way to the end. If you get to Malachi, you're just backing up one tiny little book. Go to Zechariah, not Zephaniah, but Zechariah, and you're going to go to chapter 3.

[00:33:25]So, one rule of Bible study is you're looking, can you find another scene similar to it? Can Can you find anything to compare or contrast to it? And so, we're going to find it right here in Zechariah chapter 3. Now, the prophet Zechariah is receiving visions from the Lord. It is the It is such a mind-blowing book. But, the people that he the players that he is about to mention are real people at that time in history. We do know about the time in history this is because there are all sorts of references to plant them in an era of time, which is very different from Job. So, look at Zechariah chapter 3. Are you there? And I'm going to start reading in verse 1.

[00:34:10]Then he showed me the high priest Joshua. Now, um please know that that's not our Joshua of the conquest in the book of Joshua.

[00:34:21]Uh this is a a whole different figure.

[00:34:23]Joshua was a very, very common name uh in um in Judaism. Uh still still is. And of course, our rendering of it, the Greek rendering of it would be what we get we get Jesus from. So, it's Joshua in uh the Hebrew, but this is the priest Joshua, and this is a time of great trial for the people of God because they have been in captivity over their own rebellion and sin, so it says, "Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord with Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan. May the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Isn't this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?" Now, Joshua was dressed with filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. So, the angel of the Lord spoke to those standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes." Then he said to him, "See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with festive robes." And then I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head."

[00:35:32]And a clean turban was placed on his head. And they clothed him with garments while the angel of the Lord was standing nearby. Then the angel of the Lord charged Joshua, "This is what the Lord of armies says, if you walk in my ways and keep my mandates, you will both rule my house and take care of my courts, and I will also grant you access among those who are standing here." Okay, pause a sec. Did you notice what happened here?

[00:35:55]Satan is not allowed any further access to this particular figure. In fact, the Lord rebukes him and says, "Isn't he a burning stick pulled out of the fire?" In other words, I'm not letting you touch him. Now, here's why I want to go here with you, so that we can see that we can't make a rule out of what happened to Job.

[00:36:20]But, we also can't look at this one and make conclusions that just are not there. We'd be adding two and two and coming up with 400 to say, "Okay, here's what you do.

[00:36:32]If you're strong, you're you're going to get a yes and the enemy's going to be able to come after you. If you're if you're weak and you're a burning stick pulled out of the fire, I mean, if you're just like barely making it by the skin of your teeth, then the Lord's going to tell him, 'No, we can't do that. Tempting, but no.'" No.

[00:36:52]Because the fact is that we're seeing two different things happen in two different scenes. And why? Why? What is the point?

[00:37:03]Now, keeping it in mind, notice with me what happens now. I want to read chapter 2 to you, verses 1 through 13. Job 2, verses 1 through 13.

[00:37:16]One day the sons of God came again to present themselves before the Lord. So, we don't know there's this one day that this other catastrophic set of events happened.

[00:37:26]Now, one day again, the sons of God came again to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan also came with them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord asked Satan, "Where have you come from?" "Well, from roaming through the earth," Satan answered him, "and walking around on it." Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited me against him to destroy him for no good reason." Okay, pause here for just a moment, because God is going, "Oh, now that you've showed up, let's just go ahead and mention the elephant in the room, which is, did you notice he still did not sin against me?"

[00:38:14]And so, Satan is ready, comes back with skin for skin. And that must have been some kind of of a proverb at the time. Satan answered the Lord, "A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face." Now, I want you to notice something cuz this is really important. This curse language is critical to our understanding of the prologue and then on into the body of Job. Because remember that he had his children come after every big feast they had together so that they could be purified because just in case, perhaps perhaps they had sinned and cursed God in their hearts.

[00:39:05]So, there is this concept and and understandably in the mind of Job, this man of integrity that no one else is like in in the entire East. We've got this man who the worst case scenario, the worst thing that could possibly happen, the worst thing you could ever do is curse God.

[00:39:28]And so then it comes over to the second chapter and Satan is going, "I'm going to tell you right now. You strike his flesh and bones, and he is going to curse you to your face." Keep that in mind. Verse 6, "Very well," the Lord told Satan. "He is in your power, but spare his life." So, Satan left the Lord's presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.

[00:39:58]And his wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die." Third time around, curse curse curse.

[00:40:11]You see it? Because this is the thing.

[00:40:14]This This what he's scared to stop. This is what most triggers him in a matter of unrighteousness before God. Curse God and die. All right, I want you to see something that I found so interesting. You've got it in your um listening guide so that you can fill it in. Curse God and die is same Hebrew word as we would have found in 1:5 and in 2:5. And so this is what the commentators uh by that I mean uh scholars that writes um that wrote a commentary on the book of Job. He writes this. The Hebrew uses This is going to blow your minds. The Hebrew indeed uses the normal term for bless. That is your blank.

[00:41:07]In other words, all three of those times perhaps they might have cursed God in their heart. Uh you touch his skin uh and he will curse you to your face. And then the wife, when she says curse God and die, all three of those are the word in Hebrew barak, which is the word for bless.

[00:41:31]What on earth What on earth?

[00:41:35]I mean, why is it translated curse if the original Hebrew word there is bless?

[00:41:42]Okay, this this is one of the explanations for it and and quite a few of the scholars uh land here and we're going to get it when we think about it.

[00:41:50]The Hebrew indeed uses the normal term for bless, but since blessing God is no sin, so we know that that can't possibly be a sin. What we have here is a euphemistic use of the verb. A euphemistic is a euphemism such as we find in we've seen it 1:11, 2:5, and verse 9. We'd see it in 1 Kings, we'd see it twice in 1 Kings, we'd see it in the Psalms and we'd see it elsewhere.

[00:42:18]Where it prevents the connection of the divine name with a term of abuse.

[00:42:25]So that it will prevent the connection of the divine name with the term of abuse. In other words, what the writer is doing is that there is such in all likelihood a profound uh everything in him saying, you cannot possibly write curse and God next to one another. Do you understand what I'm saying?

[00:42:51]That they would switch the word bless in there to mean curse. But instead of putting them side by side and saying such a a a rattling such what would be a thought worse than death.

[00:43:09]They would put that word there instead.

[00:43:12]Now, you you've heard it. You've heard it. And it's more than all of us would know of times when people say, "Oh, bless your heart." And they don't really mean bless but they don't, you know, but they don't really mean curse your heart.

[00:43:25]So that really isn't a good example. But I can remember my people, I don't know if if you heard people talk this way or if you would talk this way. But my people would say, "And I'm going to tell you, she blessed him up one side and down the other."

[00:43:41]That's what we're talking about. Because what she would have mean is she didn't mean bless, she mean cursed. But it was a way to say, "Oh, I'll bless you all right." And it's to use your mouth to speak something over someone, but because cursing God would be an an outrageous thought, shouldn't even go down on paper together. Then this word has been this translation has been made instead. So, that's that's a really good possibility. Now, I'm going to read to you what Ellen Davis in her book Getting Involved with God, uh Dr. Ellen Davis, the the Hebrew scholar I was telling you about earlier. I'm going to read what she says about Job's wife because I think it is a wonderful way a kind of a a wonderful perspective on it.

[00:44:28]Post-biblical Christian tradition has often made Mrs. Job out to be an unsympathetic shrew who imperils his soul. The 4th century Greek theologian St. John Chrysostom said that Job's greatest trial was that his wife was not taken.

[00:44:47]>> [snorts] [laughter] >> I mean, y'all, that's just perfect, isn't it?

[00:44:53]That that's the worst thing that ever happened to him is that she stayed.

[00:44:58]But, there is another way of hearing her words. Maybe she is not mocking his famous integrity at all, but rather appealing to it as the only fitting end to his divinely inflicted misery. And I'm quote she's she's saying it for her here, so this is has quotes around it.

[00:45:15]You still have a hold on your integrity.

[00:45:18]It's the one thing you have left, so put it to use. Your integrity demands that you curse the God who allowed our children to die.

[00:45:29]Melissa and I were talking about that if we had a spouse or maybe a good friend, good companion, maybe one another, whoever it might be, that was taking such a position of integrity over something that had also affected us catastrophically, can you imagine that we might become a little adversarial?

[00:46:00]Would you think it could also be the opposite way? Say for instance, they were doing all the cursing God, and then it would be us going, but we we want to be faithful to the Lord beyond his what Do you understand what I'm saying? Cuz you see enough of that, and then we pull in with the other side taking that adversarial view.

[00:46:23]And she you know, she's given such a hard time, but don't don't cast her away too quickly, because we're not we're not finished with her yet. He says to her, "Oh, don't speak like one of the foolish women," which tells us from his words, because it goes on to say in 10, "You speak as a foolish woman speaks," he says. "Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?" Throughout all this, Job did not sin in what he said, "You speak as a foolish woman speaks." I love that one of the writers pointed out that the fact that she wasn't a foolish woman is clear in Job's view, or he wouldn't say, "You're talking like you're foolish, and you're not."

[00:47:05]You know better than what you're saying.

[00:47:07]We We're We're She's going like, "You know what? This is the last thing you have. Use it. Use it, and die. Get it over with. Get it over with."

[00:47:17]I'm going to pick up in 11. Now, we're going to have to hold off. Next week we're going to start talking about Job's friends and his comforters, but I'm only going to touch on it. So, I'm very purposely leaving it out tonight, because that needs to go with our next lesson, but I'm going to pick it up in the uh in the place where we find it in 2:11. It says, "Now, when Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home." So, they're coming from three different directions. They met together then, and they go to him to sympathize with him and comfort them. But when they look from a distance, they literally can tell from a distance that he does not look anything like himself. They barely recognized him.

[00:48:09]This this scene just kills me. They wept aloud and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head.

[00:48:18]And then they sat down on the ground with him 7 days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.

[00:48:31]Now, although we're going to wait to talk more about his friends in our next lesson, I do want you to see that from the this point onward, this practice has been taken up through the centuries.

[00:48:49]And and not only in Judaism, but especially in Judaism. This sitting shiva. Uh the word shiva meaning in Hebrew seven, and it means to sit for 7 days. To go it would be the closest family unit. In this case, it's the friends, but even to this day, it would be the closest of family that would come and gather around. So, siblings uh it would like it would have been Job's siblings um in in if it were in in this particular century and and perhaps nieces and nephews, close extended family gather in and everyone stay for 7 days. And there they were sitting on the ground with him and no one spoke a word to him because they saw his suffering was very intense. Okay, what we're going to do now for the remainder of our time together is look at chapter 3.

[00:49:46]Chapter 3, you can tell from the way it is arranged on your page is already completely switching in its literary style. I want you to jot this down in your notes. This is one of your blanks. Job 3, note the sudden switch entirely to poetry.

[00:50:09]Entirely to poetry.

[00:50:11]That will comprise approximately 95% of the book.

[00:50:17]For some of us, we already know some things about Job that maybe most people that carry a Bible don't know.

[00:50:28]And that's how much of it is written in pure poetry.

[00:50:33]And this is where we see when we were talking about the composition of it, the craftsmanship of it, the the beauty of it, what he's doing with his wording, the way he uses synonyms, his use of language is almost beyond description.

[00:50:54]And it's going to go on and on and on.

[00:50:57]Prose begins the book of Job and it ends the book of Job and everything in between, without stopping, is all poetry. And why would that be?

[00:51:13]We don't have the answer to that except that it was God's way.

[00:51:17]It was God's way of having it put on the page, but there are some things about poetry we can know and we can know when God is wanting to sweep us up in the metaphors and the pictures and the colors and and the sights and the smells, then very often we'll see through the the prophets, through the Psalms, we would see it in Song of Songs, we'd see it again and again where we're swept up in poetry or we're swept up in some kind of song so that it can get in under our defenses and get to our emotions.

[00:51:58]It it What we're going to see in the chapters to come is that God is forbidding us to just look at Job in a strictly systematic way.

[00:52:11]He blocks the arteries of the stone-cold exegete, don't you think?

[00:52:19]He he pushes us past the math to the mystery.

[00:52:26]I was thinking to myself how easy it is to count our ribs and this is the math of it all, 1 2 3 for every rib.

[00:52:39]And poetry instead of giving us the privilege to just count the ribs takes us in under the rib cage to where the blood pumps.

[00:52:49]To where the heart is so driven by circumstance that upon really bad news or really good news, it speeds up and it slows down.

[00:53:04]That it's reacting that literally our heart in under all of our ribs is reacting to everything around us with either excitement uh with whatever kind of physical action we're taking that it's not static.

[00:53:19]It's constantly constantly moving and pumping and it is reacting not only to physical stimuli but to emotional stimuli. That which is bringing up feeling in us and that is part of what poetry does. It's going to take us in there where we don't get the comfort.

[00:53:39]Wouldn't it be comforting just to to take a look at Job and say, "Well, we can make the following very tight 10 points and we can just be done with it." And he goes, "Oh, no, you can't."

[00:53:51]Cuz you're going to have to you're going to have to move with it.

[00:53:54]Like like like you're in a in a a fast-moving brook over all the rocks and all the twists and turns. You're going to feel it. You're going to have to feel it.

[00:54:04]You're going to have to feel it.

[00:54:07]Down in there.

[00:54:09]Underneath all our self-protection to where we are most vulnerable.

[00:54:16]Now, I'm going to read to you Job 3: 1 through 10. Here we begin the poetry.

[00:54:23]After this, after what? Seven days of sitting, Job has something to say.

[00:54:32]And here it begins. May the day I was born perish and the night that said, "A boy is conceived." If only that day had turned to darkness. May God above not care about it or shine light on it. May darkness and gloom reclaim it and a cloud settle over it. May what darkens the day terrify it. If only darkness had taken that night away. May it not appear among the days of the year or be listed in the calendar. Yes, may that night be barren. May no joyful shout be heard in it. Let those who curse days condemn it.

[00:55:09]There we come up with curse again. Those who are ready to rouse Leviathan. May its morning stars grow dark. May it wait for daylight but have none. May it not see the breaking of dawn. That You want to see some beautiful poetry? That breaking of dawn is literally the eyelids of the dawn. The eyelids of the dawn. It says, "For that night did not shut the doors of my mother's womb or hide sorrow from my eyes." He's going to go on past that and and you and I are going to read that together in just a moment, but I want you to sit on verses 1 through 10 with me because I want you to see some of the absolute majesty of it. First of all, he's going to use numerous synonyms for darkness. This is part of the masterpiece of it that over and over it Listen, I I I would suppose it would be fair to say that every poet's dream is for unusual synonyms.

[00:56:06]To be able to say the same thing a different way. Does that make sense to anybody? That that you're going to repeat this, but you're going to give it different wording so it has a little different feeling to it, a little different rhythm to it. That's what he's doing over and over. All sorts of ways to create this idea of this darkness of this complete this chasm a a blackness where there is no light.

[00:56:31]Now, I would not have come up with this on my own. This is why there are commentaries and there are scholars that study this kind of thing.

[00:56:41]Maybe eventually, but not in time for this lesson. I wouldn't have. I want you to see what's happening here because Job Job is going to come as close Now, this I did get. This I didn't need a commentary to tell me. Job is going to get as close as possible to cursing God without cursing God. I mean, he is going to go to the edge of it where I mean, everything is pushing.

[00:57:13]He is coming so close to that line. You can tell he's got it in his mind because he's pressing against that line as hard as he can, but he is doing even more than that because he is moving back in time. He says Notice with me, he says that he is he is cursing the day of his birth. Well, that's not enough because he's going to move back. No, no, not just the day of his birth, the day he the night, I love that it was night, the night he was conceived. So, it goes from the day he was born to the night he was conceived, but that's not far enough.

[00:57:55]He's going to go all the way back to creation. This is what I I I don't think I would have been on to quickly. I want you to see that in these verses, in this portion of Job, he is going to say seven curses. Seven curses in this portion of Job and he is going in [snorts] this literary way to do the unraveling of the creation order.

[00:58:30]In other words, he this this if I tell you this much, you'll be able to go, yes, yes, I get that. He's basically saying, let there be darkness. Were the first words out of God's mouth, when we see in the beginning, um God created the heavens and the earth and he said, let there be what?

[00:58:48]So, what's Job doing? Job is turning it around and going, oh no, no, let there be dark.

[00:58:55]And over and over again, he's doing exactly that, where he's taking it back and sort of if if if I could be this strong with my terms, cursing creation. Not just cursing that he was born, not just cursing that he was ever conceived, but now he is going all the way back and go, be done with all of it. Be done with all of it. Let there be darkness because that is what there is.

[00:59:25]In words of one commentary, um uh Walter Brueggemann's uh work on Job 3, I'm going to quote part of it. It says, "Job 3 then becomes a poetic dismantling of God's creation as Job calls on darkness to reclaim created light and even calls up God's old adversary, the anti-creation chaos monster, Leviathan."

[00:59:51]Now, you're going to have to wait on explanations about Leviathan, but it's going to have a a very very compelling place in Job. So, take note. Oh, he's cursing everything he can get out of his mouth.

[01:00:07]By God.

[01:00:09]Cursed be the day I was born. Cursed be the day I was conceived.

[01:00:12]And cursed be the day God ever said, "Let there be light.

[01:00:18]Let there instead be darkness."

[01:00:23]That is some kind of darkness.

[01:00:28]That is a man hashing it out exactly where it needed to be, right there before God. What's going to make it most uncomfortable?

[01:00:43]God's not going to squirm over it, but his friends are going to have a rough time.

[01:00:49]I'm going to have you read the rest of the chapter with me, and then we've got just a point or two to wrap up. I'm going to have you read it with me, and I'll tell you tell you why. There is the power of having someone read the scriptures to you, but I will say to the death, there is nothing like reading it yourself with your own mouth and using your own lungs to take the breath and speak the words. Um especially out loud.

[01:01:15]I mean, to be able to do it where you're speaking it. And I wonder if you would be so bold to speak Job's words.

[01:01:24]And one reason why I chose this portion for you to read antiphonally is because over and over Job is going to ask the question that begins with the word why.

[01:01:37]Why?

[01:01:38]Over and over he's going to say why, why, why, why. And you know what? We're so scared to say that word that I thought maybe we'd practice it tonight.

[01:01:50]And so what I've done, you're going to notice on the board that I put it in all uppercase. And so every time you come to it, I want you to very, very much emphasize the word why because it is there on purpose. And listen, some of these words are going to bother you.

[01:02:07]And they're supposed to. They bother me, too.

[01:02:11]But that's I mean, this these are the words of the Lord. God strategically set this book in our Bibles for us. And so it's going to start at 11:00, but you're going to be looking at the board.

[01:02:24]So let's begin. Why?

[01:02:39]Now I would certainly be laughing.

[01:04:09]>> I mean that is some verbage.

[01:04:13]Did you notice how many times he brings up rest?

[01:04:16]I'm not sure about this, but to me there's got to be some kind of connection it would seem to me after all those allusions back to the creation narrative and about unraveling the creation narrative and turning it over where it's let there be darkness instead of let there be light.

[01:04:35]And and and cursing that which is created and calling basically calling that which had been created which in his case was his own life, Job's own life, calling it cursed instead of good. I have to wonder if the repetition of the word rest has to do with that same creation narrative. Did you notice he ends this whole first speech of his by saying, "I have no rest." Do you remember what God does at the end of creation?

[01:05:04]And he rested on the seventh day because he had completed his work. Well, I guess you can see that after all that silence Job bursts at the seams.

[01:05:18]Reminds us a little bit of Jeremiah who said I can no longer hold it in.

[01:05:24]If I don't speak your name I will burst.

[01:05:29]Ellen F. Davis says this in getting involved with God. I just love I love this so much and I've got this on the board for you so that you can read along.

[01:05:37]The book of Job is about human pain. It is also about theology. The work of speaking about God. It shows us a person in the sharpest imaginable pain, yet speaking accurately about God. Job gives us immeasurably more than a theology of suffering. It gives us the theology of a sufferer.

[01:06:00]Isn't that beautiful?

[01:06:02]Not just a theology of suffering, but the theology of a sufferer. In it we hear authoritative speech about God that comes from lips taught with anguish.

[01:06:12]From this book above all others in scripture, we learn that the person in pain is a theologian of unique authority. I'm going to say that again.

[01:06:22]That the person in pain is a theologian of unique authority. The sufferer who keeps looking for God has, in the end, privileged knowledge. Let's let that settle on you and think about this this week. The one who complains to God, pleads with God, rails at God, does not let God off the hook for a minute, she is at last admitted to a mystery. She passes through a door that only pain can open.

[01:06:50]And is thus qualified to speak of God in a way that others whom we generally call more fortunate cannot speak.

[01:06:59]What a word.

[01:07:02]There's just a couple of other places where Job is mentioned in the scriptures.

[01:07:05]And I want you to see one in particular.

[01:07:07]You can sit tight if you want to and I can read it to you, but it's at the very end of the book of James. This is the half brother of Jesus and I want you to hear what he says because I thought about it a hundred times in preparation for our series. James 5 10 and 11 say this, "Brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord's name as an example of suffering and patience.

[01:07:33]See, we count as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job's endurance and have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about. The Lord is compassionate and merciful." Let's put that aside for a moment. The Lord is compassionate and merciful. We're going to get there in our series, but the part I want you to see is that James is making the point, "Listen, don't fight trial and tribulation the way you do.

[01:08:00]You know that the people you most admire that you would say, 'Man, they live blessed lives.' They're the very people in the scripture that had to endure very big things. Is that right? Cuz I mean, we look at that and think, "What a life.

[01:08:13]What a life."

[01:08:15]But his point is, I mean, if we got the if we got the story that we keep praying that we'll get, which is for nothing whatsoever to ever happen to us of any kind of difficulty, we would bore people to tears.

[01:08:31]There'd be nothing in our story to tell.

[01:08:32]I'm not saying that that makes our story worth it. I'm simply saying he's making the point, "Do we not look at them and go, 'Man, that person was blessed. Look at that life.'"

[01:08:44]You have heard, and these are your your blanks, you have heard of Job's endurance and you have seen the outcome.

[01:08:53]I want to make a point as we conclude.

[01:08:56]You've heard of Job's endurance and you have seen the outcome.

[01:09:01]Heard, seen.

[01:09:03]Isn't this the way that we want it to be? Even in our discussions with people across the table, in our relationships, and uh sermons, lessons, whatever it may be. This Let us hear about it and then tell us the outcome.

[01:09:21]Here and then tell I mean, tell us the outcome. Tell us how it all turned out.

[01:09:26]And this is the thing. I thought, "Beth, are you able to let that class go tonight without giving them some great news at the end?"

[01:09:34]Because I I I want to do I just want to get like get to the outcome. Get to the outcome.

[01:09:40]So we can get to the good part so everybody can leave here so happy.

[01:09:44]Isn't that the way we are? Isn't that the way we are?

[01:09:47]But the book of Job dedicates 39 chapters to relieving readers of what I kept thinking what I wanted to call it.

[01:09:55]What we'll call convenient circumvention.

[01:09:59]Convenient circumvention.

[01:10:03]And what I mean by that is circling all the way around the blood and guts. Let's not get into it and then let's just get to the outcome. That's what we want.

[01:10:14]Job became the archetype of endurance.

[01:10:21]Pure endurance. And what I want to say to you before we leave this house tonight is that you will never have endurance, nor will I nor will I have endurance if we got nothing to endure.

[01:10:34]Endurance is not about the passage of moments and times and seasons.

[01:10:40]That would be living a long life. That's not endurance.

[01:10:44]Endurance always Implicit in endurance is that there has been something enormous, some things enormous that had to be endured.

[01:11:01]Withstanding great hardship and adversity. And so, Job is not going to let us get away with that.

[01:11:08]He's going to put us right in the middle of it where as if to say, "Listen, if I can go through it, you can hear about it."

[01:11:22]And there we'll have it.

[01:11:24]I thought to myself that maybe if we were just cynical enough, that a theme of Job could be what to do about God.

[01:11:36]Right?

[01:11:38]What are we to do with this one with whom we have to do?

[01:11:45]What to do with God?

[01:11:49]And I was thinking to myself that through the course of it, that perhaps what happens is somewhere along the way, if we're willing to be honest, and we're willing to wrestle, and we're willing to do the hard work of bringing all of it before the throne of grace to a God who is plenty big enough to take it.

[01:12:16]If the question has to scoot over and make room for a second question is, what would we do without him?

[01:12:26]Sometimes we don't know what to do with him.

[01:12:31]But God help us, what would we do without him?

[01:12:37]Would you pray with me?

[01:12:41]Lord, I I guess what I'm inviting you to do is agitate us.

[01:12:54]Make those waters I'm thinking of the pool of Bethesda [music] ripple the waters.

[01:13:04]And Lord I'm a hopeless optimist.

[01:13:11]It's something in this series even without getting all the answers getting most of the answers or half the answers maybe something in us that is broken might mend.

[01:13:29]I'm just crazy enough to think that could be possible.

[01:13:36]I thank you so much for bringing [music] them out tonight. I thank you for their courage.

[01:13:42]I thank you that they're not Bible [music] chickens by any stretch of the imagination.

[01:13:48]And I pray that you'd make us faithful students [music] of the scriptures and we thank you.

[01:13:53]We thank you so much that you thought of this.

[01:13:56]You did it on purpose.

[01:13:58]And we're a bit odd [music] by it.

[01:14:01]And we thank you for your faithfulness your goodness and your patience.

[01:14:08]In the glorious and beautiful name of Jesus.

[01:14:11]Amen.

[01:14:18]>> Did you know you can now [music] give through our app to support the show?

[01:14:22]Thanks for watching Living Proof with Beth Moore.

[01:14:27]Thanks so much for joining us on the channel today. [music] We hope this message has encouraged you to know and love Jesus Christ more through the pages of scripture. We'd love for you to subscribe to the channel for more teaching and if you like it, don't forget to tell others about it.