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“Three Things Job's Friends Got Right”

Allen Dvorak
04/13/25 - Sun PM

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(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

If you'd like to read with me, uh, tonight's scripture reading will be from Job chapter 5 beginning in verse 8.

Job chapter 5 verses 8 through 27.

Just to set the context a little bit and, and try and not step on anything um that Uncle Alan will say in the lesson.

Job has been afflicted by Satan in just about every way imaginable, and he, his friends arrived to try and console him, and they sit with him for 33 days straight and he doesn't say anything.

And when Job does speak, uh, in, uh, I believe it's chapter 3, he's in a very dark place.

And so EFAS, the first of his three friends, uh, to speak, begins responding to what Job has said and, and, uh, what's happened to Job and we're picking up here in verse 8 of chapter 5, really at the tail end of, of uh Elefaz's first response.

And I'll be reading from the Christian Standard Bible, which is different from the version on the screen.

However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and would present my case to Him.

He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

He gives rain to the earth and sends water to the fields.

He sets the lowly on high, and mourners are lifted to safety.

He frustrates the schemes of the crafty so that they achieve no success.

He traps the wise in their craftiness so that the plans of the deceptive are quickly brought to an end.

They encounter darkness by day, and they grope at noon as if it were night.

He saves the needy from their sharp words and from the clutches of the powerful, so the poor have hope and injustice shuts its mouth.

See how happy is the person whom God corrects.

So do not reject the discipline of the Almighty, for he wounds, but he also bandages.

He strikes, but his hands also heal.

He will rescue rescue you from 1093 calamities.

No harm will touch you in 1083.

In famine he will redeem you from death and in battle from the power of the sword.

You will be safe from slander and not fear destruction when it comes.

You will laugh at destruction and hunger and not fear the land's wild creatures, for you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.

You will know that your tent is secure and nothing will be missing when you inspect your home.

You will also know that your offspring will be many and your descendants like the grass of the earth.

You will approach the grave in full vigor as a stack of sheaves is gathered in its season.

We have investigated this, and it is true.

Hear it and understand it for yourself.

Well, good evening.

It's good to see everyone here.

I appreciate your interest in biblical things.

We're going to have what I think will be an interesting study this evening in the book of Job.

You may wish to open your Bibles to that book because we're going to spend nearly all of our time, in fact, really all of our time in that book, and you may wish to uh follow along and read some of the things that I'll refer.

I'm not going to put a lot of scripture.

up on the screen as I often do, because we'll stay in the same book and I'll be reading those.

The references will come up on the screen so that you can follow along.

You won't miss the references, but we'll do some reading from the dialogue of the three friends.

Well, that's rat poison.

Rat poison, as you know, in most cases is mostly non-lethal stuff.

It's grain.

It's the stuff that rats like.

It's what they want to eat.

But what kills them is that very small percentage of lethal poison.

In fact, I chose this particular graphic because they had on the front what the uh percentage of active ingredient.

That's the poison.

And it is 1073 of a gram for each kilogram.

That's a dusting.

But it's enough to kill rats.

I believe Satan uses that same principle.

He understands that the most effective false doctrine is that which is really close to the truth.

Even incorporates some truth in the doctrine, and that makes it so that when people Grab on to it when they accept it, it slowly takes them away from the Lord, farther and farther.

And I believe the story of Job and his three friends, there are actually 1063 individuals who will talk with Job, that his 1053 friends illustrate this truth.

So tonight, rather than talk about what Job's friends got wrong, we will say something about that a little bit later on.

But I want to focus primarily on 1043 things that they got right.

We often don't think of Job's friends as being uh purveyors of truth, but the, the fact of the matter is they said some things that are very true, and we'll look at those as we study in the book of Job this evening.

Really appreciated the introduction that Travis gave to the reading since he was kind of dropped into the middle of the cycle of speeches of the friends by my request, but I thought his background was very good.

In the book of Job, the first two chapters.

Basically, uh, set the stage for the dialogue of the book.

Job is a book that sometimes people will kind of uh steer away from because so much of the book is not historical narrative.

It is in fact dialogue, conversation between the friends and Job and Elihu and then later on, God as he speaks.

with Job.

But in the very beginning of the book, we are introduced to the main character, and that's Job.

Job lived as an historical person during the time of the patriarchs, most likely, and in the first chapter, we learned some things about Job.

He is introduced in the very beginning by the Lord to Satan.

And the Lord says in chapter 1033 and verse 1023, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.

In fact, Job is going to be at the pinnacle in two ways, pinnacle of humanity.

First of all, God says to Satan, there's no one like Job.

That's pretty high praise.

I don't know how many people were involved in the, the population of humanity at this point.

But God says, there's nobody like Job.

But then secondly, Job was extremely wealthy.

He possessed 1013 sheep, 1003 camels, 2121 yoke of oxen, and 217 female donkeys.

And very many servants.

So that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.

Debbie and I have 2120 chickens, and it's all I can do some nights to pick out 217 chickens on the roost, make sure they're all in the, in the coop after dark.

This man had thousands of sheep, thousands of camels.

Very rich individual.

In chapters 2121 and 217, though, We are made privy to a conversation, actually two conversations that occur between God and Satan.

Satan comes among the sons of God and God asks him about Job.

And Satan's response is essentially an indirect charge or accusation against God.

The subject is Job.

But when God introduces Job to Satan, have you considered my servant Job, that there's no one like him?

Satan's response is, well, you've bribed him.

You built a hedge around him by blessing him so immensely that it's to his benefit to keep you happy.

Or in other words, if you wanted to rephrase the accusation, it basically is, Job only serves you because you keep bribing him by material prosperity.

If you take away those things, Satan says, he'll stop serving you.

And God gives Satan.

Permission to take away all that Job has.

And so as you can see on the screen, in chapter one, we're told that uh his oxen and his donkeys are taken by the Sybeans.

The sheep are burned up with fire from heaven, and then the Chaldeans come and take the camels.

And in addition to the loss of livestock, virtually all of the servants, you can imagine how many servants it would take.

Herdsmen to take care of 212 camels, 215 sheep, 2110 oxen, 10000 female donkeys.

All of the servants are killed as well with the exception of the one servant who shows up to tell Job about The calamity that has taken place that day.

And it's not something that extends over time, but one servant comes and says, well, this is what happened uh to the oxen and the donkeys, and while he's still speaking, here comes the next servant to tell Job about his sheep and the loss of all those animals.

And then the camels, and then finally, the fact that his children have likewise been taken from him.

God gave Satan permission to touch all that Job had, and that included in this case, his 10 children.

They are killed in an accident, uh, the house falling upon them where they were, uh, feasting together.

But it's not over.

Because Job doesn't sin, even though he has experienced all of this calamity.

In chapter 1 and verse 22, we're told in all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

I've heard someone say before that in the book of Job, Job doesn't sin and that's not accurate.

Because Job does sin, but he doesn't at this point.

In fact, Satan has predicted that if you do these things to Job, you take away the hedge that you put around him, you take away the bribe and he'll curse you to your face.

But Joe doesn't do that.

And so then in chapter 2, we're made privy to another conversation and it is important to note that Job doesn't know about these conversations.

That's gonna play a big part in the dialogue that Job will have with his friends and with Elihu, because Job doesn't understand the background of his calamity.

He does not understand that Satan is the one who's doing this to him, obviously, with God's permission.

But he thinks God is doing all this to him.

He doesn't seem to have any knowledge of Satan Satan was never mentioned in the dialogue.

In chapter 22 con conversation that God has with Satan.

And God points out to Satan.

Job's integrity, but Satan has a response.

He doesn't have skin in the game yet.

You just took his stuff, you took his children, but you didn't touch him.

So God says, all right, you can afflict Job, you can't take his life, but you can touch him.

And Job is afflicted with some sickness that not sure we can really identify, but it involved tremendous suffering as you read some about what Job says about his condition.

And so Satan was allowed to afflict Job's physical body with sickness.

And yet at the end of chapter 2, or toward the end, in verses 213 and 10, we're told that Job's wife said to him, Do you still hold fast your integrity?

Curse God and die.

But he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women would speak.

Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil?

In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Even in that statement, it becomes obvious that Job thinks God's doing this to him.

He's gonna wrestle with that, because he doesn't understand why God is doing this to him, why he is suffering the way that he is.

Well, as Travis noted, at the end of chapter 23 of Job's friends come from some distance.

They've made an appointment.

They've decided to gather together and they come and, and they are there to comfort Job.

In verses 11 through 13, Elefaz and Bildad and Zofar.

I want to say a little bit about the structure of this book, its organization.

We could probably describe it in three rather general terms.

The prologue is what we've been talking about thus far, chapters 1 and 2.

It gives us the backdrop.

It helps us understand why Job says some of the things he does, what Job is struggling with.

The prologue is chapters 1 and 2.

And then the dialogue, which essentially constitutes nearly all the rest of the book, chapters 3, all the way through uh the beginning of chapter 73.

And in the, that dialogue, we see the conflict of the book.

Both the conflict within Job and the conflict that he has with his 3 friends, and then the fourth friend, although Job doesn't respond to Elihu, And so the participants in the dialogue are the three friends and Job and Elihu, and then eventually, God will speak to Job uh in the latter part of the book, asking him lots of questions.

And then the third section is the epilogue, and in a sense, Job is given the opportunity.

To pray on behalf of his friends, God rebukes the three friends for some of the things that they said.

And we're told that Job is blessed, even as he had been blessed prior to the suffering of chapters 1 and 2.

The dialogue of the book is the major part of the book.

And in chapter 3, after the friends have come and they've sat with Job for 7 days in silence, incidentally, 7 days was the period of mourning typically for someone who died.

And Job's situation is so horrible that his friends basically are treating him as though he's dead already.

He's sitting there and they're in silence.

Then Job begins to speak.

And in chapter 3 in his opening monologue, he begins by cursing the day of his birth.

In the 1st 10 verses, oh, that he hadn't even been born.

And then he moves in verse 213 and through verse 19, to say that he wished that he had just died at birth.

He wouldn't have had to endure any of the things that he's enduring now if he had simply died at birth.

But you know, that's water under the bridge and so beginning in verse 20 and on through the end of chapter 3, Job says, why can't I just die now?

He's miserable.

And as Travis noted, he is in a very dark place.

Well, the friends, are going to talk with him.

In chapters 4 through chapter 26.

I'm gonna say some more in just a few moments about the cycles of speeches, but there are 3 cycles of speeches.

Each of the friends will speak in turn with Job responding to that particular individual. Elephant.

will always speak first and then build that and then Zofar, although Zofar will only speak twice.

The 3rd cycle, Zofar apparently did not have a speech.

My personal opinion is that those guys were running out of soap by the time they got into the 3rd cycle.

And it may have been that Zofar didn't have anything else to say, but he apparently did not have a 3rd speech.

Job will follow Bill Dad's 73rd speech at the end of the 3rd cycle with two monologues that constitute chapters 27 and 28, the first one and then 29 to 31, the second monologue.

But it's not over.

The dialogue because we then learn that there's been a 4th person there, that is Job and his 3 friends, and a 4th individual, a younger man by the name of Elihu.

And Elihu has been listening to his, uh, the 3 friends of Job, these older individuals, and he is hot.

He's got a lot to say.

He's wanted to say some things, but he's waited because he's younger than these other men.

And he then addresses Job in chapters 203 to 37.

When we get to chapter 38, Job gets what he's been asking for.

He wanted to talk to God.

He wanted an explanation, only it doesn't go the way Job really had anticipated because God doesn't approach Job with the idea of saying, well, no, Job, let me, let me help you understand why this is happening to you.

Instead, Job is peppered with questions.

Until chapter 42.

The purpose of which I believe was to show Job that he really wasn't in the same category with God to try to understand God's moral workings in this world.

His divine justice.

Because Job is made to realize that he doesn't even understand how the physical world acts or operates, much less the way that God works in the moral affairs of men.

There's tension In the dialogue between Job and his 3 friends.

As I said before, there are 3 cycles of speeches.

And it's interesting several things about these speeches, for instance, Uh, the friends begin by encouraging Job to repent of his sins.

They're convinced, and we'll say why in just a moment, they're convinced that he's sinned.

But as Job seems unwilling to just acknowledge his sin, they become harsher and more blunt as the speeches go on.

Build that Says, well, if your children died, it's because that's what they deserved.

So far in his first speech will tell Job, you're not getting near what you deserve.

So these friends rapidly become very Uh, almost antagonistic to Job.

There's some sarcasm there.

There's clearly anger and frustration both on the part of Job and of his friends.

In those speeches, The friends will speak and then Job will respond to whichever friend is speaking.

And as you move through the speeches, you'll notice that Job seems to address God more and the friends less.

That's my perception.

But you see in all of his speeches practically that there is a dichotomy in the sense that Job responds to his friend, but he also is asking for answers from God.

He wants to plead his case before God.

He wants God to come down and giving him an an explanation for why these things have happened to him.

Of course Job never gets that.

God has a different purpose in mind.

I guess I needed to give this, the rest of this chart.

There are the 3 cycles with the chapters that are involved, and we'll just read through all of those.

Some of you just don't believe me anymore.

What I'm going to try to do is pick out just some pieces from the various speeches, not all of them obviously, but just enough to illustrate the three points that I think, or the 3 things that I think the friends got right.

Well, we need to understand that the reason for the tension between Job and his friends, is that the, the friends are laboring under uh the apprehension that suffering is always the direct result of personal sin.

If you're suffering, it's because you've done something wrong, you've violated God's law, you've sinned, and the worse you are suffering.

The greater your sin must be.

And so the 3 friends show up and Job is suffering horribly.

And so their conclusion is, well, Job, you must have sinned in some horrible way to merit this kind of treatment by God.

And so they are repeatedly, repeatedly encouraging Job to repent and to return to the Lord.

Now, I want you to remember at this point that in the beginning of the book, God does not say, you know, Job, he, he does OK most days.

You know, some days he's better than others.

He says there's no one else like Job on the earth.

This is a righteous individual.

He's at the pinnacle of humanity in terms of moral integrity.

And here's 3 friends show up.

And they begin telling him that if he would just repent, that God would start blessing him as opposed to punishing him.

Now I believe That Job and his wife both Agreed with this kind of philosophy, this theology in the beginning of the book.

I think that's why his wife said, uh, do you still maintain your integrity?

Are you still saying that you're innocent?

It's obvious that you're sinning, you've sinned because God's doing this to you.

Go ahead and curse God and die. Job.

To's suffering is so great that his wife can only conclude, you're just about cut off from God anyway, just go ahead and curse God.

Say goodbye to God and let God finish you off.

I think that's what she's saying.

And I also believe That Job likewise believed what the friends believed about suffering.

And that's part of his consternation in the dialogue that he has both with the friends and with God.

Because Job knows that he has not sinned in some terrible way, and yet it appears as though he is being punished like he was some horrible sinner.

What, how does that work?

That's the consternation.

That's the question that Job struggles with.

Well, what is it that the friends got right?

Well, 73 things I think that we could pull out of some of the speeches.

And what I'm going to do is I've tried to pull from not just one speaker, but multiple uh friends and to kind of work our way through the cycles with each point.

And I'm just gonna read some sample passages.

I would encourage you, if, if you would like to To write down these references, go back and read before and after because sometimes I'm only giving you the beginning of an extended discussion that will further illustrate the point that I'm trying to make.

The first thing that the friends got right is God is powerful.

He is sovereign.

They affirm God's might, his ability to do whatever he wants to do.

If you look in Job the 4th chapter, in verses 7 through 11, this of course is Elehaz speaking, the first speaker among the friends.

He says in verse 7, remember who that was innocent ever perished or where were the upright cut off?

As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

By the breath of God they perish and by The blast of his anger, they are consumed.

The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken.

The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

Elehas says, God does what he wants.

By the breath of God, the wicked perish.

In the 5th chapter, again, Elehaz, same speech.

In verse 8, he says, as for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number.

And then finally, here in verse 7 of chapter 11, this is Zofar's first speech.

He says to Job, can you find out the deep things of God?

Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

It is higher than heaven.

What can you do?

Deeper than shield.

What can you know?

The measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.

If he passes through and imprisons and summons the court, who can turn him back?

And so the friends acknowledge that God is sovereign.

Nobody can thwart God's purpose, nobody can stop him.

He is powerful.

Well, if you read through some of Job's responses to these friends, he agrees with this.

Job will give some excellent comments to the sovereignty, the power of God, even as the friends did.

Well, the second thing that I think that the friends got right and I'm indicating here that they are correct about these things.

The second thing is that God is a just and holy being.

and the friends are going to repeatedly reaffirm that God is just, that God doesn't commit injustice in the affairs of men.

They preach to Job that wickedness brings suffering and righteousness brings prosperity.

Take a look if you will, at chapter 8, verses 213 through 7.

This is Bill Dad's speech, and I've alluded to this particular part of the speech already.

Bildad says in verse, uh, that's verse 3 of Job 8.

Does God pervert justice or does the Almighty pervert the right?

If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.

That's regrettable.

Job had 10 children.

And they are all killed on a single occasion.

Strong wind strikes the house of the eldest brother and it crashes down on them and kills them.

And buildad says God's just.

If your children died, if they suffered, it's because they were sinners.

That's what he said.

If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.

And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.

Now I wanted to Add a little bit more than just verse 3 and 4 because I wanted you to see that build that early on, this is his first speech, build out early on is going to encourage Job to repent, to return to God.

We'll say more about that in just a few moments.

In the same speech, down in verse 20, Job 8:20, Bildad says, behold, God will not reject a blameless man nor take the hand of evildoers.

God is light and in him there is no darkness.

God will not have fellowship with darkness.

That's New Testament.

But this is Billad saying the same thing.

God will not reject the person who is righteous, and he doesn't hold hands with the evil doer.

He doesn't support the evil doer.

In the 73th chapter in verse 20.

This is Elefaz's second speech.

The wicked man writhes in pain all his days through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.

Now, what you'll see as you read through these speeches of the friends is that they are constantly telling Job about how bad it is for wicked people, that wicked people are going to suffer, that terrible things will happen to them.

In the 18th chapter and verse 5, this is Bildad's speech.

Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out and the flame of his fire does not shine.

My understanding is that in Israelite homes in ancient days, that there would be a light left on all the time, especially at night, you'd see that light.

The significance of the light of the wicked being put out is that he is no more.

He's going to be annihilated, obliterated.

The light of the wicked is put out.

Bill that says that the wicked do not prosper in chapter 20, verse 4.

This is Zohar.

He says, do you not know this from all he's speaking, asking Job, since man was placed on earth, that the exalting of the wicked is short and the joy of the godless, but for a moment.

There's something interesting that you'll notice in the speeches of the friends if you follow them closely, and that is, in the beginning, they say, wicked people just get annihilated.

At some point, they begin to acknowledge that sometimes the wicked will prosper for a while, but they'll indicate that it doesn't last very long.

In Job chapter 20 and verse 29, this is again the end of Zofhar's speech.

He says, this is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God.

Zofar has just given a laundry list of all the bad things that happen to people who are wicked, and this is the wicked man's portion from God.

That's how God deals with injustice, with unrighteousness.

The friends believe in the justice of God so strongly.

That when Job will not confess whatever his terrible sins are, they begin to manufacture sins.

You know, he's suffering horribly, so he must have sinned.

Well, we probably know what he did.

And so in chapter 22 and verse 5, Eleha says, is not your evil abundant?

There's no end to your iniquities.

Now listen, Elefas didn't know that.

You remember what God said?

God said, there's nobody like Job.

He's upright and he turns away from evil, but Eleha, in order to support their theology about suffering, He's got to find something that justifies the suffering of Job.

And so he concludes, Job, there's no end to your wickedness.

And the friends will begin to list all the different things that Job has done wrong.

They have no idea that any of those things are true.

But they're saying it because they've got to support their way of thinking.

In the 23nd chapter, again, this is still Elefaz, in verse 12, chapter 22 in verse 12, Elha says, is not God high in the heavens?

See the highest stars, how lofty they are.

But you say, what does God know?

Can he judge through the deep darkness?

Thick clouds veil him so that he does not see and he walks on the vault of heaven.

Now, Elefaz is putting words in Job's mouth.

He's saying, Job, you're just like people who say, well, you know what, God's so high up, he can't really see what's going on down here.

He can't see through the clouds.

We can do whatever we want and Elefaz is saying, Job, that's your attitude.

He has no idea that that's the way Job thinks.

In fact, it is patently false.

Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod?

They were snatched away before their time.

Their foundation was washed away.

They said to God, depart from us, and what can the Almighty do to us?

Remember chapters 221 and 27.

At the end of those chapters, when Job had suffered all of these calamities, the loss of his livestock, the loss of his servants, the loss of his family, even his own health has been afflicted.

And Job did not sin.

He didn't charge God with evil.

But now Elefaz has decided that Job is just like a lot of wicked people who say, you know what, we can get away with it.

God doesn't know what's going on.

He's, you know, off doing his own thing.

Well, the third thing that the friends got right is that God is merciful.

As we've pointed out, they are going to repeatedly encourage Job to repent of his sins.

With the promise that if he will turn to God, God will receive him and bless him once again.

For instance, look at Job chapter 220 verses 27 and 221.

This, of course, is Elefas's first speech.

He says, behold, blessed is the one whom God reprove. proves.

Therefore, despise not the discipline of the Almighty, for he wounds, but he binds up, he shatters, but his hands heal.

So you're being punished, you're being disciplined by God, but if you'll just repent, if you'll turn to God, then he'll bind you up.

He'll receive you again.

In Job the 27th chapter, verses 53 through 25, we read this passage a little bit earlier.

This is Bill Dadd speaking.

He says to Job, if you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.

And though your beginnings were small, your latter days will be very great.

If you'll just repent and turn back to God, God will receive you.

In the 210th chapter of Job in verses 23000 through 15, and this is Zofhar's speech, his first.

If you prepare your heart, he says to Job, you will stretch out your hands toward him that is gone.

If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away and let not injustice dwell in your tents.

Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish.

You will be secure and will not fear.

Promises that God will be merciful to you, that he will receive the repentant sinner.

In Job chapter 22, And I mentioned earlier, this is Elefaz's speech.

He says, agree with God and be at peace.

Thereby good will, good will come to you.

Receive instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.

If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up.

If you remove injustice far from your tents, if you lay.

Gold in the dust and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent bed, then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.

If you'll give up this ill-gotten wealth that Elehaz has accused him of acquiring, Then God will be your treasure.

God will be your gold and your silver.

Now, like the other points, the first two truths, Job concurs with this truth as well.

He says something in chapter 12 verses 1 through 3 that's similar to what he says in more than one place.

Job answers, uh, one of the friends and says, no doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you.

Don't miss the sarcasm.

But I have understanding as well as you.

I'm not inferior to you.

Who does not know such things as these?

I know that God's powerful.

I know that God is just.

And I know that God is merciful, that God will receive the sinner.

Accept him when he repents.

So those are 3 things that Job's friends got right.

So, what is the problem?

What is it that creates the tension between Job and his three friends?

Well, what we need to do is talk about what the friends got wrong.

Do you remember the illustration of the rat poison?

You've got a substance that is 103% good.

Rats can eat it all day long, won't hurt them.

It's just that little bit.

A poison that is lethal and kills the rat.

And the friends are so close to the truth.

But they make a fundamental error.

And that area is they assume that the wicked always suffer and the righteous always prosper.

And because they believe that suffering is the direct result of God's actions, they cannot conceive of the righteous suffering.

That would make God unjust.

Did you follow that?

If suffering is always for the wicked, not for the righteous.

Then if the righteous actually do suffer, then that makes it sound like God's being unjust.

He's punishing righteous people, and they will not countenance that idea.

And so they just keep plugging ahead, saying that the wicked always suffer, the righteous always prosper.

Human suffering in their mind is connected to wickedness.

They believe that divine justice is perfectly accomplished in this world.

That's the only way you can say the things that they say about the righteous and about the wicked.

To them, it's Set up so that the righteous always prosper and the wicked always suffer.

The problem with that is that Job began to know that sometimes it seems like the wicked seemed to prosper.

I want to read from chapter 21, Job chapter 21.

This is a little bit of a lengthy reading, if you'll pardon me.

I'm going to begin in verse 7.

Job chapter 21, verse 7.

Now, this is Job talking.

Because the friends have been beating up on him.

Telling him he needs to repent, you know, you're this terrible sinner.

Wicked always suffer.

The righteous always prosper.

And Job has been looking around.

And he's seeing that that's not true.

And so this is what he says in chapter 20 verse 7, 21 and verse 7.

Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

Their offspring are established in their presence and their descendants before their eyes.

Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.

Their bull breeds without fail.

Their cow calves and does not miscarry.

They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance.

They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

They spend their days in prosperity and in peace they go down to shiel.

They live their whole lives in prosperity, and then they die gently.

And are buried.

They say to God, depart from us.

We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.

What is the Almighty that we should serve Him, and what profit do we get if we pray to Him?

Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand.

And then Job says the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

He wants the friends, I think, to understand.

Listen, I don't believe what the wicked believe, but this is what they say.

This is how they think, and yet they seem to prosper.

That doesn't fit your theology, friends.

How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?

You remember Bill dad said, oh, the lamp of the wicked is put out.

The flame of, of his, uh, in, in his house, that's extinguished.

And Job says, well, how often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes upon them, that God distributes pains in his anger, that they are like straw before the wind and like chaff that the storm carries away.

You say, God stores up their iniquity for their children.

Job's response is, let him, God, pay it out to them that they may know it.

It's like Job is answering a hypothetical response of the friends.

Well, why is it that the, the wicked seem to get away with all of this?

They have this horrible, horrible attitude.

They're prospering and they die in peace.

Their families do well.

And one of the friends might have uh said hypothetically speaking, well, God's gonna punish their descendants and Job says, no, no.

Let them see it themselves so that they know that they're wicked and that God doesn't approve.

Let their own eyes see their destruction and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

For what do they care for their houses after them when the number of their months is cut off?

Will anyone teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high?

One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure.

His pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist.

Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted the prosperity, they lie down alike in the dust and the worms cover them.

And so Job says, wait a minute.

You're saying that the wicked always suffer and that's not the case.

Job says, I'm looking and I'm seeing some wicked people who are prospering and sometimes righteous people suffer.

The friends Took a general principle concerning the consequences of moral integrity.

Or lack thereof, and they turned it into an absolute law.

That would govern all of the moral uh affairs of God in this world.

They took a general principle and made it into an absolute law.

Listen to me carefully cause I, I, I, this is a fine point.

I don't want you to miss this.

I believe that the principle that the wicked will suffer and the righteous will prosper is a true principle.

But that's the big picture.

That's not necessarily what happens.

Completely in this world, and that's the problem of the friends.

They believe that God took care of all of this justice, all of the punishment for the witch in this world, they suffer, all they're going to suffer.

And the righteous are going to prosper.

Now, Why is this error so critical?

I mean, Job seemed to miss it.

In the beginning, I think Job's understanding of suffering changes a good bit as a result of his own situation.

Why is this error so critical?

Well, it may seem like a small difference.

But I want you to remember that rat poison.

It doesn't take much to kill a rat.

Just takes a little bit of poison.

You can have a lot of good stuff.

You have a lot of truth.

You just need to mix a little bit of falsehood in there.

And it'll cause people to Drift away from God.

People react to suffering in this life in different ways.

Some people associate all suffering with God's actions.

That's what the friends and Job and his wife, I think, believed in the beginning.

If somebody's suffering, it's God who's doing it to them.

They're being punished.

And so someone says, well, I'm suffering, so God must be angry with me.

He must be punishing me.

Time and chance happen to all men.

We suffer for a variety of reasons.

And not always because we have done something against God's law, not because of sin necessarily.

The only perfect human being.

to ever live on this earth.

died on a Roman cross.

As his father watched.

Others, when they suffer, take a little different tact.

I'm suffering.

So either God doesn't exist, or he wouldn't let me suffer, or he has abandoned me.

And so their conclusion is to leave God behind.

God does provide us with free will.

As we said this morning, we have the ability to choose either to serve God, obey God, or to serve Satan.

But the fact that God gives us free will doesn't guarantee perfect justice in this world.

As I suggested to you this morning, we don't really control a lot in our lives because other people's actions impinge on our lives.

And sometimes those things cause us suffering because people do sinful things and we're the object or at least we are affected by their sin.

This world is a broken world.

It's a world infested with sin.

And that means that people who are living righteously are sometimes going to suffer and has nothing to do with God punishing them.

But you know, sometimes that's a hard thing to accept.

Because we believe in general that righteousness exaltation, and sin will cause it to fall and the same thing with individuals.

Now, I said, I think this principle is true because ultimately, ultimately wickedness is going to be punished.

Perfectly And righteousness is going to be rewarded.

Perfectly No wicked people are going to manage to escape the judgment of God.

And righteous people don't want to.

But that's not during this life.

That's later.

I think the error of the friends is critical.

Because sometimes all it takes is just that little misunderstanding.

And people isolate themselves from God.

People blame God for things that God apparently has nothing to do with.

And I think we need to be careful that we understand.

That we live in a world where justice is not perfect, moral justice is not perfect.

But we look forward.

To a place where there will be perfect justice, where there will be righteousness.

Are you prepared for that kind of a place?

If the judgment took place this evening.

And we all had to stand before God and give an account for how we've lived our lives as we suggested this morning in 2 Corinthians 5:10 for the things done in the body.

What would you receive?

And the fact of the matter is, for all of us who are sinners, justice means death.

That's what God ought to do.

But the Bible tells us that grace is available through the sacrifice of Jesus, who satisfied the righteous requirement of the law.

He gave himself as a sin sacrifice, doing what we could not do, dying on the cross, shedding His blood so that we could be forgiven, not condemned.

Are you forgiven?

Have you obeyed the gospel?

For those of us who are already Christians, we need to be looking at the big picture.

There'll be times when we're gonna suffer.

Things are gonna happen to us.

There'll be sicknesses, there may be deaths, there'll be calamities.

We'll lose all 3000 of our Camels But we're looking to the big picture.

We're looking to the future where there will be perfect.

Righteousness And we can enjoy peace and joy.

eternal life with God.

If you don't have that hope this evening.

And we want to encourage you to take hold of that by obeying the gospel, becoming a child of God, having your sins forgiven through your obedience to the gospel, being baptized into Christ for the mission sins.

And if we can assist you in that this evening, then we want to invite you to come to the front as we stand and sing to encourage you.