Audio Links

Video Links

Job 21:18 They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.

Job 21:19 God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it.

Job 21:20 His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

Job 21:21 For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?

Job 21:22 Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.

Job 21:23 One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

Job 21:24 His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.

Job 21:25 And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.

Job 21:26 They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.

Job 21:27 Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.

Job 21:28 For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?

Job 21:29 Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,

Job 21:30 That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.

Job 21:31 Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?

Job 21:32 Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.

Job 21:33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.

Job 21:34 How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?

Introduction

In our study today we will learn, as our title verse tells us, that God’s wrath against our “old man” is “the day of [ his] destruction and is designed to destroy him.

Last week we saw that Job pointed out to his detractors that the Lord does not always exact justice upon and judge the wicked in this age. The fact is that the wicked are not being judged at all in this age. It is the apostle Peter who is given to inform us that the Old Testament prophets were not ministering to themselves at all but to us:

1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

1Pe 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:

1Pe 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

So even when our brothers in this world do “groan and travail” with us, they are still not being judged at this time. It actually appears that the wicked are delivered in this age, and the elect are cursed and hated by God.

Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

Rom 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Rom 8:22 For we know t hat the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

1Pe 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

1Pe 5:9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Job’s experience is ‘not for himself, but it is to us that he is ministering’. Job, like Abraham, is given physical blessings, yet he is also given to understand that he is ‘looking for a city not made with hands’.

Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

Heb 11:9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

Heb 11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Heb 11:14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

Heb 11:15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

Heb 11:16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

“These all” means Abraham and all of the Old Testament prophets “died in faith, not having received the promises, not knowing where they were going, seeing the promises afar off, looking for a city not made with hands.

Contrast that shadow of the Old Testament prophets with the spiritual reality of the New Testament overcomers: We know where we are going, and we know the way to get there; we have this treasure in earthen vessels; the kingdom of God is near… within us, we are that city made without hands, the New Jerusalem, set on a hill”.

Joh 14:4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

Joh 14:5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Joh 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Mat 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

In a previous chapter Peter has informed us of what Job did not yet see – that we are the first to be judged:

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

1Pe 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

1Pe 4:14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

1Pe 4:15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.

1Pe 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

“The time is come” that we understand all the things which were hidden from the eyes and ears of the Old Testament saints. The fact that Peter tells us that “judgment must begin at the house of God” reveals that like Job, he knows that the world will be judged at a later time. So Peter’s question in the next verse is a rhetorical question:

1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Peter has read the book of Job, and he already knows “That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction, they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath”.

In fact we will learn in this study that God says that He hates our “old, marred vessel man”, and that He raised him up for the specific purpose of destroying that “old… first man Adam”.

Psa 26:5 I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.

Rom 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

When we are told that “all thing are yours… Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death”, we must accept that Pharaoh, and Esau are the world, and they and their death are also ours, just as much as Paul or Apollos or Cephas [ Peter].

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;

1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

When we come to know Christ and His Father we learn that His “marred… vessel… made of clay” was “made of clay” for the purpose of disposing of that old vessel, and that He had determined before He ever formed that “marred vessel” that he would destroy it and through the agency of that destruction, make a new vessel that really will be “conformed to the image of His Son”.

Job is one of the earliest revelations of this Truth. To Job it was obvious that the wicked are not being judged in this life. What he did not yet understand is that his experience would, as Peter tells us, “minister not unto [ him] self, but unto us”. Nevertheless Job was granted to understand “That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.”

Job 21:18 They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.

Job 21:19 God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it.

Job 21:20 His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

“They are as stubble before the wind” is “that wicked” within all men of all time, including us and Job as a type of us.

Job 16:9 He [ God Himself] teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

Job 19:11 He [ God] hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. <

Now if indeed Job is “not ministering to [ him] self but to us” (1Pe 1:9-12), how then can we deny that God pours out His wrath upon his elect first, as His Word judges us and ‘tears us and kindles His wrath against us’, Job as the type of God’s elect.

“His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty” is just an earlier version of these New Testament witnesses and confirmations to this statement made by Job:

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Rev 19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him [ Christ] upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

Rev 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Rev 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

Rev 19:17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

Rev 19:18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

Rev 19:19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

Rev 19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Rev 19:21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

As our deceitful ‘old man’ is revealed to us, we witness his destruction. As he is destroyed, our “new man” grows within us, and as we see Him, we become Him “from glory to glory”.

2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Job within us does not yet see that transformation. All we first see is that our old man is being destroyed, and it is, at first, a great mystery to us that we must live out such a cursed existence.

Job 21:21 For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?

Job 21:22 Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.

This is an incredible testament of how we all see evil in our brothers long before we see it in ourselves. Job knows that no man can teach God anything. He knows that God judges even “those that are high”. But at the same time he maintains his own righteousness, contends with, reproves, and condemns God for the way He is working in his life. Job sees the blindness of his friends to the sovereign work of God with His creatures and His creation, but he cannot see the log that is in his own eye.

Job 21:23 One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

Job 21:24 His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.

“There is a time to die”, and this is how we would all want to die, “wholly at ease and quiet” and in a very prosperous state.

Gen 25:8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.

Ecc 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Ecc 3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; [ our old man]

But it is obvious to all that there are also many evil men in this world, who also die “in a good old age”, not having received the justice due them, while others, less deserving of it, live a long, drawn out, life of constant trials ending in a protracted, agonizing, and bitter death.

Job 21:25 And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.

Job observes this entire event and acknowledges that it appears unfair on God’s part, but he doesn’t think his friends should dare to question or reprove God for His ways, even as he himself is doing just that.

Job 21:26 They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.

This statement by Job brings to mind this statement by Christ:

Mar 9:44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

“The worms shall cover them… their worm dieth not” means that many die in this age while still in the darkness of the deception of the lies of the adversary, symbolized by worms which devour us all while we are in that spiritually dead state. The worms in scripture are our own false doctrines coming out of our own mouth, which will judge us.

Luk 19:22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

“They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them”, refers to the egregiously wicked, as well as those who are not given to be nearly that wicked.

Job 21:27 Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.

Job 21:28 For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, have made it clear that they suspect Job to be a “sinner above all men…” simply because of the evil that God has brought upon Job. While they should be weeping for themselves, they are wondering why God is judging His elect first. Of course they are not thinking in those terms, but they are wondering why God is doing this to Job, and the fact is that Job is a type of God’s elect who are being judged in this age “that we should not be condemned with the world”.

2Co 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Luk 23:28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

Luk 23:29 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.

Luk 23:30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.

Luk 23:31 For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

“Where is the house of the prince… the dwelling places of the wicked?” refers to Job, and he is painfully aware of what his friends are thinking of him.

Here is Job’s response to these slanderous thoughts:

Job 21:29 Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,

Why “have you not asked them that go by the way?” ‘Do you any idea what those who know me would say about me, “their tokens” of me?’ If you had, you would know that none of the things you suspect of me are true. Here is what you would discover”:

Job 31:32 The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.

If a traveler and “them that go by the way” are understood as “strangers and pilgrims” on this earth.

Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

1Pe 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

All true spiritual “strangers and pilgrims” would identify with Job’s struggles, and they would comfort him accordingly, knowing that the truth of these verses applies to themselves and to all men:

Job 21:30 That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.

Job 21:31 Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?

God shows us our ‘old man’ and his pride, and he does so “to our faces”. Joseph is a type of Christ judging us, and he does so “to our face”.

Gen 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

Gen 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

Gen 45:6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.

Gen 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Deu 7:10 And repayeth them that hate him [ God] to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

Hos 5:5 And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.

Hos 7:10 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.

Pride is the weakness with which Job and all of his friends suffer. Malachi also brings out the destructive power of pride and “the proud” within us and within our midst:

Mal 3:15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

Mal 3:16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.

Mal 3:17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

Mal 3:18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

Job 21:32 Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.

Job 21:33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.

These are “the tokens” of those who know God and His Son whom He has sent to save this world. God’s true children know that even “the world… and death… all are ours”, and not just for some other person who we perceive to be “sinners above all men”.

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;

1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

1Co 3:23 And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?

Luk 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Job may not have understood that “the day of the destruction of the wicked in the day of God’s wrath” is the birth and salvation of our new man, but he is still ministering this message to all who do ‘know God and His son.”

Job 21:34 How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?

The one thing Job knew, and to which he was clinging, was the fact that “there remained falsehood ” in the accusations of his so- called friends.

Next week, Lord willing, we will hear Eliphaz as he accuses Job of being a ‘sinner above all men’:

Job 22:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

Job 22:2 Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

Job 22:3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?

Job 22:4 Will he reprove thee for fear of thee? will he enter with thee into judgment?

Job 22:5 Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?

Job 22:6 For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

Job 22:7 Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.

Job 22:8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it.

Job 22:9 Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

Job 22:10 Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee;

Job 22:11 Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.

Job 22:12 Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

Job 22:13 And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?

Job 22:14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.