Audio Links

Video Links

Job 29:1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Job 29:2 Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;
Job 29:3 When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;
Job 29:4 As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;
Job 29:5 When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;
Job 29:6 When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
Job 29:7 When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!
Job 29:8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.
Job 29:9 The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
Job 29:10 The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
Job 29:11 When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:
Job 29:12 Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
Job 29:13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

Introduction

As the type of each of us, Job at first seems strong and willing to acknowledge God’s sovereignty. After being informed that literally everything he has ever worked for had been destroyed, this was Job’s response:

Job 1:20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
Job 1:21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Job 1:22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

When the Lord then puts forth His hand and strikes Job with boils from his head to his feet, this was his immediate response:

Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
Job 2:8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
Job 2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

In chapter one we are told “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” In chapter two we are told “In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”
But then Job begins to complain to God that it would have been better if God had never brought him into this world. He takes it upon himself to curse the day he was born, and then He actually questions why the Lord gives light to a man who is in misery, and why God gives life to and sustains that life in a “bitter… soul”.

Job 3:20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
Job 3:21 Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
Job 3:22 Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
Job 3:23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
Job 3:24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
Job 3:25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
Job 3:26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

From this point on it can no longer be said that “Job… did not… sin with his lips”. Job now realizes that God is pouring out His wrath on him, and he now considers God to be his enemy:

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

God is not bashful about making it clear that we must all fulfill the seven vials of His wrath upon the old self- righteous man within us all:

Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

After reproving his own Creator for bringing him into this world and for sustaining him in his misery, God now sends Job a trial which causes Job to justify himself at God’s expense. The pain of the loss of all his great wealth, the torment of his boils all over his body, and now the unrelenting betrayal of three men who were supposed to comfort him in his torment, incite pride in the self- righteous, Pharisaical, carnal, old man who is being tried with fiery trials; that is who Job typifies.
Instead of comforting Job in his misery, these supposed friends, who typify the self- righteous Pharisee who is not yet being judged within us, turn on Job and begin to accuse him of being worthy and deserving of the misery God has inflicted upon him:

Job 4:4 Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
Job 4:5 But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
Job 4:6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
Job 4:7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?
Job 4:8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

Added to his great material losses, his great physical misery from his boils and his reproving of his own God, Job is now sent a test which, combined with what he has already endured, causes him to start considering that God really does not have any reason to be treating him as His enemy while men who are less righteous than he is, are being blessed to the extent that they are able to consider Job to be the object of God’s wrath and themselves the object of his favor. Job is us as we declare that we are having no part of what we consider to be such a gross injustice. Job, as the self- righteous, old man within us is not taking this lying down.
Back in chapter 27 he tells us this:

Job 27:2 As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
Job 27:3 All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
Job 27:4 My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

These are truly prophetic words which must be fulfilled. Our old self- righteous man within us, must first “fall into the ground and die” before we will ever come to see just how offensive to our heavenly Father all of our- righteousness is. Here is a concept which is completely foreign to us at this stage in our walk.

Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

This is every one of us when we think we have every right to question our Creator’s freedom to show us our own filthy self- righteousness, and to let us know just how much like “filthy rags” is the innate self- righteousness of our sinful flesh.

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:

Here are but a few of the verses we have already covered in which Job declares his own righteousness, while reproving, contending with, and actually condemning God for treating him as he has:

Job 7:3 So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.
Job 7:4 When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.
Job 7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.
Job 7:11 Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 7:12 Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?
Job 7:13 When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;
Job 7:14 Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:
Job 7:15 So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.
Job 7:16 I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.
Job 7:17 What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?
Job 7:18 And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?
Job 7:19 How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

This is you and me as God “commands, and raises the stormy wind” in our lives.

Psa 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

We do not know it at the time, but these storms in our lives which bring us to our wits’ end are the “goodness of God” which brings us to repentance of the sins of which we are not even aware. Here is how the New Testament evaluates Job’s hardened and impenitent attitude towards God as it typifies our attitude toward God at this time in our aion:

Rom 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
Rom 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

This is all to be lived out in the life of every man. This is the work of God in “making it another vessel as seem[ s] good to the Potter to make it”.

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

As the Old Testament type of us, if indeed we are being judged in this age, Job begins his “parable” acknowledging that at one time “God preserved me”.

Job 29:1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Job 29:2 Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

It is true. We all live what seems to be charmed lives for a time while we are in that period of our lives where Satan is hedged out and God blesses us as he is blessing Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, while they too, are self- righteous Pharisees in Babylon who are looking down upon the poor spiritual Job, who is being judged by God right before the eyes of the Pharisees and the whole world.
Here is what God does to bring this about in our lives:

Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

Job in this part of his experience has never had his faith tried. Here is what has to happen to us all to wake us up from this time of spiritual complacency:

Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

So Job is the type of every man who must suffer the loss of all that is precious to our flesh and to our old man, before he can be “saved, yet so as by fire”.

1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

This chapter of Job tells us what is most precious to Job. It is Job’s own goodness and his pride in his own self- righteousness. It was his pride in his reputation in “the gate [ of] the city”, and his pride in all the good works he had done for others. His frustration with his God who seems totally unimpressed with all of Job’s good works, is more than Job’s flesh is capable of accepting. Not even realizing that he is self- righteous, he continues expressing his frustration by telling us how much he misses the days before the judgment of his self- righteousness began.

Job 29:3 When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;
Job 29:4 As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;
Job 29:5 When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;
Job 29:6 When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
Job 29:7 When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!

This is the Old Testament version of the parable of the Pharisee and the publican:

Luk 18:9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
Luk 18:10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
Luk 18:12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
Luk 18:13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
Luk 18:14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Of course, Job doesn’t come right out and openly proclaim that he despises others, but look at what he says of himself. He clearly thinks that he is “not as other men”. Job’s many good works go way beyond fasting twice in the week and giving a tithe of all he possesses. Like those who trust in their own good works, this book of Job, in effect, tells us what God thinks of all of Job’s good works. Here is what Job’s self- righteous flesh is hearing from God, while God is in the process of pouring out His wrath upon Job’s old man and all of his “many wonderful works”.

Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Job 29:8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.
Job 29:9 The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
Job 29:10 The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

Young men, princes and nobles all deferred to this great man, Job. Clearly Job does not consider himself to be “as other men”.

Job 29:11 When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:
Job 29:12 Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
Job 29:13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

“I delivered the poor that cried, [ I delivered] the fatherless, and [ I delivered] him that had none to help him”. There it is for all the world to see. Job, the Old Testament type of our own “man of sin” is sitting in the temple of God within us all, clearly thinking that he himself has saved “the poor… the fatherless and him that had none to help”. That self- righteous beast within us thinks that it is God who needs to be grateful to him for all the good works he has done. Not one word of acknowledgment that Job and you and me “can of our own selves do nothing”. Certainly no understanding of the Truth which must come to be acknowledged by all men:

Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Rom 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Rom 11:35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

It is God who has made us, and we have nothing in which to take pride. We are His work. He is free to do with His vessel what He will:

Rom 9:15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
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.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

“For who hath resisted His will?” is actually a quote from 2h 20:

2Ch 20:1 It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.
2Ch 20:2 Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they be in Hazazontamar, which is Engedi.
2Ch 20:3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
2Ch 20:4 And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.
2Ch 20:5 And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court,
2Ch 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

This is a truth which we, as Job, do not at first see or understand, and we are weary of our Creator’s ways, and have no idea how presumptuous we are acting when we dare to complain of how He does His “wonderful works to the children of men”.
Next week we will continue to see how entrenched is that man of sin, sitting on the throne of God within us. He actually thinks that he, of himself, has something to do with being a very righteous man:

Job 29:14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
Job 29:15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.
Job 29:16 I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.
Job 29:17 And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
Job 29:18 Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
Job 29:19 My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.
Job 29:20 My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.
Job 29:21 Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.
Job 29:22 After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.
Job 29:23 And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
Job 29:24 If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.
Job 29:25 I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.