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Study Aired June 23, 2013

Job 42:1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 42:2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
Job 42:3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Job 42:4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Job 42:7 And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.
Job 42:8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.

Introduction

God has revealed to Job that the old Job is God’s avowed enemy who is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be:

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.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Job gave himself all the credit for his own good works.

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 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

He condemned God for tormenting him, while considering himself to be “without transgression”.

Job 33:9 I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.
Job 33:10 Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy,
Job 34:5 For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.
Job 34:6 Should I lie against my right? my wound is incurable without transgression.

Because Job typifies God’s firstfruit elect, God is judging Job first, before and ahead of his friends. He is bringing Job to repentance by making Job aware of his insidious sin of self- righteousness, and by revealing Himself to Job. As we saw in chapter 40, Job was guilty of contending with, reproving, condemning His Lord and trying to justify himself at God’s expense. So He answers Job:

Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

To give Job a proper perspective as to just how important he was of himself, God had earlier asked Job:

Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 38:2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
Job 38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

God goes on for four chapters showing Job just how ignorant Job is. When God has had His say with Job, an Old Testament type of God’s first- fruit elect, this is Job’s response:

Job 42:1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 42:2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.

The Lord has just demonstrated how powerless Job, and you and I are against the powers of behemoth and leviathan. Yet He tells us that He is master of both:

Job 40:18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
Job 40:19 He [ behemoth] is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.
Job 41:10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
Job 41:11 Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine .

Yes, our Lord “can do anything”, and here is why “no thought can be withholden from [ Him]”:

Psa 10:17 LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

God prepares our hearts and causes us to will and to do all that we do. Indeed, “No thought is withholden from [ God].”

Job 42:3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.

Job now has the spirit of King David when he was confronted with his sin in the matter of Uriah the Hittite:

2Sa 12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.

Job and King David were as different as day and night, and at the same time they both had the same experience in being forced by God to come to see the sin that was within both men. Both men typify us. One is “a perfect and upright man who loved God and hated evil” and yet had to be made to acknowledge that he had “contended with… reproved… and condemned” his own God and Maker. The other was “a bloody man” who could not build the temple of God, and who was made by the Lord to see that he was himself the very same merciless murderer he so despised in King Saul who had sought to slay David who had only done good to King Saul. Uriah had served King David with the same loyalty with which David had served King Saul, yet King Saul sought his life, and David thought he was better than that even after murdering Uriah to cover up his adulterous affair with Uriah’s wife.
It all just serves to demonstrate the depth of Truth in these verses:

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The message is that all righteous men have been sinners who have been judged before becoming righteous men, and all sinners will become righteous men who have been judged as sinners before becoming righteous men. The message is that God is in the process of saving all who are in Adam in the same manner by which they came to be in Adam.

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Job now confesses his own self- righteous condemnation of His Creator and confesses “I knew not… I understood not…” and well he should. The Lord had earlier asked Job where he was when God laid the foundations of the earth. At that time He told Job that Job had “darken[ ed] counsel by words without knowledge”. His questions to Job concerning Job’s whereabouts at the time of the creation of the earth were made to accentuate the fact that Job did not exist at that time, and was therefore not nearly as knowledgeable as he thought himself to be.

Job 38:2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
Job 38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Job 38:5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Job 38:6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

God is clearly telling Job that Job was not to be found when He “laid the foundations of the earth”. Yet many believe that because God mentions “the sons of God” this verse actually proves that Job, and you and I preexisted, and we were all right there in spirit when God laid the foundations of this earth. That doctrine makes God’s questions to Job look silly, since the point God is making is that Job of himself is totally insignificant, and was not even there when God laid the foundations of the earth. As we demonstrated in an earlier study, “The sons of God” refers to the spirit realm of angelic hosts who were created on the fifth day, the day before mankind. So while some men may not know what Job admits to here, Job was well aware that the reason God asked him where he was at that time, was to remind him that he did not even exist at that time. The unscriptural ‘doctrine of circularity” actually teaches that Job could very well have said to God, “Well, since you asked, I was right there at your right hand when you laid the foundations of the earth. Have you forgotten, Lord?” But Job knew better than any such foolishness, and he now confesses “… Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
We are not as yet, according to scripture, spirit beings. For now, during this time we are in these clay vessels, according to scripture we are mere beasts, created on the sixth day along with all other beasts, and we are made of dust and have had the breath of life temporarily breathed into us.

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

When we die, we are dead, and we “return to the dust from which we were taken.” And without a resurrection we are “perished.” That is the doctrine of scripture as inspired by the holy spirit. Let us all let God be true and every man be a liar.

1Co 15:18 Then [ if there is no resurrection, vs 17] they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

Many in Babylon argue that since the people of Christ’s time believed Him to be “John the Baptist, Elias, Jeremias or one of the prophets”, that indicates that we are spirit instead of dust. What the people thought or what people still think, is not what constitutes Truth, and that account of Christ’s question and the answer of His apostles certainly does not prove either the immortality of the soul or the transmigration of souls.
Here are the verses which inform us of that event:

Mat 16:13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
Mat 16:14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

The Jews of Christ’s day did not believe in the transmigration of souls. What they thought was that Christ had come “in the spirit and power of Elias… or one of the prophets,” not that He was actually the transmigrated, immortal soul of Elijah or one of the prophets.
Here is what was prophesied concerning John the baptist:

Luk 1:17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Job continues to plead with God:

Job 42:4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

Job’s spirit and attitude have changed. He has owned up to his sins. The thunderous voice of His Creator out of the tornado has humbled him. He is demanding nothing of his Lord. Here is Strong’s definition for the Hebrew word here translated as ‘demand’:

H7592
ש××לש××ל
shaÌ‚’al shaÌ‚’eÌ‚l
shaw- al’, shaw- ale’
A primitive root; to inquire; by implication to request; by extension to demand: – ask (counsel, on), beg, borrow, lay to charge, consult, demand, desire, X earnestly, enquire, + greet, obtain leave, lend, pray, request, require, + salute, X straitly, X surely, wish.

As we can see from the way this Hebrew word is most often translated, it means “to inquire” or to “ask”. It does not mean that Job is “demand[ ing]” anything of God.

H7592
ש××ל / ש××ל
shaÌ‚’al / shaÌ‚’eÌ‚l
Total KJV Occurrences: 169
asked, 49
Gen 24:47, Gen 26:7, Gen 32:29, Gen 37:15, Gen 38:21, Gen 43:7 (2), Gen 43:27, Gen 44:19, Exo 18:7, Jos 9:14, Jos 19:50, Jdg 1:1, Jdg 5:25, Jdg 13:6, Jdg 20:18, Jdg 20:23, 1Sa 1:17, 1Sa 1:20, 1Sa 1:27, 1Sa 8:10, 1Sa 14:37, 1Sa 19:22, 1Sa 20:6, 1Sa 20:28, 1Ki 3:10-11 (6), 1Ki 10:13 (2), 2Ki 2:10, 2Ki 8:6, 2Ch 9:11-12 (4), Neh 1:2, Job 21:29, Psa 21:4, Psa 105:40, Isa 30:2, Isa 41:28, Isa 65:1, Jer 37:17 (2), Jer 38:27
ask, 41
Gen 32:29, Num 27:21, Deu 4:32, Deu 13:14, Deu 32:7, Jos 4:6, Jos 4:21, Jos 15:18, Jdg 1:14, Jdg 18:5, 1Sa 12:19, 1Sa 25:8, 1Sa 28:16, 2Sa 20:18 (2), 1Ki 2:16, 1Ki 2:20, 1Ki 2:22 (2), 1Ki 3:5, 2Ki 2:9, 2Ch 1:7, Psa 2:7-8 (2), Isa 7:11-12 (3), Isa 45:11, Isa 58:2, Jer 6:16, Jer 15:5, Jer 18:13, Jer 23:33, Jer 30:6, Jer 38:14, Jer 48:19, Jer 50:5, Lam 4:4, Hos 4:12, Hag 2:11, Zec 10:1
inquired, 15
Jdg 8:14, Jdg 20:27, 1Sa 10:22, 1Sa 22:10, 1Sa 22:13, 1Sa 23:2, 1Sa 23:4, 1Sa 28:6, 1Sa 30:8, 2Sa 2:1, 2Sa 5:19, 2Sa 16:23 (2), 1Ch 14:10, 1Ch 14:14
inquire, 7
Gen 24:57, Jdg 4:20, 1Sa 17:56, 1Sa 22:15, 1Ch 18:10, Job 8:8, Ecc 7:10
asketh, 5
Gen 32:17, Exo 13:14, Deu 6:20, Mic 7:3 (2)

There are 31 different English translations for this one Hebrew word ‘shaal’. These first five account for 117 of the 169 total entries, and they serve to demonstrate that this word has nothing to do with the word ‘demand’ as it is understood in today’s English.
So Job, the type and shadow of who we are after being crushed to powder, humbly continues to repent “in dust and ashes”.

Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Dust and ashes are what we are composed of. “From dust thou art… [ and] ashes under the soles of [ our] feet” is what our old man will become.

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Mal 4:3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

Many of the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament saw Yahweh. They ate with Him, talked with Him, and Jacob even wrestled with Him.

Gen 18:1 And the LORD [ Hebrew, Yahweh] appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
Gen 18:2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
Gen 18:3 And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
Gen 18:4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:
Gen 18:5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.
Gen 18:6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
Gen 18:7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it.
Gen 18:8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

The Lord Himself spoke to Abraham when He asked Abraham why Sarah had laughed:

Gen 18:13 And the LORD [ Yahweh] said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
Gen 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.

When Jacob wrestled with the Lord, he afterward said “I have seen God”.

Gen 32:30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

So there is no reason for us to think that Job did not also see Yahweh just as many others did in the Old Testament. Of course all these stories typify the spiritual sight we all receive when we are judged of the Lord. Here is how we can now “see” the Lord:

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.
Joh 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Joh 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

What a blessing to have know and seen the Father when we come to know God and His Son!

Job 42:7 And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.

Here we are told that Yahweh spoke to Job and to Eliphaz. The previous four chapters are the Lord verbally chastening Job and bringing Job to repentance for condemning his own Maker and Creator:

Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Obviously when God says to Eliphaz, “For ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath” He is referring to what Job spoke of Him after repenting of contending with, reproving, and condemning his Lord, and after Job confessed “I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.”
Nevertheless it is important that we realize that this whole story shows us Job as the type of God’s few elect who are simply the first to endure the seven vials of God wrath being poured out upon the kingdom of his old, carnal minded, first man Adam, who is being judged first, for the purpose of becoming the “pillars in the temple” of God through which all men will be brought to God.

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?

God could have simply told Eliphaz and his two friends to bring their offerings to Him, but that is not what He does. He is telling us that He works through His elect to save mankind. Here is what we are being told:

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: [ Job’s belief was at the expense of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar].
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy [ Job as the Old Testament type of God’s elect] they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Here is this same statement in the book of Revelation:

Rev 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee [ first, as “firstfruits”].

This is the same story we have in the book of Genesis:

Gen 37:5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
Gen 37:6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
Gen 37:7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Gen 37:8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
Gen 37:9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

Those words proceeded out of the mouth of God and so it happened to Joseph’s brothers:

Gen 42:6 And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.
Gen 43:26 And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth.

So must we all do to Christ and to His Christ. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are but one more type and shadow of our old man bowing down to our new man, “the Christ”.

Job 42:8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.

When we speak the thing which is right of Christ, then we too, will be the pillars through which our brothers in Adam will come to God:

Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will learn more of how we ourselves are saved, and of how we are used of God as “saviors” (Oba 21). Here are the verse we will cover next week:

Job 42:9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.
Job 42:10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Job 42:11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.
Job 42:12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
Job 42:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
Job 42:14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.
Job 42:15 And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
Job 42:16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations.
Job 42:17 So Job died, being old and full of days.