Transcript JOB - Houston Graduate School of Theology

JOB
THE DIALOGUE
Job 3:1-31:40
Job’s Birthday Curse
• After the 7 days of silence, Job spoke.
JOB 3:3
"May the day of my birth perish, and the night it
was said, `A boy is born!'
Job’s “Reversal of Creation”
• “Let there by darkness” (3:4-6)
– That day--may it turn to darkness;
– may God above not care about it;
– may no light shine upon it.
• May darkness and deep shadow claim it once more;
– may a cloud settle over it;
– may blackness overwhelm its light.
• That night--may thick darkness seize it;
– may it not be included among the days of the year
– nor be entered in any of the months.
– Darkness = evil & chaos.
Job’s “Reversal of Creation”
• “Rouse Leviathan” (3:8)
• May those who curse days curse that day, those who are
ready to rouse Leviathan.
– PS 74:13-14
It was you who split open the sea by your power;
You broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
And gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.
– (cf. Job 41:1ff)
Job’s Birthday Curse
Job longs for death
•
JOB 3:11-12
"Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I
came from the womb?
Why were there knees to receive me and
breasts that I might be nursed?
Job’s Birthday Curse
Job longs for death
• Job longs for death. What was death like?
–
–
–
–
It was a place to “lie down & be quiet.”
It was a place where everyone goes.
It is a place free from the “raging” of this world.
(It is also a place without rescue, i.e. 7:9.)
Job’s Birthday Curse
Job’s final lament
• JOB 3:20 "Why is light given to those in misery,
and life to the bitter of soul?
• JOB 3:23 Why is life given to a man whose way is
hidden, whom God has hedged in?
• JOB 3:25 What I feared has come upon me; what
I dreaded has happened to me. (What?)
– JOB 3:26 I have no peace, no quietness; I have
no rest, but only turmoil."
Job & his “Friends”
Eliphaz, the Mystic Visionary
JOB 4:1-6 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
"If someone ventures a word with you, will you be
impatient? But who can keep from speaking?
Think how you have instructed many,
how you have strengthened feeble hands.
Your words have supported those who stumbled; you
have strengthened faltering knees.
But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
Should not your piety be your confidence
and your blameless ways your hope?”
Job & his “Friends”
Eliphaz, the Mystic Visionary
• JOB 4:7-9 "Consider now: Who, being innocent,
has ever perished? Where were the upright
ever destroyed? As I have observed, those
who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap
it. At the breath of God they are destroyed; at
the blast of his anger they perish.”
Job & his “Friends”
Eliphaz, the Mystic Visionary
• Eliphaz’s Vision (4:12-21)
–
JOB 4:17
Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
– Human wisdom says that Job is wise, but one must
compare Job with God, not other men.
• Appeal to God (5:8ff).
–
JOB 5:17-18
Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so
do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he
wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his
hands also heal.
Job & his “Friends”
Job’s Reply
• JOB 6:8-10 "Oh, that I might have my request, that
God would grant what I hope for, that God would be
willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut me
off! Then I would still have this consolation--my joy
in unrelenting pain--that I had not denied the words
of the Holy One.
Job & his “Friends”
Job’s Reply
• JOB 6:14-15a "A despairing man should have the
devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes the
fear of the Almighty. But my brothers are as
undependable as intermittent streams . . . .”
• JOB 6:24 Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me
where I have been wrong.
Job & his “Friends”
Bildad, the Traditionalist
• Appeal to divine justice
–
JOB 8:3-4
Does God pervert justice? Does the
Almighty pervert what is right? When your children
sinned against him, he gave them over to the
penalty of their sin.
Job & his “Friends”
Bildad, the Traditionalist
• Appeal to History (8:8-10)
–
JOB 8:8-10
Ask the former generations and find out
what their fathers learned, for we were born only
yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth
are but a shadow. Will they not instruct you and tell
you? Will they not bring forth words from their
understanding?
Job & his “Friends”
Job’s Reply to Bildad (Job 9)
• JOB 9:2-3 "I know that this is true. But how can a
mortal be righteous before God? Though one
wished to dispute with him, he could not answer
him one time out of a thousand.”
• JOB 9:15-16 Though I were innocent, I could not
answer him; I could only plead with my Judge [or
adversary] for mercy. Even if I summoned him and
he responded, I do not believe he would give me a
hearing.
Job & his “Friends”
Job’s Reply to Bildad (Job 9)
• JOB 9:32-34 He is not a man like me that I might
answer him, that we might confront each other in
court. If only there were someone to arbitrate
between us, to lay his hand upon us both,
someone to remove God's rod from me, so that his
terror would frighten me no more.
– Hebrew mokiach (ִ‫)מֹוכִ֑יח‬. Someone to judge,
decide, or arbitrate, perhaps like an umpire
between opposing foes.
Job & his “Friends”
Zophar, the Dogmatist
• JOB 11:2-3 "Are all these words to go unanswered?
Is this talker to be vindicated? Will your idle talk
reduce men to silence? Will no one rebuke you
when you mock?
Job & his “Friends”
Zophar, the Dogmatist
• JOB 11:4-5 You say to God, “My beliefs are flawless
and I am pure in your sight.” Oh, how I wish that
God would speak, that he would open his lips
against you.
• JOB 11:7-8 "Can you fathom the mysteries of
God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
They are higher than the heavens--what can you
do? They are deeper than the depths of the
grave--what can you know?”
Job & his “Friends”
Job’s Reply
• JOB 12:2-3 “Doubtless you are the people, and
wisdom will die with you! But I have a mind as
well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does
not know all these things?”
Job & his “Friends”
Job’s Reply
• JOB 13:20-24 “Only grant me these two things, O
God, and then I will not hide from you:
Withdraw your hand far from me, and stop
frightening me with your terrors. Then
summon me and I will answer, or let me speak,
and you reply. How many wrongs and sins have
I committed? Show me my offense and my sin.
Why do you hide your face and consider me
your enemy?”
Job & his “Friends”
Job’s Reply
• JOB 14:1-2 Man born of woman is of few days and
full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and
withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does
not endure.
Job & his “Friends”
Job’s Reply
• JOB 14:7, 10-12 At least there is hope for a tree: If it
is cut down, it will sprout again, . . . But man
dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is
no more. As water disappears from the sea or a
riverbed becomes parched and dry, so man lies
down and does not rise; till the heavens are no
more, men will not awake or be roused from
their sleep.
Job & his “Friends”
Job’s Reply
• JOB 14:13 "If only you would hide me in the
grave and conceal me till your anger has
passed! If only you would set me a time
and then remember me! If a man dies,
will he live again? All the days of my
hard service I will wait for my renewal to
come.
Job & his “Friends”
2nd Cycle of Speeches (Job 15-21)
• JOB 16:19-21 Even now my witness is in heaven; my
advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a
man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his
friend.
Job & his “Friends”
2nd Cycle of Speeches (Job 15-21)
• JOB 19:23-27 "Oh, that my words were recorded, that
they were written on a scroll, that they were
inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in
rock forever! I know that my Redeemer lives, and
that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And
after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh
I will see God; I myself will see him with my own
eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns
within me!
Job & his “Friends”
2nd Cycle of Speeches (Job 15-21)
• H. H. Rowley: “Though there is no full
grasping of a belief in a worthwhile
afterlife, this passage [19:23-27] is a
notable landmark in a progress toward
such a belief.”
Job 28—
The Inaccessibility of Wisdom
Man’s ability to find hidden things (28:1-11)
• Man can dig precious metals & jewels from
deep within the earth.
• These verses paint man as a resourceful,
intelligent being.
Job 28—
The Inaccessibility of Wisdom
Wisdom’s inaccessibility (28:12-22)
• Man cannot find it.
• The “deep,” “sea,” “destruction,” & “death” do
not know of wisdom’s dwelling.
– These may be gods—Tehom, Yam, Abaddon, Mot
• Wisdom is beyond all earthly wealth.
Job 28—Wisdom
• Job 28 serves to delay the harsh
challenge & conclusion of Job in 29-31.
Job 28—Wisdom
• God’s knowledge of wisdom (28:23-28)
– “God understands the way to it and he alone
knows where it dwells, for he views the ends of
the earth and sees everything under the heavens.
When he established the force of the wind and
measured out the waters, when he made a
decree for the rain and a path for the
thunderstorm, then he looked at wisdom and
appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it. And he
said to man, ‘The fear of the Lord--that is wisdom,
and to shun evil is understanding.’”
Job’s Final Speech (Job 29-31)
Job 29-30—Job’s Past & Present
“How I long . . .” Job longs for the past.
• JOB 29:14, 17 I put on righteousness as my clothing;
justice was my robe and my turban. I broke the
fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims
from their teeth.
• He longs for his hope (29:18-19).
–
“I thought, ‘I will die in my own house,
my days as numerous as the grains of sand.
My roots will reach to the water, and the dew
will lie all night on my branches.’”
JOB 29:18
Job’s Final Speech (Job 29-31)
Job 31—Job’s Declaration of Innocence
JOB 31:1, 4 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to
look lustfully at a girl. Does he not see my
ways and count my every step?”
– Sirach 9:5, 8 Gaze not on a maid, that thou fall not by
those things that are precious in her. Turn away
thine eye from a beautiful woman, and look not
upon another’s beauty; for many have been
deceived by the beauty of a woman; for herewith
love is kindled as a fire.
– Matt 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a
woman lustfully has already committed adultery
with her in his heart.
Job’s Final Speech (Job 29-31)
Job 31—Job’s Declaration of Innocence
JOB 31:5-6 "If I have walked in falsehood or my
foot has hurried after deceit--let God weigh
me in honest scales and he will know that I
am blameless-JOB 31:16-17 "If I have denied the desires of the
poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing
it with the fatherless--
Job’s Final Speech (Job 29-31)
• Final Declaration of Innocence (31:35-37)
– "Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my
defense--let the Almighty answer me; let my
accuser put his indictment in writing. Surely I would
wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a
crown. I would give him an account of my every
step; like a prince I would approach him.”
• “The words of Job are ended” (31:40c)!
Elihu’s Discourse (Job 32-37)
• He was angry with Job for justifying himself
“rather than God.”
• He was angry with the three friends for not
refuting Job.
• He had not spoken because he was deferring to
his elders.
• “No one has proved Job wrong”(32:12)—There
is no mokiach, an umpire or mediator.
– Elihu answers him here that in essence he will be the
mokiach.
• “I am full of words” (32:18)
Elihu’s Discourse (Job 32-37)
Elihu’s Message
• Elihu accuses Job of “multiplying words
without knowledge” (35:16).
• 36:21-22—Affliction can be a teacher to
the one suffering.
Why is Elihu Here?
• The speeches describe the proper
response to suffering—submission.
• The speeches form a transition between
Job & Yahweh.
• The speeches were inserted as a type of
commentary on the dialogue up to this
point.
• The speeches point out the ultimate need
for an intercessor.
– Terrien: “the necessity of a Christ.”