11/30/2011 9:35:58 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: God is just
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Job 34-35
Message of the verses: Today we begin the second to the last chapter in Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on Job, “Be Patient,” and it will cover chapters 34-37 of Job, which are the last four chapters of Elihu’s speech. There are some very interesting things that Dr. Wiersbe has written at the beginning of this chapter that I want to begin with and quote some of them before we get started on this first main point.
He begins with stating that the word theology is the “science of God,” and I suppose that I will have to plead ignorance on that one for I did know that it was the study of God but did not know that it was the science of God. He quotes A.W. Tozer from his wonderful book (“The knowledge of the Holy, Harper & Rod p.11).” “The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.” I would like at this time to mention how wonderful this book by Tozer is and how much of an impact that is has hand on my life, for this book along with several others including “Knowing God” by J.I. Packer are books that deal with the attributes of God which is essential in how to know God. I cannot list all of God’s attributes, but will give a list of some that I have studied, as I suppose that the list is different depending on who you read, but I am sure that they all overlap having many of the one’s that I will list.
I am taking this list from another book that is written by Tozer entitled “The Attributes of God.” “God is Infinitude (boundless); God is Immensity (enormity); God is Goodness; God is justice; God’s Mercy; God’s grace; God’s omnipresence; God’s Immanence (existing in all parts of the universe); God’s holiness; God’s perfection. Now I will take from the list that is in “The Knowledge of the Holy:” The wisdom of God; The love of God; The Sovereignty of God; The faithfulness of God; The Immutability of God; The eternity of God. Chip Ingram in his book, which is kind of based on Tozer’s book entitled “God as He Longs for us to See Him” adds “The faithfulness of God”. So here we have a list of God’s attributes and as mentioned these are essential if you want to know God. John MacArthur stated in one of his sermons that I have listened to in the past that all of God’s attributes were present at the cross and that statement has caused me to pounder about them. One more statement about the attributes of God that is exceedingly important and must be remembered is that all of God’s attributes bring Him glory.
As we look at the rest of the speech of Elihu it will be good to think about some of these attributes of God, for Elihu believes that he knows God fairly well, but does he.
In the last four chapters of Elihu’s speech he will explain and defend the Justice of God in chapters 34-35 and then the Greatness of God in chapters 36-37. We will begin to look at the Justice of God in this SD and probably conclude this subject in the next SD.
Elihu has promised not to use flattery, but we will see that he is actually using flattery on himself, for since he believes he is so wise he can have all of the men listen to him, for he will continually exhort them to listen to him. In 1Cor. 8:1b we read “We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” The question that we must ask about Elihu was he growing or was he swelling. When someone tries to explain and defend the Almighty they must have the humble heart of a worshipper and it must be done in love for how do we get this knowledge of God if it were not from His Spirit teach us, so He is the One to receive glory for are learning and teaching.
God is just (Job 34:5-6, 10-37) (I will include verses 1-4 in this section too). “1 ¶ Then Elihu continued and said, 2 "Hear my words, you wise men, And listen to me, you who know. 3 "For the ear tests words As the palate tastes food. 4 "Let us choose for ourselves what is right; Let us know among ourselves what is good. 5 "For Job has said, ’I am righteous, But God has taken away my right; 6 Should I lie concerning my right? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’” (NASB)
“1 ¶ Elihu continued: 2 "So, my fine friends—listen to me, and see what you think of this. 3 Isn’t it just common sense—as common as the sense of taste— 4 To put our heads together and figure out what’s going on here? 5 "We’ve all heard Job say, ‘I’m in the right, but God won’t give me a fair trial. 6 When I defend myself, I’m called a liar to my face. I’ve done nothing wrong, and I get punished anyway.’” (Message)
11/30/2011 10:28:40 AM
11/30/2011 3:09:28 PM
Job 34:10-37: 10 ¶ "Therefore, listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wickedness, And from the Almighty to do wrong. 11 "For He pays a man according to his work, And makes him find it according to his way. 12 "Surely, God will not act wickedly, And the Almighty will not pervert justice. 13 "Who gave Him authority over the earth? And who has laid on Him the whole world? 14 "If He should determine to do so, If He should gather to Himself His spirit and His breath, 15 All flesh would perish together, And man would return to dust.
16 ¶ "But if you have understanding, hear this; Listen to the sound of my words. 17 "Shall one who hates justice rule? And will you condemn the righteous mighty One, 18 Who says to a king, ’Worthless one,’ To nobles, ’Wicked ones’; 19 Who shows no partiality to princes Nor regards the rich above the poor, For they all are the work of His hands? 20 "In a moment they die, and at midnight People are shaken and pass away, And the mighty are taken away without a hand. 21 "For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, And He sees all his steps. 22 "There is no darkness or deep shadow Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. 23 "For He does not need to consider a man further, That he should go before God in judgment. 24 "He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry, And sets others in their place. 25 "Therefore He knows their works, And He overthrows them in the night, And they are crushed. 26 "He strikes them like the wicked In a public place, 27 Because they turned aside from following Him, And had no regard for any of His ways; 28 So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him, And that He might hear the cry of the afflicted- 29 When He keeps quiet, who then can condemn? And when He hides His face, who then can behold Him, That is, in regard to both nation and man?- 30 So that godless men would not rule Nor be snares of the people.
31 ¶ "For has anyone said to God, ’I have borne chastisement; I will not offend anymore; 32 Teach me what I do not see; If I have done iniquity, I will not do it again’? 33 "Shall He recompense on your terms, because you have rejected it? For you must choose, and not I; Therefore declare what you know. 34 "Men of understanding will say to me, And a wise man who hears me, 35 ’Job speaks without knowledge, And his words are without wisdom. 36 ’Job ought to be tried to the limit, Because he answers like wicked men. 37 ’For he adds rebellion to his sin; He claps his hands among us, And multiplies his words against God.’" NASB
Job 34:10-37 “10 ¶ “Listen to me, you who have understanding. Everyone knows that God doesn’t sin! The Almighty can do no wrong. 11 He repays people according to their deeds. He treats people as they deserve. 12 Truly, God will not do wrong. The Almighty will not twist justice. 13 Did someone else put the world in his care? Who set the whole world in place? 14 If God were to take back his spirit and withdraw his breath, 15 all life would cease, and humanity would turn again to dust.
16 ¶ “Now listen to me if you are wise. Pay attention to what I say. 17 Could God govern if he hated justice? Are you going to condemn the almighty judge? 18 For he says to kings, ’You are wicked,’ and to nobles, ’You are unjust.’ 19 He doesn’t care how great a person may be, and he pays no more attention to the rich than to the poor. He made them all. 20 In a moment they die. In the middle of the night they pass away; the mighty are removed without human hand. 21 “For God watches how people live; he sees everything they do. 22 No darkness is thick enough to hide the wicked from his eyes. 23 We don’t set the time when we will come before God in judgment. 24 He brings the mighty to ruin without asking anyone, and he sets up others in their place. 25 He knows what they do, and in the night he overturns and destroys them. 26 He strikes them down because they are wicked, doing it openly for all to see. 27 For they turned away from following him. They have no respect for any of his ways. 28 They cause the poor to cry out, catching God’s attention. He hears the cries of the needy. 29 But if he chooses to remain quiet, who can criticize him? When he hides his face, no one can find him, whether an individual or a nation. 30 He prevents the godless from ruling so they cannot be a snare to the people.
31 ¶ “Why don’t people say to God, ’I have sinned, but I will sin no more’? 32 Or ’I don’t know what evil I have done-tell me. If I have done wrong, I will stop at once’? 33 “Must God tailor his justice to your demands? But you have rejected him! The choice is yours, not mine. Go ahead, share your wisdom with us. 34 After all, bright people will tell me, and wise people will hear me say, 35 ’Job speaks out of ignorance; his words lack insight.’ 36 Job, you deserve the maximum penalty for the wicked way you have talked. 37 For you have added rebellion to your sin; you show no respect, and you speak many angry words against God.’” NLT
As we remember Job’s speeches we can see that Job thought that there was injustice with God because of what had happened to Job, and because Job believed that he was not sinning to cause these things to happen to him he felt that God was not just. Job had said on many different occasions that he wanted to go to court against God and then he would prove that he was right.
Dr. Wiersbe says that Elihu presented three arguments to prove that there is no injustice with God and the first argument is “if God is unjust, then He is not God (verses 34:10-15).
As we look over these six verses we see Elihu’s argument that God cannot do anything that is unjust or He would not be God at all. Genesis 18:25 is a verse that Abraham is speaking and he says, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” and we know that the answer to that question is Yes He will do right.
If God is truly God then He can do no wrong or else He would not be God. God is perfect and cannot do anything wrong.
When we began the book of Job we could see the sovereignty of God from the very first chapter, which shows that God is in complete control of all of His universe including those who live upon the earth and even the enemy of man, Satan, God was in complete control over.
I have been listening to some sermons from the book of Mark by John MacArthur and in the first chapter of Mark we see Jesus in complete control over the demons and how frightened they were of Him. Mark’s Gospel is a fast moving Gospel and he jumps right into the ministry of Jesus in the very first chapter, for there are no genealogies in Mark, and there is nothing said about the birth of Jesus. When we are born we are in the control of the evil one and are in his domain and so when Jesus came into the world and began His ministry He had to show that He was in complete control of Satan and his demons so that He could rescue us from Satan’s domain, and so it was important to see that Jesus was in complete control of Satan, which He showed by casting out the demons throughout the first part of Mark’s Gospel. I believe that this goes along with what we are learning from the book of Job as we also see the sovereignty of God there.
Argument number two is “If God were unjust, there could be no just government on earth” and this covers verses 16-20 of Job chapter 34.
We see in at least two parts of Scripture that all human government was established by God: Genesis 9:1-7; and then in Romans 13:1-7. Now if mortal man can execute justice on the earth surely God can seeing that He is holy and sovereign. We see in the book of Daniel chapter four and verses 25, 32, and 35 that God dethrones kings and removes the nobles and in doing so He shows no partiality.
One of the problems in Elihu’s speech is that he only brought up God’s attribute of justice and forgot other attributes like His love, grace, and mercy. This was a mistake on his part by not doing this for in doing this he left out part of God’s character.
Elihu’s third argument is that “if God were unjust, then He must not see what is going on in the world,” and this covers verses 21-30 of Job 34.
One of the attributes we discussed earlier was God’s omniscient’s meaning He knows everything and He is also omnipresent, everywhere all of the time. A human judge does not have these qualities and so must judge a case on the facts that are brought before him. However God is not handicapped this way and so there was no reason for Job to want to go to court with God for He already knows all the facts. We must remember that God never does answer Job’s questions, but He has many questions for Job that Job cannot answer.
In one of Job’s speeches he complained that God did not judge sinful men, but Job was judging the Judge and this was not right. God does not work on the timetable of man but His own time table. God waited four hundred years to judge the nations in the Promised Land, and waited 120 years before he brought the flood upon the earth. God is God and can do as He wants, for we cannot go against God’s plans, and that is what Job wanted to do.
In verses 31-33 Elihu asks Job the same thing that his three friends did or tells Job the same thing the three friends did and that is to confess his sins to God.
It is possible that at the end of verse 33 that Elihu wanted to get Job to speak about the charges he had brought up, but Job was silent, and this probably is why Elihu became angry with Job as can be seen in the remaining verses of chapter thirty-four.
We will look at the next complaint that Job had brought up which is “There is no profit in obey God” in the next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: One has to be careful to speak about God and who He is and what He can and should do. It is better to continue to look at who God is in the Scriptures before giving speeches about Him like Job, Elihu, and Job’s three friends did. I have called this blog 2Timothy 2:15 and it says, “Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” This is what I desire to do.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. 2Tim. 2:15.
2. Phil. 4:11b.
3. Rom. 12:1-2.
4. Prov. 3:5-6.
5. Eph. 6:10-18.
11/30/2011 5:46:24 PM
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