Job 4:1

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, "If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? But who can withhold himself from speaking? Surely you have instructed many, and you have strengthened weak hands. Your words have upheld him who is stumbling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees. But now, when it comes upon you, you are weary. It touches you, and you are troubled. Is not your reverence your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright ever cut off? Even as I have seen it, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same."

God, I pray that you would, Lord, teach us. Teach us by the work of your Scriptures, by the working of your Spirit from this text, which we believe is inspired. It is given by inspiration from you and is useful for doctrine and reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, so that we would be prepared and ready, equipped for whatever we will face this week and in the weeks, months, and years to come. Lord, would you use your Word to continue the work of equipping in our lives, that we would be able to walk in a way that is honoring and pleasing to you, but also in a way that will lead us closer to you, leading in the righteousness of God. Do that work in us. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You may be seated.

This last month at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, there was a moderated discussion. I think originally it was intended to be somewhat like a debate between a political commentator and an avowed atheist, or previously he considered himself an atheist, a guy who has a pretty big following online on YouTube named Dave Rubin. Those are my friends from my group; they have some secret word. It must be when I say "atheist" this morning.

Yes, they have spiritual Tourette's, so it's all good. Dave Rubin, along with a Christian apologist named John Lennox, who is a professor of pure mathematics from Oxford University, participated in a debate. There is a radio program in England called Premier Christian Radio, which has a podcast called Unbelievable, moderated by Justin Brierley. This was expected to be a debate, but it turns out that Dave Rubin has experienced somewhat of a conversion in his life. He does not consider himself a Christian or a full-on theist, as he grew up in a Jewish family.

I watched this yesterday while we were on a trip. I wasn't able to attend the debate, but I was looking forward to the audio and video being released. It came out just yesterday, and I want to play a brief clip from it because it touches on a topic we have been considering as we go through the text of Job over the last several weeks. The first person you will hear speaking in the clip is Dave Rubin, followed by Professor John Lennox.

I don't remember what city we were in, but a couple approached me before the show. They both looked very distraught. Sometimes, when people come up to you, you can see it in their faces and feel it in their body language. They started talking to me, and it turned out that the young man, in his late 20s or early 30s, had just found out he had stage four cancer and didn't have much time to live. Unbelievably, the woman found out she was a few months pregnant, but the fetus had died, and she was going to have to have it removed the next day.

These were unimaginably horrific circumstances. They shared this with me and mentioned that Jordan had helped them find a little meaning over the last few weeks as they navigated doctors and all of these challenges. The only thing I could say was, "God bless you." That was all I could offer. I had nothing else to say; what could I possibly say? I expressed my sorrow for what they were going through, hugged them, and tried to provide some comfort.

Just kind of standing there and being with them, that happened to be what popped up in my brain. If that, in a weird way, is evidence of something, it is that when faced with the unimaginable—no one can possibly imagine the level of horror of that situation. I hope I'm getting it fully technically right. That was what I had left; I would say it was the only words that you felt.

Can I make a brief comment? I didn't answer your question, and one of your questions to me was whether I meet objections that I find difficult to answer. I do, and that's one. The problem of moral evil and pain, which is what you talked about, is the hardest question any of us face. It has been a very important part of my life to try and think that through.

I arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand, two days after the earthquake, and I had to cancel all my talks and replace them with discussions about the earthquake. Why? Now, that's not easy to deal with. The atheists say, "Well, it's just the way the world is. There is no God, and that's just what you'd expect." But you see, if you abolish God—and I'm not going to go into details on this, but it's hugely important—if you abolish God, you can actually make the problem worse because there's now no hope.

If you bring God into the equation, from the Christian perspective, there is the hope of the resurrection. Not going into it in detail, I want to say two big things about this problem. They're not answers; that would be simplistic and trivial. Instead, they are a window into a possibility.

If it really is true that that is God incarnate on the cross, what does it mean? Well, at the very least, it means that God has not remained distant from human suffering. He has become part of it. So, your "God bless you" carries huge layers of meaning underlying it. That's the first thing.

The fact that Jesus rose from the dead means that ultimately there is real hope. Why? Because one of the things the early Christians preached was that the resurrection guaranteed...

A final judgment is a concept that many people find uncomfortable, but it is worth considering. If there is going to be an utterly fair assessment, it gives me a window of hope. This leads me to believe that the problem of moral evil and pain is one of the hardest questions any philosophy or worldview must address. Nobody escapes it. Lennox points out that the problem of moral evil and pain is the hardest question that any of us face.

We have been discussing this topic as we step into the book of Job. When you begin reading the opening chapters, specifically chapters one and two, you see the situation that comes to Job and the backstory of what is happening in his life. You might assume that the storyline will provide answers to the question of why God allows suffering. With two chapters filled with suffering and knowing that the story continues for another 40 chapters, it seems logical to think that there must be good answers for why suffering occurs in this world.

However, as we delve into Job chapter four and get into the meat of the book, we discover that it does not really address this question. In this section, we will not study every single chapter and verse in the book of Job. I have had a few people express their frustration about this because they want to explore every verse in detail. I encourage you to read through Job chapters three to 37. If you do, you will quickly understand why I am not going to cover every verse.

There is a lot of great content in those chapters. I highly recommend using a translation like the New Living Translation or the New International Version, as they can make the text easier to understand. The heavy, poetic language can be challenging to break apart, which is fine and good. However, as you read, you will notice that the discourses often repeat similar themes, which is something we will see.

I was discussing this with my good friend David Guzik last week. He asked if I was going to teach every single verse, and I replied that I would be doing an overview. He responded, "Oh, I think that's a great idea," because by the end of that, one can become quite weary of Job's friends.

So I have it from the authority there. He felt that this is kind of the point of the whole story. If you read the whole book of Job, which I really hope that you will, you'll find that it doesn't, in a satisfactory sort of way, answer the question of why God allows suffering. However, there are some important things that I think it does do.

First, the book of Job reveals that the issue John Lennox was talking about in that video—the issue of a good God in a harsh world filled with suffering, malevolence, and pain—is something humanity has been wrestling with for a very long time, almost as long as we can really look back in history. This is one of the oldest books of literature, and we see in this book and other ancient Near Eastern texts that this issue has been wrestled with for literally thousands of years.

It's not something new. When you listen to some of the skeptics of Christianity today, they bring this up as if it has never been discussed before, which shows a lack of understanding of history. Look back and read a book for once! This has been going on for a while; people have been wrestling with this issue as far back as we can see.

The people introduced to us in this book—Job and his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—along with another character named Elihu, who appears at the very end of this section in chapters 36 and 37, all have strong worldviews about these issues. Elihu, the young buck in the situation, comes in with a lot of bluster and fanfare, claiming to have it all figured out and ready to tell the older men what's going on. This dynamic is fascinating in itself and is not new either.

The book reveals that they had a very strong worldview about these issues, even if their views did not adequately answer the suffering that Job was going through. Every single one of us has constructed worldviews—the way we see reality. That worldview, that core belief or philosophy, is how we filter everything we experience and process the experiences of others.

When you see things happening in the world, if your worldview cannot adequately answer the challenges or situations occurring, you may experience an existential crisis, which is what Job is experiencing in this narrative.

The passage reveals that what Job is going through does not fit with his worldview; it is conflicting with it. In some ways, Job's friends also reveal this perspective, but they have a certain viewpoint that we will explore as we go through the text. This is the first thing that the book reveals: this is not a new issue. People have been thinking about and wrestling with it for a very long time.

Secondly, the book of Job addresses questions of justice, fairness, and equity, and whether or not God operates according to justice. Every parent realizes that this is a concept that even the youngest children grapple with very quickly. How many parents have heard their kids say, "That's not fair"? It happens all the time. From a very young age, we develop a view of justice and fairness, and the book of Job delves into that issue. In other words, it asks the question: Is God righteous in how He handles the affairs of the world?

This question is one of the first revealed in Scripture by one of the earliest followers of God, a man named Abraham. If you've read the book of Genesis, you are introduced to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, and most of the storyline continues to follow him and his descendants throughout the Old Testament. There is an interesting exchange in Genesis chapter 18, particularly in the story of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God reveals to Abraham that He is going to destroy these cities because of their wickedness. It is not just Sodom and Gomorrah; there are five cities involved in this judgment, but Sodom and Gomorrah are the most well-known.

Abraham intervenes and intercedes with God in this situation because of the issue of justice and fairness. At the end of Genesis chapter 18, Abraham is told by God that destruction is imminent. Abraham asks, "God, suppose there are 50 righteous people in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities in the south. You won't destroy the righteous with the wicked, will you? What if there are 50 righteous?" God responds, "I will not destroy it; I will relent if there are 50 righteous."

You can almost feel Abraham calculating in that moment. He realizes there are not 50 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah. So he says, "Suppose there are five less. What if there are only 45 righteous people?" God replies, "I will spare it for that." Abraham knows, "Oh man, this is a really bad place. I've heard the bad news about that place."

But he's got a nephew who lives down there. His nephew's name is Lot, and his family. He says, "What if there's only thirty?" He keeps going down, down, down. As he's having this conversation with God, the true understructure of this question, of this conversation, comes out in Genesis 18, verse 25. Abraham says, "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" That's a really important and good question.

If it is true what Christians believe, that it is appointed to men to die once and then comes judgment, and there is a judge who will judge, then we have the expectation that he is going to be just. "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" What is interesting is that God does not verbally answer the question with Abraham. He doesn't say anything. The question is left lingering there for the reader to consider, and it is indeed a valid question.

Now, God does answer the question in how He acts, which you should read in that passage. It's not our study today, so I'm not going to go into it. But it brings us to point number one on our outline: we expect right behavior from the Judge, capital J, the judge of all things. And rightly so. If there is a judge who is going to judge all things, we expect that he will be right in his judgment, or we should say righteous in the way that he judges.

Here's the fascinating thing: where does that sense of justice come from? When the atheist accuses God—come on, boys, hallelujah!—when the atheist accuses the God he doesn't believe in of being unfair, he is betraying his worldview. He reveals in that accusation that he has an expectation of rightness and wrongness. "Wrongness" is a word; it didn't get underlined in my word processor, so it's a word.

He has an expectation of rightness and wrongness, which his worldview does not support. If there is no God, then there is no moral lawgiver, there is no moral law, and there is no objective standard for right and wrong. Yet we hear agnostics, unbelievers, skeptics, and cynical atheists day in and day out casting their aspersions against God for His unfairness. You just have to say to them in that moment, "Hey, you've got a problem because I thought you didn't believe in Him, number one."

And number two, you have no basis for right or wrong, no value system, because you can't extract values from just basic facts. There's a big issue between fact and value. When someone asks the question of fairness, they're asking the question of Abraham. God doesn't answer it verbally in the text there in Genesis; He answers it in His actions. That's kind of what we see here in Job.

There are a lot of assessments of Job, the world, and God. Many questions are posed against God and the world in this passage, and there are not real verbal, clear answers given. You just have to see how it plays out, what ultimately happens, and what it reveals. Hopefully, we will get into more of that resolution in our next study next week.

It's important to understand a little bit of the structure of what's happening here in this passage from Job chapter three to Job chapter thirty-seven. If you were here last week, you may remember that Job is in a dire situation where his world has completely collapsed. From every indication, if you read Job chapter seven, verse three, you can look at it later, he has probably been in this condition for months. We assume that everything broke apart and then Job's friends showed up the next day, but it's more likely that they came months later. Job has been experiencing this for months.

His friends show up, and they are with him for seven days and seven nights without saying a word. Job breaks the silence in Job chapter three, not speaking to or addressing his friends. He just vents his frustration. I know none of you have ever done that, but maybe you've seen somebody else do it. He vents his frustration about all the things he's going through and expresses his wish that he would just die. He says, "Just crush me. After all I've gone through, just kill me."

After saying that, we have the text we read just a moment ago. Job's friends begin to speak, and this begins a cycle. The whole structure of the book of Job is built around this: Job speaks, and then one of his friends speaks in response. Then Job speaks again, followed by another friend responding. This happens three different times, creating a cycle of Job and his friends going back and forth. In the things they say, they reveal their worldview and their expectations about how the world should work as they observe everything going on. Finally, after these series of discourses back and forth, you have the young Bucky.

Lai comes in and clears everything up, going to fix it all. This reveals the best ideas of the ancient Near East about how the world worked 3,500 years ago and attempts to address the problems of justice and fairness. The issues being debated here are those of justice, God, and Job. The big question that Job is confronted with is, "Is God just?" Does He function in this world according to justice? Is He just? Is the world just? If it is, and if God is just, then what does that say about Job and how he should respond to his suffering?

This whole debate is happening with a foundational worldview that filters everything. We filter everything through our worldview, and their foundational worldview assumption was what theologians and scholars refer to as the law of retribution. It is a basic cause-and-effect sort of worldview, which most of us hold to. Most of the world adheres to this concept. The law of retribution is very similar to the New Testament idea of sowing and reaping, which we even read about in Job chapter four. You reap what you sow. Sowing is planting; you will harvest what you plant. This is basic cause and effect.

If you go to the Far East, you encounter the karmic principles in Hinduism and Buddhism. We see this idea all around the world throughout cultures for pretty much all of human history. This is the worldview expectation they are operating from. Their worldview is this: if you are wise and good and honor God, you will be rewarded with blessings. If you are sinful and wicked, you will face justice, punishment, and judgment.

So, if that is your worldview, Job's friends look at him and say, "Hey, buddy, we know you appear righteous, but it's just an appearance. You're getting what you deserve."

Point number two on your outline is that we expect all things to work the way we expect them to work. You may say, "Well, that's a circular statement," and it is. However, we have a certain expectation about how this world should work, and we expect it to function that way. But have you ever experienced a situation where it doesn't work that way? This leads to exactly what we see in this passage: a crisis.

We carry a lot of assumptions and expectations in our minds and our hearts. When things don't go the way we expect or assume they ought to, we don't always respond in the best way. Here's the fascinating thing: when we watch someone responding in what we perceive as the wrong way to their experiences, according to our worldview, we tend to do exactly what Job's friends did. We start to counsel them about how they should be responding in that situation.

Perhaps you've experienced that kind of counsel and objected to it. Job's friends, although they waited seven days and seven nights, were looking for their opportunity to confront their friend about what was going on. The first one to speak up is Eliphaz in Job chapter four, verse one. The order of this clearly indicates that Eliphaz is the oldest of the three friends, as that is how this culture would have worked. Here are the wise men of the ancient Near East, and the wisest of them all is probably Eliphaz, so he gets to speak first. He is the gray head in the group.

Eliphaz speaks up and says, "Who can withhold himself from speaking?" After Job vents his frustration, Eliphaz is aghast, thinking, "Oh my goodness, that's not the response we thought you would give, Job." He believes that clearly, Job is in this predicament because he deserves to be there and should just confess and repent. Eliphaz expresses his disbelief, saying, "Who can keep quiet any longer?" He feels compelled to speak, exclaiming, "Oh my goodness gracious! Who can withhold himself?"

In verse two of Job chapter four, Eliphaz continues, "Come on, Job. Surely you've instructed many. You've been the wise man that everybody looked to for all these years because you were wealthy and pious, and you had everything going for you. But now, when trouble comes to you, you can't handle it." That's exactly what he is saying.

In verse five, he points out that now it has come upon Job, and he is weary. It touches him, and he is troubled. For all this time, Job had confidence in his piety, reverence, and integrity. That was his boast, and he believed he would be blessed because of these things. But now, all these troubles have come upon him, and he is buckling and breaking under the weight of the situation. Eliphaz questions, "Whoever perished for being innocent?"

He tips his cards about his worldview. If you were innocent, you wouldn't be going through this again. In verse seven, it asks, "Where were the upright cut off?" This is how I've seen it, Job. This is how the world works according to my perspective. In verse eight, it states that those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. This is the law of sowing and reaping. Clearly, Job, you are getting what you deserve. You would not be experiencing this if you were actually righteous. We know you've seemed righteous for all these years, but now we realize you are not, and you are getting what you deserve. People do not experience this kind of trouble if they are good people. Therefore, you are not a good person.

It's not just Eliphaz; it's also Bildad. He is considered the shortest man in the Bible, the Shoe-height. I know, it's an easy bad joke. I'm sorry. Turn in your Bibles to Job chapter eight. We are introduced to him in Job eight, verse one. Bildad the Shoe-height answered and said, "How long will you speak these things?" In response to Eliphaz, Job speaks up and continues to maintain his innocence. Job maintains his integrity and innocence. So Bildad asks, "How long will you speak these things? And the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?" You're just blowing a whole bunch of hot air. You're helping nobody.

In verse three, he asks, "Does God subvert judgment?" The answer is no; that is a rhetorical question. "Or does the Almighty pervert justice?" Of course, He doesn't. Your sons—he remembers that his seven sons died—have sinned against God. He has cast them away for their transgression. They died because they were sinners. That's why they died.

Now, if you earnestly seek God and make your supplication to the Almighty, if you were pure and upright, surely now He would awake for you. He would vindicate you if you were pure. But clearly, you are not. Here you go, spouting off, blowing hot air like you're pure and mighty. Give me a break. Like it or not, Job, you are to blame.

Well, it's not just Bildad and Eliphaz, but Zophar in chapter 11. Just between Bildad's conversation in chapter 11, Job speaks up again and defends himself, speaking of his righteousness, which we have been given insight into in Job chapters one and two. He is upright.

In verse one of chapter 11, Zophar says, "Should not the multitude of your words be answered?" Here you go again, just spouting off. You should just confess and repent; everything would be okay. Here you are defending yourself. Should not the multitude of your words be answered? Should a man full of talk be vindicated? Should your empty talk make men hold their peace? Should we just be quiet after you say all these crazy words? Should no one rebuke you? So I'm going to step up. These guys obviously haven't been able to succeed with you, so now I've got to come in and rebuke you.

For you have said, "My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in your eyes." But oh, that God would speak! If only God would show up and open His lips against you. He would reveal the secrets of wisdom and show us what's actually going on in this situation, Job, so we could see who you really are. Know therefore, at the end of verse six, that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves. Job, listen, you have experienced some hardship. This is nothing in comparison to what you actually deserve. That's what he says.

Number three on your outline: We expect that we understand the ways and works of God, but we don't. The prophet Isaiah reveals that God, speaking through Isaiah in chapter fifty-five, verse eight, says His ways are above our ways and beyond our finding out. We don't really understand the ways and works of God. Job's friends thought they knew exactly what was going on in this situation. They believed they understood what God was doing and what this revealed about Job. If God is just and this world works according to His justice, ideally, this is what they are thinking: then, Job, you are a wicked sinner deserving of everything that you're going through. That is the only logical explanation for what you are experiencing.

I love Job's response after the third friend speaks for the first time. It's recorded in Job chapter twelve, verse two, and it's a verse that often comes to mind in certain conversations and exchanges with people. He says, "You are the men, and wisdom will die with you."

You guys got it all figured out, don't you? And boy, when you die, the world is going to experience a great loss because the wise will be gone. You have everything figured out. It just works so perfectly for you. According to Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, good people are rewarded with blessings, while bad people, wicked people, are punished and judged. And Job, you are being judged. In their mindset, when we see a person experiencing success, blessing, health, and wealth, that's a righteous person. Conversely, when we see a person who is down and out, that's a wicked person. What an easy worldview, but it doesn't work.

Now, in all of this, Job is not silent. He responds to his friends, and his responses do end up getting him into a little bit of trouble, as we will see. But how could he not respond? They are accusing him of sin that he has not committed. In fact, in Job chapter 22, they start to come up with ideas about what his sin might be. "Well, maybe you did this and that," say his lovely friends. So, Job does respond.

If you turn back to Job chapter 11 and then to Job chapter 6, his opening response to Eliphaz is recorded here in Job 6 and 7. He begins like this in verse 2: "Oh, that my grief were fully weighed and my calamity, the trouble I'm going through, were laid with it on the scales. If we could just weigh the burden of everything I'm going through right now, for then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea."

He acknowledges, "My words have been rash. Yes, I have spoken a little impulsively." You're right; he may have been a little bit rash with his speech. But he says, "Guys, listen, if you were to actually weigh out what I'm going through, you would respond no differently than I do. I've got this burden that I'm carrying. You can't even fathom how great this is."

And yes, he admits he has been a little impulsive. In verse 24 of Job chapter 6, he says, "Teach me, and I will hold my tongue. Cause me to understand wherein I have erred. Show me what I've done wrong, because I can't see it. I've been sitting here by myself in solitary confinement for months."

I can't figure it out. You don't think I haven't gone through everything I've ever done and everything that every person who knows me has ever done. Maybe I'm reaping the consequences of that. Show me my error. He says in verse 28, "Look at me, would I lie to your face? Stop assuming my guilt, for I have done no wrong. Do you think I'm lying? Don't I know the difference between right and wrong?"

Job shared the same worldview as his friends. As I pointed out before, Job expected his friends' support and God's vindication. He had the same concept of the law of sowing and reaping. In his mind, having examined himself, he believed he should be vindicated. If things worked according to this principle that they all held to, he should be vindicated, and his friends should be supporting him. But to this point, he had received neither their support nor God's vindication. You can only imagine he must have felt entirely alone. He had been going through this for months. Things were not unfolding in the way that he expected or assumed they ought to.

This situation should remind us of some other righteous sufferers in Scripture. One that comes to mind is a man you might know well: John the Baptist. John the Baptist believed Jesus rightly to be the Messiah, the Christ. He proclaimed Him to be the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the world. John was a righteous man. In fact, Jesus said of John, "Of men born of women, there is not arisen one greater than John the Baptist." Talk about an endorsement! If you want a political endorsement, Jesus is pretty good.

However, John was righteous and spoke out for righteousness, which got him into political trouble. The king of the day, when John spoke against some wicked things that he was doing, threw him in jail, and he was awaiting execution. Things were not going the way John expected they should be going because Jesus is the Messiah, and the Messiah is on the scene. In his mind, his expectation and worldview, which was shared by pretty much all of his Jewish brothers and sisters, was that the Messiah would come and destroy their oppressors.

Enemies. He's going to establish a ruling, reigning kingdom forever and ever. And I'm going to get sprung from the clink, and it's not happening.

So there he is in jail, awaiting execution. He sends two of his disciples to Jesus. The story is recorded in Matthew chapter 11. He sends two of his disciples to Jesus to ask an important question: "Hey, listen, are you the Messiah, or should we be looking for somebody else? Because this isn't what should be happening."

Jesus's words are striking and powerful. He says in Matthew chapter 11, verses two through six, "Go and tell John what you see: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." And then this, which would have hit like a brick: "Blessed are you if you're not offended with me, John. I'm doing something. And blessings to you if you don't get upset with what I'm doing when I don't work the way you expect."

I want to suggest to you that if that word got back to John, maybe it didn't. There are some who believe he was beheaded before that word ever got back to him. That would have been a really hard word to wrestle with.

Well, I may remind you of one other righteous sufferer: his name is Jesus. He was far more righteous than Job and John the Baptist. His friends deserted him, his countrymen betrayed him, and his father forsook him. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

In all of that suffering he was going through, it could have appeared like God was completely inactive. You don't care. What are you doing? You're not doing anything. But in all of it, we know, because we have the rest of the story, that God was doing something. He was still working. Things don't always work out the way we assume or expect.

Why? Well, the book of Job doesn't answer the question of why so well. But I'll say this much: in Job's circumstance, John the Baptist's circumstance, and Jesus's situation, God was working in ways that may not entirely have been clear. We can trust that He was not unaware of the suffering and not indifferent about it. He is not uncaring; He is working.

For 34 chapters, Job and his friends go back and forth in this text. All the while, Job maintains his innocence while his friends object and try to get him to confess and repent of his secret sins. Eventually, in the text, Job stops defending himself against his friends and starts to say, "I appeal my case to a higher authority. I want to talk to God. I want to have a conversation with Him." Now, he might regret that, as we'll see, but he says he thinks he deserves an opportunity to have a conversation with God. Though he realizes the absurdity of that, he expresses this desire.

Turn in your Bibles to Job chapter 16, and we'll try to close with this. Job 16, look at verse 18. Job is speaking. He says, "Oh, earth, do not cover my blood, and let my cry have no resting place. Surely, even now, my witnesses in heaven and my evidence is on high. My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears to God."

Here's the point: verse 21 states, "Oh, that one might plead for man with God! Oh, that I might have a mediator! I wish that there was an intercessor, as a man pleads for his neighbor. For when a few years are finished, I shall go the way of no return. I'm going to die. But it would be so nice if there was a mediator."

Number five: Job desired a mediator to intercede with God on his behalf. Ultimately, that's exactly what we sinners living in a broken and fallen world really need.

A mediator between God and man. What does the New Testament reveal? There is one mediator between God and man: the man, Jesus Christ. Ultimately, that's exactly what we need. The friend we truly need is that mediator between God and man.

It's interesting because that man, Jesus Christ, had a conversation with a group of people who came to Him one day to clue Him into the suffering of others. It's recorded, I believe, in Luke chapter 13. They came to Him and said, "What do you have to say about this group of people that a tower fell on and they died? It just seems wrong." There was also a group of zealous Jewish men who loved God and served God, who were killed at the temple precincts in a very unrighteous and unjust way. They asked, "What do you have to say about that suffering?"

Jesus responded, "Do you suppose that those people who died were more wicked or more sinful than you? Because unless you repent, you will also likewise perish." You see, we can get upset at the injustice of the brokenness of this world, or we can look at it and say we need a mediator to bring us before God. The New Testament reveals the mediator to be Christ. The very thing that Job hoped for, wished for, and ultimately needed is what we need as well.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? God, I thank You for the story of Job, even though it presents really challenging issues and questions that feel unanswered. I pray that You would help us to learn from Job's situation and his experience. Just as James said, "Consider the patience of Job." God, help us to think on that, consider him this week, and reflect on how his life might speak to our lives. Ultimately, what Job needed, what we all need, is You, Jesus, the one mediator between us and God, who makes it possible for us to experience a relationship with God and come into His presence—the one who brings to light life and immortality.

Through the Gospel, the very thing that Job was hoping for, God, I pray that we would know that truth and share that truth. Let us not be so quick to make predictions or assessments of situations like Bildad, Eliphaz, Zophar, and Elihu. God, work in us, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, Amen.