A Response to Cross-Less Wisdom

Job 6:1–4 ESV

Then Job answered and said: “Oh that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash. For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

Prayer

A Response to Christ-Less Wisdom:

Cross-Centered Response

The Mystery of a Silhouette

Have you ever noticed that a shadow can be really weird?

I mean that a shadow only vaguely shows us what the actual form of something is.

Take a look at this first image…

What is it?

Any guesses?

It kind of looks like a piano, right?

What about this second image?

It sort of looks like a gorilla, right?

Shadows are sometimes very unclear on the actual form of an object.

A shadow can appear a certain way to our senses but we need to see the image to understand the object itself.

The book of a Job as I have continually said is really no different.

Cross-Centered Wisdom seeks to present the Greatness, Goodness, and Grace of God to Sinners and Sufferers in the face of Jesus Christ.

In these chapters of Job this week, we listen in on Job’s response to his first friend, Eliphaz the elder.

Remember, Eliphaz has hinted at Job that all this is happening to him because he sinned in some way.

He continued to appeal to Job that the innocent never suffer in this life.

The Monologue of Despair

“The Voice of Despair”

Job is responding to what Eliphaz the elder has accused him of…

Job 5:2 ESV

Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple.

In a subtle way, Eliphaz has called his friend Job a fool.

He calls him a fool because he has allowed his “grief” and “anguish” to rise up within him.

Job 6:2–3 NKJV

“Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, And my calamity laid with it on the scales! For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea— Therefore my words have been rash.

Job is saying that he wishes his “grief”, or “anguish” were weighed by God.

He wishes that his calamity, or “misery” were laid in the balances!

Now remember a couple of chapters ago, Job was NOT angry toward God.

Rather, he was expressing his deep anguish and distress before God!

But Eliphaz sees this distress as a response of a “fool”

Job on the other hand is saying that his outcry is a natural and normal response to such anguish and grief.

Listen to how Job further describes the pain he has been walking through.

Job 6:2–3 NLT

“If my misery could be weighed and my troubles be put on the scales, they would outweigh all the sands of the sea. That is why I spoke impulsively.

Job is essentially saying here that if you were to put all of my grief and misfortune on one side of a scale, it would be heavier than all the sand of the sea!

The Cry to Weigh Suffering

“Discouragement Abounding”

I couldn’t find the origins of this, but I found it interesting…

There is a legend of a man who found the barn where Satan kept seeds to be sown in the human heart. 

There were seeds of “Anger”, “Lust”, “Greed”, “Fear”, “Bitterness”,  “Jealousy”,  “Deceit”, “Violence”, “Dishonesty”, “Fear”, “Confusion”, and many, many more! 

But as the man looked around the barn it quickly became obvious that most numerous seed in his arsenal were the seeds of “Discouragement”. 

When he inquired as to why this was so, his guide told him it was because the seeds of “discouragement” could grow almost anywhere.

(Illustration Unknown Origin, modified from Lawson, Steven J. 2005. Job.

What this illustration is pointing at is the fact that discouragement is one of Satan’s most potent weapons.

If Satan’s arsenal of weapons were restricted to a single one, it would be discouragement.

C. S. Lewis

It appears to be one of the last weapon’s he has for Job.

This singular weapon of discouragement attacks the very center of the person.

It leaves them as it were, without hope.

Job find himself in a hopeless position.

But listen to the reason why....

What is the heavy weight upon him?

Now in verse 4, Job gives the reason for why his anguish has been so heavy.

Job 6:4 ESV

For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

Job is saying this heavy misfortune has come upon him because God has struck him with arrows.

The Book of Job (a) The Reality of His Suffering (6:1–7)

He feels that he is no longer in an I-Thou relationship with God, but in an I-It relationship. God acts toward him as though he were merely a practice target.

Job is describing something here much like the Psalmist does in Psalm 88.

Psalm 88:16 NKJV

Your fierce wrath has gone over me; Your terrors have cut me off.

The Psalmist seems to be experiencing something similar to Job here.

It is the experience of God’s wrath resting upon him.

We don’t understand fully, but he seems to be experiencing “God’s hot, settled anger against sinners.” (Ash)

This is why he life feels unbearable.

His life is unbearable, not because of his situation.

His life is unbearable because he is experiencing the wrath of God.

The Expositor’s Bible, Volume 2: Samuel to Job Chapter VIII: Men False: God Overbearing (Job 6, 7 Job Speaks)

The seeming needlessness of their sufferings, the impossibility of tracing these to any cause in their past history, in a word, the mystery of the pain confounds the mind, and adds to anguish and desolation an unspeakable horror of darkness.

Rather than bringing peace to this situation, Eliphaz has merely stoked the coals.

We need to remember what Eliphaz has just said to Job…

Job 4:6 NKJV

Is not your reverence your confidence? And the integrity of your ways your hope?

Eliphaz has told Job that his confidence should be in his integrity and piety.

His hope should be in how good of a person he is.

Talking to himself but no doubt in response to Eliphaz, Job insists…

Job 6:5–7 NLT

Don’t I have a right to complain? Don’t wild donkeys bray when they find no grass, and oxen bellow when they have no food? Don’t people complain about unsalted food? Does anyone want the tasteless white of an egg? My appetite disappears when I look at it; I gag at the thought of eating it!

Job has been saying that he has been wounded by God.

And rather than bringing him comfort, his friends have brought him “unseasoned words” (Lawson)

Job is criticizing Eliphaz’s unseasoned words.

These words have been a tasteless food to him that has made him ill.

The Cry of the Tortured

“Just End It!”

Job 6:8–9 ESV

“Oh that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope, that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!

Job cannot imagine anything that would relieve him than the relief that God should finish him off.

The only hope right now is that God would break his life.

But why?

Why is Job pressed to such a place?

Picture a prisoner under the torture of an enemy.

The enemy is beating him and trying to get him to break.

Like we see in the movies where the prisoner is at his wit’s end.

He’s at the end of himself and his fear is that he is going to break.

His fear is that he is going to “Curse God and die”

Job 6:10 ESV

This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

This prisoner who is being mercilessly tortured fears the moment he may “curse God and die”

Job B. Job’s Despair (6:8–13)

Unlike his wife, he knew he had remained true to God. Job had not cursed God or rejected his words, which, in essence, would have been a denial of the Lord. So he preferred to die now, knowing he had kept the faith. Job defended his emotional response by citing that he was at a loss for strength. Being at the end of human resources, he was without hope and had lost all prospects to become patient in this painful and crushing ordeal.

It is in these cries for God to bring an end to his life that we see Job as the most heroic.

In this moment of utter despair in fear that he would eventually break he shines forth.

The Cry for Strength

“Utter Weakness”

Job 6:11–13 NIV

“What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze? Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?

Job is essentially saying that his physical strength is of no use.

His physical strength is NOT strong enough for him to wait for God’s answer.

His physical strength is GOING to collapse under the weight of his anguish.

Do you know what is most interesting in this response?

It’s not as much what he’s saying as much as what he is longing for.

It’s like the shadows in this way…

What we are seeing does not quite represent the form of the thing…

He is longing to be faithful

He is hungering for someone to show up.

Cross-Centered Wisdom presents the Greatness of God

Without asking for it, Job desperately longs for God Himself to show up.

Psalm 119:50 ESV

This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.

In this moment, he can’t even see this comfort.

His discouragement is crushing in on him and he desires it to be alleviated.

Matthew 8:23–27 ESV

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

When God is so Great, we realize we don’t have to be in control.

The healing balm to a sufferer is to know that we serve a GREAT Savior.

We serve a Savior who’s greatness surpasses all we could ever hope or dream.

Addressing the Friends

“Religious Wisdom Brings No Comfort”

Job now turns his attention to the friends around him.

Job 6:14 ESV

“He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

That word for “kindness” is an “obligation to the community” (BDAG)

It expresses a sort of faithfulness and grace mingled together in “kindness” to those around them.

So though they may profess to fear the Almighty by their harshness toward their friend they forsake that.

“If you really feared God, you would honor your covenant of friendship with me and support me in my suffering.” (Storms)

A cross-less wisdom shows itself to operate outside the fear of God.

Eliphaz is shocked that Job’s fear of God doesn’t sustain him in suffering.

Job is bothered because Eliphaz is not being the kind of friend he needs when he need him most.

Now Job gives an example of what these friends are like by referencing a very middle eastern idea.

Undependable

“Like A Dry Riverbed”

In deserts, there are something that are called “wadi’s”…

What is a “wadi”?

It is basically a desert river bed.

During rainy seasons, and usually when ice melts from the mountains these river beds would become raging rivers.

This same phenomena actually happens in most deserts.

It can even happen when there has been no rain.

It can be raining on another mountain range and complete dry where you’re at yet the river begins to rage.

This is how Job’s friends are.

Job 6:15–17 NIV

But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, but that stop flowing in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.

The idea here is not just that they are undependable, but they are acting “deceitfully”

Job’s whole point is,

“You’re here to help when I don’t need you. But right when I need you, you’re nowhere to be found.”

“You quench my thirst in the moments I’m not thirsty, but when I am parched you withhold water”

Prosperity Gospel

This is essentially what the prosperity gospel does.

It places before us hollow promises which never satisfy.

Unhelpful

“Disappointed Customers”

Then he applies this to two different travelers who would desperately need this life sustaining water while on their journey’s.

Job 6:18–20 NKJV

The paths of their way turn aside, They go nowhere and perish. The caravans of Tema look, The travelers of Sheba hope for them. They are disappointed because they were confident; They come there and are confused.

These travelers are ashamed because where there was once water for refreshment, it is completely desert.

These travelers actually perish because the life-giving water is now gone.

Now Job turns to the friends and applies this to them..

Job 6:21 ESV

For you have now become nothing; you see my calamity and are afraid.

He is saying,

“When I needed you most, you have betrayed me.”

“When I was in most need for life-giving refreshment, you have withheld it.”

Uncaring

“Just Be My Friend!”

Job reminds these friends that he never asked anything of them..

Job 6:22–23 ESV

Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’? Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’? Or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand’? Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless’?

Basically,

“I haven’t asked much of you guys”

Even though he is showing the friends how discouraging they have been to him...

He is still willing to hear their counsel.

Welcomed Counsel

“Just Show Me!”

Job 6:24–25 NIV

“Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong. How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove?

Job continues to ask them to show him how he has erred.

He is willing to hear what he has done wrong.

Job 6:26 NIV

Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat my desperate words as wind?

Job is essentially saying,

“Stop beating around the bush! If I have sinned, show me!”

Notice again what Job is hungering most for here…

Job III. Conclusion: Sinister Seeds

A discouraged person loses all sense of perspective, choosing to believe the worst rather than the best. At the center of a discouraged heart is always an ungrateful spirit—one that has lost sight of God’s blessings and focuses instead on the burdens.

And what a discouraged person needs most in those moments is truth.

Prosperity & Therapeutic Gospel

What Job most hungers for reveals again what the cross brings us!

Cross-Centered Wisdom presents the Goodness of God

Job is longing to experience the goodness of God.

He’s longing and hungering to see the goodness of God again.

God is good, so we don’t have to look elsewhere.

Psalm 145:9 ESV

The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Addressing God Directly

“What is Man?”

Chapter 7 can be divided up into two further sections…

Job’s Lament

“Why do I matter?” (Ash)

Job 7:1–3 NLT

“Is not all human life a struggle? Our lives are like that of a hired hand, like a worker who longs for the shade, like a servant waiting to be paid. I, too, have been assigned months of futility, long and weary nights of misery.

Job continues to lament that his life is like the life of a hired hand.

He is essentially saying, it would have been better for me to be a hired worker or a slave.

“At least the hired worker gets something for his labor.”

“At least the slave is able to rest at night in the cool of the day.”

“But this is NOT true for me!”

You can hear Job crying out,

“Why do I matter at all?”

Meaningless

“Pointless”

Job 7:4–6 NLT

Lying in bed, I think, ‘When will it be morning?’ But the night drags on, and I toss till dawn. My body is covered with maggots and scabs. My skin breaks open, oozing with pus. “My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle. They end without hope.

Job is struggling to see why his life has any purpose at all.

His anguish and suffering is so deafening, that he cannot see anything else.

But then he moves to cry out in prayer…

Job’s Prayer

“Leave Me Alone!” (Ash)

Job’s prayer is marked by several different aspects.

Brevity

“Like Smoke”

Job 7:7–9 NIV

Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more. As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return.

Job’s prayer now turns to asking God to remember that he is but a breath.

That he is so utterly frail and like smoke that he could be compared to a cloud in the sky.

Gloom

“Loathing Life”

Job 7:11–16 ESV

“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me? When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’ then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

Though this section is marked by the gloom of loathing life.

Job brings up something very important here in verse 11, it’s the difference of “complaining” and “cursing”

Complaining, which is what Job is doing, keeps the faith even when understanding the situation is far off.

Cursing, is the rejection of faith.

Job Job’s First Speech (Job 6–7)

It is the difference between confused frustration and defiant bitterness.

What is Man?

“Please Look Away”

Job will finish his prayer by asking a question…

Job 7:17–19 ESV

What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, visit him every morning and test him every moment? How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?

Job is horrified by this reality that God make’s so much of mankind.

But again we need to remember that Job is prophetic.

Now David in another place picks up this same kind of questioning but in a opposite direction.

Psalm 8:3–4 ESV

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

What David finds amazing, Job is horrified by.

What David finds awe inspiring, Job feels he will perish over.

Notice again what Job is hungering most for here…

Cross-Centered Wisdom presents the Grace of God

Hebrews 2:5–11 ESV

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,