The Longings of the Soul

Job 29:1–5 ESV

And Job again took up his discourse, and said: “Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me,

Prayer

We have been following the book of Job for several weeks now.

This week we come to the end of the arguments.

This week we will hear Job conclude these arguments with a speech.

The book of Job acts as a photo negative...

The image only becomes clear as we see the negative.

As we look at the inverse, the form becomes more clear.

We are meant to see the question without an answer, and behold the substance more clearly.

Or like we will see this week, in a desire without a fulfillment.

The message for today is entitled...

The Longings of the Soul: Hungering for Home

I wonder if you have you ever considered your day dreams?

The thoughts that circulate in your head when there is nothing else to ponder.

The content of your mind goes to when you’re just relaxing.

Or how about what you desire when life becomes “uncomfortable”?

These day dreams/heart longings reveal what our heart is most desiring for.

This can be revealing as to what our hearts are located on.

Since our hearts yearn toward the ultimate, we must pursue shaping our hearts according to God’s Word.

Now don’t be mistaken, there is no way to eliminate the longings of your heart.

We CAN’T stop longing or yearning.

To be human, this side of eternity, is to ache and yearn for something.

What we see in this discourse from Job is a man who has desperate yearnings for life to be made right.

But just like our own yearnings, there are hints and scents of truth to the yearnings.

There are hints or whispers of things that are true, good, and beautiful that we can see in our longings.

Like we have seen in Job before, he is acting both prophetically and exemplary for us.

Prophetically pointing us forward to Jesus Christ

Exemplary in leaving us with examples of how to handle suffering.

Notice how Job begins this discourse....

Longing for Friendship

“The Desire for Companionship”

Job 29:2 ESV

“Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me,

Another translation hits it well..

Job 29:2 NLT

“I long for the years gone by when God took care of me,

Of all the things you would think Job could say that he longs to have back

He could say he wants his children back...

Which would not be wrong to want back.

or his livestock,

or his servants,

or any of the things he has taken.

What’s surprising is he misses the presence of the Lord the most.

Job 29:3 ESV

when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,

The days when God would shine a lamp upon Job's head and he was able to walk by the presence of the light of God.

Remember, Job is fully aware that the Lord has allowed this evil to befall him.

He knows the Lord is NOT to blame, but he is aware that the Lord is sovereign over his situation.

There is a problem for Job here...

He is beginning to associate the Lord’s displeasure of him with his physical surroundings.

He is starting to look at the blessings of the Lord as an indicator of the Lord’s pleasure or displeasure with him.

Human’s as Meaning Making Machines

A part of the nature of being human is the ability to assign meaning to things.

Picture if you will a library that receive lots of books. (Illustration from Jeremy Pierre, Dynamics of the Heart)

On those shelves are books all categorized with a number and a genre.

Every time a book is returned, it is put on a shelf in it’s proper place.

Well humans are a lot like a library in that function.

We make order and meaning out of everything.

Everything that comes into our lives we seek to find a proper place for it.

Job’s issue is that these friends have been beating on him for so long that his categories are beginning to shift.

God’s Blessing ≠ God’s Pleasure

He was correct in saying that God allowed this misfortune to come upon him.

But Job is beginning to be categorically deceived.

Job IV. Life Application: A Skewed View of God

The presence of affliction and suffering is not proof of God’s displeasure. Nor is the absence of affliction and suffering proof of God’s favor. Rather, affliction and suffering are from God and may or may not occur because of our actions. From this side of heaven, no one can be sure. But we can be sure that God uses all human suffering and affliction for his glory.

Since Job is beginning to see God has being against him, his desire is extremely important to pay attention to.

What is this longing exactly?

His desire is for his friendship with the Lord to be renewed.

Above and before every other thing he could mention, the nearness of the Lord is paramount.

He describes it well in verse 4-5...

Job 29:4–5 ESV

as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me,

He says he wants his friendship with the Lord back.

This is the kind of relationship he desires again.

Job 29:4–5 NLT

When I was in my prime, God’s friendship was felt in my home. The Almighty was still with me, and my children were around me.

The word there for “prime” is the same word that would be rendered as "autumn days" or harvest.

Job is NOT simply reflecting back on his prime...

Job is reflecting back on the times when he perceived God allowed his friendship to be of ripe maturity.

The thing Job is most longing for is to have his friendship with the Lord restored.

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Job’s desire is for the friendship of the Lord to again be on his house.

Notice the way he talks even of his children...

Job 29:4–6 NLT

When I was in my prime, God’s friendship was felt in my home. The Almighty was still with me, and my children were around me. My steps were awash in cream, and the rocks gushed olive oil for me.

Even when he does mention his children,

it's with respect to the fact that they were but a gift when they were around him.

The desire to have his children back were not ultimate...

Rather, they were a sign that God’s blessing was on his house.

The days when he was so wealthy that milk and butter or "cheese curds" were so plentiful that he could wash his feet with them.

The "oil" was so abundant that it literally came out of the rock.

These are both idioms to express how prosperous he was.

But of all of these things, the thing that is MOST precious to him was his friendship with God.

Job is longing for the loving hand of God to be near him.

Job's longing is instructive for us.

The yearnings are instructive because they reveal something of Job's heart.

His heart is only satisfied with God's presence.

Christ the True Friend

“What a Friend!”

John 15:13–15 ESV

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Longing for A Savior

“The Desire for Justice”

Job’s discourse goes on…

Job 29:7–10 ESV

When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square, the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood; the princes refrained from talking and laid their hand on their mouth; the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

Job now turns to longing for the dignity he once received in the city square.

The place where elders would make judgments, the place of honor and respect.

The young men would see him and shrink back because they are marked by folly and foolishness.

The aged rose and stood as a sign of respect and honor toward Job.

The princes kept from speaking out of a desire to hear Job's words of wisdom and insight.

The voices of the nobles were hushed because the noblest of the nobles was speaking.

Job is NOT asking for dignity for dignity sake.

He’s not seeking to simply be respected from others…

No, rather, its a desire for justice to be done.

Notice, why Job was so highly honored?

Job 29:11–12 ESV

When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved, because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.

Job was so highly honored because the people who were honoring him regard him as “blessed”

Job then turns to talk about the blessing he has, and it runs completely against the grain of the kind of blessing we think of.

Two Ideas of Blessing

“Blessed With What?”

Western Mindset

When we think of blessing our Western minds immediately run to prosperity and wealth.

We will maybe even concede a kind of blessing that is non-material but do you know what we always think about blessing...

It centers on us.

Our Western definition of blessing always centers on me.

What is being done for me, myself, and I?

Take note of something…

Job spends five verses talking about his former estate and things associated directly with him.

These would be things we would determine as blessings.

They called him “blessed” because of the blessing he brought to society.

Biblically Blessed

Part of what it means to be blessed by God is to be able to be a blessing to others.

Job 29:14 ESV

I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.

The righteousness and justice that Job has is not simply an internal righteousness.

It’s a righteousness that overflows into others.

They call him blessed because of the way he cared for others.

Job Introduction

In an honor/shame-based culture, a person’s role and status within the community defines his or her identity. Corporate identity takes precedence over individual identity, with the result that selfhood is shaped primarily by social interaction, not private inward perception. In other words, “self” is defined in largely exterior terms.

His righteousness was not merely an internal righteousness but a justice that was extended to all under Job's care.

But listen to how Job defines blessing...

Job 29:11–12 ESV

When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved, because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.

You find out very quickly the kind of Savior that Job is longing for.

He is longing for a Savior who will come and bring justice to those who have been oppressed.

When Job thinks about his involvement in all of this, he sees that he is no longer able to help in the way he once could.

The desire of his heart is for someone to come and enforce justice.

Job 29:13–17 ESV

The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.

Job is so concerned for the good of others,

that he longs for and misses the day when he was able to provide for the weak and downtrodden.

Job—The Wisdom of the Cross Taking Stock of Job 29

What Job had experienced in a local sense, Adam had been given before the fall and Christ will fulfill in a cosmic sense. And what Christ fulfills in a cosmic sense, all who are in Christ will experience and enter into, in Christ. It is precisely because Job’s longings are in tune with creation order and redemption promise that his longings contain within themselves the seed of future hope.

When we see injustice around us, what is our response?

For there to be a long, a yearning, a deep desire to see justice come, is a deeply good thing!

1 Corinthians 6:2 (ESV)

Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?

Longing for Eternity

“The Desire Infinite Renewal”

Job 29:18–20 ESV

Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand, my roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches, my glory fresh with me, and my bow ever new in my hand.’

There are three elements of expectation within this section.

These three expectation point to a greater longing within Job's heart.

A longing that would have been difficult for him to articulate.

Expectation #1

Die at Home with Long Life

Job's desire was that he would die at home with many years of life.

This was something he assumed would have come to him because he was righteous.

Expectation #2

His Righteousness Would Spread

As we have seen in Psalm 1, the righteous spread out and branch out because they don't wither in the drought.

Job expected that his righteousness would be like the tree that continues to branch out and spread all the days of his life.

Expectation #3

His Glory Would Be Fresh

This last expectation is again ironic, and it makes a person wonder, "how could he have expected that?"

This is where we need to remember that Job points beyond himself.

His expectation was that his glory would have continued to be fresh.

This is another way of saying that the "inner sense of his being" (Ash) would have continued to remain fresh.

Now if we place all three of these expectations side by side, it paints a much clearer picture.

The picture would have been difficult for Job to express, but they point to the correct and natural longing for the rule of a good man to last forever (Ash)

Temporal Angst from an Eternal Hole

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (ESV)

Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Every time we stand around a graveside, we sense this.

We sense that there is something deeply wrong about this.

“This is NOT right!”

“It shouldn’t be this way!”

“If only we had more time!”

We can see these hopes/expectations in a temporal sense, but there is also a sense that they point forward to the one who is to come and truly fulfill these longings.

“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made know through Jesus Christ.”

Longing for The Royal Son

“The Desire for Fulfillment”

Job 29:21–25 ESV

“Men listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel. After I spoke they did not speak again, and my word dropped upon them. They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain. I smiled on them when they had no confidence, and the light of my face they did not cast down. I chose their way and sat as chief, and I lived like a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.

In this last section, Job longs for the Royal Son.

His language sounds eerily similar to that of the Psalms in their anticipation and longing for the Sovereign Davidic King who will come and reign in Justice.

Psalm 72:1–2 ESV

Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!

Psalm 72:15–19 ESV

Long may he live; may gold of Sheba be given to him! May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all the day! May there be abundance of grain in the land; on the tops of the mountains may it wave; may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field! May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed! Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!

God Is Most Glorified in Us When We Are Most Satisfied in Him

When our joy is in God, then all of the longing of our soul make sense.

All of the pleasure and yearnings make sense

Psalm 2:7–12 ESV

I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Both of these Psalm’s looks forward to a royal son.

The royal son who was to come and it's the same kind of longing we see from Job.

A royal son who has length of days.

A royal son whose righteousness would spread.

A royal son whose glory would remain fresh.

Brothers and sisters, Job's longing here directly brings us before the Lord Jesus Himself.

The longing for a Royal Son is ultimately a desire for justice to reign over the nations.

For their to be no more injustice.

Job—The Wisdom of the Cross Taking Stock of Job 29

We too should long, as Job did, for the joy of intimate fellowship with our heavenly Father in Jesus and for the final joy of governing the cleansed and renewed creation in Christ. Such longings, experienced at best in part in this age, are the yearnings of Spirit-filled hearts. They will not be disappointed.

The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing . . . to find the place where all the beauty came from . . . my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home.

C. S. Lewis