Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Choosing Relief
If we had thought the speeches of Yahweh would be the climax of the book
AND
That they would provide the solution to the problems of Job...
WE WERE MISTAKEN!
We are at the end of our Hero’s journey.
Someone who faced an evil put upon him without his consent.
This is who Job is, and we should never forget it.
Job had done nothing to deserve this.
It started with a judgement of Job
Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?
What are we to do with Job?
God has not directly answered the charges in the case brought before him.
It is not fair what is happening to Job.
Which leaves a question on the table...
Can wisdom be found in the unfair?
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
That is something we read in scripture.
Job was said to fear God, so he has the beginning of wisdom.
But through all this, the three friends and young man who ALL urged Job to fess up to his sin, when there was none.
The eloquent case Job laid out before God, asking for a face to face meeting and that once his case was heard, he would be found innocent.
IN ALL…Job is arguing that he does not deserve what has happened to him.
And he is correct.
Job is facing an enemy that he cannot fathom or understand.
He is facing creatures that no human or group of humans can tame.
The fight against evil, it would seem, is unfair.
To have a fair fight, you and your enemy must agree to fight fairly.
This is not possible, for what we face is an enemy...
We face an enemy that is unfair and without mercy.
God has declared that he alone is able to wrangle
Behemoth
Leviathan
That we SHOULD NOT even attempt to play in their space, as if we could put a seven headed sea monster on a leash and make it follow our commands.
Save God, Job would be dead.
But he is not.
And here is his answer to the LORD.
(BTW…I really dislike the headings they put in our bibles, it clouds our reading, in my opinion) (Job’s Confession)
He has nothing to confess, as we will see.
Twice God said for Job to get ready to do battle.
Twice God said He would question and Job would answer.
Job is about to answer.
We skim over this as if we understand it, but for Job to utter these words under his circumstances is remarkable.
He is restating his case against God, that God could have and still can act in Job’s situation.
And if God’s purpose is to act, then that will be the outcome
And if God’s purpose is to not act, then that will be the outcome
It is quite amazing that Job can find the presence of mind to say this after all that has happened.
Job 42:3 (NET 2nd ed.)
you asked, ‘Who is this who darkens counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore, I have declared and I do not understand and I do not know the wonders before me.
I have modified the reading of this a bit...
Job is agreeing with God.
I declared
I do not understand
I do not know
The wonders-Could be the AWE of what has happened throughout the entire book.
In other words, Job is NOT RETRACTING anything he has said.
He is agreeing with God’s judgement that Job has questioned the council of God without understanding what is going on.
Job is left right where he was, BUT he has a response from God, of some sort.
Interesting, God never said “Pay attention and I will speak.”
Elihu said that, but God did not.
God did say the second phrase.
And Job is answering God, even after God has shown up in this encircling wind.
And Job’s answer is this, “I was not there the day you laid the foundation.
So I don’t know the answer as to where I was.”
But he is doing it in a way that simply covers every question
He is admitting that all he knew he had heard by someone teaching him.
All he knew is what he heard.
But now, Job has seen God.
There is no doubt of God’s existence.
And, God has responded directly to Job in quite a mighty way.
A question we might ask is this:
Is seeing God enough?
So where does Job go from here?
What does he resolve to do?
Most translations have this:
Some have this:
Some read this way:
Another is this:
Notice in the King James, the “myself” is italicized?
Yeah, that word is not in the original.
THIS CRUCIAL VERSE with the LAST WORDS OF JOB
THE CLIMAX of the WHOLE DISPUTE
CONTAINS three major uncertainties
The verb, מאס, that typically means despise or reject.
But there is no object in this verse for that verb.
The word מאס can also mean (homonym) flow or melt.
This makes more sense as a word that means yield or submit.
There is a verb in this verse מאס that at first sight seems a common verb, but it has no object.
This is not unusual in Hebrew, it often happens in poetry, but there is often a clearly implied object in its surrounding verses.
Even here, there is none.
Here is my problem with this interpretation:
Why would Job hate himself for raising an issue of Justice to God
God at no time suggests Job’s argument is disgusting
Interpreters imply an object “myself” or “my words,” YET NEITHER ARE IN THE VERSE!
Does he despise himself because he did not win this war of words with God?
That seems kind of foolish
…Alternative...
***** NEXT SLIDE *****
If we go with the homonym of the word, then we have another option:
I melt, or I submit
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