Job 12-14 - Responding to the 'Wisdom' of Friends & God's Sovereignty
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Introduction
Introduction
1 Then Job responded, 2 “Truly then you are the people, And with you wisdom will die! 3 “But I have intelligence as well as you; I am not inferior to you. And who does not know such things as these?
3 “But I would speak to the Almighty, And I desire to argue with God.
[PRAYER]
We are used to stories with good guys and bad guys, with us versus them. So naturally when we come to the story of Job’s suffering and read about the harshness of his friends, we think of Job as the good guy and his friends as the bad guy. And while that’s not totally wrong, it’s not totally right either.
Job’s story is included amongst the wisdom literature of the Bible.
Wisdom literature answers important questions regarding wisdom—
What is wisdom?
What does living wisely look like?
And, who is wise?
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That’s why the one who says there is no God is considered a fool.
Living wisely looks like living in accord with the will of God as revealed in His word.
And, as for who is wise, what do you think in regard to Job’s story?
Do you think Job’s friends are wise or do you think Job is wise?
It’s a trick question, because in Job’s story and every story the right answer is God—God alone is wise.
That’s what the book of Job teaches us.
That’s what Job is still learning in Job 12-14.
[TS] These three chapters divide into two PARTS: (1) Job’s address to his friends, and (2) Job’s desire to speak to God.
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
PART #1: JOB’S ADDRESS TO HIS FRIENDS: Job says, “What you know I also know,” (12:1-13:2)
PART #1: JOB’S ADDRESS TO HIS FRIENDS: Job says, “What you know I also know,” (12:1-13:2)
1 Then Job responded, 2 “Truly then you are the people, And with you wisdom will die! 3 “But I have intelligence as well as you; I am not inferior to you. And who does not know such things as these?
[EXP] Job’s friends think they know it all. Job scolds them with sarcasm when he says, “Oh, you are the wisest people, and when you die, wisdom will die with you,” (12:2)!
With no proof, they have assumed that Job’s suffering was brought on by his sin.
Without a word from God, they have declared Job as condemned by God.
Why else would Job be suffering?
Their wisdom is what Christopher Ash, in his commentary on Job, refers to as The System.
Things usually work according to The System—the wicked suffer and the suffering must be wicked; the righteous are rewarded and the rewarded must be righteous.
The System is simple and neat, but it causes Job’s friends to treat him cruelly.
In Job 1-2, Job is described by God as blameless and upright, but now he is ridiculed in his suffering…
4 “I am a joke to my friends, The one who called on God and He answered him; The just and blameless man is a joke.
Job’s friend look down on Job in his suffering and assume that he must have slipped up somewhere for God to be taking him through all this pain, agony, grief, and turmoil (12:5)
But through his own suffering, Job has been made to accept what everything in creation—except his friends—already know: God doesn’t always work according to The System.
Sometimes the tents of destroyers prosper, and those who provoke God are secured in power (12:6).
If The System always worked, we would expect for the tents of builders to prosper; and we would expect for those who praise God to be secured in power, but that isn’t what God always does, and who knows why God does what He does?
Listen to Job’s words in Job 12:13-25...
13 “With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding. 14 “Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt; He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. 15 “Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up; And He sends them out, and they inundate the earth. 16 “With Him are strength and sound wisdom, The misled and the misleader belong to Him. 17 “He makes counselors walk barefoot And makes fools of judges. 18 “He loosens the bond of kings And binds their loins with a girdle. 19 “He makes priests walk barefoot And overthrows the secure ones. 20 “He deprives the trusted ones of speech And takes away the discernment of the elders. 21 “He pours contempt on nobles And loosens the belt of the strong. 22 “He reveals mysteries from the darkness And brings the deep darkness into light. 23 “He makes the nations great, then destroys them; He enlarges the nations, then leads them away. 24 “He deprives of intelligence the chiefs of the earth’s people And makes them wander in a pathless waste. 25 “They grope in darkness with no light, And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
Although Job is acknowledging God’s wisdom, might, counsel, and understanding, he is not praising God’s wisdom, might, counsel, and understanding.
Did you notice that everything Job sees God doing in Job 12:13-25—everything executed by God’s wisdom, might, counsel, and understanding is destructive?
He tears down, imprisons, causes droughts, and sends floods.
He strips counselors, priests, and elders of wisdom and turns judges into fools.
He shakes the throne of kings, pours contempt on nobles, and weakens the strong.
He destroys nations, exiles nations, and deprives them of sound leadership, so that people are left groping in darkness with no light.
No, Job is not praising God.
Job is telling his friends that The System they all once believed in is broken—and God is the one who broke it.
[ILLUS] Back in 2010, Buffalo Bills wide-receiver, Stevie Johnson had seven catches for 68 yards, but did drop five passes including what would have been the game-winner in Buffalo's 19-16 overtime loss. Afterward, Stevie blamed God on Twitter…
"I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO…"
But before you get upset with Stevie, consider that he was simply responding to The System that most people trust in—the system that says, “When I do bad, God does bad to me, but when I do good, God does good for me.”
But what Stevie learned with that dropped pass was that God is bigger than his system.
“With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding,” (Job 12:13).
[APP] When God blows up our system, we can only trust Him. He is good, and will not the Lord of all the earth do right?
In 2020, 10 years after his dropped pass and infamous tweet, Stevie Johnson was interviewed by a reporter. Stevie explain that the “THX THO...” at the end of his tweet wasn’t sarcastic.
He was really struggling with what God was doing in his life at that moment, but he believed that God would do something good with it, so he said, “THX THO...”
Maybe that’s a lesson for us: When God blows up our system, let’s ask for the faith to thank Him for it.
He will do something good with it.
[TS]…
PART #2: JOB’S DESIRE TO SPEAK TO GOD: Job says, “But I would speak to the Almighty,” (13:3-19).
PART #2: JOB’S DESIRE TO SPEAK TO GOD: Job says, “But I would speak to the Almighty,” (13:3-19).
3 “But I would speak to the Almighty, And I desire to argue with God. 4 “But you smear with lies; You are all worthless physicians. 5 “O that you would be completely silent, And that it would become your wisdom! 6 “Please hear my argument And listen to the contentions of my lips. 7 “Will you speak what is unjust for God, And speak what is deceitful for Him? 8 “Will you show partiality for Him? Will you contend for God? 9 “Will it be well when He examines you? Or will you deceive Him as one deceives a man? 10 “He will surely reprove you If you secretly show partiality. 11 “Will not His majesty terrify you, And the dread of Him fall on you? 12 “Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are defenses of clay.
[EXP] Job desires to speak with God, but Job’s friends believe that they have spoken for God. Job says that in their effort to get God off the hook for Job’s suffering, they have spoken what is unjust and deceitful for God (13:7) and that He will surely reprove them for it (13:10).
Job says that his friends—the ones who came to be his comforters—have been worthless physicians (Job 13:4).
Job says that his friends—the one who came to be his counselors—have only spoken proverbs of ashes (Job 13:12).
Then in vv. 13-19, Job tells his friends to be quiet, so he can make his case before Almighty God.
In doing so, he knows that he is putting his life at risk. He says…
13 “Be silent before me so that I may speak; Then let come on me what may. 14 “Why should I take my flesh in my teeth And put my life in my hands? 15 “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.
Job is like Esther coming before King Ahasuerus (a.k.a. Xerxes) uninvited. She had no other choice, she had to come before the king. It could have cost her her life, but it turned out to be the salvation of her people.
Likewise, Job has no other choice. Even if God should slay him, God is the only hope he has (Job 13:15).
Job hopes that God will hold the scepter of grace out to him as he makes his case.
"Behold now, I have prepared my case; I know that I will be vindicated,” (Job 13:18).
What case would you prepare if you had to make your case before God?
[ILLUS] A man was ticketed for speeding. In traffic court, he defended his actions by saying that his new shoes were too stiff so he could feel how hard he was pressing the gas pedal.
His defense didn’t work, and he had to pay the fine.
Another driver defended his speeding by saying that he thought a ghost was chasing him.
The judge was amused and asked a few questions before dismissing the ticket.
Afterall, who could prove that a ghost wasn’t chasing him?
[APP] Before a human judge, some defenses work and some don’t, but before the Almighty judge only one defense will work.
“This also will be my salvation, For a godless man may not come before His presence,” (Job 13:16).
Only the godly may come before the Lord and be vindicated or declared innocent, and only those who are covered by the blood of sacrifice are counted as godly.
In Job 1, we saw Job making sacrifices for himself and for his family. He knew that he was not sinless, that’s why he made the sacrifices.
The price for sin is death, and the life of a creature is in its blood, so payment for sin must be made in blood.
But the sacrifices Job made could never permanently atone for sin; they were looking forward in faith to the once for all sacrifice that Jesus, the Son of God, made on the cross at Calvary.
A godless man may not come before the Almighty’s presence with any hope of salvation, but those who come covered by the blood of God the Son will certainly be saved.
Revelation 7 shows us the salvation of those covered by the blood of Jesus. It says in Revelation 7:14-17…
14 ...“These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 “For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. 16 “They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
For Job and all the rest of God’s people, this world sometimes feels like tribulation after tribulation, but if we are covered by the blood of the Lamb, one day the tribulation will end.
No more hunger or thirst.
No more scorching heat.
Instead, the water of life and God wiping away every tear!
That experience came for Job.
It’ll come for you too, if you’re covered by the blood of Jesus.
How can you make sure you’re covered by His blood?
You must repent of your rebellion against God.
Every time we do what God say not to, we rebel against Him.
Every time we don’t do what God says to do, we rebel against Him.
We steal. We lie. We cheat. We lust. We gossip. We murder.
We don’t love or sacrifice or share or honor or trust.
These are sins, and if we are going to be covered by the blood of Jesus, we must admit that we have sins that need to be covered by His blood, and we must turn away from those sins.
Not only must we repent, but we must also believe.
We must believe that Jesus lived a sinless life, that He died for our sins on the cross, and that He rose from the dead proving to be the Savior of all who trust in Him.
If you have repented of sin and trust in Jesus for salvation, you are covered by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, God’s Son!
This will be your salvation: a godless person may not come before His presence, but you come covered in the blood of the Lamb!
[TS] …
Conclusion
Conclusion
[PRAYER]
