Sermon Tone Analysis
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A Blustering Wind
Job had poured out his grief and was waiting to hear a sympathetic word, but his friend said that Job’s speech was just so much hot air.
What would have been your response?
he was so concerned about defending the justice of God that he forgot the needs of his friend.
To defend God, or to comfort a friend…where do we draw the line?
Three “Logical” Arguments
First: The Character of God
Do you think Job really believed God had done something wrong?
2 “How long will you speak these things,
And the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?
3 Does God subvert judgment?
Or does the Almighty pervert justice?
4 If your sons have sinned against Him,
He has cast them away for their transgression.
5 If you would earnestly seek God
And make your supplication to the Almighty,
6 If you were pure and upright,
Surely now He would awake for you,
And prosper your rightful dwelling place.
7 Though your beginning was small,
Yet your latter end would increase abundantly.
The New King James Version.
(1982).
().
Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
While Bildad’s theology was correct—God is just—his application of that theology was wrong.
Bildad was looking at only one aspect of God’s nature—His holiness and justice—and had forgotten His love, mercy, and goodness.
Yes, “God is light” (1 John 1:5); but don’t forget that “God is love” (4:8, 16).
His love is a holy love, and His holiness is exercised in love, even when He judges sin.
How are these two attributes of God reconciled?
At the Cross.
When Jesus died for the sins of the world, the righteousness of God was vindicated, for sin was judged; but the love of God was demonstrated, for a Savior was provided.
At Calvary, God is both “just and the Justifier” (Rom.
3:24–26).
Second: The Wisdom of the Past
Job 8:8-10
Eliphaz based his thinking on observation and experience, but Bildad was a traditionalist who looked for wisdom in the past.
“What do the ancients say about it?”
was his key question.
We do learn from the past…that is not incorrect.
But the past must be a rudder to guide us and not an anchor to hold us back.
Does what happened in the past make it right?
Does it make it wrong?
How do we discern?
“Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”
To Bildad, the past was a parking lot; but God wants the past to be a launching pad.
Third: The Evidence in Nature
Job 8
Bildad’s point:
Take the papyrus plant as an example: If it doesn’t have water, it withers and dies (vv.
11–13).
Job was withering and dying, so there had to be a cause: he was a hypocrite, and his hope was perishing.
Wiersbe, W. W. (1996).
Be Patient (p.
38).
Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
Can you lean on a spider’s web and be held up securely?
Of course not!
No matter how confident you may be, the web will break.
Job’s confidence was like that: In due time, it would break, and he would fall.
If you pull up a plant, no matter how luxuriant it may be, it will eventually die (vv.
16–22).
Something had happened to Job’s “root system,” and he was fading away; thus, sin was the cause.
Nobody pulls up a good plant and destroys it, so there had to be something wrong with Job for God to so uproot him.
Bildad reaffirmed his earlier promise that God would restore Job’s fortunes if he would only admit his sins and get right with God.
It was the devil’s invitation all over again!
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