Jan. 24, 2026
The Gospel According to Job 1
Introduction to the Book of Job
The Gospel According to Job 1
Welcome to Gospel Rant!
The book of job has unnerved, frightened and confused Christians for millennia. I wonder, maybe, just maybe, if we get the core message? You just may be surprised. We’ll talk about it. Welcome to Gospel Rant Podcast and DrBillSenyard YouTube channel.
I am your host, Dr. Bill Senyard. We are free wherever you get good podcasts. Of course on YouTube as well, so please subscribe as always. One of the fastest ways you can help us grow it by leaving your comments below, thank you sincerely for that.
Also thanks for making Gospel Rant podcast one of the top 10% podcasts in the world.
We hope that it helps to regularly hear about God’s love that loves the unlovable, unloved, unlovely, unworthy and unlikely, and that’s all of us on any given day if we were just a little bit honest.
Here's a couple of teasers that you may find interesting—and maybe never heard before. So many of us think that Job is about the dangers of challenging and questioning God. And when you do, you need to repent very quickly. While that’s a clean morality message, it is not the message of Job.
- Job never officially repents—that is he does not use the Hebrew word for repent. Instead, he says, “I revoke (??) and I find comfort in ashes and dust.” Interesting and not what is usually taught.
- Second, God said at the end (Job 42:7) that Job had spoken what is right. So what did Job have to repent of? Maybe, in spite of what we’ve all been told, the book isn’t about ‘repentance.’ Curious.
- Third, Chapter 28 appears to have been shoved right into the middle of one of Job’s long tirades, but it does not appear to belong there. What’s going on?
Curious? Welcome to our program.
And now, it’s your turn…
👉 Like
👉 Share
👉 Comment
👉 Subscribe
Your interaction helps this message reach more people!
We’d love your feedback: Bill@gospel-app.com
Thanks in advance—and enjoy the series!
Support The Show: https://www.gospelrant.com/
Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Transcript
00:00:07
Speaker 1: Hey, the Book of Jove has unnerved, frightened, confused Christians for millennia. I wonder, maybe, just maybe, if we've missed the core message, you just may be surprised, and we're going to talk about it. Welcome to Gospel Rant podcast and doctor Bill Senored YouTube channel. I'm your host, doctor Bill Sinyard. We're free wherever you get good podcasts, of course on YouTube as well, so please subscribe. As always, one of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below. Thank you sincerely for that. Also, thank you for making Gospel Rant Podcasts one of the top ten percent podcasts of the world. Thank you for watching every week. We hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love for the unlovable, loved, the unlovely, the unworthy, and the unlikely. And that's all of us on any given day, if we were just a little bit honest, and we should be. Yep, here's job Chapter one, verse six. One day, the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, I mean this is very strange, right. The Lord said to Satan, where have you come from, And Satan answered the Lord from roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it. And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job. Wow, that's just out of the blue. Right, There's no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God, and Shun's evil. Does Job fear God for nothing? Satan replied, all right, game on, have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has. You have blessed the work of his hands so that the flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has well, and he will surely curse you to your face. Bet is on. The Lord said to Satan, very well, then everything he has is in your hands. But on the man himself, do not lay a finger, and you'll see why. Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. So today we're going to give you some overview of the Book of Job, some interesting tidbits that will help you read it. It's forty two chapters, really long. It's just really high Hebrew poetry, difficult to do in a single setting or even seven settings. It's a mixture of elaborate narrative and poetry. It has a boatload of ancient references that are confusing, so don't worry, just read them and move on. It's a great book. Many university English departments used to use it for its literary value. Alone used to study it, and I will try to point out some of the literary features as we go through it. And it is relevant. It is perhaps the oldest book known to us that deals with the topic of suffering in God. This base surprize you, but suffering may only be a secondary purpose of the book. And dealing with suffering, we're going to address that surprising answer in the age old question why do bad things happen to good people? But there are other questions equally as important that are they don't usually get dealt with. So here's a couple of teasers that you may find interesting and maybe never heard before. So many of us think that Job is about the dangers of challenging and questioning God, and when you do, you need to repent very quickly or else, you know, the heavens blow up. And while that is a clean morality message, it's not the message of Job. First Job never actually repents, That is, he does not use the Hebrew word for repent. Instead, he says, I revoke and I find comfort and ashes and dust. Well that's interesting and not what's usually taught. Second, God said at the end Joe forty two seven, that Job has spoken what is right? So what did Job have to repent of? Yeah? See, maybe, in spite of what we've all been told, this book isn't primarily about repentance. Curious right, third chapter twenty eight appears to have just been shoved right into the middle of one of Job's long tie raids, but it does not appear to belong there. What is going on? Well, we're going to get right into it. After this brief word from our sponsors. They'll go anywhere. We'll be right back. So here's a little bit of history of the book of Job. The person Job. He is presented to us as if he lived during the second millennium BC, you know, two thousand to one thousand BCE, which would make him a contemporary of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham, Isaac Jacob and so forth. And note pre temple, pre mount sign I, pre law. And why do we think so? Well, Job's lifespan of one hundred and forty years to start off with Job acting as a patriarchal mediator for his family as well the roving Sabinian and Chaldean tribes, all of that historically in that timeframe, and I say presented to us because it is likely highly edited. Some suggest that the story of Job was originally a much shorter primarily the narrative, prologue and the epilogue, and that the series of conversations, which are very elaborate poetry, were added later. The book probably existed in an oral form for many years before he's actually written down. So does that make it less God breathe, less an errants, less scripture? No, No, God's sovereignty breathe. The original story and the edits for what we have is both scriptural and authoritative. But what is its message? Yeah again, I think you're gonna be blown away? So who was Job? Job had? He was wealthy. He had a number of camels, which likely place him on one of the international spice roots, maybe going through modern Jordan. He's portrayed as one of the wealthiest men in the East, a spice trading magnet, a wise elder, pious, a very public figure, paparazzi camped at his door. In modern terms, so important context. God's assessment of Job is that he is beyond reproach. He is, humanly speaking, perfect in his actions and character, his motives, his heart and mind. He's a real deal. So he deserves, by everything we think, to be treated as a faithful son. He deserves if anybody does, blessings from God. And so this is important. He is not being condemned or judged, or disciplined or punished in any way by this thing that happens between God and saying God's not angry with Job. He's not perturbed, he's not bothered, he's not critical. And if anything, I would be more tempted to say that God is proud of Job. Job, humanly speaking, is lovable by God. And humanly speaking, before the Mess, he was blessed by God by any universal human measurements, health, wealth, influenced, family, land, position. So Job won one. In the land of Uz. There is a man who's name was Job. This man was blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil. You know that's a righteous man. And here's verse eight again. Then the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job. There is no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. Job so says God is the real deal any and ouity. Job is blameless referring to his character, and upright referring to his actions and the idea of upright speaks. How he treats other people. Imagine a person who is totally nonprejudicial, doesn't see color, doesn't see sex, class name. He's merciful, he's generous, compassionate, he's into social justice. He forgives quickly. He's a reconciler all of his neighbors and respectful to his enemies. As we'll see, he loves others as he loves himself. He is a perfect type of human. And he's also a God fearer. We're told everyone could see that he took God seriously, not as a side item, not as something to hang on the wall. He took God seriously. He was a paragon of devotion and piety. He was a god man. You know. He was with God, and God was with him, and everybody knew it. He walked with God when the church doors were open. He was there. He was at the head of the Stevens ministry. He set up tables, he went to prayer meetings, He taught Sunday school. He changed diapers in the nursery. He shoveled snow right, he did a term on the session and then reupt This was not the person who just had a bumper sticker that says, honk if you love Jesus. He walked the walk. You know. I used to blame Job's treatment by God on Job's pride and disrespect when speaking to God. God. But a difficult case to make based upon God's testimony, which we need to take very seriously. Job is the poster child for post fall God fearing piety and righteousness, you know, not just theologically religious penhead. He was selfless and community oriented. He was a foreshadow of Jesus. Job, whoever he was, does not deserve what happened to him. He does not deserve what happened to him, so in one sense we can and should relate to him. We all have known great injustice, as bad things that we didn't deserve, that we couldn't prevent or go back on. We're all marked by those events, were scarred and where God seemed silence, right, everybody here, everybody listening, God seems silent. Made it worse, made it much, much, much worse. Right, But none of us can relate to his record of piety and character, not really, if we claim to not have deserved such bad things, Job's case is all the stronger. Right, This is a frightening snapshot of how God, listen, treats faithful followers. Let me say it again, this is a frightening snapshot of how God treats faithful followers. Yeah, all right. A little bit about the book itself. Job is highly developed, brilliant literature, ancient Hebrew. It's got to be edited, right. Nobody talks like that, nobody speaks. It's it's high poetry. Someone had something to say and edited the story to say it, and brilliantly, and Holy Spirit breathe. So, for instance, the entire book is laid out in a chaiasm, which is a structure that mirrors sections of the book around a central hub. If you're watching this on YouTube, I'll put the image on the screen. But there's a prologue and then there's a postlog. There's Jobe's introductory speech, there's God's closing speech. There's cycles of speeches and then cycles of speeches later. And in the middle is this poem about wisdom that I spoke about that looks like chapter twenty eight just sort of shoved in there, like a scroll shoved in between the other scrolls. It's highly structured. The central portion of the book discusses where wisdom can be found, the idea of the entire Book of Job and it's message. Listen, this is the core algorithm. It's around the prime questions asked in chapter twenty eight. So when you get to chapter twenty eight, linger there where's wisdom to be found? Or to put it in another way, where can I get some answers to my questions when God's silent? Where can I get answers to life's most troubling questions? And if you're anything like me, you're not gonna like the answer, right, And that's the point, one of the points I'm going to suggest, the major point of the Book of Job. It's wisdom literature, Hebrew wisdom literature and poetry. Wisdom literature places Job functionally along with proverbs and ecclesiastes and song of songs, very different than those but it's in the wisdom category. The idea is that we're not born with godly wisdom. Wisdom is a fruit of an active relationship with God. In the New Testament, it's a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's loaded with parallelism. So Job five nine is synonymous parallelism. You can say that at parties and just wow everybody. So God performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. See the parallelism. Job one twenty one is a quatrain. Naked I came from my mother's room, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. There's irony. God appears to be the enemy, Nope. Job appears to be weak and defeated, but he's not. Job's friends appear to be right and wise, but they're not. Satan appears powerful, but he's going to be humiliated by the week and lie. Who the youngest of the friends is actually the wisest. Yeah, And there's a conflict that drives a story. So it's a story. It's a narrative. Why do bad things happen to good people are better? Why me? And then to make it even worse. What kind of God instigates or doesn't prevent whichever one you can stomach right now? What kind of God doesn't prevent or you know, such a horrific trial for an innocent man? How can a good God treat an innocent righteous man so poorly? Or maybe put it a little bit differently, if God treats an off the chart righteous good guy that badly? What does that mean for me? Are you who would want to follow this God? I mean, it's got to be one of your initial reactions. I give you permission to have that. Why has God had having an audience with Satan? Really? All right again, I give you permission to ask that question. Yeah, all right? Back to Joe. Three foundational pre suppositions. I credit Francis Schaeffer with these. I think they're brilliant. Key point number one. We live in a creation with two realms, visible and invisible. They're intertwined. Cause and effect seem to go both ways, but those in the visible realm can't see what's going on in the invisible realm. So Schaeffer's example is a Chinese dual stage where there's action going on both sides of the stage, but one side can see the other, the other side can't. It's happening. But Job nor his friends or wife know what's happening on the spiritual invisible phase. Right, we do as the readers and key point number two per Schaeffer. According to Job, we live in a moral universe. Very important. The moral universe is under the creator world judge. There is an absolute moral ruler of measurement of right and wrong, of good and bad nineteen twenty five. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes eye and not another. How my heart yearns within me, meaning in the end there is going to be a moral reckoning. And Job just seems to believe that that really is faith again in the New Testament, that's faith that comes from Heaven, not from reason. Here's another example of that, Perry Lai who in thirty four to ten, So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. He repays a man for what he has done. He brings upon him what his conduct deserves. It's unthinkable that God would do anything wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice. Yeah, moral universe and moral judge. And key point number three, ah yeck. God doesn't necessarily close the books in our lifetime. So there's going to be justice. But it may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, it may not be a month from now, it may not be until heaven. You know, we have this truism today, justice to lay it is justice denied. Yeah, you know, Biblically this is not true. Because God is in charge of this whole thing. He's going to use unresolved in justices for good. We can't. We don't have that kind of power. We don't have that kind of overview. Right, and no worries, says Job. The foundation of the celestials is order and morality justice. So no matter what you believe or don't believe, according to the Bible and the Book of Job's going to be order and it will be ordered forever. In the end, there's going to come a time of reckoning again. Faith eyes can see that. So all crime, all violations, all terrors, all betrayals, victims, you're going to be restored. God says so, and this would include natural disasters right so called acts of God. Nothing, absolutely nothing will go undealt with, unexplained and unresolved. That's a faith statement. I can't prove it. It's a faith statement because all of us would prefer resolution sooner rather than later. But God's going to do something even bigger and it's in God's hands, meaning I can't explain it to you, the suffering that you've had, the pains you've had to deal with, if you could, you know, people have asked me, so can you tell me what God's going to do to make it all right? You kidding me? I have no idea. I couldn't imagine. I wouldn't even know where to start, So sorry about that. But God does. And that's a faith statement in the New Testament that comes from the Holy Spirit. And we ask so for now, as we look with our eyes from our limited vantage point, things look muddy or we're a rocky in real ways, it's unjust. We all live in that cesspool. There are bad guys on the loose. Justice is shaky. Good people get beat up and die unavenged. And Job has a very positive message. Yeah, Okay, one more message from our sponsors, and I'll give you some thought questions that you can use to begin to process this amazing book a little bit deeper. I think you'll enjoy the discussion questions. I'll try to do that every week. We're going to be right back. So here's some discussion questions to help us dig a little bit deeper, process a little bit better, make it personal. I think you'll enjoy them. I'm going to try to do them every week. Here's question number one. If Job was the only manuscript that you had in the Bible, what would your image of God be? Who? Question number two what might be the overall point of this arguably oldest book in the Bible? And question number three. Core to the Book of Job is what scholars refer to as the retributive principle. The RP suggests that if one serves God well and does everything correctly according to the law, they should expect to be treated well health, wealth, name, career, glory, and likewise, if they do not follow the law or obey God, they will be punished accordingly fairly. So discuss the pros and con to the retributive principle. The RP I mean, is it right, is it good? Is it biblical? Does God rule the cosmos? According to an RP. Yeah, all right, I hope you enjoy that. We'll pick this up next week. Some of you regulars know that I've been writing a teen Christian fantasy series, Kingdom Quest. It's won a bunch of awards, which we are great pful for. Has been described as the modern Chronicles of Narnia or Narnia meets Princess Bride. Get them for the teens in your life, in your church. But here's something on point. My latest book, which came out January sixth of twenty twenty six, Shadowbound, is not only a great adventure and story for teenagers and young adults and non adults, it's an allegory of the Book of Job. I'm so excited about it. I can't wait to get reviews and stuff on Amazon and Goodreads. Here's from the back cover. A wager formed an arrogance, a kingdom hanging in the balance, a boy caught in a cosmic test in the glittering throne room of Garden City, the ancient gorgon Dolos dares to confront the great king with a chilling claim humanity is unworthy, broken and faithless. He offers a twisted wager, strip a single loyal servant of every blessing, and watch as devotion. The servant is Reggie, an orphan magician with an unshakable heart, a knighted hero whose story has already become legend, but now without knowledge of the celestial bargain made above him, he is thrust into seven harrowing trials, alone, forsaken and bound by shadows, while gods and monsters watch from the wings. Reggie's soul becomes the battlefield for the fate of mankind itself? Can one flawed human prove that love, loyalty, and faith are more than illusions? Overly fall, just as the Gorgan predicted. Check it out on Amazon and Kindle Now, Yeah, Hey, we'll see you next week on Gospel Rant and Doctor Bill Sen your YouTube channel. Take Heart, Child of God.
Speaker 1: Hey, the Book of Jove has unnerved, frightened, confused Christians for millennia. I wonder, maybe, just maybe, if we've missed the core message, you just may be surprised, and we're going to talk about it. Welcome to Gospel Rant podcast and doctor Bill Senored YouTube channel. I'm your host, doctor Bill Sinyard. We're free wherever you get good podcasts, of course on YouTube as well, so please subscribe. As always, one of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below. Thank you sincerely for that. Also, thank you for making Gospel Rant Podcasts one of the top ten percent podcasts of the world. Thank you for watching every week. We hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love for the unlovable, loved, the unlovely, the unworthy, and the unlikely. And that's all of us on any given day, if we were just a little bit honest, and we should be. Yep, here's job Chapter one, verse six. One day, the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, I mean this is very strange, right. The Lord said to Satan, where have you come from, And Satan answered the Lord from roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it. And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job. Wow, that's just out of the blue. Right, There's no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God, and Shun's evil. Does Job fear God for nothing? Satan replied, all right, game on, have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has. You have blessed the work of his hands so that the flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has well, and he will surely curse you to your face. Bet is on. The Lord said to Satan, very well, then everything he has is in your hands. But on the man himself, do not lay a finger, and you'll see why. Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. So today we're going to give you some overview of the Book of Job, some interesting tidbits that will help you read it. It's forty two chapters, really long. It's just really high Hebrew poetry, difficult to do in a single setting or even seven settings. It's a mixture of elaborate narrative and poetry. It has a boatload of ancient references that are confusing, so don't worry, just read them and move on. It's a great book. Many university English departments used to use it for its literary value. Alone used to study it, and I will try to point out some of the literary features as we go through it. And it is relevant. It is perhaps the oldest book known to us that deals with the topic of suffering in God. This base surprize you, but suffering may only be a secondary purpose of the book. And dealing with suffering, we're going to address that surprising answer in the age old question why do bad things happen to good people? But there are other questions equally as important that are they don't usually get dealt with. So here's a couple of teasers that you may find interesting and maybe never heard before. So many of us think that Job is about the dangers of challenging and questioning God, and when you do, you need to repent very quickly or else, you know, the heavens blow up. And while that is a clean morality message, it's not the message of Job. First Job never actually repents, That is, he does not use the Hebrew word for repent. Instead, he says, I revoke and I find comfort and ashes and dust. Well that's interesting and not what's usually taught. Second, God said at the end Joe forty two seven, that Job has spoken what is right? So what did Job have to repent of? Yeah? See, maybe, in spite of what we've all been told, this book isn't primarily about repentance. Curious right, third chapter twenty eight appears to have just been shoved right into the middle of one of Job's long tie raids, but it does not appear to belong there. What is going on? Well, we're going to get right into it. After this brief word from our sponsors. They'll go anywhere. We'll be right back. So here's a little bit of history of the book of Job. The person Job. He is presented to us as if he lived during the second millennium BC, you know, two thousand to one thousand BCE, which would make him a contemporary of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham, Isaac Jacob and so forth. And note pre temple, pre mount sign I, pre law. And why do we think so? Well, Job's lifespan of one hundred and forty years to start off with Job acting as a patriarchal mediator for his family as well the roving Sabinian and Chaldean tribes, all of that historically in that timeframe, and I say presented to us because it is likely highly edited. Some suggest that the story of Job was originally a much shorter primarily the narrative, prologue and the epilogue, and that the series of conversations, which are very elaborate poetry, were added later. The book probably existed in an oral form for many years before he's actually written down. So does that make it less God breathe, less an errants, less scripture? No, No, God's sovereignty breathe. The original story and the edits for what we have is both scriptural and authoritative. But what is its message? Yeah again, I think you're gonna be blown away? So who was Job? Job had? He was wealthy. He had a number of camels, which likely place him on one of the international spice roots, maybe going through modern Jordan. He's portrayed as one of the wealthiest men in the East, a spice trading magnet, a wise elder, pious, a very public figure, paparazzi camped at his door. In modern terms, so important context. God's assessment of Job is that he is beyond reproach. He is, humanly speaking, perfect in his actions and character, his motives, his heart and mind. He's a real deal. So he deserves, by everything we think, to be treated as a faithful son. He deserves if anybody does, blessings from God. And so this is important. He is not being condemned or judged, or disciplined or punished in any way by this thing that happens between God and saying God's not angry with Job. He's not perturbed, he's not bothered, he's not critical. And if anything, I would be more tempted to say that God is proud of Job. Job, humanly speaking, is lovable by God. And humanly speaking, before the Mess, he was blessed by God by any universal human measurements, health, wealth, influenced, family, land, position. So Job won one. In the land of Uz. There is a man who's name was Job. This man was blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil. You know that's a righteous man. And here's verse eight again. Then the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job. There is no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. Job so says God is the real deal any and ouity. Job is blameless referring to his character, and upright referring to his actions and the idea of upright speaks. How he treats other people. Imagine a person who is totally nonprejudicial, doesn't see color, doesn't see sex, class name. He's merciful, he's generous, compassionate, he's into social justice. He forgives quickly. He's a reconciler all of his neighbors and respectful to his enemies. As we'll see, he loves others as he loves himself. He is a perfect type of human. And he's also a God fearer. We're told everyone could see that he took God seriously, not as a side item, not as something to hang on the wall. He took God seriously. He was a paragon of devotion and piety. He was a god man. You know. He was with God, and God was with him, and everybody knew it. He walked with God when the church doors were open. He was there. He was at the head of the Stevens ministry. He set up tables, he went to prayer meetings, He taught Sunday school. He changed diapers in the nursery. He shoveled snow right, he did a term on the session and then reupt This was not the person who just had a bumper sticker that says, honk if you love Jesus. He walked the walk. You know. I used to blame Job's treatment by God on Job's pride and disrespect when speaking to God. God. But a difficult case to make based upon God's testimony, which we need to take very seriously. Job is the poster child for post fall God fearing piety and righteousness, you know, not just theologically religious penhead. He was selfless and community oriented. He was a foreshadow of Jesus. Job, whoever he was, does not deserve what happened to him. He does not deserve what happened to him, so in one sense we can and should relate to him. We all have known great injustice, as bad things that we didn't deserve, that we couldn't prevent or go back on. We're all marked by those events, were scarred and where God seemed silence, right, everybody here, everybody listening, God seems silent. Made it worse, made it much, much, much worse. Right, But none of us can relate to his record of piety and character, not really, if we claim to not have deserved such bad things, Job's case is all the stronger. Right, This is a frightening snapshot of how God, listen, treats faithful followers. Let me say it again, this is a frightening snapshot of how God treats faithful followers. Yeah, all right. A little bit about the book itself. Job is highly developed, brilliant literature, ancient Hebrew. It's got to be edited, right. Nobody talks like that, nobody speaks. It's it's high poetry. Someone had something to say and edited the story to say it, and brilliantly, and Holy Spirit breathe. So, for instance, the entire book is laid out in a chaiasm, which is a structure that mirrors sections of the book around a central hub. If you're watching this on YouTube, I'll put the image on the screen. But there's a prologue and then there's a postlog. There's Jobe's introductory speech, there's God's closing speech. There's cycles of speeches and then cycles of speeches later. And in the middle is this poem about wisdom that I spoke about that looks like chapter twenty eight just sort of shoved in there, like a scroll shoved in between the other scrolls. It's highly structured. The central portion of the book discusses where wisdom can be found, the idea of the entire Book of Job and it's message. Listen, this is the core algorithm. It's around the prime questions asked in chapter twenty eight. So when you get to chapter twenty eight, linger there where's wisdom to be found? Or to put it in another way, where can I get some answers to my questions when God's silent? Where can I get answers to life's most troubling questions? And if you're anything like me, you're not gonna like the answer, right, And that's the point, one of the points I'm going to suggest, the major point of the Book of Job. It's wisdom literature, Hebrew wisdom literature and poetry. Wisdom literature places Job functionally along with proverbs and ecclesiastes and song of songs, very different than those but it's in the wisdom category. The idea is that we're not born with godly wisdom. Wisdom is a fruit of an active relationship with God. In the New Testament, it's a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's loaded with parallelism. So Job five nine is synonymous parallelism. You can say that at parties and just wow everybody. So God performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. See the parallelism. Job one twenty one is a quatrain. Naked I came from my mother's room, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. There's irony. God appears to be the enemy, Nope. Job appears to be weak and defeated, but he's not. Job's friends appear to be right and wise, but they're not. Satan appears powerful, but he's going to be humiliated by the week and lie. Who the youngest of the friends is actually the wisest. Yeah, And there's a conflict that drives a story. So it's a story. It's a narrative. Why do bad things happen to good people are better? Why me? And then to make it even worse. What kind of God instigates or doesn't prevent whichever one you can stomach right now? What kind of God doesn't prevent or you know, such a horrific trial for an innocent man? How can a good God treat an innocent righteous man so poorly? Or maybe put it a little bit differently, if God treats an off the chart righteous good guy that badly? What does that mean for me? Are you who would want to follow this God? I mean, it's got to be one of your initial reactions. I give you permission to have that. Why has God had having an audience with Satan? Really? All right again, I give you permission to ask that question. Yeah, all right? Back to Joe. Three foundational pre suppositions. I credit Francis Schaeffer with these. I think they're brilliant. Key point number one. We live in a creation with two realms, visible and invisible. They're intertwined. Cause and effect seem to go both ways, but those in the visible realm can't see what's going on in the invisible realm. So Schaeffer's example is a Chinese dual stage where there's action going on both sides of the stage, but one side can see the other, the other side can't. It's happening. But Job nor his friends or wife know what's happening on the spiritual invisible phase. Right, we do as the readers and key point number two per Schaeffer. According to Job, we live in a moral universe. Very important. The moral universe is under the creator world judge. There is an absolute moral ruler of measurement of right and wrong, of good and bad nineteen twenty five. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes eye and not another. How my heart yearns within me, meaning in the end there is going to be a moral reckoning. And Job just seems to believe that that really is faith again in the New Testament, that's faith that comes from Heaven, not from reason. Here's another example of that, Perry Lai who in thirty four to ten, So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. He repays a man for what he has done. He brings upon him what his conduct deserves. It's unthinkable that God would do anything wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice. Yeah, moral universe and moral judge. And key point number three, ah yeck. God doesn't necessarily close the books in our lifetime. So there's going to be justice. But it may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, it may not be a month from now, it may not be until heaven. You know, we have this truism today, justice to lay it is justice denied. Yeah, you know, Biblically this is not true. Because God is in charge of this whole thing. He's going to use unresolved in justices for good. We can't. We don't have that kind of power. We don't have that kind of overview. Right, and no worries, says Job. The foundation of the celestials is order and morality justice. So no matter what you believe or don't believe, according to the Bible and the Book of Job's going to be order and it will be ordered forever. In the end, there's going to come a time of reckoning again. Faith eyes can see that. So all crime, all violations, all terrors, all betrayals, victims, you're going to be restored. God says so, and this would include natural disasters right so called acts of God. Nothing, absolutely nothing will go undealt with, unexplained and unresolved. That's a faith statement. I can't prove it. It's a faith statement because all of us would prefer resolution sooner rather than later. But God's going to do something even bigger and it's in God's hands, meaning I can't explain it to you, the suffering that you've had, the pains you've had to deal with, if you could, you know, people have asked me, so can you tell me what God's going to do to make it all right? You kidding me? I have no idea. I couldn't imagine. I wouldn't even know where to start, So sorry about that. But God does. And that's a faith statement in the New Testament that comes from the Holy Spirit. And we ask so for now, as we look with our eyes from our limited vantage point, things look muddy or we're a rocky in real ways, it's unjust. We all live in that cesspool. There are bad guys on the loose. Justice is shaky. Good people get beat up and die unavenged. And Job has a very positive message. Yeah, Okay, one more message from our sponsors, and I'll give you some thought questions that you can use to begin to process this amazing book a little bit deeper. I think you'll enjoy the discussion questions. I'll try to do that every week. We're going to be right back. So here's some discussion questions to help us dig a little bit deeper, process a little bit better, make it personal. I think you'll enjoy them. I'm going to try to do them every week. Here's question number one. If Job was the only manuscript that you had in the Bible, what would your image of God be? Who? Question number two what might be the overall point of this arguably oldest book in the Bible? And question number three. Core to the Book of Job is what scholars refer to as the retributive principle. The RP suggests that if one serves God well and does everything correctly according to the law, they should expect to be treated well health, wealth, name, career, glory, and likewise, if they do not follow the law or obey God, they will be punished accordingly fairly. So discuss the pros and con to the retributive principle. The RP I mean, is it right, is it good? Is it biblical? Does God rule the cosmos? According to an RP. Yeah, all right, I hope you enjoy that. We'll pick this up next week. Some of you regulars know that I've been writing a teen Christian fantasy series, Kingdom Quest. It's won a bunch of awards, which we are great pful for. Has been described as the modern Chronicles of Narnia or Narnia meets Princess Bride. Get them for the teens in your life, in your church. But here's something on point. My latest book, which came out January sixth of twenty twenty six, Shadowbound, is not only a great adventure and story for teenagers and young adults and non adults, it's an allegory of the Book of Job. I'm so excited about it. I can't wait to get reviews and stuff on Amazon and Goodreads. Here's from the back cover. A wager formed an arrogance, a kingdom hanging in the balance, a boy caught in a cosmic test in the glittering throne room of Garden City, the ancient gorgon Dolos dares to confront the great king with a chilling claim humanity is unworthy, broken and faithless. He offers a twisted wager, strip a single loyal servant of every blessing, and watch as devotion. The servant is Reggie, an orphan magician with an unshakable heart, a knighted hero whose story has already become legend, but now without knowledge of the celestial bargain made above him, he is thrust into seven harrowing trials, alone, forsaken and bound by shadows, while gods and monsters watch from the wings. Reggie's soul becomes the battlefield for the fate of mankind itself? Can one flawed human prove that love, loyalty, and faith are more than illusions? Overly fall, just as the Gorgan predicted. Check it out on Amazon and Kindle Now, Yeah, Hey, we'll see you next week on Gospel Rant and Doctor Bill Sen your YouTube channel. Take Heart, Child of God.
