The Gospel According to Job 3

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Speaker 1: We're at the third show of the Gospel according to Job. The Book of Job has unnerved, frightened, and confused Christians. It's a way too long, right, you know what's want to avoid the book? Right? And I wonder just maybe if we've missed the core message, which is really encouraging, which is a powerful, powerful message. I think you're going to be surprised. We're going to talk about it. Welcome to Gospel Rant podcast and Doctor Bill Sinard YouTube channel. All right, I'm your host, Doctor Bill Sinard. 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 is by leaving your comments below. Thank you ahead of time, sincerely for that. Also, thanks for making Gospel Rant Podcast one of the top ten percent podcasts in the world. Thank you for watching every week. We hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love for the unlovable, the unlovely, the unworthy, the unlikely. That's all of us on any given day, if we were just a little bit honest. That's a powerful gospel message, one that I use all the time. Last week we spoke a little bit about the retributive principle. It's this thing that sort of resonates deep within us, and we can't deny that. It's how we're raised, It's how we're motivated and motivate others. If you do the right things, you expect to be rewarded. If I'm ethical, I expect a certain treatment. If I'm good to others, I expect they will be good to me. If I get a good education, work really really hard, and don't go into debt, I expect the cosmos to treat me well. Financial freedom, thousands of godly formulas. Right, it's not evil necessarily. In fact, it's in the very nature of the divine of God. We'll have to explain that. Imagine your life is very complex first person video game. What counts the calculation of win lose? How do you reach the new level? Is it points? If so, how do you get points? If not? How is victory measured? Is it merely survival? Does the program emphasize logic emotion? How you feel when you look around the level or spirit you wait for a clue or a voice to tell you which haul or to go down, or door or open? Or do you rely on reason or previous experience dealing with the other levels, or from the advice of those who have studied that level at an advanced gaming Institute's right go to internet and ask for a clue? Or is it how you feel at the end? What are you aware of as you move through the levels and conflicts? And here we go? What do you get if you win? Ah? Get if you lose? How many tries do you get? Am I alone in the game? Is there a higher programmer who helps me? And if so, how do I get that help? How do I contact the higher programmer? Maybe the programmer is involved, but not necessarily on my side? Right? Maybe he is, but his help doesn't seem to help. Sometimes it feels like I'm being punished. Right. Maybe he's not involved at all, but I think that he is. Maybe it's part of the game to come to grips with the truth that the programmer is only an illusion in the video game. It just appears that he's there, But that's mocking me. Maybe the competition is really against his programming, against the algorithm. You know. Maybe he is there, but he's not rational. How about that? Maybe he is not sensitive to my plight. Maybe he doesn't care about my cries for help. Maybe he actually enjoys that. Maybe others have found that to win is to believe that he exists, but act as if I'm on my own. I mean, there's all kinds of variations, and there are the levels of total disaster, followed by easy victories and lots of game praise, then followed by another disaster. No rhyme or reason in the video game, it says, if it's messing with my head, it just seems that no matter how many new levels or special weapons I unlock, the programming seems to always be very formidable. It seems to know my capacity. It seems to not let me feel too good about myself or feel too bad about myself. So here's the problem. We've been thinking that the game's algorithm follows the retributive principle. But what if we've been wrong about that? What does win look like in the game of life? And to answer those questions in the Book of Job, we're going to go back to the game's instructions. See, I want to get to there, and we're gonna get right back to it after a brief word from our sponsors. Right, don't go anywhere. So here's the core instruction to our game, the game of life, the ruling algorithm, the one that most of us know, we've heard you know, and I don't really think about it on a daily basis. It's value to us, it's an instructive benefit to us, and it's led to a great deal of confusion. All right. It's Genesis one, verse twenty six and following. And God created man, that's men and women in his own image, in the image of God. He created him male and female. He created them, and God blessed them. God said to them, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule over it. There it is. There's your instructions. So gamer, you're supposed to be fruitful, multiplied, fill the earth. What does that mean? Well, God spoken to chaos and created order, some boundaries. There's some context for life where you can live. But he did not finish the transformation. It's a crazy plan. He planted humanity ma and female, made out of the disordered dirt, and pushed them onto the stage of Eden, the marvelous realm. He blew his spirit into them, which made them uniquely different than any other creature in Eden of them. It could be said that the Creator is a rationally crazy about them. Then he gives them the initial game instructions, be fruitful, multiply, and fill. This is more than sex and biological stuff. Animals are charged by God with the three as well. But humanity is to fill Eden and the rest of habitable unchaos non chaos, with a spiritual seed. Image bearers of God. Right, animals don't do that. Humans do that. And these image bearers of God are those who not only share his image, but share in his character, otherness, other orientation. But there is something added to God's charge to humanity. And without this we miss the ultimate point of job Jesus, And for that matter, your game. Why are you here? What are your purpose? How do you get to another level? Why? Humanity is also to rule and subdue? All right, well, the right question is rule and subdue? What this was Eden? Their needs were taken care of perfectly and with little effort. There was no such thing as arguments between them, no misunderstanding, no dysfunctions whatsoever, no shame, no guilt. So what are they to subdue? The only thing that needed ruling and subduing was residual chaos and chaos incarnate Satan back to job right. Subdues a harsh word in the Hebrew. It likely comes from the Acadian kabasu, which means to tread down. In the Old Testament, it generally refers to making the object serve you by force if necessary. In the Word Book of the Old Testament, the word assumes that the party being subdued as hostile to the subduer, necessitating some sort of coercion if the subduing is to take place. Therefore, subdue in Genesis one twenty eight implies that creation will not do men's bidding gladly or easily, and that man must now bring creation into the submission by strength, meaning we got to subdu it. So even an Eden prefall, mankind was charged with the subjugation of a hostile anti God force chaos and also chaos incarnate the challenger Satan. Our goal, our charge, our purpose, and the plan of God. What were to accomplish in his image was to be part of that subduing chaos. It always was. Do you think that game objective changed at the fall or changed at the cross? I don't believe so. Biblically granted, things were a very different pre fall, there was no issue of God liking me or what do I need to do to have him like me? Bore No one experienced identity issues, daddy issues, loneliness, guilt, fear, shame. We were in a strong position to do what we were created to do. Be fruitful multiply filled Rule and Subdue was level one. Pretty easy on level one, but then the fall level two. Then the difficulty of the program radically increased, but the games charged didn't. We're still supposed to be fruitful multiply phil rule and Subdue, but now we have to do it out of a fractured, fragmented, and very needy self identity shredded experience of love of God towards us, And now we're confused about what success looks like. We're never sure that we're appreciated, adored, worthy experience of God's love and cares hit or miss right. No secret or maybe just a contractual theological statement for many of us, Yeah, God loves me. I guess the retributive principle now has a deal of motivational power didn't have before the fall. Somewhere deep in the murky shadows of our mid brain, is this operational hope that if I do these things now God will bless me. But if I don't do those things, he's going to be disappointed in me, and he's not going to bless me, and I lose the game. In the reverse, if I am losing the game's level, I must have been doing something really wrong. If I'm winning the game right now, I must be doing something godly and behind the scenes, God's now pulling for me. Maybe, isn't that right? I mean, if we were honest, you know the level two stories, humanity fail. Based upon the heavenly retributive principle, we deserve punishment. But God became a player since his son as a mediator, he took my place, suffered the punishment required by the retributive principle, and now I am no longer slave to it theoretically, legally, biblically, but it's in my way. But now strictly because of what Jesus did for me, I don't need to worry about whether or not God has my back and is pulling for me even if I don't do well, and in fact, He's already guaranteed my victory. That's what faith says, which comes from the Holy spirit we know in the New Testament, and because of Jesus, he can't love me any more than he does. Again another faith statement, He's so proud of me a faith statement. But the striking retributive principle is still in my redeemed brain and has way too much control. Still, it turns out that's what Satan was betting on. Job, who pre Christ was really good with God. God says so twice. But he has a very strong sense of the retributive principle. So he's thinking Job, that is, I did everything God said to do, which by the way, God would agree with, but because of the wager, God couldn't say right. So I did everything God said to do. God should have my back and be blessing me by the way God would agree. Since it appears that I'm being cursed, I must have done something that displeased God. It's attributed principle and action, not what God was doing at all. But says Job, I don't know what I could have done. And if God doesn't tell me what I could have done or what I did to disappoint him, it's on him and he should answer, and he's guilty for that. It isn't fair. It's not just that I should be suffering like this. And of course, based on the wagers, this is the fun part of the narrative. Fund is probably not the right word. God can't explain things to Job. It's a raw test of heaven born faith versus postfall retributed principle that's in our heads. The retributor principle says that if I'm going through hell, either I must have offended God or God has messed up. Those are the two options. Faith, this heavenly faith from the Holy Spirit we now know in the New Testament, says that God's wisdom is such that there is a possibility that going through hell could be part of an elaborate, loving gift of God to the one he wants to reward. I'll say it again, Faith, a heavily faith says that God's wisdom is such that there's a possibility that going through hell could be part of an elaborate, loving gift of God to the one he wants to reward. Poo man, That just does not compute in the retributor principle. Well, in that frame of mind, will Job finally explode and curse God to his face for injustice? Satan bets on yes, God says no. In fact, something else is at the end of Job's horrific level. What is the higher game that God is orchestrating. If we gamers want to win, we need to get this. This is the answer to so many of our concerns about why bad things happen to good people. God is using Satan. He's that big. And I remember, God is the game's career or not Satan. God's using Satan to accomplish a higher retributed principle blessing for his faithful job. The trial, the level, as horrific as it was, and it was was from God's perspective, a gift, a blessing, and a strange reward. And here's Genesis three, fourteen to fifteen. It's often overlooked, but it raises the bar in the video game and what greater victory looks like and feels like now without risk or pain or suffering. But I'm going to say that in a way, this is the guiding principle, the guiding prophecy for the rest of the Bible. It happens right after the fall. It's the curse of God, but it's also the prophecy that the game is still on. Faithful gamers, including Jesus, are going to be acting out of this algorithm. Okay. And here it is so, the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed or you above all the livestock and all the wild animals, You will crawl on your belly, and you will eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you the woman, in between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel Genesis three, fourteen to fifteen. There it is. That's the book of Job. The last phrase, that last sentence, that's the cross. And that's why you're still here to participate in this job, representing all the faithful followers of God's sense and you and me today is still on a great quest, not because he was guilty or unfaithful, but rather because he was innocent and faithful and charged to do something stunning and heroic. Per Genesis three. He's on a radical new level where it is him against Satan. Victory happens when Job crushes the serpent's head, but he's going to have his heel. Bit that's just the level. And if he crushes the serpent's head. The game's going to interrupt in confetti and cheering and adulation, and God's going to say, well done, good and faithful gamer. Songs of be sung. Books written about Job and his remarkable faith dislike the one I'm writing now, and he would have accomplished what Adam and Eve failed to do and all human sense are charged to do. Yeah. Well, check out this great quote by commentator Robert Sutherland about Job. Here. It is quote, if human beings know with certainty that God rewards those who love him, then they will serve God for what they can get from God. Undeserved evil is morally necessary in order to bring the existence of God into doubt and to sever any connection between righteousness and reward. Quote. I would say it also it helps me way what kind of faith I have? Is that human born faith are heavenly born faith? Yeah. One more message for our sponsors, and I will give you some thought questions because this stuff has to be processed. We're going against your internal programming. Yeah, we'll be right back. So his questions for further study. We need these because our internal programming is retributive principle, and we just that's just how we see the world, and this needs to be reprocessed and re explored, and so thinking through these questions may be helpful. So here we go discuss the view of the garden of Ene that I portrayed today. What does it mean in your life that you're charged with subduing chaos? How do you do it on a weekly basis? How have you done it in your life stories? So, then, is the struggle good if this is our purpose? Have we been missing the boat and pursuing other lesser purposes? Is this why we get stuck on this level? Howso? And the next talk, we're gonna build on this thing. Sit down here. Bad things are happening to Job, not because he was guilty, but because he was innocent. Oh man, ponder that statement until we get back with each other. Yeah, all right, and just for fun, by the way, we rented watched The Sting Great Movie nineteen seventy three, one of the best movies of all time. The movie won seven Oscars, Best Pittford, Best Director, Best Score. Discussed with others how this might be relevant to our study of Job. All right, well, I hope this is resonating and making some sense. I'm sure it's disguising you to scratch your head, and that's good. Take heart, child of God.