Day 313: Job 4-7 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango — Transcript

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1. 0:00Hey Bible nerds, this is Dr. Manny
2. 0:02Orango. Welcome to the Bible department
3. 0:04podcast powered by Arma. We are walking
4. 0:08through the entire Bible in a year. You
5. 0:10can go to the description or the bible
6. 0:13department.com to download a reading
7. 0:15plan and join the journey
8. 0:24family. Welcome to day 313. and we are
9. 0:27diving into Job chapters 4, five, 6, and
10. 0:327. So, I'm super super excited. I've
11. 0:35done the reading. I hope that you have
12. 0:37as well. If you haven't done the
13. 0:39reading, this is a great time to stop
14. 0:41the video, pause the audio, go get the
15. 0:44reading done. We are officially out of
16. 0:47the prologue, and now we are moving into
17. 0:50the dialogue content. We're going to get
18. 0:53Job's major complaint and then we're
19. 0:55going to get three friends who are going
20. 0:57to get introduced into the narrative and
21. 1:00they've got a lot to say. We're going to
22. 1:02break it all down. I'm going to give you
23. 1:04context clues, nerdy nuggets, and a
24. 1:07timeless truth at the end of the episode
25. 1:09just like every day. So, if you've done
26. 1:13the reading, how about we dive in?
27. 1:15Again, if you haven't done the reading,
28. 1:17go get the reading done, okay? Uh, we
29. 1:19want this podcast to be a supplement to
30. 1:22your Bible reading, not a substitute for
31. 1:24your Bible reading. If you haven't done
32. 1:26the reading, let's go ahead and get some
33. 1:28context clues knocked out so that we can
34. 1:31head into our nerdy nuggets. All right,
35. 1:32so context clues. Let's talk literary
36. 1:36context. Okay, this is Hebrew poetry.
37. 1:39Now, we have spent a good chunk of time
38. 1:41in Hebrew poetry. Okay, Job is what I
39. 1:44would say is like the pinnacle of Hebrew
40. 1:47poetry. In this one book of the Bible,
41. 1:50we are going to get Psalms. We're going
42. 1:52to get proverbs. We're going to get
43. 1:54riddles. We're going to get curses.
44. 1:56We're going to get all kinds of types of
45. 2:01literature that are all going to be
46. 2:03under the umbrella of poetry. Right? So,
47. 2:07a proverb is a form of poetry. A psalm
48. 2:09is a form of poetry. We've been looking
49. 2:11at individual books of the Bible like
50. 2:14the book of Psalms that have Psalms in
51. 2:16it or the book of Proverbs that have
52. 2:19Proverbs in it. Well, Job is going to
53. 2:22have some Proverbs. It's going to have
54. 2:23some Psalms. It's going to have all
55. 2:25kinds of content. Actually, Job contains
56. 2:29Psalms, proverbs, riddles, laments,
57. 2:33wisdom poems, curses, kayazms, and
58. 2:36ancient lawsuits and more. All right.
59. 2:40So, let's actually just think for a
60. 2:42moment. The poetry that we find in the
61. 2:45book of Job is so intricate and so
62. 2:48detailed. This is actually like just the
63. 2:51greatest example of Hebrew poetry we
64. 2:53have in all the scriptures. Okay. Uh
65. 2:56this is kind of like when you're in the
66. 2:58book of Luke and people will say like uh
67. 3:00this is the best Greek. Like whoever
68. 3:03wrote the opening lines of the gospel
69. 3:07according to Luke and the book of Acts,
70. 3:09that is a very very very intelligent,
71. 3:13intellectually astute person. Like this
72. 3:16is the quality of the Greek here is just
73. 3:19through the roof. Okay. Well, the
74. 3:21intricacy of the Hebrew poetry that we
75. 3:24have here in the book of Job is just off
76. 3:26thecharts good. Like just really,
77. 3:30really, really good. Now that may not
78. 3:33translate when we read it in English,
79. 3:35but the Hebrew poetry is is insanely
80. 3:40integrate in intricate and we have
81. 3:43multiple dialogues with multiple people
82. 3:46all woven together. Okay, so we have
83. 3:49three people who are all responding to
84. 3:52Job. Okay, one at a time for three
85. 3:56rounds woven in three dialogues. So,
86. 4:00it's like threes within threes within
87. 4:03threes. It's like super super super
88. 4:06welldesigned. Okay, so you just got to
89. 4:09know that. Number two, here's the other
90. 4:11piece of context that is just absolutely
91. 4:13fascinating. This is a garden story. In
92. 4:16many ways, the book of Job is a garden
93. 4:19story. We have a character who is
94. 4:22innocent, blameless, who lives in a kind
95. 4:26of a paradise, okay? who lives a perfect
96. 4:29life. Yet because of Satan aka the
97. 4:32serpent has or the Satan, that innocent,
98. 4:37blameless character faces both a fall
99. 4:40and a great temptation. A temptation
100. 4:42involving the character of God and his
101. 4:45involvement with the good and the evil
102. 4:48in his life. The context of these two
103. 4:51stories are the same. Yahweh, innocence,
104. 4:55paradise, Satan, temptation, good and
105. 4:58evil, and a fall. In the garden though,
106. 5:01the man aka Adam fell because he sinned.
107. 5:05But in Job, he falls because he did not
108. 5:09sin. But in both stories, the fall is
109. 5:12intended to kill not just the person.
110. 5:14See, the fall is not just intended to
111. 5:17kill Adam or Job in this case, but to
112. 5:21kill those characters faith in God,
113. 5:24their belief in the goodness and the
114. 5:26goodness of God's character. It worked
115. 5:29in the garden, but will it work with
116. 5:31Job? Once we find out this a garden
117. 5:34story, we're leaned in. Okay, I can
118. 5:36remember the day I realized that the
119. 5:38story of Noah was a garden story. Okay,
120. 5:41where Adam and Eve are standing before
121. 5:43the tree of the knowledge of good and
122. 5:44evil and they eat its fruit, Noah is
123. 5:47tempted with the fruit of the vine.
124. 5:50Grape juice that's fermented that
125. 5:53becomes wine. The wine that Noah has in
126. 5:56the cup is the same as the fruit that's
127. 5:59on the tree. It's just in a different
128. 6:01form. Noah is going to be found naked,
129. 6:05okay? After he's drunk, the same with
130. 6:07it. Adam and Eve are naked before they
131. 6:11have an awareness of their own
132. 6:13nakedness. In the same way that Adam and
133. 6:16Eve become aware, they move from aloof
134. 6:20to aware. Guess what? Noah wakes up and
135. 6:23he's suddenly aware of what has happened
136. 6:27to him. That one of his sons has
137. 6:29violated him in some way. And if that's
138. 6:32not enough, Noah is called a man of the
139. 6:34soil, which Adam is going to be called
140. 6:37multiple times in the garden story that
141. 6:40we have in Genesis chapter 3. Last but
142. 6:43not least, when Adam and Eve sin against
143. 6:46Yahweh, Yahweh places a curse on the
144. 6:49serpent. Whereas in the story of Noah,
145. 6:53who's doing the cursing? That's right.
146. 6:55Noah is. He's cursing his grandson. And
147. 6:59man, this is off. People aren't supposed
148. 7:03to curse each other. Only God is
149. 7:06supposed to curse. So there's all these
150. 7:09similarities that help you to understand
151. 7:11that Noah, whatever is happening with
152. 7:13Noah, this is a garden story. Okay? So,
153. 7:16Job is also a garden story which just I
154. 7:21want to help all of us realize there are
155. 7:24these garden stories hidden all
156. 7:27throughout the text like the Hebrew
157. 7:30Bible, the Tanakh. There are these
158. 7:32garden stories. There are these echoes
159. 7:34of Genesis. They're everywhere. That
160. 7:37story of Adam and Eve in the garden is
161. 7:40like this pulsating drum line. It is
162. 7:44beating all throughout the text. Okay?
163. 7:46And so you can feel the pulse of that
164. 7:50Genesis 3 heartbeat everywhere you look
165. 7:54when you open up the Hebrew Bible. All
166. 7:56right? Let's dive into one more uh piece
167. 7:59of context that I think is really,
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191. 8:58back to the episode. There are a bunch
192. 9:00of books that are like Job. Okay,
193. 9:02another type of ancient literature uh
194. 9:05Job is associated with is called
195. 9:07pessimistic literature. This pessimistic
196. 9:10literature, these are books that are the
197. 9:12ancient versions of the deeply profound
198. 9:14question, why does life suck? Okay,
199. 9:18that's what these books are trying to
200. 9:20answer. Ecclesiastes is another example
201. 9:23of this in scripture. Both types of
202. 9:25books ask deep questions about why life
203. 9:28is like it is. Why do the innocent
204. 9:30suffer? Why is there wickedness at all?
205. 9:33And how do the gods or gods specifically
206. 9:36Yahweh relate to it all? Other examples
207. 9:39include the ancient Samrian document of
208. 9:42a man complaining to his god about his
209. 9:45affliction or the great Babylonian poem
210. 9:48Ludl Ludl
211. 9:51Nim Nimki. I don't know how to pronounce
212. 9:55this ancient hieroglyphics, but it means
213. 9:57in English, I will praise the Lord of
214. 10:00wisdom, which is about a righteous
215. 10:02sufferer and his relationship to Marduk.
216. 10:04Sorry, not Babylonian, not Egyptian
217. 10:06hieroglyphics, that's Babylonian. Okay.
218. 10:08Uh his relationship to Marduk and his
219. 10:10struggle on how to end his suffering.
220. 10:13This one is so similar to Job that it is
221. 10:16often called the Babylonian Job. Isn't
222. 10:18that fascinating? There's also a very
223. 10:21ancient Egyptian work of the third
224. 10:23millennium BC with the wonderfully
225. 10:25catchy title a dispute about suicide of
226. 10:29a man who is in so much despair that he
227. 10:32engages in a debate about whether to
228. 10:34kill himself or not. or another
229. 10:37Babylonian poem called a dialogue about
230. 10:40human misery in which a sufferer debates
231. 10:44with his friend about the cause of his
232. 10:46suffering and they come to the
233. 10:48conclusion that this is just the way the
234. 10:50gods have made humans. There's nothing
235. 10:54they can do about it. So these are all
236. 10:58similar in terms of content, style,
237. 11:01genre to the book of Job. Okay, as you
238. 11:04can see, there are many similarities to
239. 11:07Job, but in reality, Job surpasses them
240. 11:10all in terms of poetry, but also in
241. 11:13terms of theological or philosophical
242. 11:15discussion. And of course, the main
243. 11:17difference is that this is a theodyssey
244. 11:20written by an author with the knowledge
245. 11:23of the Torah and of the revelation of
246. 11:26Yahweh within it and his relationship
247. 11:29with Israel. This was written then by
248. 11:33one of those who have access like no
249. 11:36other ancient culture to the one who has
250. 11:39the answers. That's right, Yahweh. Who
251. 11:41is the answer to the questions and
252. 11:43challenges that theodysies raise. And
253. 11:46yet, even though the inspired by the
254. 11:50Holy Spirit writers have access to
255. 11:53Almighty God who's speaking through them
256. 11:57words of life that we know as scripture,
257. 12:00even though they have access, they still
258. 12:04don't give an answer. That's right. God
259. 12:09is going to show up and he does not
260. 12:11provide an answer to why is there
261. 12:13suffering or why do bad things happen to
262. 12:15good people. He does not lower his
263. 12:20thoughts to answer that question, but
264. 12:22instead elevates the human experience so
265. 12:27that that's no longer the question.
266. 12:29That's too simple of a question. You may
267. 12:33think that you're asking God a deep
268. 12:35question by asking that, but you begin
269. 12:37to realize that's not a deep question
270. 12:39for God. There are far deeper questions.
271. 12:42All right, that's all of our context
272. 12:44clues. It's kind of want to help get us
273. 12:46oriented around this book that we know
274. 12:48as Job. Now, let me give you some nerdy
275. 12:50nuggets. Okay, one of the things that
276. 12:52you're going to have to realize if the
277. 12:53book is going to make sense or come to
278. 12:55life is that there are four trials
279. 12:56happening throughout the book of Job.
280. 12:58Okay, Satan has been allowed, okay, to
281. 13:02try Job. Okay, so there are going to be
282. 13:04trials. Now, we mean trial by ordeal.
283. 13:08Trial by ordeal. Now, if you've watched
284. 13:11Game of Thrones, No Judgment, or if
285. 13:14you're familiar with the story of David
286. 13:15and Goliath, okay, that instead of the
287. 13:18entire army having to fight, there was
288. 13:20an ancient way for there to just be a
289. 13:23people's champion. And the people's
290. 13:25champion was Goliath. and David decides
291. 13:28to be the people's champion for Israel.
292. 13:30Therefore, as long as these two have
293. 13:33some type of trial by combat, the victor
294. 13:37in this microcosm
295. 13:39uh actually would dictate the victor in
296. 13:43the bigger context. Okay, that's a trial
297. 13:46by combat. This is called a trial by
298. 13:49ordeal. same idea, but it's a set of
299. 13:52trials and challenges to see whether or
300. 13:55not the God that the hero represents is
301. 13:59in fact right. So, in a very, very real
302. 14:02way, Job is Yahweh's champion. The same
303. 14:06way that David is Saul's champion, the
304. 14:09same way that Goliath or is the
305. 14:10Philistines champion, Job is actually in
306. 14:14such an honored position, he's Yahweh's
307. 14:17champion. And if he loses, it would
308. 14:20reflect the fact that Yahweh is just
309. 14:23like the Satan or Hassatan. That people
310. 14:27serve the Satan for the same reasons
311. 14:29that they serve Yahweh because they're
312. 14:31scared of the consequences and they are
313. 14:35incentivized by the privileges. Okay?
314. 14:38That this is just transactional. It's
315. 14:40not indeed covenantal. that all this
316. 14:42hurrah about worship is really nothing
317. 14:46because people just love themselves.
318. 14:49Okay. So, Job now without knowing that
319. 14:52he's Yahweh's champion has to be
320. 14:55Yahweh's champion and win the temptation
321. 14:59in his mind and in his heart. Okay.
322. 15:01What's the first trial? The first trial
323. 15:03is that Satan takes away wealth,
324. 15:06possessions, and children. And Job
325. 15:08passes. That's what Job 1 21 tells us
326. 15:11that he refuses to curse God. Second,
327. 15:15Satan takes away this second trial.
328. 15:18Satan takes away health and social
329. 15:20standing. And then Job is tempted. Who's
330. 15:23he tempted by? He's tempted by the Eve
331. 15:27in this garden story, which is his wife.
332. 15:30Tempted to curse God and die. That's Job
333. 15:332:9. But Job passes the test in Job
334. 15:372:10. He refuses to curse God. And then
335. 15:40three, the next trial or the next ordeal
336. 15:44are the friends. Okay, there are four
337. 15:48friends that come to test Job. The first
338. 15:52is Elephaz and Job is always going to
339. 15:56speak afterwards and then Bildad and
340. 15:58then Job's going to speak and then Zofar
341. 16:00and then Job is going to speak. And then
342. 16:02the fourth trial is actually the most
343. 16:05important of all and we'll get into that
344. 16:08towards the end of the book. All right,
345. 16:10one more nerdy nugget. Okay, we got a
346. 16:12lot of trials here. Not just trials by
347. 16:14combat, but these are trials by ordeal.
348. 16:17What we're going to get is that Elephas
349. 16:19is going to there's going to be a
350. 16:20structure now to these dialogues. Okay,
351. 16:23Job, buildad, Job, Zofar, Job. Okay.
352. 16:26Elephas Job, Billad Job, Zofar Job. On a
353. 16:30wisdom level, like on a theological
354. 16:32level, these friends are cooked, bro.
355. 16:35Like these friends are wrong. Like
356. 16:36Elephaz, Bildad, and Zofar don't say
357. 16:40anything to Job that is the truth. Like
358. 16:44100% true. Totally true. All truth.
359. 16:46Nothing but the truth. Okay. However,
360. 16:49they do say things that are that contain
361. 16:52some truth. And so Paul is going to
362. 16:54actually quote Elephas in 1 Corinthians
363. 16:57chapter 3 verse 19. Okay, which is a
364. 17:02quote from show. You find it on the lips
365. 17:06of Elephaz and Paul is going to quote it
366. 17:09in 1 Corinthians chap 3 verse 19. So let
367. 17:13me kind of run this down really fast.
368. 17:16Okay, chapters four and five, you're
369. 17:18going to get Elephaz the Temonite. He's
370. 17:21going to talk. And what is his general
371. 17:25perspective? It comes straight out of
372. 17:27the book of Proverbs. He has a very
373. 17:28black and white perspective. Hey, you
374. 17:31must have done something if God is
375. 17:33punishing you. And what is Job's
376. 17:35response? Well, you can find Job's
377. 17:37response in chapters 6 and 7. And Job's
378. 17:41response is really centered around the
379. 17:43fact that he's done absolutely nothing
380. 17:46to deserve this kind of pain and
381. 17:49punishment by Yahweh. So our timeless
382. 17:53truth for the day. Okay, that's a lot of
383. 17:55nerdy nuggets. That's a lot of context
384. 17:57clues. Let's move into our timeless
385. 17:58truth for the day. Pretty simple,
386. 18:00actually. Job's friends show up and they
387. 18:03immediately start talking. They've got
388. 18:04explanations. They've got moral
389. 18:06explanations. They've got ideas. They've
390. 18:10got challenges. They have a lot of
391. 18:12words. They are yapping away. Okay.
392. 18:16However, what Job needed was not
393. 18:19answers, explanations, guesses,
394. 18:21theologizing. No, no, no. Guess what Job
395. 18:24needed? He needed their presence. And
396. 18:26guess what God is going to bring at the
397. 18:28end of the book? This could be
398. 18:29frustrating for a lot of people. God
399. 18:31brings no explanations. God doesn't
400. 18:34answer Job. He talks a lot but gives no
401. 18:38answers to any of the things that Job is
402. 18:41actually asked about. But guess what God
403. 18:43does do? God comes with his presence.
404. 18:47And what Job is actually supposed to
405. 18:49teach us is that presence is better than
406. 18:52explanations. Can I ask you a question?
407. 18:54Are you going through something hard?
408. 18:56Are you going through like suffering and
409. 18:58pain? I know you want answers. There are
410. 19:01times where I've gone through really,
411. 19:02really tough scenarios. Me and my wife
412. 19:04had a miscarriage after getting
413. 19:07miraculously pregnant after years of
414. 19:08infertility. And I had so many
415. 19:10questions. Why, God? What are you doing?
416. 19:14And God never gave me an explanation.
417. 19:16And he rarely gives explanations. And I
418. 19:18doubt he's going to give you an
419. 19:19explanation. And I'd be ler of anybody
420. 19:22really who wants to come to bring
421. 19:25explanations. But you want to know what
422. 19:26God did do? God was my peace. He was my
423. 19:32healer. He was my comforter. The truth
424. 19:35is this. When Yahweh finally shows up,
425. 19:37he doesn't provide explanations, but
426. 19:40rather he provides himself. And that's
427. 19:43not just true for Job's life. That's
428. 19:45true for your life. That's true for me.
429. 19:47We could demand explanations from God,
430. 19:50but he rarely provides explanations, but
431. 19:53he always provides himself. And I hope
432. 19:56that that's not disappointing. I hope
433. 19:59that that's a sobering thought that
434. 20:01causes you to rep prioritize just how
435. 20:04important God's presence is over any
436. 20:08myriad of explanations that he could
437. 20:10attempt to bring. All right, family.
438. 20:12Hope that's helpful. Tomorrow we got day
439. 20:153:14. We're going to be in Job chapters
440. 20:178 9 and 10. We're going to continue to
441. 20:20dive into Job's conversation with his
442. 20:24three friends who definitely think they
443. 20:28know it all. They've asked no questions.
444. 20:30They're not really listening, but
445. 20:32they've got a lot of opinions. So, low
446. 20:35on the empathy, high on the
447. 20:37opinionatedness. And you know what? I
448. 20:39actually think the opposite should be
449. 20:41true. We should be high on empathy, low
450. 20:45on opinionatedness. And so I hope that
451. 20:48that is helpful for you wherever you
452. 20:50are. Tomorrow we got day 3:14. We're
453. 20:53going to be trekking through Job
454. 20:54chapters 89 and 10. It's going to be
455. 20:56fantastic. How about you meet me here,
456. 20:59same time, same place on the podcast. If
457. 21:02you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. If
458. 21:04you're not on a streak, I love you. I'll
459. 21:06see you tomorrow. Peace.
460. 21:09Thanks so much for joining us on the
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