Day 323: Job 34-37 | 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 323.
9. 0:28We are trekking through the book of Job
10. 0:31together. Hopefully, we're all having a
11. 0:33good time. I know I'm having a blast.
12. 0:35Today, we are looking at Job chapters 34
13. 0:39to 37.
14. 0:4134, 35, 36, 37. Four chapters of the
15. 0:45Bible that we are looking at today. And
16. 0:48I'm pumped because after today, we get
17. 0:52to study what God has to say about all
18. 0:56of the drama in Job's life. Can't wait
19. 0:58to get there tomorrow. Don't want to
20. 1:00jump the gun. We'll get there tomorrow.
21. 1:02Now, in the meantime, if you have not
22. 1:05done the reading for the for the day for
23. 1:07today, if you haven't read Job 34:35,
24. 1:1036, and 37, how about you stop this
25. 1:13video, pause the audio, go get the
26. 1:15reading done. I'm going to give you a
27. 1:17heads up though. If you haven't done the
28. 1:18reading, Ellie, who has a a lot of
29. 1:22words, but not a lot of, you know, he
30. 1:24doesn't have a lot to say, but use a lot
31. 1:26of words to say a little bit of content.
32. 1:29I mean, it's it could be a little
33. 1:30draining, but anyway, just wanted to
34. 1:32give you that heads up. Maybe if you've
35. 1:34done the reading, if you feel that way,
36. 1:36let me know in the comments. If you've
37. 1:38already done the reading and you're just
38. 1:39like, "This brother is long winded,"
39. 1:44just let me know in the comments if
40. 1:45you're watching this on YouTube that
41. 1:47that uh Ellie who is not a concise
42. 1:52individual. Uh so hey, for all of you
43. 1:55who have the reading done, uh we are
44. 1:57going to dive into our context clues
45. 2:00like every day then nerdy nuggets then a
46. 2:03timeless truth. So, uh, I want to knock
47. 2:06out some context for us today as we dive
48. 2:09into this episode. Just some big big big
49. 2:11big big picture stuff. Okay? So,
50. 2:13remember we're talking about those three
51. 2:16levers on the triangle, right? Like in
52. 2:19the example that I gave is that I went
53. 2:20to a mechanic one time and they said,
54. 2:23you know, there was a little sign on the
55. 2:24door that said, "Hey, this could either
56. 2:26be cheap, fast, or excellent, but it
57. 2:30can't be all three, right?" And so
58. 2:32whatever you toggle on, the other thing
59. 2:34is going to toggle off. And that that's
60. 2:36really the tugofwar that Job and his
61. 2:39friends are in. Right? That top lever is
62. 2:44God is just. It's his character. It's he
63. 2:47cannot be just. He is just. Next is Job
64. 2:51is innocent. Okay. Job is experiencing
65. 2:55suffering that is not a punishment
66. 2:59because he is innocent. Okay. So these
67. 3:02are the two things if we toggle them on
68. 3:05then we have to ask the question about
69. 3:07the last toggle and that is does God
70. 3:11govern the cosmos with a policy of
71. 3:16retribution and reward. Now, Deuteronomy
72. 3:19and Proverbs would both suggest that God
73. 3:22governs with a retribution and reward
74. 3:26policy. Okay, that's the policy. You
75. 3:28read Deuteronomy, it is, hey, before you
76. 3:31I've placed life and death, blessings
77. 3:33and curses. If you do this, this will
78. 3:35happen. Cause and effect. If you do
79. 3:37this, this will happen. Cause and
80. 3:39effect. And then a book like Proverbs is
81. 3:42really built on top of the foundation of
82. 3:45a Deuteronomist Deuteronomistic
83. 3:48worldview. Okay, that's always a
84. 3:49difficult that's always a tongue twister
85. 3:51for me. And so I want to kind of give an
86. 3:53analogy that'll help us out a bit
87. 3:55because what Job's friends are arguing
88. 3:59is they're going to toggle on God is
89. 4:01just, therefore, this is the policy in
90. 4:03which God uses to run the universe. And
91. 4:06I want us to think about it this way.
92. 4:08Let's think about policies, okay? That
93. 4:10so my son is four. He's four years old
94. 4:12right now. And um you know, we've been
95. 4:16talking recently about telling the truth
96. 4:19that we don't say things that aren't
97. 4:21true. So, you know, recently my wife
98. 4:24went out of town and my son is like,
99. 4:25"Mom said," and he just made up some
100. 4:28stuff. He made up some stuff that my
101. 4:30wife did not say, "Okay, but mom said
102. 4:33blah blah blah blah blah blah blah." And
103. 4:34I'm like, "Hey buddy, are you telling me
104. 4:36the truth?" Okay. So, at four years old,
105. 4:39the only policy he needs is tell the
106. 4:42truth. Always tell the truth. Should I
107. 4:45tell the truth 80% of the time, 40% of
108. 4:48the time, 20% of the time, or 100%? 100%
109. 4:51of the time. Okay, fantastic. Now, so if
110. 4:54that's the policy, right? Imagine, you
111. 4:57know, there's a scenario where he has to
112. 4:59tell a lie to save human lives. And
113. 5:02imagine me as the dad, okay? I've taught
114. 5:05him a very black and white policy, but I
115. 5:09know there's gray, but I know that he's
116. 5:11not mature enough to handle that gray.
117. 5:13Okay? So, imagine he's, you know, six
118. 5:17and I'm like, you know, hey, there are
119. 5:19moments where you have to lie in order
120. 5:21to save a human life because saving a
121. 5:24life is morally holds more weight than
122. 5:27telling the truth. Okay? So, let's like
123. 5:30think about a story in the Bible. In the
124. 5:33beginning of the book of Exodus, the
125. 5:35midwives who have been assigned to the
126. 5:38Jewish women to take their babies and
127. 5:41throw their babies into the Nile, they
128. 5:44lie, right? They lie. They they they
129. 5:47they come up with all kinds of lies to
130. 5:49tell Pharaoh why why do they lie? They
131. 5:53lie in order to save human life. Or
132. 5:57let's think about Rahab. Rahab lies in
133. 5:59order to have in order to hide spies in
134. 6:03her house. Why? In order for the will of
135. 6:05the Lord to get done. So we here we have
136. 6:09two times in scripture where people do
137. 6:12lie and it's not a problem. Why is it
138. 6:15not a problem? Well, because telling the
139. 6:18truth would then mean that they are
140. 6:20violating a heavier something that has
141. 6:23even more moral weight than telling the
142. 6:26truth does. Can you imagine me trying to
143. 6:29explain that to my four-year-old? Can
144. 6:30you just imagine me saying, "Well,
145. 6:32buddy, you can lie sometimes if a human
146. 6:37life is at risk." Like, like there's 1%
147. 6:40of the time, 2% of the time where lying
148. 6:42is going to be okay. But lying is only
149. 6:45okay if someone it can you imagine me
150. 6:48trying to teach the story of Rahab to
151. 6:50him or the story where the the midwives
152. 6:54lie to Pharaoh or like the magi the wise
153. 6:58men end up lying to Herod because Herod
154. 7:01is killing children and the wise men
155. 7:03don't want to blow Jesus's cover that
156. 7:06he's escaped to Egypt. Like, can you
157. 7:08imagine me trying to explain that amount
158. 7:12of gray to my four-year-old son while
159. 7:15he's only able to think in black and
160. 7:17white? And here in lies the problem. You
161. 7:21and I, like, actually, I'm closer to the
162. 7:25intelligence level of my four-year-old
163. 7:27son than God is to us. And so, the
164. 7:30question is not is God just or is Job
165. 7:33innocent. We could toggle both those on.
166. 7:35But does God use a strict policy of
167. 7:40retribution and reward to govern the
168. 7:43universe? And the answer, actually God's
169. 7:46answer is no. The universe is too
170. 7:50complicated of a place for there to be
171. 7:53that simple of an equation. And so, is
172. 7:57the policy correct? Like, is the policy
173. 8:00that's laid out in Deuteronomy and
174. 8:01Proverbs correct? Yes. Yes. Generally
175. 8:05speaking, if you do good, good things
176. 8:08happen. Generally speaking, if you walk
177. 8:12upright, you will be blessed. Generally
178. 8:14speaking, but then the Satan or the
179. 8:17Satan has character is like, is that
180. 8:20even a good idea? How will we know if
181. 8:24Job actually loves you if it doesn't
182. 8:27cost him anything? And so that that kind
183. 8:30of gets us to this place of hey, like
184. 8:34yes, God operates the universe according
185. 8:38to just policies. But does God's just
186. 8:42policy
187. 8:43always mean a strict retribution and
188. 8:48reward uh one for one, you know,
189. 8:51punishment or reward? And the answer is
190. 8:55no. that life's too unpredictable for
191. 8:59that, that life's too complicated for
192. 9:01that, that that kind of a system does
193. 9:04not work, that's too rigid, and the
194. 9:08cosmos is going to need way more
195. 9:10flexibility. Now, Ellie who is not able
196. 9:13to come to that conclusion, and Job is
197. 9:15not able to come to that conclusion
198. 9:17until God talks. Now, I just wanted to
199. 9:20provide that level of context. Like when
200. 9:22we talk about policy, the policy that
201. 9:25God uses to govern the universe, like
202. 9:27that's what the book of Job is really
203. 9:28about. And when we start talking about
204. 9:31that, I want us to kind of understand
205. 9:34what we mean by that. Okay? And I
206. 9:36thought that the example of my son and
207. 9:39lying kind of could help bring that to
208. 9:43life. Hope that's helpful. Only other
209. 9:45thing I'll say about context for today,
210. 9:48okay, is that when we got done with
211. 9:51Job's oath of innocence, from a
212. 9:54narrative perspective, like from a
213. 9:56literary perspective, I don't know about
214. 9:58you, but I was ready for Yahweh to
215. 10:00respond. Like, Job's oath of innocence
216. 10:03should have gotten us to the edge of our
217. 10:06seats, should have created suspense.
218. 10:08That's what it's designed to do. And
219. 10:09then out of nowhere, here comes
220. 10:11Elliehoo, which I don't know if you've
221. 10:13ever been watching a good movie and it
222. 10:15felt like that it feels like this movie
223. 10:17is about to end and then they tack on
224. 10:19like 20 extra minutes. Like that's an
225. 10:22artistic choice. And the book of Job is
226. 10:24making that artistic choice. Okay, that
227. 10:27what Elhoo's monologue is doing is it's
228. 10:30prolonging the payoff of what Yahweh is
229. 10:33going to say even more because Job
230. 10:36chapter 28's already told us only Yahweh
231. 10:39can provide wisdom. So if Job is
232. 10:42demanding to meet with Yahweh and we
233. 10:45know that that's the climax of the book,
234. 10:48he's the only one that can bring wisdom.
235. 10:50And so that's where the action is headed
236. 10:53and Elhoo is kind of supposed to keep us
237. 10:57in suspense just for a little while
238. 11:00longer. So just from a not a spiritual
239. 11:04perspective, just from a literary
240. 11:05perspective, I hope that you can
241. 11:06appreciate where Elohoo's speeches are
242. 11:09placed because Job's oath of innocence
243. 11:13is supposed to get you ready. I mean
244. 11:15like leaned in and ready for Yahweh to
245. 11:18drop some truth bombs. But then out of
246. 11:20nowhere, here we go. Elihoo is here.
247. 11:22Okay, let's dive into our nerdy nuggets.
248. 11:25Okay, number one, first nerdy nugget.
249. 11:27Elihoo is the first Hebrew name we have
250. 11:29in the entire book. And that name means
251. 11:32he is my God. So that's already a good
252. 11:35sign that like what Ellie who's gonna
253. 11:37say is probably not as ridiculous as the
254. 11:41other three friends. Okay. Number two,
255. 11:43the second nerdy nugget that I want us
256. 11:46to kind of center our minds on is not
257. 11:48just Elhoo's name, but Elhoo's claim.
258. 11:51Okay. Elhoo claims that God used the
259. 11:54suffering of Job as a preventative
260. 11:57justice for future sin. Okay. Now, this
261. 12:01is actually creative. The three friends
262. 12:03have not even proposed that as an idea
263. 12:06or as an option. So, I could kind of get
264. 12:08behind the thought process that maybe
265. 12:11Ellie who is smarter than these other
266. 12:13three guys. Okay. Some scholars believe
267. 12:15Ellie who adds no real value that he's
268. 12:18just regurgitating the arguments that
269. 12:20he's already heard. I don't line up
270. 12:22there. I actually think that essentially
271. 12:24what Ellie who is claiming is that you
272. 12:27Okay, Job. Okay, Job, we believe you.
273. 12:29You didn't sin yet, but God knew you
274. 12:32would sin in the future, and so you're
275. 12:35dealing with suffering now. All right?
276. 12:37By the way, that is the perspective that
277. 12:40the disciples have when they ask Jesus
278. 12:44about the man born blind. They say, "Who
279. 12:47sinned? him or his parents that he was
280. 12:49born blind. Okay? You can't understand
281. 12:53the disciples question of Jesus if you
282. 12:56don't understand how the book of
283. 12:58Proverbs and Deuteronomy really function
284. 13:01which is a black and white never tell a
285. 13:03lie always tell the truth policy. Okay?
286. 13:06And so the disciples are like hey who
287. 13:09sinned this man or his parents? And why
288. 13:12would it be this man if he was born
289. 13:13blind? Right? Obviously, the man
290. 13:16couldn't have sinned while he was in the
291. 13:18womb. But what the Jewish people
292. 13:21believed, especially in the first
293. 13:22century, was that God knows the future
294. 13:25sins that you are going to commit. And
295. 13:27since God is omnisient, he can make you
296. 13:30blind at birth because he's aware of
297. 13:34some future sin that you're going to
298. 13:35commit when you're like 38 years old.
299. 13:37And Jesus has to go, guys, no. Like
300. 13:41that's a the question is not who sinned.
301. 13:44question is how can the glory of God be
302. 13:47on display through this man's life?
303. 13:49Okay, so number one is Ellie who's name
304. 13:52number two is Ellie who's claim okay and
305. 13:55then three's accusation. Now where the
306. 13:58other three friends are just kind of
307. 14:00making suggestions like maybe you did
308. 14:02this and maybe you did that and maybe
309. 14:03you did that. Ellie who is like I know
310. 14:05exactly what your sin is and you've been
311. 14:08claiming to be righteous but actually
312. 14:10you're self-righteous. You're not
313. 14:13righteous, you're self-righteous. That
314. 14:16is Elhoo's addition to these friends
315. 14:19arguments is that number one, God Yahweh
316. 14:23is giving preventative punishment. He's
317. 14:26punishing now because of something he
318. 14:29knows is going to happen in the future.
319. 14:31Second, he is saying that the issue here
320. 14:34is not that you're righteous. It's
321. 14:36actually that you're so righteous, you
322. 14:38are selfrighteous.
323. 14:41family, the wait is over. My brand new
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346. 15:38episode. All right, I hope that context
347. 15:40clue and the nerdy nuggets were helpful.
348. 15:42Let's move into our timeless truth for
349. 15:45the day. I want to kind of just frame
350. 15:48this up a little bit. We're we're going
351. 15:49into the fact that Yahweh is about to
352. 15:52actually respond. And what we've
353. 15:54discovered already in chapter 28 is
354. 15:56that, hey man, the fear of the Lord is
355. 15:59the beginning of wisdom. like there's
356. 16:01this how do I know whether or not
357. 16:04there's a black and white policy or a
358. 16:06policy with gray? Like what do I how do
359. 16:08I know? And uh we're getting down to
360. 16:11okay like so what is the point of this
361. 16:12book? And uh I guess I could frame it
362. 16:14like this. There are lots of things that
363. 16:18we don't know. It's like if we made a
364. 16:19list of like what we don't know a lot a
365. 16:23lot. Ellie, who's the wisest person
366. 16:25we've talked to so far, and he's still
367. 16:27wrong because what do we not know? We
368. 16:30don't know many things. There are many
369. 16:32things we don't know. But what do we
370. 16:35know? We know that Yahweh can be
371. 16:37trusted. And and that's where the book
372. 16:39actually wants you to end up. There's a
373. 16:41lot of things we don't know, but here's
374. 16:43what we do know. Yahweh can be trusted.
375. 16:45So, we have to then create some
376. 16:47defaults. A default. Hey, when confused,
377. 16:52when in suffering, when disoriented,
378. 16:55when disappointed, let's have a default.
379. 16:57In the default, we trust God. In the
380. 17:01default, we walk in the fear of the
381. 17:04Lord. In the default, we assume that
382. 17:09even though we don't comprehend what's
383. 17:11happening, whatever is happening is
384. 17:15according to God's justice. There's a
385. 17:17lot of things we don't know, but we're
386. 17:20not going to make decisions based on
387. 17:21what we don't know. We're actually going
388. 17:23to make decisions based on what we do
389. 17:25know. And we know enough. We know
390. 17:30everything we need to know in order to
391. 17:33follow God, to place our faith in him,
392. 17:37and to assume that he's good. That
393. 17:43that's what Job is about is needing to
394. 17:45do. That's what everybody in the story
395. 17:48needs to do, but that's also what you
396. 17:50and I need to do. There's all types of
397. 17:52moments where we could focus on all the
398. 17:54things we don't know. And it's almost
399. 17:56like by not knowing a lot, it could kind
400. 17:58of cause paralysis. Like since I don't
401. 18:00know anything, I'm not going to do
402. 18:01anything. Kind of like being in a dark
403. 18:03room and you're just like, "Yeah, I'm
404. 18:04not moving. I'm not banging my shin. I'm
405. 18:06not it's not moving." And whereas the
406. 18:08book of Job is actually getting you to
407. 18:10the place where you go, there's a lot of
408. 18:11things I don't know, but there's one
409. 18:13thing I do know. And the one thing that
410. 18:16I do know can actually illuminate a path
411. 18:18for me to begin to even know the things
412. 18:20that I don't know by acting on what I do
413. 18:23know to be true. And what we do know to
414. 18:25be true, wow. What we do know to be true
415. 18:28is that God is an incredible father.
416. 18:32He's a phenomenal leader. That God can
417. 18:35be trusted. That there's no one like him
418. 18:37in all the earth. And he is undefeated.
419. 18:40All right. I wrote down here, you must
420. 18:43always have a default. When you don't
421. 18:46know what to do, uh you fear Yahweh. On
422. 18:49our team, I always say like, hey,
423. 18:51there's all there's going to be all
424. 18:52types of moments where we don't know
425. 18:54what to do. You know, I I make decisions
426. 18:58about our church plant. I probably
427. 18:59average like 20 decisions a day. And
428. 19:01there's always moments where I'm like, I
429. 19:03don't know what to do. Should we hire
430. 19:04that person? Should we not? Should we
431. 19:05contact that person? Should we not?
432. 19:06Should we have our church at this venue
433. 19:09or not? Should we do this? Should we
434. 19:10not? should be this, that, that. And I'm
435. 19:12like, guess what? I do know. I do know
436. 19:15that anytime I'm confused, we should
437. 19:17love people. Anytime I'm confused, man,
438. 19:20we should honor people. Anytime I don't
439. 19:22know what to do, I'm never going to
440. 19:23allow the things that I'm overwhelmed by
441. 19:26and by the things that I don't know that
442. 19:28are overwhelming me to overshadow all
443. 19:30the things I do know. I know enough. I
444. 19:33may not I may not have answers for a
445. 19:35hundred of these things, but but I know
446. 19:37these five things and I'm going to
447. 19:40execute on the five things I do know.
448. 19:41And Job is actually trying to get you to
449. 19:43the point of I don't know why bad things
450. 19:45happen to you. I don't know. I don't
451. 19:46know. I have no idea. But I know this. I
452. 19:49know that God can be trusted. I know
453. 19:50that he should be feared. I know that I
454. 19:53stand in a humble position before. And
455. 19:56if I continue to do that, maybe, just
456. 19:58maybe, he'll speak to me in the
457. 20:00whirlwind, which is exactly what we're
458. 20:02going to look at tomorrow. Tomorrow is
459. 20:04day 324. We're going to look at Job
460. 20:07chapter 38 and 39. We've been waiting
461. 20:10with baited breath to get here cuz
462. 20:12Yahweh's now going to respond and set
463. 20:15the record straight. Tomorrow, we'll
464. 20:18dive into it. It'll be fantastic. Same
465. 20:20time, same place. If you're on a streak,
466. 20:21I'm proud of you. If you're not, it's
467. 20:24okay. Come on, let's get it together.
468. 20:26Love you guys so much. See you tomorrow.
469. 20:27Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on
470. 20:30the Bible podcast. If this episode was
471. 20:33helpful, how about you leave a comment,
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474. 20:39episode. To learn more about the show,
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