00:00:00:43 – 00:00:30:26
Clint Loveall
Hey everybody. Thanks for joining us. Happy Monday. Glad you’re with us as we continue through job. We’re in the 29th chapter today, and job is kind of finalizing remarks in response to his friends. This is also there’s a transition that’s happening. This is the longest speech in the book of job devotes chapter 29, 30 and 31 to these remarks that he’s going to make kind of happen in three sections.

00:00:30:31 – 00:00:49:26
Clint Loveall
The first is sort of looking backwards. The second is sort of his current condition. And then in chapter 31, you have a sort of a an assessment of how job feels, that he’s been wrong. And.

00:00:49:31 – 00:01:16:36
Clint Loveall
Again, job is not just saying these things to himself, though it’s not exactly clear that he’s any longer debating his friends. But these are very much connected to what has gone before and what comes next to it. It’s sometimes called an interlude, but I think that’s I think it is more integrated into the story than that. So we’ll we’ll start here with chapter 29.

00:01:16:36 – 00:01:43:26
Clint Loveall
And the way these chapters break down, we can kind of treat them one at a time. And I would say that this first one is largely maybe we could categorize it under the heading of nostalgia. Job misses his former life. And if you’ve been in a period of suffering, or if you have walked through those periods with others, nostalgia is is a powerful tool.

00:01:43:26 – 00:02:08:43
Clint Loveall
And often it can be for good. But there is a grieving that happens when someone used to love walking, and then they have to get a new hip or something, used to be able to drive, and now you think it’s maybe time to give up the car, or when something that you have enjoyed or appreciated is taking taken from you through circumstance?

00:02:08:51 – 00:02:39:31
Clint Loveall
There is that sense here, I think, in these these words. I miss my old life and an appraisal from job of what has been lost. So I don’t think it’s hard to find that hard to follow that. But let me read a few verses here, starting in verse two. Oh, that I were, as in the months of old as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone over my head, and by his light I walked through darkness.

00:02:39:31 – 00:03:08:24
Clint Loveall
When I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, when the Almighty was still with me, when my children were around me, when my steps were washed with milk and the rock poured out for me streams of oil. Interesting, Michael, that as Joe begins to grieve over what he’s lost, the first thing that he expresses is this sense of God’s presence and protection of God.

00:03:08:26 – 00:03:33:14
Clint Loveall
He job mentions his family, which is a profound loss in the context of this book. But even before that, there is this sense of what he’s lost is God’s presence, that he now feels isolated. He now feels alone. We know that from his words. But it’s very interesting that as he begins to list what has changed for him, that’s where he starts.

00:03:33:21 – 00:03:54:50
Michael Gewecke
It’s also a direct affront to the argument his friends have been making. You know, throughout this entire book, the basic counterargument, given a variety of different voices and from different perspectives, has been, hey Joe, we all know that those who suffer are suffering for a reason. And so if you’re going to peel back the curtains, you’ve just got to admit that you are unrighteous.

00:03:54:52 – 00:04:13:40
Michael Gewecke
You’ve been unfaithful, you did wrong, your children did wrong. But just know this. You know this language, right? My justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy. It just keeps going on and on and on. They listened to me, waited, kept silence for my counsel.

00:04:13:45 – 00:04:37:33
Michael Gewecke
You know, ultimately it comes all the way down to I chose their way. Side is chief. I live like a king among his troops. Like one who comforts mourners ultimately from his relationship with the downtrodden and the weak, to his association with the rich and the privileged. Job casts this vision that his former life was one in which he was righteous.

00:04:37:33 – 00:05:05:12
Michael Gewecke
He was good. He did right. He enjoyed the benefits of God’s blessing and righteousness, you know. So is there. I. I very much agree with this assessment that there is a nostalgic shine to the way that this is written. There’s also, I think, a defiance in this that says, no, if you look and see the truth. The days of old were in fact days in which I did experience God’s blessing.

00:05:05:12 – 00:05:23:21
Michael Gewecke
I did live faithfully. I did seek to do things the right way, and that is in contradistinction to the friends who’ve argued repeatedly and pointedly. No, Joe, actually, we know that you’ve gotten this wrong here. Job is going to make the contrary case.

00:05:23:24 – 00:05:58:12
Clint Loveall
Absolutely. And I think there are two very interesting realities to that. The first is that job imagines righteousness essentially as doing the right thing. It notice that he doesn’t talk here about religious rituals. He doesn’t talk about following laws. He talks about helping others. He talks about guiding others. He talks about a life that is oriented on acting on behalf of the other, and for job that seems to characterize what it means that he considers that he had been righteous.

00:05:58:14 – 00:06:24:57
Clint Loveall
And we’ve had this conversation, Michael, that in our ears, sometimes that kind of language can sound arrogant. But remember, you have to continue to go back to the front of this book where God said this of job. God literally said job was the most righteous. And so job here is not stretching the truth. He’s not exaggerating. He’s saying I was righteous.

00:06:25:00 – 00:06:52:04
Clint Loveall
He says it here in verse 14. I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a turban. What’s interesting, I think from the perspective of jobs, life, jobs moment that he’s in job is going to now shift as we move to chapter 30, job is going to talk about how much his circumstances have changed.

00:06:52:07 – 00:07:23:33
Clint Loveall
He used to be respected by the respectable people. Now he’s held in contempt by contemptible people. He used to be celebrated. Now he’s mocked. He used to be healthy. Now he’s frail. But notice what job will never say has changed his righteousness. So his change of condition is not a change of behavior. It’s not that he fell and said, I, you know, I did this bad thing and it paid.

00:07:23:45 – 00:07:41:02
Clint Loveall
I went gambling and I lost all our families. That’s not jobs story. Job would argue that he stayed the same, but his circumstances have changed. And and that is jobs fundamental complaint as we’ve been going through the book.

00:07:41:04 – 00:08:17:57
Michael Gewecke
So the way that that helps us see what’s happening here is if Joe believes that his foundation has remained constant, then what chapter 30 is going to do is to show us how everything related to that has shifted on him. He’s not moved, but the world has changed. And so here we go, this very, very strong language about, you know, people making sport of me, those who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs, my flock.

00:08:17:57 – 00:08:38:21
Michael Gewecke
Right. People that job would have looked down on. He moves forward, a senseless disrupt, disreputable brood. They’ve been whipped out of the land. They mock me in song. It keeps going. Break up my path, promote my calamity. No one restrains them, right. You can see how this is moving forward, right? With violence. He sees as my garment. He grasped me by the color of my tunic.

00:08:38:24 – 00:09:05:33
Michael Gewecke
Their job is experiencing powerlessness. Job is experiencing the effect of those people that surrounded him who may have looked at him in his privilege, and they may have looked at him in his wealth. They may have looked at him as a human being put together, and they would have previously approached him with respect and no more. All of that is gone, job, though he argues his foundations not changed.

00:09:05:36 – 00:09:36:04
Michael Gewecke
Everything around that foundation has has radically been altered. And and that is, I think, very relatable. Anyone who’s experienced suffering knows that everything does change, even if it’s just one small piece of the puzzle has shifted. It’s remarkable how people ask us different questions and people who we thought were friends disappear, and the people who we once relied upon no longer are providing the support that we had imagined they were.

00:09:36:09 – 00:09:55:02
Michael Gewecke
There is a way in which the social life radically changes in the midst of suffering. Whether people think that means something about the sufferer or whether people are uncomfortable, whatever the story is, I think you just see this reorientation has happened, despite what Joe believes to be the constancy of his character.

00:09:55:04 – 00:10:29:31
Clint Loveall
And now, because of the appearance of suffering, the the showing up of suffering, job is ridiculed. Even as a righteous man. Job has the unrighteous people making him the butt of the joke. And there is a verse here, verse 11, God loosed my bowstring and humbled me literally. That translates to something like God brought me low. In other words, we again, we would think, oh, humbled.

00:10:29:31 – 00:11:04:19
Clint Loveall
That’s a good thing. That’s not what job is saying. Yeah, right. Job is saying he knocked me down, shamed. And now I’m at the bottom of the ladder and and the literally the unrighteous are looking down on me and laughing at me. And that that is part of jobs struggle, part of jobs, pain. And then he moves here to verse 16, where he really does sort of not only now his social status, but he reminds us again that he is physically suffering.

00:11:04:24 – 00:11:35:37
Clint Loveall
My soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me. The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest with violence. He sees as my garment. He grasped me by the collar of tuna. You have turned cruel to me with the might of your hand. You persecute me. You lift me on the wind, you make me write it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm in.

00:11:35:38 – 00:12:07:55
Clint Loveall
In other words, God, you have dog piled me. You have done these things to me. And and it hurts, it hurts. It hurts his spirit. It hurts his body. When I looked for good, evil came. When I waited for light. Darkness came. My joy is turned to morning and my pipe to the voice of those who weep. My skin turns black and falls from me.

00:12:08:00 – 00:12:37:21
Clint Loveall
There is, there is here. This movement, which I think is fascinating, that we begin with the nostalgia and the looking back to when things were good, then the embarrassment of what is now for job, and then again, the experience of pain. And in a very condensed passage or a very condensed section compared to the rest of the book, we’ve taken that same journey again.

00:12:37:24 – 00:12:57:16
Clint Loveall
The book has kind of recycled the story job at his best, job at his worst. We got there faster in the the prolog of the book, but we’re seeing it again so that I think we are ready for the book, then to turn the corner and move toward conclusion.

00:12:57:21 – 00:13:23:16
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. And I think that some of that conclusion continues on in this final chapter of this section here, because I think in chapter 31, if there’s been an implicit argument made, that job is someone who’s been righteous, that gets made explicit in all of the different ways that job wants to point out, you know, in what ways could my integrity be questioned if I walked with falsehood?

00:13:23:16 – 00:14:03:26
Michael Gewecke
My foot hurried to deceit? Let me be weighed in the just balance and let God know my integrity, which Clint in the scope of Scripture, let God know. My integrity is a pretty bold statement and he continues on right? If my steps turned away, if my heart followed my eyes. He goes on to talk about if I’ve been enticed by a woman who’s not my wife, if I’m not, if I’ve rejected the cause of the people who are subservient to me, if I’ve withheld from the poor, if I’ve not done good for the people, if these things are true, then then show them to me.

00:14:03:28 – 00:14:26:28
Michael Gewecke
In other words, I’m opening my books to me, to you. Find the irregularities. Find the part of my character that is lacking. Ultimately, I think verse 35, we start to see the direct address. Oh, that I had one to hear me. Let the Almighty answer me is about as clear of a direct goad as you’re going to get.

00:14:26:31 – 00:14:49:21
Michael Gewecke
Hey, God, if you have a charge to level against me, speak out. And we we’ve heard this theme numerous times now throughout the ensuing conversations, but I think now this is directed at God. We’ve seen these building conversations. And now Joe makes his case and he says, God, I’d like to hear your response.

00:14:49:24 – 00:15:19:38
Clint Loveall
This is a fascinating chapter because job is in some way restating the argument of the three friends. If I had done all those things, if I had been unfaithful in all those ways, if I had abused others, if I had cheated on my spouse, if I had, if I had cheated the poor, if I had gone astray in in these ways that he, then I would deserve punishment, right?

00:15:19:52 – 00:15:53:16
Clint Loveall
Verse 22. Then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, let my arm be broken from its socket. For I was in terror of the calamity of God, and I could not have faced His Majesty. If I’ve made gold my trust. If I’ve rejoiced because my wealth was great, if I’ve looked at the sun and my heart had been secretly enticed, this would be iniquity punished by the judge, for I should have been false to God.

00:15:53:19 – 00:16:26:04
Clint Loveall
So it’s not only is job protesting his innocence, which I think he is, but he’s also saying, look, if I’ve done any of that, then this could be justified. If I were guilty of this checklist, then I have no room to complain. But then, as you say, what does he move to? Let the Lord Almighty answer me. Oh, that I had an indictment written by my adversary.

00:16:26:04 – 00:16:49:04
Clint Loveall
In other words, what have I done wrong? If I had an indictment, I would carry it on my shoulder. I bind it on me like a crown I’d given him. I’d give an account of all my steps like a prince. I would approach him if my land cried out against me. And his firms have wept together. If I have eaten its yield without payment and caused the death of its owners.

00:16:49:07 – 00:17:15:57
Clint Loveall
Let thorns grow instead of wheat and fowl, weeds instead of barley. In other words, God, if you have reason to punish me, punish me. But, but show me, where’s the indictment? What have I done wrong? And then, very interestingly, the words of job are ended. Job has no more to say than that. I used to have things.

00:17:16:09 – 00:17:31:40
Clint Loveall
Things used to be wonderful. Things are now horrible. I have not aired. Why? Why do you do this to me? I don’t have anything else to say. It’s really interesting chapter.

00:17:31:45 – 00:18:03:48
Michael Gewecke
The flow. In a way. Clint takes many of the threads that we’ve pulled at throughout these conversations, and I think it makes them explicit so that the reader, we who also have the benefit of having the prelude conversation about what God and the adversary have been talking about now we can see jobs case has solidified and the words, the words of job are ended.

00:18:03:50 – 00:18:29:28
Michael Gewecke
I think tips us off to the fact that these preceding three chapters, it is the final case that job has to make, that after being pushed out by his friends, after evaluating their arguments, after thinking through what came before, after giving real soul account to what has happened, job has made his case and his case is ultimately up.

00:18:29:33 – 00:18:40:00
Michael Gewecke
If there if I have done a thing to justify the suffering that has come to my home, then I would not only own it, but I would make it.

00:18:40:12 – 00:18:40:52
Clint Loveall
I would deserve.

00:18:40:55 – 00:19:11:09
Michael Gewecke
As clear as the day and jobs cases. So tell me what it is because I can’t find it. And I think that both speaks to the honest heart of a suffering soul, a person for whom they know I don’t deserve this. It also speaks to a kind of confidence. And we said this earlier on in these conversations, Clint, that there this is not a atheistic understanding of God.

00:19:11:19 – 00:19:35:00
Michael Gewecke
This isn’t job just railing against the machine here. There’s a measure of faith in speaking out in the way that Jobe speaking to say that there is a God who will hear that there’s an adversary not speaking. Even if I have the story, God, he’s still speaking to that God going for. Tell me what went wrong. I think there’s a kind of faith built into this, this pain, this painful discourse.

00:19:35:00 – 00:20:01:36
Michael Gewecke
And sometimes that’s all the faith that we have. It’s not a beautiful faith at that moment, but it’s a it’s a foundational faith. And Joe, despite his clear disagreement, has clear disconnect with what’s happened. Job is still going to make that case to the God that he is asking account of.

00:20:01:40 – 00:20:36:40
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think it’s instructive that ultimately, job has less interest in defending himself to his friends than he has pleading his case before the Almighty as he as he writes here. And jobs final words will be to protest his innocence. And again, in light of the Christian faith and the idea that we’re all sinful. That sounds difficult to us.

00:20:36:45 – 00:21:05:38
Clint Loveall
That job wants to stand before God and proclaim his innocence. But we, the reader, know he’s right. And I think we have to remind ourselves we know that his suffering is not about his guilt. In fact, it stems from his righteousness. It stems from God’s celebration of his faithfulness and God’s willingness to let that be tested and let job be tested.

00:21:05:38 – 00:21:34:43
Clint Loveall
And job has passed those tests. And so the words of Joe Bar ended is a fascinating stopping point in the book, because it’s almost the book’s way of saying, what else is there to say? The friends have spewed out all their arguments. Job has answered them at every time, saying essentially the same thing over and over again. Now job gets his great speech.

00:21:34:52 – 00:21:59:55
Clint Loveall
And what else is there to say? And that is the perfect question to point us toward the rest of the book. And so, again, this book is so wonderfully done that I think it just shows masterful authorship in the way that it helps us with some of these transitions.

00:22:00:07 – 00:22:18:42
Michael Gewecke
That’s exactly right. This is not just built a bridge, it’s basically built to jump right into the next text. So certainly hope that you will like this video. Others find it in their own study. Subscribe. So you don’t miss studies like the continuance of this book in chapter 32. We’re glad to have you with us today and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

00:22:18:43 – 00:22:19:33
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.