Well, hello, and welcome back to today's episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. It is just I Today, Pastor Rod. As you already know, or may know, Pastor PJ is still out in California with his family, enjoying some much needed and well deserved rest time. So as you think about him, And the fact that I'm here by myself, would you please pray for him and Amanda and all the kids that they would have a great time. I know one of them celebrating a birthday. And so that's going to be fun. Uh, please pray for them. They would love your prayers. I don't want them to come back sick. You know, it's one of the worst things to take a vacation and then to come back and need a vacation from your vacation. That's something we'd like to avoid for them. I'd like for him to come back, all of them to come back excited and energized and ready for Whatever the next several months bring. So please pray for them. That would do him a great service and be an honor for him. I'm sure. And it also benefit me as he comes back and we're ready to jump in. We have a couple of big things on the calendar. Most immediately, I'll let you guys know, we're looking at moving into a different office space. If you've ever visited our office, you notice that it's a bit small, it's a bit cramped, and that's okay. Humble beginnings, as it's often said. We're okay with that, and we've been well served by this place. In fact, it's one of my favorite offices. It's cozy, but it's been so cool because we've been so close together and been able to develop relationships that we otherwise may not have developed in a much larger space. But we're now at a place where we're looking to add a little more space. And so we're, we're prayerfully pursuing a new spot in prosper, not too far from where we are right now that affords us a little more space to work with, which we would absolutely love a couple of things have to come into place. But if you would pray about that, we would really appreciate it. So that's one thing that's on the calendar. We have a couple other big things. In fact, we have revival winter edition coming up for our high school and junior high student ministry. You could pray for me as I lead that. I'm excited about that. And I have a lot of work to do. It takes a lot of effort to put these together. So I need to pray. I need to spend time putting stuff together on my notes and also putting a small presentation together. I like to give them images and things to work with on top of having small group discussion questions. There's just so much, and I'm sure you can at least imagine what that would be like. So I'll take your prayers there as well. And I guess the last big thing, it's not a big thing, uh, out of the ordinary, but it's big for me today. Sunday, January 5th, I will be preaching in the main service. So if you would pray for that, I would really appreciate that. Uh, even if you're praying after the fact you're listening to this in the afternoon and you're praying about it, I'll take those prayers. I think God will apply them retroactively. Is that how that works? I'm not sure, but God's outside of time. So if you want to pray after that, I'm okay with that. I'll take that. Thank you for that. I Appreciate that so much. Recently, I was talking to a friend of mine and we were talking about the nature of evil. He's really wrestling with this. Um, he would not call himself a Christian, but he's open to whatever, whatever opportunities to think through some truth might afford. And he said that something I said really bothered him. And I said something to the effect of at the end of the day behind every deed that happens on the planet, good or evil, God ultimately stands behind it. he's the one who has all the cards in his hand, and I don't want to make it sound crass, but God's in control of everything. And he said that bothered him because if God can stop evil, then why doesn't he, if he has the ability to step in, then, then why doesn't he do the things that we would say? I would do that. If I had the ability to do what God could do, I would step in and I would stop this insert evil action here. And what I tried to help him understand is something I think that Job is wrestling with right now. And it's this idea that God is the creator and he's the infinitely wise creator. He's the sovereign sustainer of the whole universe. He upholds the universe by the word of his power, Hebrews chapter 1. And if we believe that, then that's going to have an impact on the way that we experience both the good and the bad. We're going to look at Job chapter six through nine today. And part of this is going to be Job's response to Eliphaz, which we'll finish today. At least the first response. He'll continue that through chapters six and seven. And then in chapter eight, we'll hear for the first time from Bildad. He's going to say something similar to Eliphaz, and then Job's going to respond to Bildad in chapter nine. We're not going to be able to hear all of what Job has to say, because chapter 10 is the second half of what Job says in response to Bildad. But let's jump into chapter 6. Job chapter 6 is Job's response to Eliphaz, and it's going to cover two chapters. Job's response, essentially for the first time is God is doing this in verse four. He says, the arrows of the almighty are in me. So you might remember, maybe you don't, but if you're looking at your Bible in chapter five, uh, Eliphaz says in verse 17, behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves, therefore despise not the discipline of the almighty. Well now Job uses that same terminology in verse four and says, well, it actually is Eliphaz, it is the almighty whose arrows are in me. My spirit drinks their poison. The terrors of God are arrayed against me. Job is coming to the conclusion that at the end of the day, God is responsible. And that is 100 percent true. Now it's not true in the sense though, that God is the one actively doing the work. He has ultimate causation. That is, all things terminate upon Him. He has the power to do whatever he wants, but his power is always directed toward benevolent, good, God glorifying aims. Even when those Aims involve the allowance, the permission for evil, which is exactly how we started the book. Recall, it was the devil who asked the Lord, let me afflict Job, and God gave him permission. And in that permission, God says, do this and do no more. You can go this far and no further. So Job is coming to grips with that reality. Every Christian has to, every Christian. God fear has to come to grips with the reality that God is the ultimate cause of the universe. But the proximate cause, in this case, is the devil. It's probably not true that the devil is after you or me, but he is at work. Uh, and while it may not be the devil per se, it might be those he works with, his minions. We call them demons. And so here, Job is coming to grips. It's the, it's the arrows of the almighty that are against me. He's the one who's doing this. And this is why it hurts especially, because Job is, again, he's confused. More than confused actually, from verses 8 through the rest of chapter 6, he's at the point of despair. Despair and still wanting God to relieve him with death. In fact, in verse 9 he says, that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off. And that would be a great comfort, he says. I would love for God to just let me go. He's at the point where he no longer wants to live. And I don't know, maybe you've felt this before once or twice in your life. And perhaps maybe you haven't felt that I would be delighted to hear that that's not the case for you. But Christians, people who believe in trust, God can have great difficult seasons that would cause someone to think this way. What's important to recognize here is that those thoughts, while they're not, well, they're not abnormal. That doesn't mean they're good. Job is in a very bad place here. And what he most needs from his friends, he's not getting. He says in verse 14, he who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the almighty. We're bringing in again, what Eliphaz recently said about. Uh, despising the discipline of the almighty. And he says, guys, uh, Eliphaz, Bildad, all of you guys, how about this? He who withholds kindness from a friend. I really need your kindness right now. I really need your encouragement. You are the ones who are in fact forsaking the fear of God. You're the ones who are betraying him because I really need your help. I'm in a very vulnerable place and then he goes on and continues saying you guys ought to be refreshing to me and verses 14 through 23 He's saying look, uh, okay verse 18 the caravans turn aside from their course They go up into the waste and perish the caravans of the caravans of timah Look the travelers of sheba hope and they're ashamed because they were confident they came there and they are disappointed They came to a place where they expected to find refreshment And they found none, something boasted about potential help, but it ended up not being helpful at all. And so he's telling his friends, I came to you. Well, more specifically, they came to him, but I gave you my heart, hoping that you would encourage me and support me. Instead, all you've given me is empty words. He says, teach me in verse 24 and I'll be silent. Help me to understand what I don't understand. Um, but he charges them. To be the kind of people who aren't paying attention to what he's saying. They're not helping him at all Is there any injustice on my tongue? Is there any error in what I say? And of course their contention is yes, there is Job chapter 7 He says on the one hand on in chapter 6. There's no refreshing in chapter 7. He says there's no relief No refreshing and now chapter 7 no relief He talks about the kind of uh Experiences he's having I'm up all night. I'm suffering from insomnia in verse four He says I am full of tossing till the dawn. I can't even sleep. There's no relief in sleep in verse five He says my flesh is clothed with worms and dirt. My skin hardens then breaks out afresh What's happening here maggots boils? We don't exactly know what kind of physical affliction he's going through but suffice it to say This is a very uncomfortable Inescapable kind of torment that he's going through He says, my days are swifter than a weaver shuttle and come to their end without hope. Verse six. He's saying, look, there's no end in sight. This is why he wants to give up. Job turns to praying in verses seven through the end of this chapter. And he turns to the Lord and says, look, my life is just a breath. My eyes never going to see good again. There's no hope. There's no joy. Um, and then he turns to the Lord in verse 11. He says, I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I'll complain in the bitterness of my soul. And then he says, am I, am I some kind of sea or a sea monster that you set a guard over me? Why are you giving me so much attention? Why are you paying so much mind to my life? And all the while you and I know that the reason God is paying attention to his life, and God is even allowing him to be tested, is because God is confident that he will respond in a way that brings him glory. That, that gives God a good reputation and a good name, even before his most vocal adversary, at least the one that we know of, the adversary, the devil, the Satan. And so, he asks God a question that God can't answer for him, or at least won't answer for him at this point, but it's a question that you and I have an answer to. Why is God afflicting you? Why is God allowing this? Well, because he wants to glorify himself through you. We can confidently say that's true for every Christian, anyone who follows Christ. The answer to our prayer of, God, why is this painful thing happening to me, is because God is ultimately bringing about good for you and glory for him. That's always the case. There is no such thing as wasted suffering in the life of the Christian. Amen. Man, take that to the bank. Never forget that. I might even say, maybe read Romans 8 as you read through the rest of this. Now there's no Christ in view here yet, but Christ is the one who's going to bring this all together and ultimately cause it to work toward God's good purposes. And so at the end of chapter 7, Job is complaining, my life has no hope. My life has no purpose. I am hopeless. Eager to be let go. I'm eager to give up. God, please stop looking at me. Please stop terrifying me in the night. Please let me sleep. Please heal my body. But if not, please just let me not be. It'd be better for me not to live. Job concludes his response to Eliphaz. In chapter 8, Bildad now speaks to Job. And essentially his argument boils down to just a few things. First, he says, look, maybe your kids got what they deserved. That's in verse four. That's a really hard thing to say to a friend. And I don't know if build that is just having a moment of weakness here. He's angry. Maybe it comes from a good place, but it's certainly not the kind of council that I don't think anyone's ever really going to be ready for, but certainly not here. And not now. He, he repeats something that all the friends are going to say. And he says it in his own way. He says, look, if you seek after God and plead with the almighty for mercy, and if you're pure and upright versus five and six here, surely, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. Uh, this is essentially repent job and be restored. If you repent, everything's going to be better. And that's kind of half true, isn't it? We would say, look, if you repent and seek after God, things are better, but it doesn't necessarily mean that circumstances change. It seems Bildad is speaking more than what he can actually back up. It is true that we should repent and live in quiet and humble submission to God's leadership, but this is certainly not helpful. Not here, because Job is not at fault. Job is upright and blameless. And then he says in verses eight through verse 10, he says, look at history, look at bygone ages. And this is the way things always work. This is the way things have always been. And therefore, can't you learn job? Why don't you understand this? And then he adds to this argument in verses 13 and 14. He says, those who seek after those who forget God, those who are wicked, they are going to suddenly have their. Tables turned, where at one time they were succeeding and thriving, one day things are suddenly going to fall apart. Does that sound familiar to you, Job? Does this sound like something you might be experiencing right now? The subtle implication, maybe it's not so subtle, but the implication is that Job, this is you. Your wickedness has finally caught up to you. Because look at this, verse 20. Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, Job. Would God reject a blameless man? Have you ever seen that to take place? And of course you and I must remember Job 1 verse 1, Job is blameless and upright, a man who fears the Lord and does right. This is the narrator's and therefore God's perspective on Job. And of course we know this because we see it affirmed in the heavenly court when the devil stands before him. And so build that ends his, uh, ends his short speech here. And say, those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more. In other words, repent, things will be better, things will return as they should. In the final chapter that we're looking at today, Job chapter 9, Job responds to Bildad, and says, look, verse 2, Truly I know that it is so. What is it that he knows? My best guess is that he's talking about the fact that God is just. Look, I know God is just, but how can a man be in the right before God in an ultimate sense? How can someone stand before him perfectly righteous? So this gives me a sense that Job knows that while he is blameless and upright, that blameless and uprightness is positional and not perfectly practical. He is positionally upright before God because he's a man who acts in faith, but practically speaking he knows that he's not perfect in the technical sense of the word. I know I'm not right. No one's perfectly right before God. No one would ever say that. And so he contends with Bill, Dad, look, I know what you're saying. You don't have to tell me what you're saying. I know these things. In verses 11 and 12, Job talks about the, the ineffability or the transcendence of God, and he speaks about it more eloquently and defends it more beautifully than I think Bildad does. He says, look, I know God is indescribable, unsearchable. It's like that Chris Tomlin song we sang a long time ago. Um, you put the stars in the sky, you know them by name. That one, you are amazing God. That's a good song. We ought to do that one again sometime soon. Anyway, Job continues his argument here, his response anyway, and he says, look, even if you put the mythical creature Rahab and his evil consorts working together against God, they're not going to, they're not going to succeed. And he says, though I'm in the right verse 15, I cannot answer him. I must appeal for mercy to my accuser. Now what's curious here is who he has in mind. Who is his accuser? Uh, you could go either way. You could say it's God who's accusing him, at least that's part of what he thinks. I know that on occasion he's thinking that, but there could be another person in mind that he thinks about in the heavenly realm accusing him before God. So it's not quite that simple. Entirely sure who he has in mind here. If you like, if you have an ESV Bible, you'll also notice that the word could be translated, uh, my judge. So who does he have in mind? We're not entirely sure, but it's his accuser. He wants to appeal to mercy. He needs someone to step in to defend him, which is why, uh, through the rest of this chapter here, He's going to say, look, I know that I am not absolutely righteous. I am comparatively righteous, but what I really need, what I really need is for an arbiter between us. This is verses 33 through 35. Some of the most beautiful verses that are penned in the book of Job. He says, there's no arbiter between us who might lay his hand on both of us. Let him take his rod away from me and let not dread of him. Terrify me. Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself. I'm not worthy enough to approach him, but boy, if there was an arbiter, someone who could place his hand on God and put his hand on me, that is act as a priest, then boy, I have a shot. I could tell him I could, I could confidently approach the throne of grace. Does that sound familiar? Jesus is our high priest. He's the great high priest who fulfills and Job chapter nine points us directly to that confidence. We experience that confidence now in retrospect. It's there. We have Christ. We have the great high priest. If you're going through a hard time, now is a good time to remember God knows he's fully aware of all that's happening. In fact, I would take at least a modicum of comfort in the fact that if I'm being picked on, at least that's what it might feel like to, to you or to job. I can still be confident that God's the one who's ordaining good ends, productive, good God, glorifying ends through my suffering. A Christian never suffers for nothing. That's so comforting because we have Christ who's guaranteed that we are acceptable to him. And therefore all of our pain, all of our suffering, all of our sorrows are ultimately going to be wrapped up in Christ at the, at the last day. Well, there's Job chapter six through nine. Please join me as we pray and try to put some of this into her heart and soul, not just in her head. Let's pray together. Lord, we never want to go through hard times. We never want to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. That's not something we want to do, but help us to trust you. When we do help us to be like Job in the sense that we're blameless enough, right? We're trusting you. We were building our faith in you day by day. But when you take us through the valley of the shadow of death, help us like David to fear no evil and to know that you are with us and you're with us more than even Job or David understood. You're with us through the ministry of Jesus Christ. His ministry continues on through your spirit and it is because of his spirit that we can be confident that you are sustaining us and upholding us with your righteous right hand. Lord, prepare us. Let us not be morbid or cynical. We want to be prayerful and well prepared for the evil day, if it comes, when it comes. In all these things, Lord, in good and bad, we want to say we trust you. And even though we can say these words, we know that our souls can be so shaky and weak and vulnerable. We need to trust you better. Please do that. As we read your word, as we study the words of Job and his friends, give us increasing strength and understanding for how to prepare for the evil day. And when that comes, Lord, we're going to cling to you for strength like him. That's what we want to do. We ask all this and pray all these things in Jesus name, who is our great high priest. Amen. All right. That's all I have. Thank you for joining me. I hope you enjoyed this time. It was a good thing for me. I hope it was a good thing for you. And I hope I can see you again tomorrow. You have a great day. Bye.

Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of the daily Bible podcast. We hope and pray this has been a blessing to you and your time in the word. If it has, if you would subscribe to this podcast, leave a like, leave a comment and share it with some friends and family. That would be awesome. If you need more information about Compass Bible Church here in North Texas, you can go to compassntx. org. Again, that's compassntx. org. And we'll be back with you tomorrow for another episode of the daily Bible podcast.