Job's Response and Rebuttal, Part 1

Job chapter 26, Job 26, 27, and 28, half of the six chapters in Job's long response to Bildad and his six verses in chapter 25. As you're turning there, I want to read to you a quote from the late great Matthew Henry who said, the God of Israel, the Savior, is sometimes a God that hides himself, but never a God that absence himself. So sometimes in the dark, but never at a distance. Sometimes we have a hard time grasping what God is doing. That's why it's so important that we engage in the study of, of theology, study of God.

It's imperative that we come to understand who God is. The book of Job is not about Job, although that's the name of the book. It's about God. And that's why it's the sovereignty of God in the suffering of man. You need to truly come to grips with who God is. The Bible is not a book about marriage. The Bible is not a book about family. The Bible is not a book about financial stability. The Bible is a book about God. And without God, your marriage will fail. Without God, your family will fail. Okay, but it's all about God.

But if you miss that, then you read the scriptures the wrong way. We only read the scriptures to behold the glory and beauty of God. And coming to grips with who God is helps us understand what he does. And what he does helps us come to grips with how he operates in your life and mine. But the Bible is a book about God. So the study of theology is important. So as a family, as a Christian family, you teach your children about God. When you go to church, you teach your children about God. And what do you learn?

You learn about the love of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God, the righteousness of God, the joy of God. You begin to understand the loving kindness of God and the goodness of God. You begin to realize that God is the God who knows what you're going to ask him, Matthew tells us, Matthew 6, verse number 8, before you even ask him. And then you realize that he is the high priest who can sympathize with all of your weaknesses. And you begin to realize that this, this God of the universe is personally involved in my life.

In fact, Psalm 103 tells us that he satisfies your years with good things. And so you grow up learning those things. You grow up understanding more about who God is. And then you come to the book of Job and you read it and you wonder, well, wait a minute, I didn't learn that about God when I was growing up. Why is God in the shadows of Job's life? Why is God silent when it comes to Job? Well, why is it God would take this righteous man, this upright man, and then all of a sudden afflict him with all this disease and take everything from him?

Why would God do that? If God's a God of love and mercy and grace and kindness and goodness, why is it God would do that? It's not that you, you don't have an understanding of who God is. It's just that you have an incomplete understanding of who God is. Because when you open the book of Job, you realize that it was God who, who first met with Satan and offered a significant challenge to him.

Then you realize that it was God who released the adversary to go after Job. Then you realize it was God who set the parameters placing limitations on what Satan can do. It was God who breaks the silence and speaks to Job. It was God who sets the record straight, rebuking Job's counselors and rewarding his faithful servant. And throughout the book, you're captivated by God. You're confused by God because you don't understand necessarily how God operates. In seven weeks from, from today, we'll be done with our study of the, of the book of Job.

Having spent 30 weeks looking at the book, but yet the study is so incomplete. There's so many things you can learn about who God is and what God does. Because our God is inscrutable. Our God is unfathomable. You know the verses over in Romans chapter 11, verse number 33, which says, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who became his counselor? Or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again.

For from him and through him and to him are all things to him, be the glory forever. Amen. Paul would be able to sum up the fact that no matter how much you study, no matter how much you learn, God is vast and we are small. God is infinite and we are finite. And coming to grips with that is very difficult for us. As human beings who like to be in control of our world and like to be in control of the things we know and the things we say and the things we do and the places we go. Over in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah makes it very plainly clear to us.

When the Lord says for my thoughts are not your thoughts and nor my ways, your ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. And my thoughts than your thoughts. See, we think that God is just a better version of us. He's not. He is completely different than us. But we think he's just a better version of you and me as human beings. It was A.W. Tozer in his book on the knowledge of the holy, who speaks about the inscrutability of God. When he says this, left to ourselves, we tend to immediately to reduce God to manageable terms.

We want to get him where we can use him, or at least know where he is when we need him. We want a God we can in some measure control. We need the feeling of security that comes from knowing what God is like. And what he is like is, of course, a composite of all the religious pictures we have seen. All the best people we have known or heard about. And all the sublime ideas we have entertained about God. If all this sounds strange to modern ears, that is only because we have for a full half century taking God for granted.

The glory of God has not been revealed to this generation of men. The God of contemporary Christianity is only slightly superior to the gods of Greece and Rome. If indeed he is not actually inferior to them in that he is weak and helpless while they are at least having power. That God can be known by the soul in tender personal experience while remaining infinitely aloof from the curious eyes, the reason constitutes a paradox. It does. God is very much a paradox. We can know him, but never fully know him.

We can come into a relationship with him, but yet realize the vastness of his character and the operations in which he, he conducts himself. And how he moves in, in mysterious ways and does things beyond our control. Those things will never understand. One of the great joys of our study, the book of Job is, is reading Charles Spurgeon on Job. In this, he says this about the doubting and inquiring man who wants to know everything about God and come to understand God and be able to explain God to people.

He says, be thou satisfied that God is infinitely above thee. That thou can't no more comprehend him. Then thy hand can hold the ocean or thy fingers grip the sun. If there were no mysteries in our holy faith, we might well believe that it was devised by men like ourselves. For if men could fully understand it, men might have invented it. But as it is far beyond the comprehension of the mightiest human intellect, we recognize that it is the work of the infinite God. Infinite must his gospel and his truth be because he is himself infinite.

And dark and mysterious must his pathway sometimes be. Though he himself dwells in light. That is insufferable to mortal eyes. He wants you to understand that, that in all of our efforts to understand God and to comprehend all the things he does and why he does them and, and to be able to explain him completely and totally. You just, you just will never be able to do that. And that's why you study the scriptures. That's why you come to know God. And that's why when you come to know him, in fact, when he returns there, there is a name on him that no one knows.

Well, how in Revelation 19 can have a name that no one knows? Do the angels not know the name? They've been with him since they were created. How can he have on himself a name that no one knows? Simply because God is so infinite, so beyond anything that we can comprehend. You'll spend the rest of eternity trying to understand the God who has a name that no one knows and not even you. People always ask, well, what's the name? I don't know. It says no one knows the name. How would I ever know the name?

And so you begin to realize that God is so infinitely beyond us. How is it we can ever begin to comprehend him? And in Job's response to build that, he does something really remarkable. And that is, he's going to counsel Bildad. But before he does that, he confronts Bildad. And then he's going to challenge Bildad. Because he's going to help answer the question, why? And I'm not sure Job even knows that as he speaks, he's answering even his own questions. But in his answer to Bildad, he's going to help you understand the why question.

Now remember, God will answer Job. We'll finish Job's conversation next week. And we'll say at the end of chapter 31, thus ends the words of Job. Then Elihu appears on the scene. And then after Elihu is there, God interrupts him, God speaks, and that's it. And God will never tell Job why. He'll never explain himself to Job. God doesn't have to explain himself to anybody, let alone Job. So he never answers the why question with Job. But in his revelation of himself to Job, Job repents in dust and ashes.

Because when you come to know God, and you come to realize the vastness of God, the immense aspects of Him that go beyond anything we can ever imagine, then you realize that you truly will never understand Him. And you just have to trust Him and believe in Him, which is the essence of our faith, right? We trust and believe in the living God. So as we look at chapters 26, 27, and 28, you have just three points.

In chapter 26, you have the confrontation with Bildad in the first four verses. And then you have his counsel to Bildad. And then in chapters 27 and 28, you have the challenge for Bildad. Because he's gonna challenge Bildad's way of thinking. In fact, he challenges all three men's way of thinking. They're not gonna speak again. Bildad was the last guy to speak. He was done. He gave us six verses. And he said some good things in those verses about the rulership of God and the reconciliation of God and the righteousness of God and help us to come to grips with those things.

But there's one thing to have knowledge. You ever met people who have a wealth of knowledge? They're just really smart people, right? They seem to know so much about the Bible, okay? They can, if you need a verse, they got a verse. You wanna explain the doctrine, they can explain the doctrine. They can back it up with all you do. They know a lot about God, but they don't have a lot of wisdom. You ever know those people? They know a lot about God, but they really don't know God. There's a difference there.

The demons know a lot about God. They got great theology. They know anything about God. They know more about God than you and I know. So they have a lot of knowledge of God, but they don't know God. They don't have the wisdom of God. And that's a fine line because you need knowledge to have wisdom, right? But yet just because you have knowledge doesn't mean you have wisdom. And we'll explain that to you as we go through this because the men that come to Job have a lot of knowledge about God, but they have very little wisdom about God.

They believe and they're thinking that they can argue Job into repentance and they can convince Job that he is a certain way. And so they wanna impress him. Now think about this. He's the greatest man in the East. We read that in Job chapter one, remember that? So Job is the greatest man in the East. And in the back of their mind, there's a little bit of excitement about bringing down the greatest man of the East, that they can convince the greatest man in the East of his sin and getting to repent, how great will they be?

And so maybe in the back of their minds, they're thinking all this because they just keep berating him and berating him. You are wicked. You have secret sin. That's why you have suffered so severely. That's why things are falling apart. That's why things are so bad. And they hammer it day after day, conversation after conversation, and they never let up. And Job just sits there, listens and responds, sits and listens and responds. Now finally, he's going to give a lengthy response.

And in that lengthy response, he makes some pretty incredible statements that help us understand how it is we are to have wisdom when it comes to operating every single day of our lives. Wisdom is crucial. And so you open your Bible and you go to chapter 26 and it says, Job responded, what a help you are to the weak. How you have saved the arm without strength. No, they haven't. They haven't helped the weak. You know, when you encourage someone, the word encouragement means to instill courage in someone.

They weren't instilling anything in Job except frustration and doubt and questions. But Job in and of himself was a courageous man. And therefore, he really didn't need people to instill courage in him. Remember, Job was all alone. Job has no support. Next time you feel like you have no support, just hold hands with Job, because he had no support. His wife wasn't supporting him. These men certainly weren't supporting him. There were no other friends. I mean, if there was, we don't know anything about them.

Right? His family couldn't support him. His family was gone. They died, right? His animals couldn't support him because they were gone. His servants couldn't support him. They were gone. There was no one left to support the man. He was all alone. He was on an island, an ash heap by himself with no support system. Just him and his relationship with the living God. Because in all reality, that's all you ever need. It's good to have friends. And it's great to have a support system. But you don't need that.

You need a right relationship with the living God. And Job screams that at us. And so he says, verse three, "'What counsel you have given one without wisdom?' "'Pretty sarcastic. "'Guys, I guess you think I don't have any wisdom. "'You give me all this counsel.'" But see, Job's the guy with the wisdom. They're the ones with all the knowledge, so they think, but they have knowledge without wisdom. Job has wisdom because of his knowledge of his God. See, it's one thing to know that God creates. It's another thing to know the truth about the God who creates.

There's a big difference there, and that's Job. So he says, "'What helpful insight "'you have abundantly provided? "'To whom have you added words? "'And whose spirit was expressed through you?' In other words, who did you talk to, Bildad? Who'd you converse with? Where did you get your information? How did you come up with what you came up with, Bildad? This is a confrontation of him. And now he's going to counsel Bildad in terms of the greatness and power of God. Because you see, Bildad isn't the only one who understands how great and powerful God is.

Job understands that. But Job understood this from a different perspective than Bildad did. Job knows about the rulership and the dominion and the power and the awesome nature of God. Job knows that. They're not telling Job, they're not educating Job. In fact, he'll go on to say in chapter 27, verse number 11, I will instruct you in the power of God. What is with the Almighty, I will not conceal. That had to really irritate them. You're gonna instruct us, Job? You're sitting there with all the boils.

You're sitting there having lost everything. You're gonna tell us something, Job? You gotta be kidding me. But Job says, let me instruct you guys about the Almighty.

Because you see, they had a lot of facts about God. But they really didn't know God the way Job did. Because Job was having a special relationship with the living God. So he says, the departed spirits tremble under the waters and their inhabitants. Naked is Sheol before him and Abaddon has no covering. In other words, it's impossible, he says, to hide from God. Now, he knows this. He can't hide from God. No one can hide from God. And then he says, it's incredible to know that earth hangs on nothing.

Verse number seven, he stretches out the north over the empty spaces and hangs the earth on nothing. Job knows that. Job gets that. Hebrews 1, three tells us that he upholds the worlds with the word of his power. You know the song, he has the whole world in his hands? No, he doesn't. He doesn't. Doesn't have to. He holds the world with the word of his power. He holds the universe together by just speaking a word. And when he wants to destroy it, he just speaks a word. That's the awesome power of God.

That's why when he would just speak a word in the New Testament and someone would be healed. Was it the centurion said, just speak the word, Lord. Just speak the word and my servant will be healed. Knowing the power of the word of the living God. Job understands that, that the universe hangs on nothing. He says, he wraps up the waters in his clouds and the cloud does not burst under them. He obscures the face of the full moon and spreads his cloud over it. He has inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters that the boundary of light and darkness, the pillars of heaven tremble and are amazed at his rebuke.

He quieted the sea with his power. And by his understanding, he shattered Rahab, which according to Isaiah 27 is Leviathan. By his breath, the heavens are cleared. His hands has pierced a fleeing servant. Behold, these are the fringes of his ways and how faint a word we hear of him, but his mighty thunder, who can understand. Job makes it very clear that what I'm telling you are just the fringes of the ways of God. This is the outskirts of the ways of God. This is not even the details of the power of the living God who forms the clouds and blows the wind and holds the universe together on nothing.

These are just the outskirts, the tip of the iceberg. Who can understand it? So he wants the men to know that he's not without knowledge about the greatness and power of God. He wants to counsel them in the fact that he does have an understanding of God's greatness and God's power. But now he's gonna challenge Bildad and his friends. And that's in chapter 27 and chapter 28. What he wants to do is help them understand that his departure from evil is steadfast. He's not where he is because of his evil.

Listen to what he says. Then Job continued his discourse and said, as God lives, who has taken away my right and the Almighty who has embittered my soul, he understands that God is behind all this, for as long as life is in me and the breath of God is in my nostrils, my lips certainly will not speak unjustly nor will my tongue mutter deceit, far be it from me. That I should declare you right. Till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go.

My heart does not reproach any of my days. What a statement. Now think about this. Before everything happened, before he lost everything, the Bible tells us he was an upright, blameless, God-fearing man turning away from evil. That's how the book of Job begins. There was a man from the land of us and he was blameless, upright, God-fearing and turning away from evil. By the time you come to chapter 27, now how long are we into this? I don't know, weeks, months. We don't know how long we're into the conversation here.

The Bible never really tells us. But what we do know is that Job has held fast his integrity. Even when his wife said in chapter two, why hold on to your integrity, curse God and die. Just be done with it. Why continue on? It's not worth it. You've lost everything. I've lost everything. You've lost your health. I've lost you as my support and my husband as a protector for me. Just curse God and die. He's not gonna do that. He's a man of integrity. See, integrity means wholeness or complete. In other words, you either have integrity or you don't have integrity.

It's like a woman who gets pregnant, right? She's either pregnant or she's not pregnant. A woman has never said, I'm almost pregnant. There's no such thing as being almost pregnant. You're either pregnant or you're not. Same with integrity. You either have integrity or you don't. You can't say, well, I almost have integrity. No, either you have it or you don't, right? And Job has it. So he had it before everything fell apart. And now when everything falls apart and things are even worse now than when they first began to fall apart, he still is a man of integrity.

See that? Because crisis revealed the true character of the man. If he fell apart and cursed God and died and started to engage in evil instead of turn away from evil, then chapter one would have been a farce. That wouldn't have been true. But we know it's true because when he goes through all this pain and hardship and turmoil and difficulty, he's still turning away from evil. He's still holding on to his righteousness. He's not gonna speak deceitfully. He's not gonna speak unjustly about his God.

He's not gonna curse his God because a man of integrity doesn't change his colors. The man of integrity is the same when things are bright and when things are broken. See that? When everything is sunny, he's the same as when everything is dark. There's no difference. And that's what's so impressive about Job. That's what makes him the Bible's greatest hero because he never compromises. He never walks back from his upright lifestyle, never walks back from turning away from evil. We'll see it next week.

In chapter 31, I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully upon a woman. Not gonna do that. He made a commitment. And you see the devotion that's there. Look at these words.

Far be it from me, my lips certainly will not do this, nor will my tongue. Till I die, I hold fast my heart for as long as I live. This is devotion. This is determination. This is commitment. This is ironclad determination. He's never gonna waver. He's never gonna walk it back. He's always gonna be the same because that's who he is. And so he's challenging Bildad. He's challenging Zophar. He's challenging Eliphaz. Guys, look, I know you're saying I'm a wicked guy. I know you're saying I got some secret sin.

Not so. That's not who I am. I've maintained my integrity. I've maintained my upright life. It doesn't mean he's a sinless person. Doesn't mean that. I'm sure Job has sinned many times over again. That's not the point. He's a God-fearing man. He's turning away from evil. He's a blameless man. He's an upright man, and he holds fast his integrity. So he does because he's a saint whether things are great or whether things are bad. How about you? How about you? Is that the way you are? That's a good question you need to ask yourself.

When things are falling apart, are you different? Are you different on Monday than you are on Sunday? When you go to work, are you different than you are at church? When you go home, are you different at home than you are at work or at church? Are you the same all the way around? Are you the same when you have your job as when you lose your job? Are you the same as when you are healthy as when you lose your health? That's the way Job is, and his testimony proves it. So he goes on and he talks about the state of the godless, and he helps them understand that he understands what's going to happen to the godless man.

He affirms the fact that yes, the wicked are going to suffer and the wicked are going to die and the wicked get what the wicked deserve. But he's not that guy. He's been told that he's that guy, but he's not. But he wants them to understand as he challenges their thinking about him being wicked that he understands what happens to those who are wicked. That's why he says, may my enemy be as the wicked and my opponents as the unjust. And you think, well, hey, hold on, Job. They're right there in front of you.

You're telling them, may my opponents be as the unjust, may my opponents be as the wicked. He's talking to these three guys. You say, well, wait a minute, that sounds kind of nasty. Remember, there is no Mosaic law. There is no words of Jesus, right? That have come to play in his mind. Be kind to those who persecute you, pray for those who speak evil against you. This is like the imprecatory Psalms of David. Back in Psalm 55 and Psalm 69 and Psalm 37, prayer for God to take care of his enemies. And that's what he's saying to Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar as they sit there with him.

But what is the hope of the godless when he's cut off? When God requires his life, will God hear his cry? When distress comes upon him, would he take delight in the Almighty? Would he call on God at all times? I will instruct you in the power of God with, or excuse me, what is with the Almighty. I will not conceal. He goes, I understand that there's no hope for the godless. There's no help for the godless and there's no happiness for the godless. I understand that. He says, behold, all of you have seen it.

Why then do you act foolishly? Or why do you act without wisdom? Because that's what they're doing. Why do you guys act as if you have no wisdom? It's because they don't. They have a lot of knowledge, but very little wisdom. And that's important to understand because it's not about how much you know. I know a lot of people who know a lot, but they have very little wisdom when it comes to living everyday lives. And it costs them greatly because of Job's wisdom and the application of truth to life, because of Job's understanding and the verification of truth to life.

And Job's understanding of knowledge, which is the clarification of truth about life, he's able to live a life of integrity. That's very important. And so he says, this is the portion of the wicked man from God and the inheritance which tyrants receive from the almighty. And if you read on through the text, he says they have no heritage, they have no heir, they have no holdings, they have no habitation. All they have is humiliation, horror, and harm. It's all they have. In verse 23, and men will clap their hands at them and will hiss them from his place.

In other words, when the wicked man dies and the wicked man's destroyed, then others will clap their hands. He says, but I know that, and you know that. But that's not what's happening here. So now he's gonna challenge them when it comes to their understanding of what real wisdom is. That's why he says in verse number 12 of chapter 28, but where can wisdom be found? And where is a place of understanding? Verse number 20, where then does wisdom come from? And where is a place of understanding? See, that's the question.

What he's saying is that, listen, could it be, gentlemen, that God's wisdom has allowed something to happen that we'll never grasp and never understand? See, here's a man who doesn't have to know everything. He would love to know why, we all would, right? But he doesn't have to know why. Because somehow in his searching of all of his thoughts and all of his ways, he's come to realize that he doesn't understand what's going on. He doesn't understand why God is silent. He doesn't understand why God doesn't jump to rescue him.

But God is a God of wisdom. And his wisdom goes beyond anything I can comprehend. And therefore I must trust him. And so in verses one to 11, he talks about the work of man and how the work of man doesn't find wisdom. And man's work is unimaginable and all the things he can do. He talks about how it is he's able to dig down deep into the ground and go to places where no one else has ever been and do things that no one else has ever done and be able to hold water back and continue to dig and to search and to look for things.

But wisdom is not found in the work of man. And wisdom is not found in the wealth of man. That's what he says in verses 12 down through verse 19. Man does not know its value, verse number 13, nor is it found in the land of the living. The deep says it is not in me and the sea says it is not with me. Pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it, nor can silver be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. Gold or glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for articles of fine gold.

Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned. And the acquisition of wisdom is above that of pearls. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? Where does it come from? Man in all of his wealth cannot purchase it. Man in all of his work cannot produce it. So where does wisdom come from? It comes from God. And that's what he says. He says, thus it is hidden, verse 21, from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the sky.

Abbadon and Adesai, with our ears, we have heard a report of it. God understands its way, and he knows its place, for he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he imparted weight to the wind and meted out the waters by measure, when he set a limit for the rain and a course for the thunderbolt, that he saw it, declared it, established it, and searched it out. He says, listen, we don't understand when thunderbolts hit the earth or when lightning strikes. We don't understand rain and the boundaries of water, but our Lord has set the boundaries for the water.

And the Lord, he calls the wind to blow, strong or a light breeze. He calls us all that stuff. And we don't understand the wind, and we don't understand the rain, and we don't understand the boundaries of the water, and we don't understand how they all operate, but God does. Excuse me, because God, in his infinite wisdom, does it all. Makes it all happen, or makes it all stop. There's a flood, God caused it. There's a drought, God caused it, because he's in charge of all those things. That's what he does.

And so in verse 28, Job answers the why question. Job 28, 28. And to man, he said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. That's the answer to the why question. He directs our attention from the question to himself. Instead of looking for an answer to a question, you look to God himself. And when you do, you fear him. And that's the beginning of wisdom. And to depart from evil, that's understanding. See, without fear, the fear of God, there is no wisdom.

There is no wisdom. That's why the unbeliever doesn't have biblical wisdom. There's no fear of God before his eyes. He can't have sound biblical wisdom. He can make some pretty wise choices and some smart decisions. He has earthly wisdom, but he doesn't have heavenly biblical wisdom. Bible says in Colossians 2, that in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Christ is the God of wisdom, right? And so Job, in Job 1, feared God. And because he feared God, he turned away from evil. Here he says, in answering almost his own question, to man, he said that as God said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.

In other words, fear me, and you'll understand wisdom. Fear the true living God. But if you don't fear God, you'll never have wisdom. He's challenging Bildad, Zophar, Eliphaz, to fear the true living God, that they might, as he has, turn away from evil because that is understanding. How do you know you understand God? You turn away from evil. Those who don't understand God, they engage in evil. They don't turn away from it. Over in Proverbs 3, listen to what Solomon says. Verse number 13, how blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding, for a prophet is better than the prophet of silver, and a gain better than fine gold.

She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire compares with her. Long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who hold her fast. Do you know, you can have two PhDs, but not have the wisdom of God. Years ago, we had a guy come to me, he was in our church, and he said, it was a Wednesday night, he came up to me and said, hey, you know, my wife just got her second PhD today, and I wanted to say, big whoop, who cares, you know?

But I said, really? He said, yeah, that's great. And I said, but does she have wisdom? I said, what do you mean? I said, I know she's got two PhDs, and that's great, I know it's gonna help you financially, it's gonna help her with her salary and the school that she teaches in, but does she have wisdom? He said, well, I guess I never thought about that. I said, maybe I'll think about that. Four years later, they were divorced. Not much wisdom, not much understanding, but she got two PhDs, see? There's no course in any university that I know of on the fear of the Lord.

No course in the fear of the Lord. But the fear of the Lord is what matters. How important is that? In fact, those with the fear of the Lord are the ones who truly are never shaken. Listen to this, Psalm 112. How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who really delights in His commandments. His descendants will be mighty on the earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed, and wealth and riches are in His house, and His righteousness endures forever. Verse six, He will never be shaken, He will never fear evil tidings, for His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

His heart is upheld, He will not fear. See, the man with the fear has stability, security, and strength. That was Job. He was a stable guy, didn't waver, right? Wasn't like a chameleon, changed in colors with every situation that comes down the pike, he was the same all the way. He had the fear of the Lord. In fact, over in Proverbs chapter three, listen to this, verse 22, or 21. My son, let them not vanish from your sight, that is knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Keep sound wisdom and discretion, so they will be life to your soul and adornment to your neck.

Then you will walk in your way securely, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden fear, nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. That's the man who has wisdom. That's the man who fears the Lord. That's the man who has understanding. Doesn't fear anything. That's why the Lord said, don't fear the one who kills body.

Only fear the one who kills body and soul in hell. That's the one you fear. In fact, over in the book of Deuteronomy, the eighth chapter, the sixth verse, it says, therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in his ways and to fear him. To fear God is to walk in his ways. Then over in chapter 13, verse number four, he says this, you shall follow the Lord your God and fear him, you shall keep his commandments, listen to his voice, serve him and cling to him. Over in the book of Joshua, the 24th chapter, Joshua chapter 24, Joshua says, now therefore, fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and truth, put away the gods which your father served beyond the river and Egypt and serve the Lord.

Do you wanna know why people don't serve the Lord? Not because they don't know their gift, it's because they don't fear the Lord. See, we need to stop asking people in the church to serve the Lord and ask people if they really fear the Lord. Because if you fear the Lord, you automatically serve the Lord. It's just a byproduct of living in the fear of God. So you serve the Lord. You do it as 2 Chronicles says, wholeheartedly and faithfully that's how we are to live our lives. And so Job says, as he answers the question, listen, guys, it's not about knowledge.

We know what's gonna happen to the wicked. We know about the greatness and power of God. I know as much as you know about that kind of stuff. But it's about the wisdom of God and coming to grips with who he is and realizing that the fear of the Lord, that's the beginning of wisdom. And departing from evil, that's understanding. So next time you have the question, why God? Understand, God doesn't answer the why question. He just wants you to fear him. And that's why God speaks to Job the way he speaks to him at the end.

And that's why Job will spend the next three chapters showing us how it is he feared the Lord and will continue to live in the fear of the Lord the rest of his life. That's what he does in the next three chapters. As he goes back and rehearses his past, explains the present and lives in anticipation of the future. Having said that, I wanna remind you of what Solomon said in Proverbs 24, verse number three.

He said, by wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established. And by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. By wisdom a house is built, a house is restored. A house flourishes, a house is set in order by wisdom. Wisdom is the application of truth to life. It applies what you know about God to everyday living. Wisdom is not what I know, it's how I live in light of what I know, that's wisdom. So wisdom applies truth, understanding verifies truth. It verifies truth by demonstration.

It verifies truth by imitation. It verifies truth by living out what you say you believe. That's why by understanding one turns away from evil. The turning away from evil is the living out of understanding who God is and what God requires of you. So wisdom applies truth to life, understanding clarifies truth in life and knowledge, knowledge is that which verifies that truth or excuse me, clarifies that truth through explanation. In other words, knowledge is not about knowing things about God, it's about having God rub off on you in such a way that you begin to behave like God because you believe in God, that's what knowledge is.

And these three things all determine the condition of your home, wisdom, understanding and knowledge. If you want your house to flourish, you must have wisdom. If you want it to be fortified, you must have understanding. If you want it to be fulfilling, you must have knowledge. Because with knowledge that is God rubbing off on you in such a way that you begin to believe all that he says and behave according to what he says, all your rooms are filled with pleasant and precious riches. That's not money, that's attitude, that's character, that's conduct, that's peace because it controls your home, see?

And those kind of people have homes that everybody wants to be in, why? Because God rules there, that's why. Job had a home that God ruled, right? And when God decided to take the home and take the servants and take the livestock and take his children, when God decided to take all that, his wisdom didn't diminish, his understanding didn't diminish, his knowledge didn't diminish. No, it held everything together for him, see? So that when you look at chapter one and you look at chapter 26 and 27 and 28, 29 and 30 and 31, Job's the same guy because the character of the man didn't change.

The conditions around him changed, the circumstances around him changed, but the character of the man never changed. And so when his whole counsel to build that and his challenge to all these men was, look guys, we might not know all that God is doing, that's irrelevant, that's irrelevant, but we do know that no matter what happens, wisdom only comes from God. And God is far superior in wisdom than we are. So therefore the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, that's where it begins. And so therefore, as Job said, I'm gonna live in the fear of the Lord.

And Job's just getting started. Because when you begin to read the next three chapters, he just outlines for you very clearly, this is how you live in the fear of the Lord all day long. That was Job's life, that's how he lived. But that's because he came to know and understand God in his limited perception. But he also came to realize he didn't have to have all the answers about God. See, Bildad, Zophar, and Eliphaz thought they had all the answers about God. They knew exactly what was wrong with Job.

But they were wrong. And that's why God had to rebuke them and make them repent at the end, because they were dead wrong. But Job, Job was right. Why? Because he trusted and believed, even though everything was horribly bad around him. That's the way it needed to be, right? That's the way our lives need to be lived, in the wisdom and knowledge and understanding of our God. Not having to have all the answers, not know why this happens and this happens, just learning to rest in what God has said in his word and leave it at that.

Do I understand man's free will and God's election? Nope, never will, neither will you. Stop trying. Stop trying. You can't comprehend the infinite mind of God. And whenever you try to do that, okay, in your finite mind, you're gonna mess up your theology. It's gonna destroy your theology. Let God be God, rest in his sovereignty, trust him, believe what he says, and just ask the Lord for wisdom about everyday living that you might exemplify his character in your life. That's great. Lord, thanks for today and the opportunity you give us to spend time in your word, truly you are great.

And beyond anything we can ever imagine, oh God, please help us to trust and to believe only in you, to live in the light of who you are. Lord, you're beyond us, way beyond us. Our search for you will never end. Our search to understand you will never end because the vastness of your character is so deep, is so far, is so wide. We will spend the rest of eternity getting to know the beauty of our God. Be with us as we go home tonight. Use us for your glory tomorrow. And from this day forward until you come again as you most surely will, in your name, amen.