Chapter 19
Job answers Bildad:
He says that even if there is some evil, that he will repent of it if he knows what it is. Indeed there is indication that he has prayed to God that he will repent, if God will let him know what this punishment is for. But what troubles Job is that God won't remove the punishment. He won't reveal the sin, won't reveal the reason for the punishment, and won't remove it despite Job's earnest prayers. It as though God has declared Job an enemy and no quarter is to be given. And Job just does not understand why.
2023 - Bill Burr again, but I stated it better above. Job himself wants his friends to be right. He too believes as they do - that his situation MUST be caused by sin, yet he has no idea what the sin might be. He has offered to repent of the sin, but God won't accept repentance "in general" but only specifically. Job has prayed for God to specifically reveal his sin to him, but God will not. Job says it as though God wants to see Job in this horrible condition, as he would an enemy (really as man would an enemy) and is deliberately keeping him down, keeping him condemned without remedy. Job says there is nothing he can do here. That is what Bill Burr said! He said that if God made him like this, how can he punish him for being like this. Job is saying that his discernment of sin is inadequate to recognize what he has done wrong, and yet he is being punished unendingly for that sin. Job says that if God is going to hold him responsible for sin, then surely God must at least tell him what that sin is! Here's the answer to Bill Burr and his dilemma. You are not Job. You are not a uniquely, truly righteous person. There is this book, the Bible, that tells you what God wants of you. It tells you how to live, it tells you what is right and what is wrong. No matter the state of your original creation, this book tells you what is required. Further, this book tells you how to eternally escape the justice due you for your bad choices. For Bill Burr, the sins committed, and of which he ought to repent, are laid out without mystery. The way to achieve ultimate forgiveness and mercy for those sins is laid out plainly. Bill Burr is not Job. Bill Burr has no argument. Bill is not locked up without a key, as was Job. How arrogant to think that everyone is Job.
Possible FB post. How can I get all this in? I need to put all the Bill Burr references in Job together and do a series on this whole "If he makes it impossible for me to do it right, how can he hold getting it wrong against me?" It is a huge deal. I need to gather these all up and see what I have and try to find a way to lay it out.
11 He has kindled his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary. [Job 19:11 ESV]
Job lists several groups that have distanced themselves from him now that he is in such pitiful shape.
His brothers.
His relatives.
Close friends.
Guests in his house.
His maidservants.
His servant.
His wife.
The children of his mother (brothers and sisters)
Young children.
He appeals to his three friends for some kind of human compassion, for someone to truly commiserate with his condition:
21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! [Job 19:21 ESV]
Yet Job still has this hope:
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, 27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! [Job 19:25-27 ESV]
Oldest book in the Bible, and those who know God look forward to a coming redeemer who will stand upon the earth. This is pretty amazing, and one has to wonder how it was revealed to them.
2023 - Look more closely at 25-27. My Redeemer lives.- Jesus rose from the dead. He will stand upon the earth - he will have an earthly kingdom at the end of earth. My flesh shall see God - I will be resurrected in a new body, and stand before him. My heart faints - How wonderful are his promises. Just look at the theology in this book. The chronological Bible puts this book right after Gen 11, which is after the flood, after the Tower of Babel. It is believed to have been written - or to have been an oral tradition - long before Moses wrote Genesis. It is perhaps the oldest story there is. Wonder if Peterson knows that?
Possible FB Post.