November 26, 2025 • 57 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. Thank you for being
with us today, and pardon me for the cancelation last week.
It was unavoidable and I hate when that happens. Adler
and I were discussing and Chris Sadler, who produces this
and works on the day Job with me on the
Rick Burgess Show. We were looking at our record of
(00:22):
a decade of Wednesday Bible studies and we have a
ninety plus percent winning record, so we don't cancel many,
you know, unless it's vacation or something like that. So
that was abnormal. I apologize for that. But as they say,
many times, life happens, so you can't always predict how
the day's gonna go. So good to be back. We're
going to be in Job chapter forty. We're continuing to
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hear from you know, God, what he has to say
about himself talking to Job. If you missed any of
the prior studies of Job, you can gather those archives
and really go back to any series that we've done.
The archives are available at thechurch dot com. You can
either watch the archives. Now there are some limitations there
because videos over ten years do eventually go away on YouTube,
(01:10):
but the audio files. They stay there so that you
can also listen if you're going back to a really
older Bible study of different books of the Bible and
some commentaries that we've unpacked on the Wednesday Bible studies.
So we have been in this book, the Book of Job,
for the entire year of twenty twenty five. We are
getting near the end, and so if we finish it
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before our year ends, which will be on December of
the nineteenth, we probably will. We'll go ahead and start
the next series if time allows, and then just carry
that into twenty twenty six. So we are here as
part of an ongoing discipleship strategy for men. Even though
all over the country on the streaming options, whether it
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be live or archived, I know that women join us too,
and that's fine. We're just studying the Bible right now.
But here in the room it's always only men because
that's how it started. So the strategy that you can
find at Vmanchurch dot com that I just mentioned it
is a strategy for a sustainable men's ministry that features
high challenge that's been done for decades. We do that
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in the way of gatherings and conferences, but also we
follow with something that has been sorely missing, and that
is the high equipping the discipleship, even going as far
as providing unique curriculum designed for men. We have six
of those. They're forty weeks in link. You can find
those by going to the Manchurch dot com. We also
have individual resources for men for their own time. These
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are thirty one day devotionals forty day devotionals. We have
a full length book that I have just written this
year called Men Don't Run in the Rain, So find
all those at Vmanchurch dot com. As a matter of fact,
if you're catching this during the time we recorded it,
which we're getting near Christmas, if you want to sign
copy of Men Don't Run in the Rain, use that
link at the Manchurch dot com and you can get
(03:00):
those up to December the sixteenth of twenty twenty five.
So let's open up in a word of prayer and
let's jump right in to Job chapter forty. Lord, thank
you for today, Thank you for the opportunity to unpack
your Holy Word. Thank You for the things that we
continue to learn through this historic moment with Job. In
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the glorious name of Jesus, we ask to guide us
through the Holy Spirit, to discern what you intend for
us to discern. To hear from you now just in
your resume, but hear from you right now and your
Holy name, we pray Amen. So here we go. God
has been giving his resume something real interesting, well, a
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couple of real interesting things are going to happen in
chapter forty. I found this remarkable studying this. Even though
I've been through the Book of Job, I had never
gone through the Book of Job word for word. So
I'm in learning a lot in this journey like the
rest of you have. So God has started his resume
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with the job. He has been talking, you know, a
little bit in thirty nine. He hits all these various animals.
We covered that last week. So but he makes a
turn as he starts this this next part, and I
want you to pick up on something and then we're
gonna get to another example of creation. And it's a
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very often discussed all kinds of theories on what this
creature is, what does it represent. I'll tell you some
of the theories. I'll tell you frankly, and I'm sure
you're just waiting on the edge of your seat on
what Rick has to say about it. But I will say, frankly,
I find a couple of the theories to be they're preposterous.
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I mean, they got a real problem by calling this
creature creatures that we see now, because the disc ription
would not match. And I don't know how it's gained
so much ground. But the two animals that are often referenced,
it just doesn't stand up. So I don't know what
this creature is. But we'll talk about some of the
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theories and we'll kind of together see if we can't
discern the ones that maybe have a little more merit
and the ones that don't have much merit at all.
So anyway, but that's not what we're gonna do. To
begin with, the Lord said to Job chapter forty, verse one.
This is just saying that he's not talking to his
friends right now. He's not. They're there because he is
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going to address them before he's done, but he's not
right now. The Bible wants us to know. And the
Lord said to Job. The Lord said to Job, not
to them, but he said to Job. This is very
similar to chapter thirty eight, verse one. But this time
you notice, even though it's going to come back, but
right now there's no mention of the whirlwin there wasn't
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thirty eight one. There's no mention of the whirlwind here.
I don't know whether he lets the whirlwind die down,
because it cranks back up here in a minute. But
the Lord says to Job verse two, Now, shall a
fault finder contend with the almighty? He who argues with God?
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Let him answer it. So this doesn't require a lot
of commentary. The Lord says to Job, do you intend,
because I want to get this right, do you actually
intend on correcting the Almighty? Now? I want you to
think about that for a minute, because we kind of gasp.
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I see some of you gasping rightfully, so, but I
be careful because you may not directly do this, and
I may not directly do this. But I wonder if
we were brutally honest at some of the times of
our life that we didn't like some of the things
that we find ourselves in that, whether we do it
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directly like Job did or indirectly, how many times have
you found yourself if you really really thought about what
you were doing, and thought about what you were thinking,
and thought about what you were saying, that you are
trying to correct the almighty. I you know, I'm I'm
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I'm in the middle of a battle right now, and
I don't like it at all, and uh and I
don't I don't like It's one of these things too.
I don't know if you've ever had difficulties in your
life and you got through the other side of it
and you thought, I'm done with that. You know, I
learned everything I need to learn. So I guess that'll
be that that's a one off in my life. And
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you know, some years go by and all of a
sudden you kind of find yourself back in and again
and you're like, kind of thought, we were done with
that kind of thought. I learned everything I needed to learn.
And I will tell you just as he's doing with Job.
And there's two things that are going on. See this
with Job too, is that we have not found anywhere
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in God's resume that he thinks he's overreacted, he thinks
he's too harsh on Job. You don't see any of that.
I was talking about back in thirty eight and was
actually talking to my wife about this too, and talking
with a friend yesterday about this. I said, thirty eight
is a little bit rough because you think Job has
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been through hell on Earth. I mean, he is beat down,
and God shows up to speak to him directly, and
he shows up in a whirlwind like we did talk about,
which a whirlwind killed as kids. And you never hear
God saying are you okay? Has this been hard? Maybe
I overreacted? Let me coddle you, let me pet you
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a little bit, let me comfort you. Now does does
God comfort as he does? But I'm just talking about
in this situation, he doesn't come on this. He doesn't
even ask Job how he's doing. What he says is
who are you to question me? And he comes in
a whirlwind, which, frankly, in our society, most people would
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say that's insensitive. Don't you think that triggers Job back
to his grief? And I think God would say, I
know exactly that it's triggering him back to his grief.
But I don't want them to understand that. You don't
question me about that. Whatever I do is right. And
so now he's coming back and saying, do you do
you intend to correct me? Do you think I've been
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too hard on you? For me? Right now? The Lord
would say, so, do you what you don't? You don't
want to go through this again. So are you saying
that that I'm being unreasonable by allowing you to go
through a trial again. And then the thing that I
have to think about is, as I've said it a
thousand times, the reason why trials keep coming in our
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lives because remember, we don't have anything to do other
with repentance. As far as our justification, we can't justify ourselves,
and we have no ability to glorify ourselves, which is
yet to come. But we participate in the sanctification. We're
participating in that. As he begins to take that sin
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nature that's still there, and as we begin to feed
that spirit, he begins to take that sin nature, and
he deals with it, and he grinds it, and he
continues to refine us and produce steadfastness. And one of
the most effective ways he does that is through trials.
I was talking to a brother, you know, the trial
that I'm going through now, and he was like, I said, well,
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let me just tell you something. I said, you know,
I don't think I ranked satan. I've told you that
I'm not that important. But but the adversary's cronies, the
demonic forces, I said, it's just so foolish to watch them.
They're always so foolish, I said, because they're not. They
can't seem to figure out what God, God knows, And
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that is the best thing they could do to somebody
like me is just leave me alone, because then my
apathy would produce much less impact than the benefit of
the trials. Will I'll have more impact through the trials
than I would have had if they just left me alone,
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because see, the trials forced me back to God and
forced me back at his feet, and my self reliance
is destroyed. And then I'm so leaning on God that
I begin to abide in his power and he begins
to produce something in me that only a trial was
going to produce. So once again, they just don't learn.
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They keep playing into God's hands, I mean. And so
the question I would ask, would that be the case
with all of us? Is is that something? Do you
resent a trial? Certainly you don't have to enjoy them.
I'm not saying that I'm not enjoying this, But do
you resent it? Can you? Can you flip over and
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say no, I'm not gonna correct you. I'm not saying
you don't know what you're doing. I understand you know
what you're doing. I'm asking you to just see me
through it and make sure I learn everything I'm supposed
to learn. Why do we have so many trials? Because
they work, they're effective, and that's why God says, So
do you think I overreacted here? You think I owe
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you an apology? I mean you're going to correct me.
And so then we see in verses three through five,
this is Job's first time to try to stop all this.
Now here's where we're going to get in our first
really deep point this week that I've just been stoked about. Okay,
look right here. Then Job answered the Lord and said,
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now now don't underline the lord here. So this is
Job's first he's considering repentance right now. But but he
he is, he's he's using the word here that that
that is not going to represent repentance. Now later we
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are gonna see it. I don't want to give away
the end. But in verse three, the same as elsewhere,
but this time Job is addressing God as yahweh. So
you see there's a move. Now, what does yahweh mean?
The Lord? Okay, he's calling him yahweh right here. He
he hasn't done that the whole time when referencing God.
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This time he refers to him as the Lord. Now
look look at foward. Behold, I am of small account?
What shall I answer you? Starting to kind of get it?
What is it? If you look at the words here,
here's what it says. This word means I'm unworthy. It
means in Hebrew, I'm light in weight. I don't account
for much to be questioning you. Also, you will see
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he says here, behold, I'm small, of small account. What
shall I answer you? You're also seeing here that that
you're seeing a submission here that uh that that he
that that men you know also used to have this
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feeling about job. He's saying, compared to you, I don't
I'm not of any standing. I'm I'm light in weight,
I don't have any influence. I was a big deal
here in my community, But now that you've shown up,
I ain't a big deal to you at all. Little
Calhoun County commentary for you there, Okay, So now watch next.
Do you remember him referencing this when he was talking
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about the way his life you was, it was before
he was suffering. Remember this he used this line, and
then he says, next, he said, I lay my hand
on my mouth. You remember that when he was doing
he was referring to the glory days. Man, in my
glory days, men would put their hands over their mouth
to speak ill of me. Well, now he takes his
hand and puts it over his mouth to speak ill
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of the Lord. And you think, man, he's gonna get it.
He's about to do it. But then watch this. I
have spoken once and I will not answer twice, but
I will proceed no further. Now you've got to kind
of understand the culture there. What's happening here. This is
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a formula of ancient Hebrew and it basically what this means,
they would say, you know, they would use a formula
that X plus whatever I've said too much, I've run
my mouth too much is what this means. I've spoken
one too many times and I'm going to start backing out. Now.
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Remember Job is realizing that he out talked to all
his friends every time they went after him, and Job
would debate them, he would out talk them. But in
the presence of God, Job is realizing that he is dumbfounded.
I can't out talk the allmighty Okay, So right there,
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we think job's trying to stop it. He's telling the Lord,
I got it, ram my mouth too much, shouldn't have
done it. But it doesn't stop the interrogation. Why this
is big? Why all he does is regret it. He's
not repenting, and God's waiting on repentance. But there is
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no repentance here. There's this regret. Now, let that simmer.
You realize that I remember a lot of times in
my life that I regretted what I did, but I
didn't repent of it. And so God saying regrets not enough.
The interrogation must continue now because you're just regretting it.
We're getting there, but we're not there. I'm looking for repentance.
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You remember what the Lord said when God became a
man and he came on the scene, and what did
he preach? John the Baptist was preaching it. And as
soon as he is as soon as he looked up
and said, here's the guy, this is the Messiah. We've
been waiting on repent because the Kingdom of God is
at hand. Jesus comes on the scene. It's almost like
the Western Church has forgotten this, and he begins to
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preach what repent or perish all must repent. And the
only way your repentance will aren't will will be good
enough is you repent, and then I take over your life,
and then I'm going to the cross to pay the price,
so that repentance will take You must repent to me. Why,
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Because I'm God. I become your lord, and then I'll
go to the cross and I'll become your savior, and
then I'll bring you into the presence of Holy, Holy, Holy,
fully righteous. But what must happen first? We must repent,
not just regret, because you know what regret might be.
I'll give you a perfect example. I know we got
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little leaders in here, so I'll be calm, okay, But
but this is such a simple one to understand. When
when a man compromises his purity and he's intimate with
a woman that is not his wife, he might not
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regret it, but if he finds out she's with child,
then he regrets it. But that's not repentance. That's just
I wish I hadn't done that now. But there's no repentance,
there's no there's no look what I did to God,
it's I regret what I did because it produced a
bad outcome. That's now got me in a and and
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a tight. Well, that's not repentance, that's just regret. And
so right now Joe regrets running his mouth, but he
hasn't repentant. So hang on to that. That's big. I
hope that's a big takeaway for you. It was for me.
So and if you don't believe me, look what the
Lord does next. And the Lord Lord answered job, out
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of the whirlwind. We cranking the wind back up. So
that's not the answer God's looking for. Job wants him
to stop. He thinks I got it. I've learned my lesson.
So the whirlwind cranks back up again. Very insensitive if
you believe what people say. But apparently sometimes somebody telling
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the truth isn't insensitive. It's just the truth. And so
the Lord answered job by the whirlwind, and he says,
does this sound familiar. We're going back to thirty eight again,
dressed for action like a man. I will question you
and make it known, and you make it known to me.
So he's turning around on Job right now in a
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confrontation about his statements concerning divine justice and that God
was apathetic and uninvolved in the administration of the world.
That's what's going to happen. So seven is the same
as thirty eight three. The second interrogation is now underway,
and now he's gonna start challenging this defense that Job
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has that somehow God doesn't even care what's going on.
So look look at it. You remember when he said that,
will you even put me in the wrong? Will you
condemn me that you may be in the right? Have
you said that I am unjust? I was listening it
sounded like you were saying that I am unjust? Are
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you saying that? Are you saying that I the Almighty
am unjust? And you know what he's saying after it?
Surely not. Now you would think, well, he just said
he regretted over speaking. But he regretted it, we didn't
repent of it, and so God is going to continue. Nine.
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Have you an arm like God? And can you thunder?
With a voice like his? Talking to himself in third person?
Talking about himself a third person? And you know what
this really is. He is just saying to Job, do
you compare to me? Are you as strong as I am?
Is your voice like thunder? These are all these rhetorical
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questions that God loves to do. Of course, we know
the answer, and then we get into ten. Now this
is interesting. Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity, clothe yourself
with glory and splendor. Now what God's about to start
here in verse ten is He's going to start four
things that human beings might do to bring some sort
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of glory to themselves, only to come to the conclusion
that only God does this effectively. You may try down there.
You think you're a big deal. You think you can
elevate yourself with adorning yourself with majesty and dignity and
clothe yourself with glory and splendor. You try to make
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a big deal out of yourself. But it's pathetic to
me because you're trying to be me. And when you
do this, it's silly on what you're attempting to do
as a human. Only I do these things efficiently. Only
I do them effectively. Only I truly can adorn myself
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with majesty. Only I can adorn myself with dignity. Only
I clothe myself with glory and splendor. All of you
kings and people that put all this stuff on, I'm
laughing at that. You ever see some of the stuff
that royals do the sovereign What a statement? Wow, putting
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on the crowns and all this stuff, and God's like
y'are trying so hard to do what only I can do?
And so he goes, can you really just adopt glory
and splendor? No Verse eleven? Pour out the overflowings of
your anger and look on everyone who is proud in
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the basin? Can you do that? Job? Can you? Can
you hand down the type of wrath that I do?
Can can you humble the proud? Joe twelve? Look on
everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread
down the wicked where they stand. So that's a direct
quote against Joe because he's saying, so you say that
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I let the wicked go unpunished. I heard you say it.
And should should you be in charge of that? Sho?
Should I let you handle that? Do you want to
start deciding what should happen to this person and what
should happen to that person? You want to make the
call on that job? Because I heard you say that
I just let the wicked go unpunished. You find all
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the proud and can can you declare correctly job? Who's
truly wicked? And who's truly good and decide who should
be punished. When can you really do all that? Because
what we do And I just had a conversation about
somebody a minute with somebody a minute ago. And it's
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one of the things that I think God is working
out in me at this stage of my life, and
that is I'm getting to the point now and he's
really accomplishing this. I just don't need to be vindicated
to people. You know, I know what the truth is,
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and this desire that, oh my goodness, I must be vindicated.
I must be vindicated. I must be vindicated. And so
what he is saying is job. I mean, you don't
really have any idea what I'm doing. This person may
it may look like they're not being punished, but in
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the end, I will punish them if they don't repent.
And over here you may think this person's great, but
I see their heart. They're really not good at all.
And I know that. So why don't you just trust
that I know what I'm doing and stop making these
proclamations that I'm not doing it right. And you know,
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I remember my dad saying this. He said, I always
thought it was an exaggeration when I heard people say that,
you know, when we all stand before God, you know
this and that and he goes. But the more I
get to know people, I really do think that some
of these idiots, if they can get it out of
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their mouth, I don't think we can. But I think
they would tell God he didn't know what he was doing.
I think they would say, you didn't do it right.
And now because remember we talk about you remember and
I forget what study was on what study was it
on that we unpacked the gnashing of teeth? And then uh,
and we talked about all the things in hell and
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the anguish and all this and and and you know that.
And what that is is that Jesus was saying, in hell,
they will be some people that will be They'll be
an anguish, they'll be crying, they'll be mourning the fact
that they rejected Jesus. But but yeah, but the grinding
of the teeth, Yeah, that was it. The grinding of
the teeth. That's not them, those that grind their teeth.
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They're furious that God had the audacity to send them
to hell, and they're still claiming that they didn't deserve it.
So so anyway, so he's he's trying to clarify this
with Job. By the way, everybody in the sound of
my voice, including the teacher, we all deserve to go
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to hell. The remarkable thing is that if we've been redeemed,
we're not gonna get what we deserve, but we all
deserve it. So when compared to God, which by the way,
Job is gonna get there before we're done. I hate
to give away the ending thirteen. Hide them all in
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dust together, bind their faces in the world below. There's
the big one. So let me ask you, Job, are
you ready to bury them? And then here's the thing.
When they're buried, Job, here's what I do. I don't
just bury people, y'all. Let y'all do that. I do
something bigger. I decide their eternity. You're gonna take charge
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of that because that's what I do. I decide their attornity.
And I don't think you can do that. Fourteen. Then
I will also acknowledge to you that you that your
on right hand can save you. I'm gonna let I'm
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gonna let you, okay, Job, I'm gonna turn it over
to you. Have you ever? Have you ever? Just sometimes
when somebody thinks what you do is easy, and you
just say, let me toss you the keys for a
day or two and see how it goes. And what
and what and what God is saying right there is?
Will't we just make you lord and savior? Let you
handle it? Do you do you think you can handle
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doing what I'm doing? Why do I tell you what? Joe,
Let's start with the first one. Let me tell you
why you can't be Lord and savior. Joe, you can't
even save yourself. You think you can save the world.
You can't even save yourself. Because remember Jesus made it
real clear when he was going to the Cross that
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a lot of things about him were unique. And what
was the most unique. Nobody takes my life from me.
If I didn't want them to have it, they couldn't
have it. I am in charge. I'm in charge all
the way to the cross. There's never a time to
the Cross that I wasn't in control. I lay down
my life and what and I'll raise it up again.
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Not only have I got to submit to an earthly death,
I have the ability to raise myself from the grave. Joe,
can you do that? Because Joe again is feeling a
little rough right now. And then God he turns and
here we go. So God now will turn and he says,
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I'd like to go back to show you some things
that I did, and I got a biggie for you.
And then he says, to Job, behold Beamuth. So we've
got either Benmouth or Behemoth. I say behemoth, but I
heard it pronounced both ways as I look. So behemoth
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really really starts a lot of conversations and commentaries, as
you can imagine. So first of all, let's just start
with the first two words. Is God saying behold behemoth?
Because this is important and I don't know the answer, sorry,
but we can speculate as long as week knowledge. We're speculating.
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Is he saying behold Job Behemoth because he's seen it before,
or is he saying behold Behemoth something Job had never seen.
That's the question. Because I got to tell you, I
do not believe that the theory of Behemoth being a
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hippo and Behemoth being an elephant stands up. It's got
some problems and we'll get to them. Those two theories
have got some real problems. So we do know the
archaeological record, the fossil record, seems to indicate that at
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one time on this earth, whenever that was, there were
some really large creatures that walked around. Now, the word
dinosaur didn't come along on till much later. That's what
we call them now. So if you think about and again,
I understand that some of these fossils we have are
incomplete and we've kind of filled in some blanks. Crushed
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me because it's a little boy. I love playing with dinosaurs,
and when I found out that really some of these
are speculation that they look this way, it killed me.
But because some of the fossil records are just incomplete,
so we're filling in some blanks here. But we do
know they were big because the bones are big and
all that. So it's this creature commentaries say, hippo elephant
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dinosaur or is it a mythical creature that was not
even a real creature? Those are the those are the
theories that are out there. So let's uh, let's let's
have some fun with this. So let's take a look
at the creature. Behold behemoth, which I made as you
and I created human beings. But look over here, I
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created this too. Now we've already heard some of this
in God's resume about animals, but I won't say. He's
saying that Behemoth was a really big deal. So he
eats grass like an ox. Now what he's saying, there,
take a look at this creation? Job? Does Job look
at that and his time period and go, oh, yeah,
I've seen one of those. Or is he's seeing something
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God is showing him from a time that Job didn't
know about. But yet God did create this, Job just
never seen one. So anyway, it says, I made this
just like you, but it eats grass like an ox.
Now that tells me in my own opinion, and others
agree that he hasn't seen it before because things are
having to be explained to him about it. And he's saying,
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this is something that I made, just like everything else
I made. And it's almost like Job would be surprised
to hear that it eats grass, because when he looks
at it, he's like, man, this thing and he's like,
by the way, this eats grass like an ox, almost
like Job be going, really, I thought this thing was
about to devour everything in its sight. So he tells
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him that he wants him to know that, and then
he's wanting him to notice the strength of this creature. Sixteen. Behold,
his strength is in his loins and his power in
the muscles of his belly. So you're starting to kind
of get a vision here, and so just look job
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at its strength. And he's gonna talk more about his strength,
but he's starting this Seventeen. Here's where hippo and elephant
have a real problem. And some people just double down
on this like it's hippo or elephant. But you have
to ignore this verse. This is this is problematic. I've
seen an elephant. I've seen an elephant in the wild.
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I've seen a female elephant charged the jeep I was
in to scare us away from her baby. And you
know what, I said to the god, it's working. You
ever seen that's a big creature. And mama was knocking
down trees like they were twigs, you know, making dust,
throwing them ears around, and she wanted us to leave,
(34:13):
and I suggested to the god, I'd like to see
us go, and uh, she don't want us around here.
So I've seen a hippo too, which, by the way,
the most dangerous animal I've ever been around, kills more
humans than anything else in in Africa. Okay, So, but
I've got a problem with this because I've seen both
of them. Even if you haven't seen them live, you
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probably have seen them, you know, in on documentaries. He
makes his tail stiff like a cedar, a cedar. You
ever seen an elephant's tail or hippo any very big
at all? It's tiny and and and that and and
and and it says. The sinews of his thighs are
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knit together, his bones are too, ubes of bronze, his
limbs like bars of iron. Now I understand, hang with me,
because some of you are saying, well, Rick, what if
it was a small tail, but he could make it
just really really hard, stick it out. Hang on, that's
still got a problem coming. Okay, So this is this
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feeling a little more like a serapod than it is
a hippo or an elephant. That's your bronizsauruss, your different sources.
And so he's got massive strength. In eighteen he is
you know, he's mighty. Okay, his bones or tubes of bronze,
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his limbs like bars of iron. Now catch this. Nineteen
he is the first of the works of God. Let
who made him bring near his sword. Now don't get
this in a chronological deal, because that's not what the
Hebrew is here. He's not saying this is one of
the first things I ever created. He's not saying that.
What he's saying is it's it's the mightiest thing I
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ever created. It is the mightiest of the things I've created.
It is gargantuan, It is powerful, and it is impressive.
It is it is like, you know, it'd be one
of those things where you kind of bring everybody out here,
come all my animals, here's the things I created, and
you kind of save behemoth and you go. And now
now now here comes the headliner. Okay, that's what he
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means by this. He's really looking at job, going, how
about that look I created This is like I created you,
and so it's among the mighty works of God. This
is not chronological. Now we get a little poetic here
in twenty for the mountains yield food for him, where
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all the wild beast play. It's just it's just a
way to say that he feeds on the grassy hills
as well, and it needs a lot of room because
this is where the other animals run and frolic, and
he will eat that twenty one under the lotus plants.
He lies in the shelter of the reeds and in
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the marsh, really feeling kind of Bronosaurus light. The lotus
is a shrub, and the swamps and the marshes twenty
two for his shade. The lotus trees cover him. The
willows of the brook surround him. So this is bringing
populars in. This is near the rivers there in the
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Middle East. This is all things that Job would have
been familiar with. And then let's look at this and
again we're gonna have some issues here because it says, behold,
if the river is turbulent, he is not frightened. He
is confident. Though the Jordan rushes against his mouth. He
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saying he's so big and he is so powerful that
the moving currents of a river are nothing to him.
He's needed. It's like a flies. I mean, it can't
even move him. There's nothing there. So the Jordan here,
they think maybe a generic term here in the Hebrew
(38:20):
that they refer to that as just really a river,
because most people believe, based on the other things here,
that this creature was was was in the Nile River,
not the Jordan River. But again that's that's speculation. And
then he gets to the end and he says, can
one take him by his eyes or pierce his nose
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with a snare? Joe, let me look, now that you've
checked out checked out, old big fellow, here, I'm gonna
ask you something. You think you can bring this thing in?
You think why it's looking at you, it can see you.
You think you could just approach it and put a
ring through its nose and lead it around like you
would do livestock on a farm. Of course, Joe knows
he can't do it. So if this creature it's not
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a hippo, and it's not an elephant, and frankly, I
just don't think it is. It doesn't seem to. It's
got a few similarities. But I think the tail is
an issue. The sheer size of it is an issue.
Elephants will go in and bathe in water, but they
don't live in water. The hippo does. But now the
hippo has got a real tidy tail. I actually tend
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to believe that this is a dinosaur, what we call
a dinosaur when we're dinosaurs here. I don't know the
answer to that. There's a number of theories. But I
do think that that Job, and we got another one
next week, that is some sort of sea creature. So
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when did this happen? Is God showing Job something from
the past that he created? Is it something that Job
solved during his day. I think the latter has some
problems because it's almost like Job is seeing this for
the first time, even though he had seen a horse,
and a horse was also described in great detail like this.
(40:20):
So what do we do as people who believe that
the Bible is the there's no error in the Word
of God, what do we do with dinosaurs? I think
we have one here and we probably have another one
next week too, that He's added to all the things
he created. You know, there's a number of theories about that,
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and I know some of this I'll get a huge
pushback on, especially from my friends at Answers and Genesis,
who I have great respect for. I don't necessarily agree that,
and I've heard the explanation and I still don't. I
don't know how old Earth is. I have no idea.
I'd be real careful tying the age of the Earth
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to the existence of God and the Gospel being true
or not. There's some people who do answers and Genesis,
they do. They believe it's young Earth, young Earth only,
and if it's not young Earth, that we've got some
kind of biblical problem. Six thousand years or so. I
don't necessarily agree with that because I think we're trying
to put God in a box on how old the
(41:28):
Earth is. Because I think where we're getting the young Earth,
and I'm not saying I'm not young Earth, I don't
know the answer. I think you've got to be careful
with how old, how long the earth has been here,
and how long humans have been here. I think that's
where the rub is. I think that's where the tension is.
(41:48):
If you want to say human beings have been around
for about six thousand years, I think that's a good run. Now,
do I believe that the way we date things and
fossils is accurate? I don't. Carbon dating has got all
kinds of flaws in it. But carbon dating, as I
remember Bubba trying to help me to understand this. You know,
(42:10):
he's brilliant when it comes to science and everything, and
he said, Rick, this would be like you saying you're
going to measure the distance from Birmingham, Alabama, to Atlanta, Georgia,
and you take out a ruler and you just keep
flipping it on its end all the way from Birmingham
all the way to Atlanta. To say that's the distance.
There'd be a lot of error in that. And uh,
(42:31):
so which I thought was a great analogy at least
when I could understand. And so, is it possible, I'm
not saying that this is it. Is it possible that
dinosaurs were part of creation before human beings, that the
earth without form has been around for a long long time.
(42:55):
We do know that when creation starts in Genesis, something's
already been here, you know, And we don't know that that.
We don't know the distance of years between Genesis one
and Genesis two, the first two verses we didn't We
don't know how long that is. And we know that
it was, you know, without form. We know that darkness
(43:16):
was over the water. Uh. And then God starts to
let there be light and here we go. So there's
even a theory that uh, the Noah flood because that's
where sometimes dinosaurs have an issue, uh, and its answers
in Genesis tries to solve that by saying that dinosaurs
were here and they were put on the arc as
(43:39):
babies juveniles, so you wouldn't need, you know, the size
to put a behemoth on it. That would be a
full grown dinosaur. I think where we got a little
bit of problem with that is if you know animals,
they grow pretty fast, uh and uh. And we're floating
around a good while there with juvenile dinosaurs in there,
(44:01):
they could get a lot bigger, a lot quicker. And
I'm not saying that's not right. I'm not I'm just
I'm just saying I tend to believe that the reason
why we have disagreements with the age of the Earth
is that we're trying to make the dinosaur fossil record
fit the human record, and I'm not sure they fit.
(44:23):
I tend to think that God is showing job something
that he has never seen, but he is acknowledging that
I did create dinosaurs and they were here. But were
they here when humans were here? I don't think we
know the answer to that, And I think we tend
to pick one of the others so we can justify
(44:44):
how oh we think the Earth is. So in my opinion,
Old Earth and New Earth are no indicator of God's existence,
and the and the reliability of scripture. Some people do.
And I'm sure they're emailing me next week and I
look forward to that. Uh but but but so here's
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what I think I'm I'm real confident with. I'm very
confident that God is showing him in my opinion, and
that's all. It is. A dinosaur, not a hippo, not
an elephant. I don't think they'll stand up mythical creature.
I don't think that stands up either. But I will
(45:30):
tell you this. When I stand before God and he
go and he says to me, hey, birds, and not
shot at the bohemoth. You missed it badly. Uh you know.
And and that's okay. I mean, it's not gonna change
my situation with God. Uh. What he's, what he's, What
this is isn't the point as much as it's it's it's
it's God trying to get Job to the place that
(45:52):
he does get him by showing the distance between a
pitiful human being the creed in the Creator. He's really saying, Job,
I've even created things that would stomp you. I mean,
you have you have no right to question me. I
am all knowing. I have always been and you have not.
(46:16):
And so then you have to get to the point
where you're saying, so God is in control the whole way.
Yes he is. And God has taken a man that
is blameless and upright, and he has caused him and
allowed both. That's another thing we got to come off of. Okay,
(46:40):
And you've heard me preach this before and teach it.
Some of y'all knew you. We've got to come off
this afraid to say caused. God absolutely causes calamity. And
then there's times he allows calamity. But to say aloud
and never never, can't quite you two squeamish to say caused.
Don't make me go back to I can flip over
(47:01):
to Samuel right now and show you real quick. And
I've had to do this with even friends before. The
baby that died, the first one conceived in adultery with
David and Bethsheba. It says that God killed the baby.
It didn't say he allowed the baby to die. Didn't
(47:23):
say allowed the devil to kill the baby. It says
that he made the baby sick, so he caused it. Okay,
So that and whatever he does is right. David also says,
even though that happened, what when they told him the
baby was dead, that he didn't grieve anymore. He put
his clothes on, after he got a bath, he started
(47:45):
eating again. And when they said, why are you why
is this reaction? You haven't eaten, you haven't bathed, you
haven't done anything, he said, Well, I was praying for
the baby to be saved, he said, But the Lord
has spoken and I will go to the baby. But
the baby's not coming back to me means what? And
you're going to see at the end with job, God
does the very same thing. I can't wait to show
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it to you if you've never seen it involving his children.
But see, we tend to think and I've been through it,
and the death of a child is stay with you
the rest of your life. There's no getting rid of it.
And you'll have times that you're managing it. You'll have
(48:25):
time that you're completely good with it, and you'll have
times that it comes back and it's beating you down again. Okay,
it just doesn't ever go away. But the beauty of it,
it's like for those of you that have done the military,
or you're someone who tries to do these kind of
workouts where you can say I'm going to go for
a run, and that's beneficial. But then you put on
(48:46):
the weighted vest and put a little weight on you,
and then the runs even more beneficial because you're caring
a little more weight. It produces steadfastness, It refines us,
it grows us. But what I think we say is, well,
I'm upset about this because I don't have my child,
(49:08):
whatever person, I don't have them here with me. And
what we need to understand is to get to the
point that God is teaching us. Do you think that
child with you and the falling creation is better than
it being with me. If you're redeemed, you're going to
(49:31):
come spend eternity with this child. And I have decided
Psalm's thirty nine thirteen through sixteen that these are the
number of the days. Just like with David and Bathsheba,
he said, this child is not going to live very
long at all. Solomon is coming and I'll do great
(49:54):
things through Solomon, both from the same couple. But he's teaching,
and what he's doing is right. Because the children that
either die before they're able to know they're left end
from the right, or they were old enough to make
a decision and are redeemed. They're in eternity with a
(50:15):
perfect father, in perfection, and if you're redeemed, one day
you will go to them, even though they're not coming
back to you here. And what God is saying is,
how dare you question me on that there's gonna be
a day you're going to be standing here and you're
gonna be reunited with that child, and you're going to
be in perfection. You're going to spend eternity with that child,
(50:35):
and you're going to look at me and think, why
was I so concerned about this? This is far better
than even when I had them with me, because they
were sick all the time they were they had the
heart broken, they were disappointed. There were a lot of
bad things that happened to them while they were on earth.
And now that hurt is gone and they are glorified
(50:56):
and they are perfect and they don't sweat the things
that we all sweat every day, and one day we'll
be with them and so and so God is just
almost saying, could y'all just be patient and trust that
I'm working this out. Could you just stop questioning me
(51:19):
and stop thinking that I'm not handling this right and
stop thinking you can correct me, and that you had
a better way this could be done. And how about this.
I want you to stop thinking I'm being too hard
on Joe, and I want you to stop thinking I'm
being too hard on you, because I know why I suffer.
(51:41):
This is a bit of an analogy that's a little
shallow for how important this is. But if you've ever
been in a position to where you were an authority
over people, or you've ever been say a coach of
some kind, or you could be a boss or whatever,
there's certain people that thrive on their own. They got
(52:05):
great discipline, they got great self control, and you don't
have to ride them. But then there's people like me.
You got to ride that one, and if you ride him,
you'll see great things. But if you leave him alone
and let him relax and let him get too comfortable,
(52:31):
prone to wonder. So you got to stay on that one.
And I'm sitting here at sixty one right now, and
God is saying, surely you didn't think we were done.
Surely you don't think that you've reached what I want.
You don't think you've arrived to you. I don't know
(52:51):
how much song I want to live. I have no idea,
but God does. And for some reason, I guess I'm
gonna live a little longer than I thought because He's
taking the time to refine me even more and say
I want This is what I'm learning through the difficulty
I'm in right now. I'm learning that God is saying,
(53:12):
don't withhold anything from me. Let's let there better not
be any part of you that I can't examine and
refine and change. And I remember when we studied and
I'm working on a message about this. I guess I
shouldn't give that away. But it doesn't matter. It'll work
the time you get to see it. And I haven't
(53:33):
been able to get it out of my mind. And
it was when we did the study on the Revelation,
the seven Churches, the church at Ephesus. I think, I
think that's me is you did this well. You've done
this well. I like how you did that. Man that
looks good Man church is thriving, Wednesday, Bible study going good.
(53:55):
Appreciate what you're doing at the local church. Hey, I
like that conversation you have with so and so. I
kind of like how you handle this and whatever, like
this and and but but I'd like to talk to
you about something. I got this against you, This one
thing we got to correct. Are these things we need
to correct? I still have this against you, and so
he's gonna correct it, and he's gonna say, I need
(54:19):
this cleaned up a little bit right here, because I
now we've got it. We've done a lot. But until
I clean this up and toward I take you another step,
to I push you a little more, until I put
my thumb on you just a little more, you're not
gonna get there. And the only way you're gonna get
there is if I let you suffer a little more
(54:40):
and trust me. Because what is the saying first Peter
one six and seven. We said it a thousand times,
and this you rejoice though now for a little while.
And the key is these two words, if necessary. You've
been grieved by various trials. God looked at Job's life,
he might have looked at yours, and he's looked at
mine and says, I deem this necessary. I deem it
(55:04):
necessary for me to be able to This is how
I'm going to create this in you. As Paul said
about the thorn in his flesh and the demon who
kept harassing him, saying, you keep asking God to take
this away from you and he won't do it. What
do you think about God now? And Paul says, to
that demon that is harassing him about God not answering
(55:24):
his prayer the way he wanted. He said, I've asked
him three times he has not done it, and he
doesn't say and I don't know why. Oh, what's wrong God,
You're being unreasonable, he said. He's doing it to keep
me from being conceited. I can't handle not having the
thorn and he knows it, so he leaves it because
it's for my own good. I wonder if we can
(55:49):
look at difficulty that way. Let's pray. Lord, thank you
for today, thank you for this message. Thank You for
the do sometimes different parts, but also seeing even your
sense of humor as you talk to Job, even as
you remind us that the more that we know about you,
(56:12):
there's many conclusions we can come to. You're wonderful, your holy,
you are awesome. But another thing that we come to
the conclusion of every time is that you are God
and we are not. Thank you for the mercy and
the grace that you've shown us, but we are in
all of you, and we worship you because you and
(56:35):
only you are worthy of our adoration and our worship.
We fear you, and we also hear your resume, and
we cower at the thought of thinking that we should
(56:55):
correct you. In your holy name, we pray Amen. Thank you, Gods,
you have a great thanksgiving
Welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. Thank you for being
with us today, and pardon me for the cancelation last week.
It was unavoidable and I hate when that happens. Adler
and I were discussing and Chris Sadler, who produces this
and works on the day Job with me on the
Rick Burgess Show. We were looking at our record of
(00:22):
a decade of Wednesday Bible studies and we have a
ninety plus percent winning record, so we don't cancel many,
you know, unless it's vacation or something like that. So
that was abnormal. I apologize for that. But as they say,
many times, life happens, so you can't always predict how
the day's gonna go. So good to be back. We're
going to be in Job chapter forty. We're continuing to
(00:46):
hear from you know, God, what he has to say
about himself talking to Job. If you missed any of
the prior studies of Job, you can gather those archives
and really go back to any series that we've done.
The archives are available at thechurch dot com. You can
either watch the archives. Now there are some limitations there
because videos over ten years do eventually go away on YouTube,
(01:10):
but the audio files. They stay there so that you
can also listen if you're going back to a really
older Bible study of different books of the Bible and
some commentaries that we've unpacked on the Wednesday Bible studies.
So we have been in this book, the Book of Job,
for the entire year of twenty twenty five. We are
getting near the end, and so if we finish it
(01:33):
before our year ends, which will be on December of
the nineteenth, we probably will. We'll go ahead and start
the next series if time allows, and then just carry
that into twenty twenty six. So we are here as
part of an ongoing discipleship strategy for men. Even though
all over the country on the streaming options, whether it
(01:54):
be live or archived, I know that women join us too,
and that's fine. We're just studying the Bible right now.
But here in the room it's always only men because
that's how it started. So the strategy that you can
find at Vmanchurch dot com that I just mentioned it
is a strategy for a sustainable men's ministry that features
high challenge that's been done for decades. We do that
(02:15):
in the way of gatherings and conferences, but also we
follow with something that has been sorely missing, and that
is the high equipping the discipleship, even going as far
as providing unique curriculum designed for men. We have six
of those. They're forty weeks in link. You can find
those by going to the Manchurch dot com. We also
have individual resources for men for their own time. These
(02:38):
are thirty one day devotionals forty day devotionals. We have
a full length book that I have just written this
year called Men Don't Run in the Rain, So find
all those at Vmanchurch dot com. As a matter of fact,
if you're catching this during the time we recorded it,
which we're getting near Christmas, if you want to sign
copy of Men Don't Run in the Rain, use that
link at the Manchurch dot com and you can get
(03:00):
those up to December the sixteenth of twenty twenty five.
So let's open up in a word of prayer and
let's jump right in to Job chapter forty. Lord, thank
you for today, Thank you for the opportunity to unpack
your Holy Word. Thank You for the things that we
continue to learn through this historic moment with Job. In
(03:22):
the glorious name of Jesus, we ask to guide us
through the Holy Spirit, to discern what you intend for
us to discern. To hear from you now just in
your resume, but hear from you right now and your
Holy name, we pray Amen. So here we go. God
has been giving his resume something real interesting, well, a
(03:44):
couple of real interesting things are going to happen in
chapter forty. I found this remarkable studying this. Even though
I've been through the Book of Job, I had never
gone through the Book of Job word for word. So
I'm in learning a lot in this journey like the
rest of you have. So God has started his resume
(04:05):
with the job. He has been talking, you know, a
little bit in thirty nine. He hits all these various animals.
We covered that last week. So but he makes a
turn as he starts this this next part, and I
want you to pick up on something and then we're
gonna get to another example of creation. And it's a
(04:28):
very often discussed all kinds of theories on what this
creature is, what does it represent. I'll tell you some
of the theories. I'll tell you frankly, and I'm sure
you're just waiting on the edge of your seat on
what Rick has to say about it. But I will say, frankly,
I find a couple of the theories to be they're preposterous.
(04:53):
I mean, they got a real problem by calling this
creature creatures that we see now, because the disc ription
would not match. And I don't know how it's gained
so much ground. But the two animals that are often referenced,
it just doesn't stand up. So I don't know what
this creature is. But we'll talk about some of the
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theories and we'll kind of together see if we can't
discern the ones that maybe have a little more merit
and the ones that don't have much merit at all.
So anyway, but that's not what we're gonna do. To
begin with, the Lord said to Job chapter forty, verse one.
This is just saying that he's not talking to his
friends right now. He's not. They're there because he is
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going to address them before he's done, but he's not
right now. The Bible wants us to know. And the
Lord said to Job. The Lord said to Job, not
to them, but he said to Job. This is very
similar to chapter thirty eight, verse one. But this time
you notice, even though it's going to come back, but
right now there's no mention of the whirlwin there wasn't
(05:58):
thirty eight one. There's no mention of the whirlwind here.
I don't know whether he lets the whirlwind die down,
because it cranks back up here in a minute. But
the Lord says to Job verse two, Now, shall a
fault finder contend with the almighty? He who argues with God?
(06:18):
Let him answer it. So this doesn't require a lot
of commentary. The Lord says to Job, do you intend,
because I want to get this right, do you actually
intend on correcting the Almighty? Now? I want you to
think about that for a minute, because we kind of gasp.
(06:40):
I see some of you gasping rightfully, so, but I
be careful because you may not directly do this, and
I may not directly do this. But I wonder if
we were brutally honest at some of the times of
our life that we didn't like some of the things
that we find ourselves in that, whether we do it
(07:01):
directly like Job did or indirectly, how many times have
you found yourself if you really really thought about what
you were doing, and thought about what you were thinking,
and thought about what you were saying, that you are
trying to correct the almighty. I you know, I'm I'm
(07:22):
I'm in the middle of a battle right now, and
I don't like it at all, and uh and I
don't I don't like It's one of these things too.
I don't know if you've ever had difficulties in your
life and you got through the other side of it
and you thought, I'm done with that. You know, I
learned everything I need to learn. So I guess that'll
be that that's a one off in my life. And
(07:43):
you know, some years go by and all of a
sudden you kind of find yourself back in and again
and you're like, kind of thought, we were done with
that kind of thought. I learned everything I needed to learn.
And I will tell you just as he's doing with Job.
And there's two things that are going on. See this
with Job too, is that we have not found anywhere
(08:05):
in God's resume that he thinks he's overreacted, he thinks
he's too harsh on Job. You don't see any of that.
I was talking about back in thirty eight and was
actually talking to my wife about this too, and talking
with a friend yesterday about this. I said, thirty eight
is a little bit rough because you think Job has
(08:28):
been through hell on Earth. I mean, he is beat down,
and God shows up to speak to him directly, and
he shows up in a whirlwind like we did talk about,
which a whirlwind killed as kids. And you never hear
God saying are you okay? Has this been hard? Maybe
I overreacted? Let me coddle you, let me pet you
(08:50):
a little bit, let me comfort you. Now does does
God comfort as he does? But I'm just talking about
in this situation, he doesn't come on this. He doesn't
even ask Job how he's doing. What he says is
who are you to question me? And he comes in
a whirlwind, which, frankly, in our society, most people would
(09:13):
say that's insensitive. Don't you think that triggers Job back
to his grief? And I think God would say, I
know exactly that it's triggering him back to his grief.
But I don't want them to understand that. You don't
question me about that. Whatever I do is right. And
so now he's coming back and saying, do you do
you intend to correct me? Do you think I've been
(09:36):
too hard on you? For me? Right now? The Lord
would say, so, do you what you don't? You don't
want to go through this again. So are you saying
that that I'm being unreasonable by allowing you to go
through a trial again. And then the thing that I
have to think about is, as I've said it a
thousand times, the reason why trials keep coming in our
(09:58):
lives because remember, we don't have anything to do other
with repentance. As far as our justification, we can't justify ourselves,
and we have no ability to glorify ourselves, which is
yet to come. But we participate in the sanctification. We're
participating in that. As he begins to take that sin
(10:20):
nature that's still there, and as we begin to feed
that spirit, he begins to take that sin nature, and
he deals with it, and he grinds it, and he
continues to refine us and produce steadfastness. And one of
the most effective ways he does that is through trials.
I was talking to a brother, you know, the trial
that I'm going through now, and he was like, I said, well,
(10:41):
let me just tell you something. I said, you know,
I don't think I ranked satan. I've told you that
I'm not that important. But but the adversary's cronies, the
demonic forces, I said, it's just so foolish to watch them.
They're always so foolish, I said, because they're not. They
can't seem to figure out what God, God knows, And
(11:01):
that is the best thing they could do to somebody
like me is just leave me alone, because then my
apathy would produce much less impact than the benefit of
the trials. Will I'll have more impact through the trials
than I would have had if they just left me alone,
(11:23):
because see, the trials forced me back to God and
forced me back at his feet, and my self reliance
is destroyed. And then I'm so leaning on God that
I begin to abide in his power and he begins
to produce something in me that only a trial was
going to produce. So once again, they just don't learn.
(11:44):
They keep playing into God's hands, I mean. And so
the question I would ask, would that be the case
with all of us? Is is that something? Do you
resent a trial? Certainly you don't have to enjoy them.
I'm not saying that I'm not enjoying this, But do
you resent it? Can you? Can you flip over and
(12:04):
say no, I'm not gonna correct you. I'm not saying
you don't know what you're doing. I understand you know
what you're doing. I'm asking you to just see me
through it and make sure I learn everything I'm supposed
to learn. Why do we have so many trials? Because
they work, they're effective, and that's why God says, So
do you think I overreacted here? You think I owe
(12:26):
you an apology? I mean you're going to correct me.
And so then we see in verses three through five,
this is Job's first time to try to stop all this.
Now here's where we're going to get in our first
really deep point this week that I've just been stoked about. Okay,
look right here. Then Job answered the Lord and said,
(12:47):
now now don't underline the lord here. So this is
Job's first he's considering repentance right now. But but he
he is, he's he's using the word here that that
that is not going to represent repentance. Now later we
(13:09):
are gonna see it. I don't want to give away
the end. But in verse three, the same as elsewhere,
but this time Job is addressing God as yahweh. So
you see there's a move. Now, what does yahweh mean?
The Lord? Okay, he's calling him yahweh right here. He
he hasn't done that the whole time when referencing God.
(13:30):
This time he refers to him as the Lord. Now
look look at foward. Behold, I am of small account?
What shall I answer you? Starting to kind of get it?
What is it? If you look at the words here,
here's what it says. This word means I'm unworthy. It
means in Hebrew, I'm light in weight. I don't account
for much to be questioning you. Also, you will see
(13:55):
he says here, behold, I'm small, of small account. What
shall I answer you? You're also seeing here that that
you're seeing a submission here that uh that that he
that that men you know also used to have this
(14:16):
feeling about job. He's saying, compared to you, I don't
I'm not of any standing. I'm I'm light in weight,
I don't have any influence. I was a big deal
here in my community, But now that you've shown up,
I ain't a big deal to you at all. Little
Calhoun County commentary for you there, Okay, So now watch next.
Do you remember him referencing this when he was talking
(14:38):
about the way his life you was, it was before
he was suffering. Remember this he used this line, and
then he says, next, he said, I lay my hand
on my mouth. You remember that when he was doing
he was referring to the glory days. Man, in my
glory days, men would put their hands over their mouth
to speak ill of me. Well, now he takes his
hand and puts it over his mouth to speak ill
(15:00):
of the Lord. And you think, man, he's gonna get it.
He's about to do it. But then watch this. I
have spoken once and I will not answer twice, but
I will proceed no further. Now you've got to kind
of understand the culture there. What's happening here. This is
(15:20):
a formula of ancient Hebrew and it basically what this means,
they would say, you know, they would use a formula
that X plus whatever I've said too much, I've run
my mouth too much is what this means. I've spoken
one too many times and I'm going to start backing out. Now.
(15:40):
Remember Job is realizing that he out talked to all
his friends every time they went after him, and Job
would debate them, he would out talk them. But in
the presence of God, Job is realizing that he is dumbfounded.
I can't out talk the allmighty Okay, So right there,
(16:03):
we think job's trying to stop it. He's telling the Lord,
I got it, ram my mouth too much, shouldn't have
done it. But it doesn't stop the interrogation. Why this
is big? Why all he does is regret it. He's
not repenting, and God's waiting on repentance. But there is
(16:29):
no repentance here. There's this regret. Now, let that simmer.
You realize that I remember a lot of times in
my life that I regretted what I did, but I
didn't repent of it. And so God saying regrets not enough.
The interrogation must continue now because you're just regretting it.
We're getting there, but we're not there. I'm looking for repentance.
(16:52):
You remember what the Lord said when God became a
man and he came on the scene, and what did
he preach? John the Baptist was preaching it. And as
soon as he is as soon as he looked up
and said, here's the guy, this is the Messiah. We've
been waiting on repent because the Kingdom of God is
at hand. Jesus comes on the scene. It's almost like
the Western Church has forgotten this, and he begins to
(17:14):
preach what repent or perish all must repent. And the
only way your repentance will aren't will will be good
enough is you repent, and then I take over your life,
and then I'm going to the cross to pay the price,
so that repentance will take You must repent to me. Why,
(17:36):
Because I'm God. I become your lord, and then I'll
go to the cross and I'll become your savior, and
then I'll bring you into the presence of Holy, Holy, Holy,
fully righteous. But what must happen first? We must repent,
not just regret, because you know what regret might be.
I'll give you a perfect example. I know we got
(17:57):
little leaders in here, so I'll be calm, okay, But
but this is such a simple one to understand. When
when a man compromises his purity and he's intimate with
a woman that is not his wife, he might not
(18:18):
regret it, but if he finds out she's with child,
then he regrets it. But that's not repentance. That's just
I wish I hadn't done that now. But there's no repentance,
there's no there's no look what I did to God,
it's I regret what I did because it produced a
bad outcome. That's now got me in a and and
(18:39):
a tight. Well, that's not repentance, that's just regret. And
so right now Joe regrets running his mouth, but he
hasn't repentant. So hang on to that. That's big. I
hope that's a big takeaway for you. It was for me.
So and if you don't believe me, look what the
Lord does next. And the Lord Lord answered job, out
(19:01):
of the whirlwind. We cranking the wind back up. So
that's not the answer God's looking for. Job wants him
to stop. He thinks I got it. I've learned my lesson.
So the whirlwind cranks back up again. Very insensitive if
you believe what people say. But apparently sometimes somebody telling
(19:23):
the truth isn't insensitive. It's just the truth. And so
the Lord answered job by the whirlwind, and he says,
does this sound familiar. We're going back to thirty eight again,
dressed for action like a man. I will question you
and make it known, and you make it known to me.
So he's turning around on Job right now in a
(19:49):
confrontation about his statements concerning divine justice and that God
was apathetic and uninvolved in the administration of the world.
That's what's going to happen. So seven is the same
as thirty eight three. The second interrogation is now underway,
and now he's gonna start challenging this defense that Job
(20:12):
has that somehow God doesn't even care what's going on.
So look look at it. You remember when he said that,
will you even put me in the wrong? Will you
condemn me that you may be in the right? Have
you said that I am unjust? I was listening it
sounded like you were saying that I am unjust? Are
(20:34):
you saying that? Are you saying that I the Almighty
am unjust? And you know what he's saying after it?
Surely not. Now you would think, well, he just said
he regretted over speaking. But he regretted it, we didn't
repent of it, and so God is going to continue. Nine.
(20:57):
Have you an arm like God? And can you thunder?
With a voice like his? Talking to himself in third person?
Talking about himself a third person? And you know what
this really is. He is just saying to Job, do
you compare to me? Are you as strong as I am?
Is your voice like thunder? These are all these rhetorical
(21:22):
questions that God loves to do. Of course, we know
the answer, and then we get into ten. Now this
is interesting. Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity, clothe yourself
with glory and splendor. Now what God's about to start
here in verse ten is He's going to start four
things that human beings might do to bring some sort
(21:46):
of glory to themselves, only to come to the conclusion
that only God does this effectively. You may try down there.
You think you're a big deal. You think you can
elevate yourself with adorning yourself with majesty and dignity and
clothe yourself with glory and splendor. You try to make
(22:07):
a big deal out of yourself. But it's pathetic to
me because you're trying to be me. And when you
do this, it's silly on what you're attempting to do
as a human. Only I do these things efficiently. Only
I do them effectively. Only I truly can adorn myself
(22:28):
with majesty. Only I can adorn myself with dignity. Only
I clothe myself with glory and splendor. All of you
kings and people that put all this stuff on, I'm
laughing at that. You ever see some of the stuff
that royals do the sovereign What a statement? Wow, putting
(22:50):
on the crowns and all this stuff, and God's like
y'are trying so hard to do what only I can do?
And so he goes, can you really just adopt glory
and splendor? No Verse eleven? Pour out the overflowings of
your anger and look on everyone who is proud in
(23:13):
the basin? Can you do that? Job? Can you? Can
you hand down the type of wrath that I do?
Can can you humble the proud? Joe twelve? Look on
everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread
down the wicked where they stand. So that's a direct
quote against Joe because he's saying, so you say that
(23:36):
I let the wicked go unpunished. I heard you say it.
And should should you be in charge of that? Sho?
Should I let you handle that? Do you want to
start deciding what should happen to this person and what
should happen to that person? You want to make the
call on that job? Because I heard you say that
I just let the wicked go unpunished. You find all
(23:57):
the proud and can can you declare correctly job? Who's
truly wicked? And who's truly good and decide who should
be punished. When can you really do all that? Because
what we do And I just had a conversation about
somebody a minute with somebody a minute ago. And it's
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one of the things that I think God is working
out in me at this stage of my life, and
that is I'm getting to the point now and he's
really accomplishing this. I just don't need to be vindicated
to people. You know, I know what the truth is,
(24:44):
and this desire that, oh my goodness, I must be vindicated.
I must be vindicated. I must be vindicated. And so
what he is saying is job. I mean, you don't
really have any idea what I'm doing. This person may
it may look like they're not being punished, but in
(25:08):
the end, I will punish them if they don't repent.
And over here you may think this person's great, but
I see their heart. They're really not good at all.
And I know that. So why don't you just trust
that I know what I'm doing and stop making these
proclamations that I'm not doing it right. And you know,
(25:28):
I remember my dad saying this. He said, I always
thought it was an exaggeration when I heard people say that,
you know, when we all stand before God, you know
this and that and he goes. But the more I
get to know people, I really do think that some
of these idiots, if they can get it out of
(25:50):
their mouth, I don't think we can. But I think
they would tell God he didn't know what he was doing.
I think they would say, you didn't do it right.
And now because remember we talk about you remember and
I forget what study was on what study was it
on that we unpacked the gnashing of teeth? And then uh,
and we talked about all the things in hell and
(26:11):
the anguish and all this and and and you know that.
And what that is is that Jesus was saying, in hell,
they will be some people that will be They'll be
an anguish, they'll be crying, they'll be mourning the fact
that they rejected Jesus. But but yeah, but the grinding
of the teeth, Yeah, that was it. The grinding of
the teeth. That's not them, those that grind their teeth.
(26:34):
They're furious that God had the audacity to send them
to hell, and they're still claiming that they didn't deserve it.
So so anyway, so he's he's trying to clarify this
with Job. By the way, everybody in the sound of
my voice, including the teacher, we all deserve to go
(26:56):
to hell. The remarkable thing is that if we've been redeemed,
we're not gonna get what we deserve, but we all
deserve it. So when compared to God, which by the way,
Job is gonna get there before we're done. I hate
to give away the ending thirteen. Hide them all in
(27:18):
dust together, bind their faces in the world below. There's
the big one. So let me ask you, Job, are
you ready to bury them? And then here's the thing.
When they're buried, Job, here's what I do. I don't
just bury people, y'all. Let y'all do that. I do
something bigger. I decide their eternity. You're gonna take charge
(27:38):
of that because that's what I do. I decide their attornity.
And I don't think you can do that. Fourteen. Then
I will also acknowledge to you that you that your
on right hand can save you. I'm gonna let I'm
(28:00):
gonna let you, okay, Job, I'm gonna turn it over
to you. Have you ever? Have you ever? Just sometimes
when somebody thinks what you do is easy, and you
just say, let me toss you the keys for a
day or two and see how it goes. And what
and what and what God is saying right there is?
Will't we just make you lord and savior? Let you
handle it? Do you do you think you can handle
(28:23):
doing what I'm doing? Why do I tell you what? Joe,
Let's start with the first one. Let me tell you
why you can't be Lord and savior. Joe, you can't
even save yourself. You think you can save the world.
You can't even save yourself. Because remember Jesus made it
real clear when he was going to the Cross that
(28:43):
a lot of things about him were unique. And what
was the most unique. Nobody takes my life from me.
If I didn't want them to have it, they couldn't
have it. I am in charge. I'm in charge all
the way to the cross. There's never a time to
the Cross that I wasn't in control. I lay down
my life and what and I'll raise it up again.
(29:05):
Not only have I got to submit to an earthly death,
I have the ability to raise myself from the grave. Joe,
can you do that? Because Joe again is feeling a
little rough right now. And then God he turns and
here we go. So God now will turn and he says,
(29:27):
I'd like to go back to show you some things
that I did, and I got a biggie for you.
And then he says, to Job, behold Beamuth. So we've
got either Benmouth or Behemoth. I say behemoth, but I
heard it pronounced both ways as I look. So behemoth
(29:50):
really really starts a lot of conversations and commentaries, as
you can imagine. So first of all, let's just start
with the first two words. Is God saying behold behemoth?
Because this is important and I don't know the answer, sorry,
but we can speculate as long as week knowledge. We're speculating.
(30:10):
Is he saying behold Job Behemoth because he's seen it before,
or is he saying behold Behemoth something Job had never seen.
That's the question. Because I got to tell you, I
do not believe that the theory of Behemoth being a
(30:31):
hippo and Behemoth being an elephant stands up. It's got
some problems and we'll get to them. Those two theories
have got some real problems. So we do know the
archaeological record, the fossil record, seems to indicate that at
(30:51):
one time on this earth, whenever that was, there were
some really large creatures that walked around. Now, the word
dinosaur didn't come along on till much later. That's what
we call them now. So if you think about and again,
I understand that some of these fossils we have are
incomplete and we've kind of filled in some blanks. Crushed
(31:14):
me because it's a little boy. I love playing with dinosaurs,
and when I found out that really some of these
are speculation that they look this way, it killed me.
But because some of the fossil records are just incomplete,
so we're filling in some blanks here. But we do
know they were big because the bones are big and
all that. So it's this creature commentaries say, hippo elephant
(31:41):
dinosaur or is it a mythical creature that was not
even a real creature? Those are the those are the
theories that are out there. So let's uh, let's let's
have some fun with this. So let's take a look
at the creature. Behold behemoth, which I made as you
and I created human beings. But look over here, I
(32:02):
created this too. Now we've already heard some of this
in God's resume about animals, but I won't say. He's
saying that Behemoth was a really big deal. So he
eats grass like an ox. Now what he's saying, there,
take a look at this creation? Job? Does Job look
at that and his time period and go, oh, yeah,
I've seen one of those. Or is he's seeing something
(32:26):
God is showing him from a time that Job didn't
know about. But yet God did create this, Job just
never seen one. So anyway, it says, I made this
just like you, but it eats grass like an ox.
Now that tells me in my own opinion, and others
agree that he hasn't seen it before because things are
having to be explained to him about it. And he's saying,
(32:48):
this is something that I made, just like everything else
I made. And it's almost like Job would be surprised
to hear that it eats grass, because when he looks
at it, he's like, man, this thing and he's like,
by the way, this eats grass like an ox, almost
like Job be going, really, I thought this thing was
about to devour everything in its sight. So he tells
(33:10):
him that he wants him to know that, and then
he's wanting him to notice the strength of this creature. Sixteen. Behold,
his strength is in his loins and his power in
the muscles of his belly. So you're starting to kind
of get a vision here, and so just look job
(33:30):
at its strength. And he's gonna talk more about his strength,
but he's starting this Seventeen. Here's where hippo and elephant
have a real problem. And some people just double down
on this like it's hippo or elephant. But you have
to ignore this verse. This is this is problematic. I've
seen an elephant. I've seen an elephant in the wild.
(33:52):
I've seen a female elephant charged the jeep I was
in to scare us away from her baby. And you
know what, I said to the god, it's working. You
ever seen that's a big creature. And mama was knocking
down trees like they were twigs, you know, making dust,
throwing them ears around, and she wanted us to leave,
(34:13):
and I suggested to the god, I'd like to see
us go, and uh, she don't want us around here.
So I've seen a hippo too, which, by the way,
the most dangerous animal I've ever been around, kills more
humans than anything else in in Africa. Okay, So, but
I've got a problem with this because I've seen both
of them. Even if you haven't seen them live, you
(34:34):
probably have seen them, you know, in on documentaries. He
makes his tail stiff like a cedar, a cedar. You
ever seen an elephant's tail or hippo any very big
at all? It's tiny and and and that and and
and and it says. The sinews of his thighs are
(34:56):
knit together, his bones are too, ubes of bronze, his
limbs like bars of iron. Now I understand, hang with me,
because some of you are saying, well, Rick, what if
it was a small tail, but he could make it
just really really hard, stick it out. Hang on, that's
still got a problem coming. Okay, So this is this
(35:18):
feeling a little more like a serapod than it is
a hippo or an elephant. That's your bronizsauruss, your different sources.
And so he's got massive strength. In eighteen he is
you know, he's mighty. Okay, his bones or tubes of bronze,
(35:40):
his limbs like bars of iron. Now catch this. Nineteen
he is the first of the works of God. Let
who made him bring near his sword. Now don't get
this in a chronological deal, because that's not what the
Hebrew is here. He's not saying this is one of
the first things I ever created. He's not saying that.
What he's saying is it's it's the mightiest thing I
(36:03):
ever created. It is the mightiest of the things I've created.
It is gargantuan, It is powerful, and it is impressive.
It is it is like, you know, it'd be one
of those things where you kind of bring everybody out here,
come all my animals, here's the things I created, and
you kind of save behemoth and you go. And now
now now here comes the headliner. Okay, that's what he
(36:25):
means by this. He's really looking at job, going, how
about that look I created This is like I created you,
and so it's among the mighty works of God. This
is not chronological. Now we get a little poetic here
in twenty for the mountains yield food for him, where
(36:45):
all the wild beast play. It's just it's just a
way to say that he feeds on the grassy hills
as well, and it needs a lot of room because
this is where the other animals run and frolic, and
he will eat that twenty one under the lotus plants.
He lies in the shelter of the reeds and in
(37:07):
the marsh, really feeling kind of Bronosaurus light. The lotus
is a shrub, and the swamps and the marshes twenty
two for his shade. The lotus trees cover him. The
willows of the brook surround him. So this is bringing
populars in. This is near the rivers there in the
(37:29):
Middle East. This is all things that Job would have
been familiar with. And then let's look at this and
again we're gonna have some issues here because it says, behold,
if the river is turbulent, he is not frightened. He
is confident. Though the Jordan rushes against his mouth. He
(37:55):
saying he's so big and he is so powerful that
the moving currents of a river are nothing to him.
He's needed. It's like a flies. I mean, it can't
even move him. There's nothing there. So the Jordan here,
they think maybe a generic term here in the Hebrew
(38:20):
that they refer to that as just really a river,
because most people believe, based on the other things here,
that this creature was was was in the Nile River,
not the Jordan River. But again that's that's speculation. And
then he gets to the end and he says, can
one take him by his eyes or pierce his nose
(38:44):
with a snare? Joe, let me look, now that you've
checked out checked out, old big fellow, here, I'm gonna
ask you something. You think you can bring this thing in?
You think why it's looking at you, it can see you.
You think you could just approach it and put a
ring through its nose and lead it around like you
would do livestock on a farm. Of course, Joe knows
he can't do it. So if this creature it's not
(39:11):
a hippo, and it's not an elephant, and frankly, I
just don't think it is. It doesn't seem to. It's
got a few similarities. But I think the tail is
an issue. The sheer size of it is an issue.
Elephants will go in and bathe in water, but they
don't live in water. The hippo does. But now the
hippo has got a real tidy tail. I actually tend
(39:36):
to believe that this is a dinosaur, what we call
a dinosaur when we're dinosaurs here. I don't know the
answer to that. There's a number of theories. But I
do think that that Job, and we got another one
next week, that is some sort of sea creature. So
(39:56):
when did this happen? Is God showing Job something from
the past that he created? Is it something that Job
solved during his day. I think the latter has some
problems because it's almost like Job is seeing this for
the first time, even though he had seen a horse,
and a horse was also described in great detail like this.
(40:20):
So what do we do as people who believe that
the Bible is the there's no error in the Word
of God, what do we do with dinosaurs? I think
we have one here and we probably have another one
next week too, that He's added to all the things
he created. You know, there's a number of theories about that,
(40:43):
and I know some of this I'll get a huge
pushback on, especially from my friends at Answers and Genesis,
who I have great respect for. I don't necessarily agree that,
and I've heard the explanation and I still don't. I
don't know how old Earth is. I have no idea.
I'd be real careful tying the age of the Earth
(41:05):
to the existence of God and the Gospel being true
or not. There's some people who do answers and Genesis,
they do. They believe it's young Earth, young Earth only,
and if it's not young Earth, that we've got some
kind of biblical problem. Six thousand years or so. I
don't necessarily agree with that because I think we're trying
to put God in a box on how old the
(41:28):
Earth is. Because I think where we're getting the young Earth,
and I'm not saying I'm not young Earth, I don't
know the answer. I think you've got to be careful
with how old, how long the earth has been here,
and how long humans have been here. I think that's
where the rub is. I think that's where the tension is.
(41:48):
If you want to say human beings have been around
for about six thousand years, I think that's a good run. Now,
do I believe that the way we date things and
fossils is accurate? I don't. Carbon dating has got all
kinds of flaws in it. But carbon dating, as I
remember Bubba trying to help me to understand this. You know,
(42:10):
he's brilliant when it comes to science and everything, and
he said, Rick, this would be like you saying you're
going to measure the distance from Birmingham, Alabama, to Atlanta, Georgia,
and you take out a ruler and you just keep
flipping it on its end all the way from Birmingham
all the way to Atlanta. To say that's the distance.
There'd be a lot of error in that. And uh,
(42:31):
so which I thought was a great analogy at least
when I could understand. And so, is it possible, I'm
not saying that this is it. Is it possible that
dinosaurs were part of creation before human beings, that the
earth without form has been around for a long long time.
(42:55):
We do know that when creation starts in Genesis, something's
already been here, you know, And we don't know that that.
We don't know the distance of years between Genesis one
and Genesis two, the first two verses we didn't We
don't know how long that is. And we know that
it was, you know, without form. We know that darkness
(43:16):
was over the water. Uh. And then God starts to
let there be light and here we go. So there's
even a theory that uh, the Noah flood because that's
where sometimes dinosaurs have an issue, uh, and its answers
in Genesis tries to solve that by saying that dinosaurs
were here and they were put on the arc as
(43:39):
babies juveniles, so you wouldn't need, you know, the size
to put a behemoth on it. That would be a
full grown dinosaur. I think where we got a little
bit of problem with that is if you know animals,
they grow pretty fast, uh and uh. And we're floating
around a good while there with juvenile dinosaurs in there,
(44:01):
they could get a lot bigger, a lot quicker. And
I'm not saying that's not right. I'm not I'm just
I'm just saying I tend to believe that the reason
why we have disagreements with the age of the Earth
is that we're trying to make the dinosaur fossil record
fit the human record, and I'm not sure they fit.
(44:23):
I tend to think that God is showing job something
that he has never seen, but he is acknowledging that
I did create dinosaurs and they were here. But were
they here when humans were here? I don't think we
know the answer to that, And I think we tend
to pick one of the others so we can justify
(44:44):
how oh we think the Earth is. So in my opinion,
Old Earth and New Earth are no indicator of God's existence,
and the and the reliability of scripture. Some people do.
And I'm sure they're emailing me next week and I
look forward to that. Uh but but but so here's
(45:07):
what I think I'm I'm real confident with. I'm very
confident that God is showing him in my opinion, and
that's all. It is. A dinosaur, not a hippo, not
an elephant. I don't think they'll stand up mythical creature.
I don't think that stands up either. But I will
(45:30):
tell you this. When I stand before God and he
go and he says to me, hey, birds, and not
shot at the bohemoth. You missed it badly. Uh you know.
And and that's okay. I mean, it's not gonna change
my situation with God. Uh. What he's, what he's, What
this is isn't the point as much as it's it's it's
it's God trying to get Job to the place that
(45:52):
he does get him by showing the distance between a
pitiful human being the creed in the Creator. He's really saying, Job,
I've even created things that would stomp you. I mean,
you have you have no right to question me. I
am all knowing. I have always been and you have not.
(46:16):
And so then you have to get to the point
where you're saying, so God is in control the whole way.
Yes he is. And God has taken a man that
is blameless and upright, and he has caused him and
allowed both. That's another thing we got to come off of. Okay,
(46:40):
And you've heard me preach this before and teach it.
Some of y'all knew you. We've got to come off
this afraid to say caused. God absolutely causes calamity. And
then there's times he allows calamity. But to say aloud
and never never, can't quite you two squeamish to say caused.
Don't make me go back to I can flip over
(47:01):
to Samuel right now and show you real quick. And
I've had to do this with even friends before. The
baby that died, the first one conceived in adultery with
David and Bethsheba. It says that God killed the baby.
It didn't say he allowed the baby to die. Didn't
(47:23):
say allowed the devil to kill the baby. It says
that he made the baby sick, so he caused it. Okay,
So that and whatever he does is right. David also says,
even though that happened, what when they told him the
baby was dead, that he didn't grieve anymore. He put
his clothes on, after he got a bath, he started
(47:45):
eating again. And when they said, why are you why
is this reaction? You haven't eaten, you haven't bathed, you
haven't done anything, he said, Well, I was praying for
the baby to be saved, he said, But the Lord
has spoken and I will go to the baby. But
the baby's not coming back to me means what? And
you're going to see at the end with job, God
does the very same thing. I can't wait to show
(48:05):
it to you if you've never seen it involving his children.
But see, we tend to think and I've been through it,
and the death of a child is stay with you
the rest of your life. There's no getting rid of it.
And you'll have times that you're managing it. You'll have
(48:25):
time that you're completely good with it, and you'll have
times that it comes back and it's beating you down again. Okay,
it just doesn't ever go away. But the beauty of it,
it's like for those of you that have done the military,
or you're someone who tries to do these kind of
workouts where you can say I'm going to go for
a run, and that's beneficial. But then you put on
(48:46):
the weighted vest and put a little weight on you,
and then the runs even more beneficial because you're caring
a little more weight. It produces steadfastness, It refines us,
it grows us. But what I think we say is, well,
I'm upset about this because I don't have my child,
(49:08):
whatever person, I don't have them here with me. And
what we need to understand is to get to the
point that God is teaching us. Do you think that
child with you and the falling creation is better than
it being with me. If you're redeemed, you're going to
(49:31):
come spend eternity with this child. And I have decided
Psalm's thirty nine thirteen through sixteen that these are the
number of the days. Just like with David and Bathsheba,
he said, this child is not going to live very
long at all. Solomon is coming and I'll do great
(49:54):
things through Solomon, both from the same couple. But he's teaching,
and what he's doing is right. Because the children that
either die before they're able to know they're left end
from the right, or they were old enough to make
a decision and are redeemed. They're in eternity with a
(50:15):
perfect father, in perfection, and if you're redeemed, one day
you will go to them, even though they're not coming
back to you here. And what God is saying is,
how dare you question me on that there's gonna be
a day you're going to be standing here and you're
gonna be reunited with that child, and you're going to
be in perfection. You're going to spend eternity with that child,
(50:35):
and you're going to look at me and think, why
was I so concerned about this? This is far better
than even when I had them with me, because they
were sick all the time they were they had the
heart broken, they were disappointed. There were a lot of
bad things that happened to them while they were on earth.
And now that hurt is gone and they are glorified
(50:56):
and they are perfect and they don't sweat the things
that we all sweat every day, and one day we'll
be with them and so and so God is just
almost saying, could y'all just be patient and trust that
I'm working this out. Could you just stop questioning me
(51:19):
and stop thinking that I'm not handling this right and
stop thinking you can correct me, and that you had
a better way this could be done. And how about this.
I want you to stop thinking I'm being too hard
on Joe, and I want you to stop thinking I'm
being too hard on you, because I know why I suffer.
(51:41):
This is a bit of an analogy that's a little
shallow for how important this is. But if you've ever
been in a position to where you were an authority
over people, or you've ever been say a coach of
some kind, or you could be a boss or whatever,
there's certain people that thrive on their own. They got
(52:05):
great discipline, they got great self control, and you don't
have to ride them. But then there's people like me.
You got to ride that one, and if you ride him,
you'll see great things. But if you leave him alone
and let him relax and let him get too comfortable,
(52:31):
prone to wonder. So you got to stay on that one.
And I'm sitting here at sixty one right now, and
God is saying, surely you didn't think we were done.
Surely you don't think that you've reached what I want.
You don't think you've arrived to you. I don't know
(52:51):
how much song I want to live. I have no idea,
but God does. And for some reason, I guess I'm
gonna live a little longer than I thought because He's
taking the time to refine me even more and say
I want This is what I'm learning through the difficulty
I'm in right now. I'm learning that God is saying,
(53:12):
don't withhold anything from me. Let's let there better not
be any part of you that I can't examine and
refine and change. And I remember when we studied and
I'm working on a message about this. I guess I
shouldn't give that away. But it doesn't matter. It'll work
the time you get to see it. And I haven't
(53:33):
been able to get it out of my mind. And
it was when we did the study on the Revelation,
the seven Churches, the church at Ephesus. I think, I
think that's me is you did this well. You've done
this well. I like how you did that. Man that
looks good Man church is thriving, Wednesday, Bible study going good.
(53:55):
Appreciate what you're doing at the local church. Hey, I
like that conversation you have with so and so. I
kind of like how you handle this and whatever, like
this and and but but I'd like to talk to
you about something. I got this against you, This one
thing we got to correct. Are these things we need
to correct? I still have this against you, and so
he's gonna correct it, and he's gonna say, I need
(54:19):
this cleaned up a little bit right here, because I
now we've got it. We've done a lot. But until
I clean this up and toward I take you another step,
to I push you a little more, until I put
my thumb on you just a little more, you're not
gonna get there. And the only way you're gonna get
there is if I let you suffer a little more
(54:40):
and trust me. Because what is the saying first Peter
one six and seven. We said it a thousand times,
and this you rejoice though now for a little while.
And the key is these two words, if necessary. You've
been grieved by various trials. God looked at Job's life,
he might have looked at yours, and he's looked at
mine and says, I deem this necessary. I deem it
(55:04):
necessary for me to be able to This is how
I'm going to create this in you. As Paul said
about the thorn in his flesh and the demon who
kept harassing him, saying, you keep asking God to take
this away from you and he won't do it. What
do you think about God now? And Paul says, to
that demon that is harassing him about God not answering
(55:24):
his prayer the way he wanted. He said, I've asked
him three times he has not done it, and he
doesn't say and I don't know why. Oh, what's wrong God,
You're being unreasonable, he said. He's doing it to keep
me from being conceited. I can't handle not having the
thorn and he knows it, so he leaves it because
it's for my own good. I wonder if we can
(55:49):
look at difficulty that way. Let's pray. Lord, thank you
for today, thank you for this message. Thank You for
the do sometimes different parts, but also seeing even your
sense of humor as you talk to Job, even as
you remind us that the more that we know about you,
(56:12):
there's many conclusions we can come to. You're wonderful, your holy,
you are awesome. But another thing that we come to
the conclusion of every time is that you are God
and we are not. Thank you for the mercy and
the grace that you've shown us, but we are in
all of you, and we worship you because you and
(56:35):
only you are worthy of our adoration and our worship.
We fear you, and we also hear your resume, and
we cower at the thought of thinking that we should
(56:55):
correct you. In your holy name, we pray Amen. Thank you, Gods,
you have a great thanksgiving
Host
Rick Burgess
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