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August 3, 2025 24 mins

The Bread of the Word Podcast is a quiet and reverent space for Christians who long to meditate deeply on God’s Word. Hosted by Tyler Noe—the Lo-Fi Theologian—each episode offers calm, thoughtful reflections rooted in the Reformed tradition, with a high view of Scripture, the sufficiency of Christ, and the ordinary means of grace. Set against a backdrop of reverent stillness, this podcast invites listeners to slow down, embrace theological depth, and find nourishment in the Bread of Life. https://botw44.podbean.com/

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(00:18):
Welcome to Bread of the Word,
a space for quiet minds and anchor hearts
to dwell on the glory of Christ.
Let's ponder the verities of God together
and meditate on the mysteries we do not yet understand.
Looking back to our Redeemer
that we might walk forward in disgrace

(00:48):
hello and welcome back to Bread of the Word.
I am Tyler, your, Lophy Theologian
this is a space for contemplative Protestant theology
rooted in Scripture and
grounded in the glory of Christ.
We are continuing our trek through the Book of Job
and we are going to be starting chapter 31. Today
we are we are in the tail end of the Book of Joe, we are

(01:10):
within 11 chapters of being done,
lord who willing will be done with Joe this year.
It's definitely been a trek
it's been honestly a long series I've ever done.
This was
preceded by Song of Solomon so
this is
this is different.
This is long, but chapter 31
read the first 4 verses

(01:32):
says I made a covenant with mine eyes
why then should I think upon a maid?
For what portion of God is there from above
and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high
is not destruction to the wicked
and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity
doth not He see my ways and count all my steps
and so we're kind of moving in a different direction

(01:54):
again, this is, still part of job's kind.
Of final remarks, once we finish this chapter
Job is done talking
until God speaks in the whirlwind,
so this is kind of his
closing remarks in dealing with the
foolishness of his friends and dealing with their
lack of wisdom concerning his
suffering and his situation

(02:16):
but we seem to be
kind of turning the corner and hitting harder on
Sin and his
alleged sinfulness that has warranted his sufferings
that's been the thing since chapter 3.
I think it was when when they showed up
was once they start making accusations
it was you did something to deserve this

(02:39):
and Job has defended himself time and time again
with deep, intense Hebrew poetry
that is hard to interpret hard to dissect and hard to
read. Sometimes this is
if we get to job, often, times in those
Bible on the year plans,
what do we do
we read the first 2 chapters and the last 2 chapters

(03:02):
job is job isn't
but here he deals specifically with
his
sinlessness, that he is not necessarily
without sin the entire of his life,
but that in this
specific situation that Job is innocent
that he is blameless, which is what God Himself said

(03:23):
about Job at the beginning of the book
right? If we go back to Job 1
verse one,
there was a man in the land of us whose name was Job,
and that man was perfect and upright,
one that feared God in a shoot evil
and. Then we get down to
the words of God Himself
in verse 8 when he speaking to Satan and he says

(03:46):
Hast thou consider my servant Jobe
that there is none like him in the earth
a perfect and upright man?
One that fears God and issue with evil
this is
something that God repeats.
This is something we're supposed to
be mindful of.
That job is
in some sense is perfect and upright, that he, is

(04:06):
innocent and he is blameless.
And so we get here and he's talking about
his relationship to sin
and that's kind of
the jumping off point that we have
and so in chapter 31 he opens with I made a covenant
with mine eyes
why then should I think upon a mate?

(04:27):
Oftentimes in the modern context, we look at that text
we look at that verse
and we automatically go to pornography,
and I think that is a viable
application of the text
a matter of fact
this is one of
the instances in the Old Testament
where you can make a case against that
from pre Christ before the Sermon on the Mount,

(04:50):
because what the Sermon on the Mount does is
it applies to law
to the heart is
it applies the law to desires and thoughts and desires
right?
So it's not just actions,
which is how a lot of the Jews in
the earthly ministry of Christ
thought about the Law was that it was all deeds it
was all actions but there, was no, thought

(05:12):
there was no heart
there was no feelings that
dealt with that at all
I've actually heard on the radio for a popular
speaker who is not a Christian who is very much
considered a Jew
has outright said that
the Old Testament law does not forbid pornography,

(05:34):
and this verse
on one hand rans him against that very well,
but this is
a text that causes us to think
about sin in a particular way,
because he
prefaces that statement about thinking upon a maid
with I made a covenant with my eyes
and this is actually

(05:56):
chronologically speaking,
job is the first Old Testament book to be written,

(01:00:00):
and this is the first instance we have
of the word covenant
in the Bible.
Now there are covenants that precede this
because we've got god's dealings
with Adams in the garden,
but as far as seeing the word covenant,
this is I believe,
the first instance of that happening
and it is in reference to

(01:00:22):
Job maintaining purity in the eyes of God.
It is a covenant to be pure, to walk in god's ways
and specifically regarding his eyes
that he is not to behold things that are
sinful,
and that is the preface that he gives before he starts

(01:00:46):
expounding upon
where he has not sin
where he has not gone astray is he starts with the eyes
and that is, that's very New Testament.
Honestly, that is very.
New Testament consistent.
Well,
we go to Matthew 5.

(01:01:07):
We look at the Sermon on the Mount.
We see
some similar ideas
right, but just starting off with the B attitudes
as blessed are the poor spirit
for theirs is the King of heaven
blessed are they that mourned for they
shall be comforted,
blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth

(01:01:28):
blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness
these aren't just deeds,
these are dispositions of the heart
blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy
blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see
God
now. Put that in dialogue with what we just read in Job

(01:01:50):
I have made a covenant with mine eyes
why should I think upon a maid in the context of
by maintaining
he is cognizant of God at work in his life
he sees God at work
when his heart is pure.

(01:02:12):
He proberts 4.
23 and some
there's so much
Old Testament that we could go to corroborate that
but Proverb 423 says guard your heart above all else
why for your life
flows from it
and there's varying ways that's been translated
that all essentially mean the same thing
that it determines the course of your life,

(01:02:32):
and Jesus very much is consistent with that and
gives very practical examples of that
when He deals with
the law in the Sermon on the MT verse 27 of chapter 5,
He says Ye have.
Heard it said of them of old
thou shalt not commit adultery
but I say unto you

(01:02:54):
that whatsoever
I'm sorry that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust
after her half committed adultery with her already
in his heart
and so he takes the law.
It's not just about the deed that we call adultery
because it starts in the heart it starts on the inside

(01:03:18):
and works its way
out
when Adam and Eve
ate the fruit in the garden.
The sin didn't begin when the
fruit the sin began with the pride with
the desire to acquire wisdom apart from God

(01:03:39):
and that manifested in the eating of the fruit
the fruit was an outward demonstration of what was in
adam's heart,
and when we see this
in Job,
but this is
the outworking that
since starts on the inside
and works its way to the faculties
it goes outward

(01:04:00):
it is a process of compromise
that
takes hold in phases.
Right? We look at Psalm 1,
blessed is the man who
needless 3 things
who walketh not in the council in the ungodly
nor standeth in the way of sinners

(01:04:21):
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful
there is a progression
in that list, and this is all technically one thing
because it goes blesses the man who
da da da da da and this says
but
and then it lets the antithesis
that this is what they call
and we can get deep into.

(01:04:42):
The poetry is actually not important
unnecessarily to this conversation
but
those are 3 different ways of illustrating one thing
which is the compromise that comes in with sin
that we go from
walking in the council, the ungodly To
standing in the way of sinners To sitting

(01:05:04):
in the seat at the scornful
from walking their council to congregating with them to
sitting at their table
all within a certain context
and the antithesis
of this says the Psalm
is what is but his delight
is on the law of the LORD, and this is what

(01:05:25):
God says in Psalm.
This is the kind of person
who is blessed is the one who delights in god's
law,
and on his law doth he meditate day
and night
and he shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water
that bringeth forth his fruit and his season
his leaf also shall not wither,

(01:05:45):
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
At Psalm 1.
I had a friend recently
described it to me that Psalm 1 is basically the B
attitudes of the Old Testament,
and there's a lot that we can
connect with the Sermon on the Mount from Psalm 1.

(02:00:01):
Even
just the B attitudes
blessed are the pure and heart for they shall see God
on Psalm 24
also says who shall ascend the hill of the LORD,
one with clean hands and a pure heart
but where does how does that sin how does that fester?

(02:00:22):
If we go to James one
go to James 1,
verse
15,
sorry verse 14,
but every man is tempted when he is drawn
away of his own lust and enticed.
Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin

(02:00:44):
and
it is finished bringeth forth death
so sin begins within our hearts and our wills
and it works its way out into our actions
that it goes from thoughts
to desires to feel all that's
kind of jumbled together
and it works its way out into our

(02:01:05):
deeds.
And so what Job invites us into
with this statement in chapter 31. Verse 1.
Is a view of our sin
that is in light of 2 things
1 if you of our sin in light of
it being an internal thing working its way out

(02:01:27):
but be that it is an outworking of covenant
that our view of sin is in light
of a covenant with God,
that there is a That there is a
there's a covenant that there' is.
There is a hard rot arrangement
between God and man that we are participating in

(02:01:48):
day by day
moment by moment decision by decision
and we could go
to the stereotypical Presbyterian
passages to look at covenant theology and all that
but I'm not going to
go that way
because in actuality I want to draw attention to

(02:02:09):
birth Corinthians chapter 11,
my
first Corinthians chapter 10,
but we
look at
to me,
we look at the Lord supper.
The cup of blessing
which we bless?
Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?

(02:02:29):
The bread which we break
is it not the communion of the Body of Christ
for we being many, are, one bred and, one body
for we are all partakers of that one bred?
Behold Israel after the flesh
are they not that which eat of the sacrifice
partakers of the altar
what say I then that the idol is anything

(02:02:50):
or that which is offered in sacrifice
idols is anything.
But I say. He says that the things
which the Gentile sacrifice they sacrifice to devils
and not to God.
I would not that you should have fellowship with devils
he says, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord
and the cup of devils
you cannot be partakers of the lord's table
and the table of devils

(02:03:10):
do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
Are we stronger than He says
all things are lawful for me,
but all things are not expedient
all things are lawful
but all things edify, not
so there's this
invitation he has to examination to thinking
soberly and carefully about these things about
where do we go?

(02:03:32):
What do we partake in?
What are our lines that we're not willing to cross
in pursuit of what is pleasing to God?
And if we skip ahead a little bit

(02:03:56):
to chapter 11,
verse 23 says for I received of the Lord
that which also I delivered unto.
You that the Lord Jesus,
the same knight in which he was betrayed, took bread
and when he had given thanks he break it and said take
eat. This is my body, which is broken for you
this due in remembrance of me

(02:04:18):
after the same manner
also
he took the cup
when he heads up saying this cup is the New Testament
in my blood
because covenants
involve
a sacrifice, involve
they involve something very serious that there are
there are signs of covenants,

(02:04:39):
and there is
very real ramifications when you enter into a covenant
he says, this cup is the New Testament in my blood.
This do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me
for as often as he eats his bread and drink this cup,
yidi show the lord's death until he come.
Whosoever shall
eat this bread and drink this cup to the LORD

(02:05:00):
unworthily
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the LORD.
But let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat of that bread and Drake of that cup,
for he that eath and draketh unworshily
eath and draketh damnation to himself
not discerning the lord's body
for this cause.
Many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep

(02:05:23):
for we would judge ourselves we should. Not be judged
but when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord
that we should not be condemned with the world
and
what am I doing? With the
invitation to
examine our hearts, to, examine where we are

(02:05:44):
in our walk with God,
not just the deeds, but what's in here
am I rightly discerning the body in the blood
as he says am I partaking of this unworthily
and that that is something that
God has given to us

(03:00:01):
where we're fed in a very tangible way
spiritually speaking
but there's' also
this notion that when we partake of the lord's Supper
that there is
examination that there is reflection there is
there is ample time to deal with God
and with our own hearts
in response to God.

(03:00:22):
And so Job says I made a covenant with my eyes
so then
I partake in what is pure
I set my eyes on what is good and what is pure,
what is holy what is pleasing to God,
so that whatsoever he does,
whether he eats or drinks it is to the glory of God.

(03:00:45):
This is for what portion of God is there from above
and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high
what is the inheritance for the people of God? It is
Christ. It is the riches of Christ.
I've heard it for years
that Grace the Unmerited Favor of God
poured out on us is an acronym

(03:01:08):
god's Riches at christ's Expense.
That is what is ours through the Death of Christ.
Through that covenantal death
is
the riches that are in Christ are also ours
Romans 8 tells us.
That we are co heirs with Christ,
that we are adopted sons.
We are adopted as sons with an inheritance

(03:01:32):
that we are co heirs
with the riches of Christ,
not in the sense that we become gods,
but in the sense that we will
dwell in the house of the Lord
that we shall see God,
and we will worship God in an environment where
the sins that now entrap us.
The sins that take our hearts away from God

(03:01:53):
will not coexist.
We will
worship God in an environment where sin does not
exist,
and so Job has taken a moment to ponder his own
capacity for sin to ponder if he is
in fact pure in the eyes of God,

(03:02:15):
and He
by extension invites us encourages us to do likewise.
He says, is not destruction to the wicked
in a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity
that says in Psalm chapter 6
that the Lord hates all who work iniquity.
Jesus himself in the New Testament says depart for me

(03:02:39):
I never knew you
workers of iniquity
and the ending of some of someone
says that the way of godly men unto the LORD is known,
whereas the way of wicked men shall quite be overthrown

(03:03:03):
there is there's no
seat at the table
for that.
Verse 4 doth not he see my ways and count all my steps
someone 30 says
that if
he was to

(03:03:24):
record our sins who should stand
lord, who?
Should stand if Thou, O Lord, should Mark iniquity
but yet with the forgiveness is that feared
Thou mayest be
so. There is an

(03:03:45):
there's been a transition from
the inner desires for sin
to the punishment for sin
to the fact that God knows all
that's been the progression in this' text' here
that God knows all
psalm 139
says that if I ascend into heaven thou art there
and if I make my bed down in hell, behold thou art there

(03:04:07):
if I take on myself the wings of the morning
or if I make my dwelling place
among the depths of the sea
even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand
shall hold me.
There is nowhere we can go
that God is not already there
there is no where we can go, where we can find
solace from His presence.
As much as we sin

(03:04:28):
there is no where we can go that God is not there
there is no fleeing the presence of God
in the proper sense.
Now does God withhold some of his goodness
and some of his mercy
and cause things to sting a little bit?
What? We are sinning? Absolutely
I think that's what happened with Jonah
before the fish

(03:04:48):
but the reality is that God does not fully leave
His people.
There may be times where we feel His presence
less.
Maybe that's because' of sin
maybe that's because' of the trial
whatever the case may. Be, but God is here
none the less.
And so if God knows all my sins

(03:05:11):
and he he hates it,
where do we go? What do we do
we're told in First John that if we' confess our sins
he is faithful
and he is just
to forgive. Why? Because that was? Paid for
to the death of Christ that he

(03:05:32):
as it says in First Peter
chapter 2, he bore our sins in his body
why that we might die to sin
and live
into righteousness?
That
is ours,
so that the pure and heart shall see God because our

(03:05:53):
hearts have been made pure
by the merits of Christ
that my heart will never be pure enough for God.

(04:00:03):
Job may have gotten close,
but even compared to the radiant glory of God,
blameless Job would still have fallen short
and yet
we have been caused to stand
in the heavenly places that we have been
grafted into the family of God,

(04:00:24):
not by our own merit,
not by our own righteousness not by our own deeds,
but by them
the worth of Christ.
By the righteousness of Christ
we are called pure.
So some one or 3

(04:00:48):
says
the Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always shide
neither will he keep his anger forever.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins
nor rewarded us according to our iniquities

(04:01:12):
for as high for us the heaven is high above the earth
so great is His mercy towards them that fear Him
as far as the east is from the west.
So far had he removed our transgressions from us
like as a father piteous his children,

(04:01:32):
so the Lord piteous them that fear him
for he knoweth our frame he rememberth that we are. Dust.
As for man, his days are as grass as a flower
the field so he flourisheth
for the wind passeth over it and it is gone
and the place thereof shall know it no more.

(04:01:55):
God has taken our sins and he's taken them from us
as far as the east is from the west
have we been separated from our sins
that left us condemned?
What does that mean?
I don't know,
but it's far it's far away
it can't be found.

(04:02:17):
It's not that God has forgotten,
it's been paid for,
and God of all people knows what
we are, knows who we are,
and yet he did it
anyway
that God saw fit for us to be brought near to Him

(04:02:43):
though we are,
we are as grass as a flower.
The field that the wind passes over and is gone
is but the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting
to everlasting
upon them that fear Him
and His righteousness unto children's children'
to such as keep His covenant into those
that remember His commandments
to do them

(04:03:03):
the LORD has prepared His throne in the heavens
and His kingdom rules overall
bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength
that do his commandments,
hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Bless the Lord, all he his hosts
he ministers of his that do his pleasure.
Bless the Lord.

(04:03:24):
All his works in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord.
O
my
soul!
We may not have the standing that Job
expounds on
that he is
blameless and upright,

(04:03:46):
one who feareth God and issueth evil
we may not meet that
let alone the purchase, perfect righteousness
that is in Christ.
And
yet
God has done all the work to bring us into His presence,

(04:04:07):
to bring us
into His fold.
We are His,
and so what is left is to confess our sins
to a good and gracious God, to a merciful God,
whose
mercy is higher than
the heavens are above, the earth

(04:04:28):
to the God who spreads out our sins as far away
as the East is from the West,
who has more love and more pity upon his children
than an earthly father.
The peer to Richard Sibs said
there is more mercy in Christ than there is sin in you
and we can cling to that

(04:04:49):
we can hold on to that
that God is a good
and gracious
God,
that He is slow to anger
he is quick to forgive,
he is quick to show mercy
on those who ask,
and he has done that
since the days. Of old

(04:05:10):
and he will continue to do so
because our God
is a good God
and so my exhortation, my closing encouragement is to
get in the presence of this God,
confess your sins
pray the Psalms,
dwell in the silence with God

(04:05:33):
knowing that He has done all the work necessary
to bring you
to Himself.
You cause you to stand in His presence
not by your own merits, but by the merits, of Christ.
The Son.
Go dwell
in his presence.

(04:05:53):
Look ahead to the coming days
and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever
in an environment where those sins don't exist

(05:00:02):
we will worship Him as He is
without pride, without agendas, without
distractions.
We will just simply be

(05:00:25):
thank you for joining me today
on the Bread of the Word podcast.
I pray that the words we've shared
have nourished your soul
and helped you grow in your face.
If you found this episode helpful
consider sharing it with a friend
and
subscribe for more conversations on the Word of God
and the journey of faith
until next time I am Tyler, your, Lophi
theologian.
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