I think John Piper makes a very good point that the way to distinguish truth from error in chapters 3-31 is to read these chapters in the light of chapters 1-2 and 32-42, where God is correctly understood.
If you become acquainted with the other books of wisdom, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Solomon, you can discern the kind of wisdom being used by Job and his friends. There are things said by his friends that may be truthful by a mere basis of factual statement. But they speak foolishly in so much as their accusations are irrelevant to Job’s situation “words without understanding”. The purpose of prologue is to demonstrate Jobs blamelessness as we come to meditate on the advice his friends give to counsel him. So as the reader, the author of Job is making us exercise our own wisdom in discerning “good” wisdom, from “bad” wisdom as is being displayed by Jobs friends trying to counsel him. When we come to the realization of the limits of our own understanding, we have gain much wisdom, especially when trying to counsel a suffering friend. As Job confesses in the later part of the book, but which ALL characters are guilty of. The time and place which words are said require wisdom.
It is very common for Christians at times to feel resentful towards God for one reason or another. If and when we feel like this, we need to remind ourselves that we don't know enough to criticise God. As John Piper notes, this is precisely how God rebukes Job near the end of the book. We also need to trust God that if He were to explain why He has done what He has done, we would say, 'Oh, I see. I get it now.' In other words, if God were to defend His actions to us, His defence would always be utterly compelling. But, in faith, we need to believe this without hearing His defence.
I've read the book of Job too several months ago already through my NIV. And while I do admit that it might take several more re-readings to better understand the book (if not fully understand), i find Elihu's character to be quite interesting & rhetorical itself. 'Coz he appears to kind of just pop out from nowhere in the book, having no told familial background at all & then kind of leaves without any argument from neither Job or his friends at all. Something actually tells me that Elihu is a 'Christophany' itself or the pre-incarnate Jesus himself who appeared before Job. And as i've reckoned through the books prior to Job, i realized that there is no other person or entity who's able to muster a 'burning anger' against anyone in the scripture but God alone himself...
@@johannedillworth7413@johannedillworth7413 no we have not all been in Jobs place. Idk if I'm misunderstanding you and If I am please forgive me. Job is a very unique situation most people have not experienced this level of God's sovereignty of suffering. This man is a league of his own and in my opinion most people should not compare themselves to this man's experience...
I wonder more about all the unnamed people who were killed in the story just to make a point. How would you feel if you were killed, and as you're laying there bleeding out and breathing your last, you know that it only happened so that someone could prove a point to some other guy, and that other guy will eventually get rewarded, and no one will even remember you existed except for a single line in a story focusing on that other guy.
Ok. Why are you saying that the book of Job is full of errors and false statements about God? Don't you believe that the whole Bible is the word of God .and do you believe that there are no errors in the Bible ??. I'm confused. Ive listened to you guys for years. Why say this? I'm so confused..on why you said this Unless I'm misunderstanding what you said
Read the whole of Job. The friends and even Job himself is corrected by a younger prophet named Elihu under the Holy Spirit. All three friends and Job had an incorrect notion regarding the nature of God relating to the fate of the people who lives in line with His Word. They were under false impressions, which means their statements regarding God would also be false. But all of it is made sense in the last few chapters (the answer to Job's questions is never answered, or at least is not answered with a direct response to the question, but with a series of impossible questions instead).
The book of Job contains a lot of statements by people that the author intends the reader to understand as mistaken statements. The issue in view in this podcast is how to distinguish between these mistaken statements and other statements that the author intends the reader to understand as true statements.
I think John Piper makes a very good point that the way to distinguish truth from error in chapters 3-31 is to read these chapters in the light of chapters 1-2 and 32-42, where God is correctly understood.
may we seek our Lord and His teaching so we may know what is true and false in our lives!
If you become acquainted with the other books of wisdom, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Solomon, you can discern the kind of wisdom being used by Job and his friends. There are things said by his friends that may be truthful by a mere basis of factual statement. But they speak foolishly in so much as their accusations are irrelevant to Job’s situation “words without understanding”. The purpose of prologue is to demonstrate Jobs blamelessness as we come to meditate on the advice his friends give to counsel him.
So as the reader, the author of Job is making us exercise our own wisdom in discerning “good” wisdom, from “bad” wisdom as is being displayed by Jobs friends trying to counsel him.
When we come to the realization of the limits of our own understanding, we have gain much wisdom, especially when trying to counsel a suffering friend. As Job confesses in the later part of the book, but which ALL characters are guilty of. The time and place which words are said require wisdom.
Wow well said
To God be all the glory for the wisdom 🙏
It is very common for Christians at times to feel resentful towards God for one reason or another.
If and when we feel like this, we need to remind ourselves that we don't know enough to criticise God. As John Piper notes, this is precisely how God rebukes Job near the end of the book.
We also need to trust God that if He were to explain why He has done what He has done, we would say, 'Oh, I see. I get it now.'
In other words, if God were to defend His actions to us, His defence would always be utterly compelling. But, in faith, we need to believe this without hearing His defence.
this is so well said. thank you
@@Freyality Thanks for the encouragement.
This is a GREAT QUESTION! I have wondered about this briefly!! GOD BLESS YOU
Amen and thank you 🙏🏽
I've read the book of Job too several months ago already through my NIV. And while I do admit that it might take several more re-readings to better understand the book (if not fully understand), i find Elihu's character to be quite interesting & rhetorical itself. 'Coz he appears to kind of just pop out from nowhere in the book, having no told familial background at all & then kind of leaves without any argument from neither Job or his friends at all.
Something actually tells me that Elihu is a 'Christophany' itself or the pre-incarnate Jesus himself who appeared before Job. And as i've reckoned through the books prior to Job, i realized that there is no other person or entity who's able to muster a 'burning anger' against anyone in the scripture but God alone himself...
Amen
I wonder how Job is doing now
At peace I hope. Poor guy. We all have been there at one time or other.
@@johannedillworth7413@johannedillworth7413 no we have not all been in Jobs place. Idk if I'm misunderstanding you and If I am please forgive me. Job is a very unique situation most people have not experienced this level of God's sovereignty of suffering. This man is a league of his own and in my opinion most people should not compare themselves to this man's experience...
I wonder more about all the unnamed people who were killed in the story just to make a point. How would you feel if you were killed, and as you're laying there bleeding out and breathing your last, you know that it only happened so that someone could prove a point to some other guy, and that other guy will eventually get rewarded, and no one will even remember you existed except for a single line in a story focusing on that other guy.
So what happened to all the workers, farmhands, guards, etc who were slaughtered in the story?
"All of it. It's all true." - Han Solo 😎
Ok. Why are you saying that the book of Job is full of errors and false statements about God?
Don't you believe that the whole Bible is the word of God .and do you believe that there are no errors in the Bible
??.
I'm confused. Ive listened to you guys for years. Why say this?
I'm so confused..on why you said this
Unless I'm misunderstanding what you said
Job's three friends have the wrong assumptions about GOD. thats why on the last chapters Elihu corrected them and then GOD himself corrects them
This can't be a serious comment 😅
Read the whole of Job. The friends and even Job himself is corrected by a younger prophet named Elihu under the Holy Spirit. All three friends and Job had an incorrect notion regarding the nature of God relating to the fate of the people who lives in line with His Word. They were under false impressions, which means their statements regarding God would also be false. But all of it is made sense in the last few chapters (the answer to Job's questions is never answered, or at least is not answered with a direct response to the question, but with a series of impossible questions instead).
The book of Job contains a lot of statements by people that the author intends the reader to understand as mistaken statements.
The issue in view in this podcast is how to distinguish between these mistaken statements and other statements that the author intends the reader to understand as true statements.
Amen