Job 11-13

Job 11 Zophar Job 11:20 “You are going to come to the time when the judgement of God will be upon you unless you confess your secret sin.” Predicts absolute & complete judgement of Job

Job 11 Zophar Job 11:20 Now we've heard all 3 of Job's friends Job's answer will be one of the lengthiest discourses in the book

Job 12 Job Job 12:1-2 Job gets sarcastic Who can blame him? “You guys have all the answers” “I'm just a simple dummy”

Job 12 Job Job 12:3 Job knows as much as they know They are not speaking to reality Something to call to our attention

Job 12 Job Job 12:3 “Instead of leading Job to self- judgement, the 3 friends only minister to a spirit of self- vindication in Job. They make an attack upon him forcing him to defend himself.”

Job 12 Friends Job 12:3 Didn't introduce Job to God Didn't speak of God of mercy No God of grace here Only God of law He is all the above

Job 12 Friends Job 12:3 Brought experience, tradition, legality... but not truth Job wound up defending himself Justifying himself Not justifying God

Job 12 Job Job 12:3 Looks like saying God is wrong Like God is one to be criticized Many people take this position Even many Christian people

Job 12 Friends Job 12:3 Should have led Job to condemn himself and vindicate God God records all these discourses to reveal this truth Job not broken in spirit here Not humble in God's presence

Job 12 Friends Job 12:3 “His friends never brought him to the place where he said as Paul said, 'I know that nothing good lives in me' (Rom 7:18), or 'By the grace of God I am what I am' (1 Cor 15:10).

Job 12 Friends Job 12:3 “Too many Christians boast of who they are and what they have and how much they give. It looks as if they, rather than God, are superior. My friend, we are not witnessing correctly for God --”

Job 12 Friends Job 12:3 “no matter how many people we buttonhole and tell about Jesus – unless you and I take the place where we are condemned and God is vindicated, and God is to be praised and honored.”

Job 12 Job Job 12:4-5 Job may be very sick But he stands up to his “critics” Says they give advice But offer no real help

Job 12 Compassion? Job 12:4-5 “For years I served as a pastor and I realize now how a professional attitude enters into our lives. I would go to the hospital to visit a sick person, perhaps a dying person.”

Job 12 Compassion? Job 12:4-5 “I would pat him on the hand and say, 'God will be with you' and I would pray for him and say, 'God will lead you.' Then I'd walk out. Well, the day came when I went to the hospital,”

Job 12 Compassion? Job 12:4-5 “Not to visit someone, but to lie on that bed myself. When someone came to pray with me and walked out, I didn't walk out. I stayed there.”

Job 12 Compassion? Job 12:4-5 “My friend, I want to say to you, that is quite a different position to be in. Now I was in the other fellow's shoes. Now I was in bed and I was facing surgery.”

Job 12 Compassion? Job 12:4-5 “That is the time you need someone to help you and to comfort you. That is what Job is needing.”

Job 12 Job Job 12:6-25 Job excoriates his friends Claiming superior wisdom Not putting it to good use Not the only ones who know God Job now is bitter and sarcastic

Job 13 Job Job 13:1-4 Friends haven't said anything new Friends have not helped him Job now would like to bypass them Instead go straight to God But his friends are just no help

Job 13 Friends Job 13:5-7 Best if they kept quiet They are misrepresenting God They put him on the defense He makes good case for himself Makes it look bad for God

Job 13 Job Job 13:8-14 Says God will judge his friend for misrepresenting Him His friends have become strangers to Him, as we will see

Job 13 Job Job 13:15 Job's great statement of faith Job is not guilty of secret sin He says he'll go before God He says he'll defend himself What will happen?

Job 13 Self-Defense? Job 13:15 “My friend, the minute you go into the presence of God to start defending yourself, you will lose your case. When you stand before Him, you can only plead guilty, because He knows you.”

Job 13 Self-Defense? Job 13:15 No clever lawyer can acquit you All have sinned & fall short None righteous, no, not one Soul that sins shall die God doesn't change that at all

Job 13 Self-Defense? Job 13:15 “You can see that Job desperately needs someone to represent God to him and keep him from trying to defend himself before Him.”

Job 13 Self-Defense? Job 13:15 “Someone needs to show him that he can cast himself on the mercy of God. This book has a tremendous message for us, as you can see.”

Job 13 Salvation Job 13:16 “There are glimmers of light that break through on this man's soul.” God will be Job's salvation OT & NT both teach that David held onto this truth

Job 13 Salvation Psalm 62:2 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

Job 13 Salvation “Salvation is not a coin that you carry around in your pocket and might lose. Salvation is God. Today salvation is Jesus Christ. You either have Him or you don't have Him. You either trust Him or you don't trust Him.”

Job 13 Salvation “There are no alternatives, friends. You stand on one side or the other. Either you are for Him or you are against Him...'there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved' (Acts 4:12).”

Job 13 Salvation “He is the only “out” for the human family. It is marvelous that Job, who probably lived in the patriarchal age of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had a glimmer of light.”

Job References J. Vernon McGee Commentary