For those of you following the study in the Book of Job, here are my teaching notes on Chapter 12: Chapter 12 So Job answered and said, No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you (12:1- 2). I have met folks that I would like to say this same thing. “You are a bunch of know-it-alls!” “No doubt, you’re the people, and wisdom will die with you.” But I have understanding as well as you; I’m not inferior to you: who doesn’t know these things that you’re saying so far? [“I mean, what do you take me for?”] I am as one that is mocked by his neighbor, who calleth upon God, and he answers him: and the just upright man is laughed to scorn. [“I am just, I am upright, and you guys are just mocking me. You’re laughing me to scorn.”] He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease (12:3- 5). It’s easy for a guy who isn’t having any problems to have all the answers, providing all the little clichés for the guy that’s hurting. “It’s easy for you to just give these pat little answers.” The tabernacles [Job shows the inconsistency of their argument. The comparison is that they are saying that the sign of serving God is having riches, while poverty is a sing of sin in your life, while Job is telling them of the robbers, who stole and now have all the things that Job had, are now the prosperous ones, leading ungodly lives. Job put their whole argument down.] of the robbers prosper, and those who provoke God are secure; [The guys who pirated the caravans, these robbers who laid in wait, their tents were full of gold, jewels, and treasures that they had taken illegally. “Men that provoke God are secure.”] into whose hand God bringeth. But ask the beasts, and they will teach thee; the fowls of the air, they will tell thee: Speak to the earth, and it will teach thee: the fish of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind (12:6-10). “Consult nature, you’ll see that God is in control. God rules!” Our lives are dependent on Him. Here Job declared that “The breath of every living thing is in the hand of God”. Daniel said to the king “The God in whose hand your very breath is, you have not glorified”. Our lungs are an involuntary muscle. They are not attached to the skeleton. They are not controlled by a direct action of the brain. In our body we have voluntary and involuntary muscles. The voluntary muscles are attached to the skeleton. They are controlled by the brain. When my son, Kiiler, goes into the gym to keep his muscles so highly developed, he is working the involuntary muscles, attached to the skeleton and controlled by his brain. Involuntary muscles are not attached to the skeleton and not controlled by the brain. Your heart is an involuntary muscle. Your lungs are involuntary muscles. Those muscles on which your life depends, God does not put in your control. This is great wisdom. You don’t have to think to breath. You don’t have to think to insure your heart pumps your blood. Leviticus 17:11 says “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” The lungs provide oxygen to the brain, with which we are able to think. The heart pumps the blood within our bodies, within which is contained the life of the flesh. All controlled by involuntary muscles, over which you and I have no control. They are in the control of God. It does not seem to me to be terribly wise to use the breath given by God to speak in opposition to the things of God. Job tells his friends “The breath of every living thing is in the hand of God.” Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible, written about the time of Abraham, over 2000 years before the birth of Christ, and yet he has this keen insight into the workings of the lungs. God maintains control of every heart and every lung. He alone has the power to allow or remove breath. The beating of your heart and the breathing of your lungs are not in your control. I would think we would all desire to learn His ways, so that we can do those things that are pleasing in His eyes, and discontinue the action to remove Him from every aspect of our lives. Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat? With the ancient is wisdom; and in the length of days is understanding. With him is wisdom and strength, and he has counsel and understanding. Behold, he breaks down, and who can build again: he shuts up a man, and there can be no opening. Behold, he holds back the waters, and they dry up: also he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his. He leadeth counselors away spoiled, and he makes the judges fools. He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle. He leadeth princes away spoiled, he overthrows the mighty. He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and takes away the understanding of the aged. He pours contempt upon the princes, and he weakens the strength of the mighty. He discovers the deep things out of the darkness, and brings out to the light the shadow of death. He increases the nations, and destroys them: he enlarges the nations, and straightens them again. He takes away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no path. They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them to stagger as a drunken man (12:11-25). Job points out the sovereignty of God over His creation, over nature. He observes the floods. He observes how that the Tigress and the Euphrates filled up, and caused earth dams, and creates deltas, and He moves back the seas. God is in control. God rules! He allows nations to be built up, but then brought back down again. God reigns, God controls, God rules. Job speaks here of God’s sovereignty over His creation, over the nations.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 02:27:17 +0000
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