My notes: I apologize for the multi-year siesta from these notes but I intend to finish this up shortly.

The book of Job demolishes much of what human wisdom offers, and it presents to us multiple layers of divine wisdom: how God works, how ideas work, and how we are to see through the problems inherent in the struggle of worldviews.

The book of Job is about God's wisdom; how His ways are always true, even if from our perspective He doesn't make sense. Suffering is just a window to the bigger questions, and in this chapter we see that Job has asked that from the beginning.

Job's issue is, is God right? Who is the enemy?

Satan has challenged God's wisdom and rightness. God's wisdom is hidden, but right, whereas man's wisdom is apparent, but wrong.

again, the reason they want to help Job figure this out is because they are worried that what happened to him may happen to them. They are all reasoning from the DR Principal, that what goes around comes around, but Job has destroyed all their arguments.

People are closet Zopharians, because people expect good things to happen to good people, but not to bad people. Even Christians say that if you are good, God rewards you, and that is Zophar.

But the larger issue at hand is the folly of human wisdom. How can anyone know what is going on in heaven unless God reveals it to you?

Idealism always contradicts realism. That is the problem. Humans tend to champion a certain concept, but the problem is that doesn't coordinate with reality. That is Job's point. What is the simplest example against the DR Principal? The wicked prospering. This is Job's core argument.

For example: The world says we are the parasite of the world, but also the highest life form, therefore, the most fit to survive. So which is it? There is a moral higher ground to which scientists call us that doesn't make sense to their worldview.

Human wisdom is inherently limited, because it picks ideas, even if those ideas aren't consistent with reality, and Job is pointing this out.

Job 21:2

This is surprising. "Listen carefully." There is an infinitive absolute construction, which means there must be rigorous attention paid to what Job is about to say.

He is explaining what Job's friends should say to him; this is the comfort he is asking for. The reason this will be comforting is because Job's situation isn't unique. People experience this stuff all the time: the good suffers, the evil prosper.

Job 21:3

(This phrase is on the door of Dr. Halstead, faculty down the hall from Chou.)

These are fighting words. He invites them to mock him if he's wrong. Zophar doesn't rebuttle.

Job 21:4-6

Core argument. Job's complaint is consistently with God, not men. "Why should I not be impatient?" or, why should Job not be in desperation? He's at his whit's end.

Suffering is a window into bigger issues, and that is what is making him go crazy. He is telling his friends to look into this and be horrified.

He articulates further in verse 6. "Terrified" is dread that causes a physical reaction. "Trembling" is the kind of horror that causes you to draw back from an enemy, uncontrollably, an involuntary reaction.

What is so shocking?

Job 21:7

Why do the wicked live, or "continue on", same word we get our word antique from. Why do they grow old? Zophar said in 20:6-8 that God will cast the wicked down, that they die young. Job rebuttles.

Plus, they grow mighty in power. They go higher and higher, higher and higher. Why is that?

This is what causes Job to fear. The world revolves around the DR Principal, and Job is saying the principal is wrong. The whole world is functioning on a principal and a basis that is totally wrong. You don't get what you deserve after all.

The DR Principal isn't real. Job pulls the rug out of every single worldview at this moment.

Job 21:8

If we look at an actual wicked man, their kids prosper, and their riches continue into the future, while Job's kids didn't turn out secure. What a contrast.

Job 21:10-12

The contrast continues.

Job 21:13

This is a retrospective look: in summary, the evil live out their days in total prosperity, and they die in peace, or literally, in a moment. They die suddenly, without any warning or suffering. Zophar says the evil die in pain and suffering; not so. How is that fair?

These example obliterate the DR Principal.

Job 21:14

The evil are actually evil; they stiff-arm God and blaspheme Him. They aren't apathetic, they are against Him!

Job 21:15

They distort His power and doubt His goodness; they don't need Him.

Job 21:16

Is their prosperity in their hands? It seems like it. But Job knows God gives it to them.

Job 21:17

Job starts to slap Bildad around a bit. Bildad says the wicked are snuffed out, but he uses the same analogy to say that isn't true.

Job 21:19

Maybe it's the kids that are left with the evil from the parents, but Job contrasts that too. Each man is accountable for himself. Why would the godless care if you punish his kids because he is gone!

Job 21:20

Let the evil receive the justice for their evil!

Job 21:22

This is the key point in the argument. Everyone is operating on the DR Principal and they are trying to fit God in that box, but Job has shown that they think they know better than God.

When poeple are suffering they get to the point where they are trying to teach God something. When we think we have a better plan, that's exactly what we are thinking. That's not a line you what to go down.

That's the problem of human philosophy anyways, is we think we know better.

People make up all kinds of theologies trying to get God out of a situation, but you are actually offending God, protecting Him as if He needs it.

Job 21:23-24

Job levels his attack against the final pillar of the DR Principal. Eventually the wicked dies, right, so the DR P is right, but this wicked man dies full of health and in peace. His body is fat and the marrow of his bones are sweet.

Job 21:25

But then there is another person, the righteous one, who dies in bitterness of soul.

Job 21:26

What's the difference? Both lie down in dust and get covered in worms. There is no difference between the two, so since both the wicked and the good die, that isn't an argument one way or another about anything in their life.

Job 21:27ff

Job knows they are trying to use his pain for their good, and he shows how it won't work.

He concludes saying they are clinging to an ideal of the DR P but it is a house of cards and doesn't line up with reality.

Job 21:30

If Job's friends would engage people from across the world, then they would find out the wicked are preserved in the day of wrath. When bad things happen, they come out on top.

Job 21:31

Who tells the wicked and powerful that they are wrong?

Job 21:32

The wicked are "born along" to their grave. The same word as in vs. 30. It's the word of a parade. Do the righteous get a parade in the face of evil and darkness? No. Only the wicked do. How is this fair?

Job 21:34

The DR Principal is a total lie. It's nonsense, and the closed system of the universe is a lie. There are other forces at play, and Job wishes for a new system where his redeemer lives. This introduces us not to the DR system but a system called the gospel.