Some things to keep in mind as we go through this final point of Job. We have covered the issue that God has raised about knowledge and now we are dealing with God’s power.

We have been covering the speeches of the Lord as He has talked to Job and the first thing that God has hammered on is the issue of Job’s knowledge.

Elihu comes to the conclusion of the debate between Job and his friends where at the end there is a stalemate since human wisdom cannot determine what is occurring in this specific situation.

Job has presumed that if he does this then God should do that. As if the only reason that God could cause calamity is judgment. Job doesn’t have this information but that is fundamentally wrong, think about James 1, it says count it all joy because it refines you.

For Job to think of himself so high and that it’s wrong for God to put him so low Job is still reasoning in the divine retribution principle.

Job is saying that he is the mediator, savior, and ultimate head. This is close but not quite right.

According to the Bible, your starting point has to be divine revelation; if you don’t start there you can’t know anything truly outside of that.

Job uses this chapter to point out that his friends are faulty.

Job’s point is if you really understood creation, it would lead you to know that you don’t know anything. You can’t explain anything and that is why God is so much greater than you.

Job’s point is it would have been better if Bildad and Eliphaz had stayed silent. They don’t know how things work because they are missing the key ingredient, divine revelation.

Job’s two questions were “Does God balance care, just, and power?” and “Does God even know what is going on with the planet, and if so, what is up with His timing?”

The issue with questions is not the asking of questions, but it is when those questions make demands, demands which diminish authority.

We have now moved into the postmodern discussion. Job has challenged the entire problem with a notion of a closed system that what you see is what is.

Zophar is the final guy in the debate segment. This is his last speech, and we still have one more segment to go through, so he doesn’t speak in the last one. Why? There are a lot of answers, but it’s probably because he just shuts up.

Job responds to Bildad, refuting his Internal Causation scheme, proving the limits of science and the need for God to explain to him true reality: that both God and Job can be right: that there must be a Mediator.

Bildad begins his response within the second (modernistic) round of debate, appealing, as always, to nature for his reason.

Job continues his defense, appealing to a downpayment that he doesn't have, wishing for a way to legitimately prove his innocence before God and man.

Job responds to Eliphaz’s second speech (Job 15) where Eliphaz said, "Let me give you the historical definition of a wicked man—he looks just like you, Job." Job replies, "The reason I look guilty is because I was framed."