Episode Transcript
Well, good morning.
It is 10 o'clock, and we're in Job chapter 5.
Verse 23 is where we'll be today.
Thank you for your faithfulness and the attention you give God's word.
This is a good-looking crowd this morning, and I'm sure we have some who've joined us online.
So good to see y'all.
We studied verse 22 last week.
And verse 23, because of the way the punctuation is in the King James Translation.
Verse 23 appears to be a new sentence, but I really think it's a continuation of verse 22.
Because verse 23 begins with the word for, FOR, which is also because And that tells me that 22 and 23 are intimately tied together, and so that's how I'm going to teach them, God willing, this morning.
So as we study verse 23, we'll refer back to verse 22 because we're not completely finished with that verse.
Our grammatical custom is to place a comma before a conjunction when we have two independent clauses.
I know you're scratching your head going, I think I heard that somewhere back behind a wooden, a really old wooden pulpit school desk there.
We usually don't start a sentence with the word for or because, but those practices haven't always been the same since the English language we speak and write began to be written.
And so we'll get a running start this morning as we begin reading from verse 22.
If you're just joining us online, we're in Job chapter. 5 verse 22.
And I'll read from verse 22 and go straight into the first part of verse 23.
Where Eliphaz says to Job and those who were around him, At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh.
Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth, for thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field.
Excuse me, we studied the word league last week.
And we learned that a league was a covenant.
And Eliphaz said, Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field.
Now, what does this mean?
What are these stones of the field?
And I'll tell you this: the commentaries are all over the place on it.
But one thing I was a little disappointed in, and maybe it's because I'm not very scholarly with symbolism, but I was a little disappointed that some of the theologians did not Go past just the agricultural or the earthly application of these stones.
And I'm always looking for.
The spiritual application, if I can find it.
And sometimes I think I might stretch a little hard, but I do want to see it if there's a lesson there.
And I found that they they stopped at the the meaning of the stones themselves, of the natural meaning, and didn't venture too far from that.
And of course I wasn't satisfied with that.
Because I know there has to be a spiritual lesson we can learn about the stones of the field.
And I approach symbolism in the Bible with fear and trembling, as I'm sure much, many theologians do.
And I'm not an expert in it, but I'm going to show you some things the Bible says about this subject.
Not everything it has to say.
We could spend months on stones in the Bible.
And when you read about the construction of the ephod, if you were here for or if you've studied Leviticus and Exodus before, and you studied the construction of the garments the high priest wore.
You had an ephod and you had a breastplate on it, and there were various stones placed in the ephod, in the breastplate, and on the shoulders.
And these represented the children of Israel in different aspects.
The Ten Commandments were written upon tables of stone.
And there were many occasions in the Bible where stones were used to kill people.
Altars were sometimes made of stone.
Idols were made of stone in some cases.
So there are a lot of roads you can take when you're studying.
References to stones in the Bible.
But the only time you'll see these words together, the stones of the field, is right here in this verse.
Now, if I could see it in three or four other places in the Bible, it would really help me.
So I'll confess to you, I had to do a lot of extra studying here, and that is okay with me.
Genesis 28:22.
Says, and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house And of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
So here Jacob represented the stone as a pillar and as God's house.
And although the Old Testament verses mentioning stones are numerous, it was in the New Testament.
Where I found what I believed to be the spiritual meaning of these stones.
So, in your scholarship, bear with me and listen and Measure it against the Bible, against the whole council of the scriptures, and see if you might agree or if you might have a different idea.
But I'm going to use the scriptures this morning quite a bit.
So if you're taking notes, be ready to write down a lot of verses.
Luke chapter 19.
Jesus' disciples were praising God, and I'm going to read verses 38 through 40.
Luke 19:38 through 40.
And they were saying, Blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.
And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, meaning his disciples, the stones would immediately cry out.
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost house of Israel, but he would also die for the sins of those who were not of the house of Israel.
Racially speaking.
And in what he said in the verses I just read you, he drew a contrast between the Jewish Pharisees And of course, his disciples, who were also Israelites, and the stones who would cry out if the disciples stopped praising him.
Jesus personified those sounds.
He said they would cry out.
He gave them a characteristic of a person, that is, that they would have a voice. cry out.
And Jesus could certainly make stones have a mouth and cry out, but I think we don't have to imagine that necessarily because of the lesson that we're going to learn about the stones.
The stones, in this case, were a symbol of the group of people who would praise his name if his disciples ceased doing so.
The Pharisees certainly didn't want.
To praise Jesus' name.
John the Baptist also used stones as symbolic of people in Matthew chapter 3.
Matthew chapter 3, and I'll read verse 7 first, speaking of John the Baptist.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, He said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
And then skipping down in verse 9, speaking to these same people, John said to them, And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father.
For I say unto you that God is able of these stones.
To raise up children unto Abraham.
Now, the Jews, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees were trying to justify themselves in front of John.
By perhaps imagining, hey, we're from Abraham.
We're good.
We're good with God.
We're from Abraham.
And racially speaking, they were.
Spiritually speaking, they were not.
They were not spiritually of the seed of Abraham because they were unbelievers.
But that statement was prophetic when John said, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Now here is Galatians chapter 3, verses 28 through 29.
Galatians 3, 28 through 29.
Where Paul said to this church, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
That was something those unbelieving Sadducees and Pharisees couldn't claim.
They would say, we have Abraham to our father.
In other words, we're the seed of Abraham.
And Paul very clearly said, if you're Christ's.
Then are you Abraham's seed?
So the Galatians were Gentiles.
And remember back in Acts chapter 13.
The apostles Paul and Barnabas preached the word of God to Jews and Gentiles.
And when the Jews refused to receive it, Paul said this in verse 46.
This is Acts 13:46.
He said to these Jews, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you.
But seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
Now I'll go back to the Old Testament again.
Because God said he was going to take a people for himself.
Ezekiel chapter 11, verses 17 through 20.
Ezekiel chapter 11, verses 17 through 20.
Therefore say, Thus saith the LORD God: I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered.
And I will give you the land of Israel, and they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof, and all the abominations thereof from thence.
And I will give them one heart.
And I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh.
That they may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances and do them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
So, in taking the verses that I studied and looking at what Eliphaz is saying here in our text, it appears to me, and this is the case.
That I'm making this morning, that the stones of the field represent unbelieving Gentiles.
Now, you might enlarge that and say unbelievers, period, but unbelieving Gentiles.
And when we look at the second part of our text in Job 5. 23, it may make even more sense to you.
But in the Ezekiel passage, God tells a scattered Israel that he would give the people with a stony heart One heart.
And those formerly stony-hearted people, given a heart of flesh, would be God's people.
He said, They will be my people.
This could not have happened if they had remained outside the covenant of God.
Now, as I read 1 Peter 2, verses 5 through 10.
I want you to listen for how the words stone and stones are used.
He said to the people of whom he was writing, ye also as lively stones.
That means living stones.
Are built up a spiritual house and a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is precious.
But unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed The same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient. whereunto also they were appointed.
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
A peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Which in time past were not a people.
What did God say he would do?
He said he would give the stony people a heart of flesh, and they would be his people.
Which in time past were not a people.
But are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
It seems clear enough to me that Peter is addressing at least some of those who were once stones of the field outside the covenant of God.
They were racial and spiritual Gentiles.
And we learned that in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 11 through 12.
Ephesians 2:11 through 12, where Paul wrote, Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh.
Who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision, that's the Jews, in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ. being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
As Peter had written earlier, the Gentiles were not a people, but are now a people of God.
He didn't say Gentiles, but that's That was who was not a people, but now is now a people according to God through the covenant that God made with Jews and Gentiles alike, and that's the gospel.
So, in my estimation, these stones of the field were, at the very least, unbelieving Gentiles.
And now, in Christ Jesus, the Jews are in League with the Gentiles.
We're under one covenant.
So chew on that, study it further, and try it against the scriptures and see if it might be logical to you.
Now let's have a word about the field.
If you look in your text, it said that he'd be in league with the stones of the field.
Field is also translated as the word land.
As the word country, as the word wild in the Old Testament, and one or two other words of that nature.
Now, considering that field, considering that we've addressed the stones of the field, what did Jesus say about that field?
In Matthew 13.
Verse 37 through 38, and input the little letter A.
Matthew 13:37 through 38A.
That's the first part of the verse.
Speaking of Jesus, he said, He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man.
The field is the world.
Now that's what I underscored.
The field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom.
Now, the word field in the Greek language, and that's what the New Testament is written in.
For the most part, is the word agros.
That's the Greek word.
That sounds a lot like agriculture because that's where we get that word from.
Jesus clearly taught us that in this in the parable of the wheat and the tares, that the field was more than a section of dirt.
He said it was the world.
In Acts chapter 19, Acts chapter 19, the Apostle Paul preached a sermon that offended Demetrius the silversmith.
Who had made great fortunes by making and selling these statues of the Ephesian goddess Diana.
And he wasn't a bit happy about the gospel being preached in his town.
Listen to how Demetrius described those who believed in that goddess, Diana.
In verses 26 through 27.
It's Acts 19:26 through 27.
So here's his accusation.
He said, Moreover, you see in here. that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods which are made with hands.
So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised. and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipeth.
Jesus told Nicodemus that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Not that he just loved the house of Israel, but he so loved the world.
He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. but have everlasting life.
The world, Jesus said the field is the world.
Now with that in mind Eliphaz tells Job that he would be in league with the stones of the field.
And because Job was a believer, I don't think he could be considered as one of the stones of the field.
Now, did this mean Did this statement mean that God would cause Job to get along with every unbeliever unequivocally?
Well, there are some scriptures that teach us that there are times when we are at peace with our enemies.
Proverbs 16:7.
Says, when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Toward the end of his days, David spoke with his son Solomon, as recorded in 1 Chronicles 22, verse 9.
1 Chronicles 22, verse 9.
I told you there'd be a lot of scriptures to write down.
So David speaking to his son Solomon.
Behold, a son shall be born to thee.
He shall be, or speaking about his son Solomon.
Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about.
For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.
He was telling his son about his son, about what was told of him.
So, because of God's grace, There are times when we have rest from our enemies and where our enemies are at peace with us.
However, On earth, those times are short-lived, aren't they?
I just read this morning where Ukraine had said we're not going to bomb any more refineries in Russia.
And here they're doing it.
Six days ago, they said they wouldn't, and now they did it again.
That's what a covenant with man looks like.
And one might say, well, that wasn't in writing.
It doesn't matter.
How many written treaties have been violated?
How many written peace accords have been violated?
Just about every one of them, haven't they?
But if the stones of the field represent the unbelieving Gentiles of this world, then how could Job, how could we, be in league with those stones?
Well, the only one who can bring to pass a covenant that puts the stones of the field in league with the believer is God.
And that covenant is through Jesus Christ.
The same one who broke down the middle wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles.
As described in Ephesians chapter 2, the same one whose gospel was preached to the Jews and the Greeks or the Gentiles that they may know the power of salvation.
1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 12 through 13.
1 Corinthians 12, verses 12 through 13.
Paul wrote to that church, For as the body is one and hath many members, and all members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
So, we who have been made to drink into one spirit are in a league, a covenant with each other.
It's not that I made a covenant with Brother Doug.
It's that God made a covenant with man through the gospel, and Brother Doug joined himself to that covenant by putting his faith in Christ, and so did I.
So, if we're in covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ, then we're in covenant with each other.
I'm in covenant with every one of you who are a believer.
And in fact, with those across the world who are believers, those who are dead and those who have not yet been born who will one day believe.
We're already in covenant.
Now, in Christ, we're in league with the dead stones of the field.
Because we and they have been made, as Peter said, living stones.
That's the difference.
I believe those stones of the field are dead.
But we've been made living stones by the one who is the chief cornerstone.
Now let's look at the second part of Job chapter 5, verse 23.
And the beast of the field shall be at peace with thee.
We're going to learn a little bit about what this Hebrew word for peace means.
It's a little bit different than you might think.
The beasts are literally the living creatures.
And you'll see this word translated as live and life more than you will the word beast.
It's translated as the word beast quite often, but live and life are even more so.
The first time the word is used is where?
Genesis chapter 1, verse 20.
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life.
Now that's the word for beast.
And fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
I mentioned earlier that this part of Job 5. 23 might help us understand the first part of the verse.
Where it said, Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field.
Now, we've studied the beasts of the field in some of our lessons in Daniel and learned that those beasts were the heathen.
And even though the Hebrew word for beast is a little different here than it is in Daniel, we still have reference to an earthly living being.
Just a natural beast, a brute beast, if you will.
And that group of earthly living beings represent the lost members of the human race.
And Eliphaz tells Job the beast of the field will be at peace with him, just as he would be in league or in covenant with the stones of the field.
When God promised to restore Israel, In Hosea chapter 2, verse 18, he said, And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beast of the field.
And with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground, and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
When Eliphaz told Job what he told him, he wasn't just shooting from the hip.
He wasn't trying to just make him feel better.
He was speaking the same prophecy as God did through the prophet Hosea.
And when you study the Old Testament, you'll see a pattern if you haven't already.
When God's people walk with God and obey his commandments and statutes, he gives them rest from their enemies.
There's peace.
When God's people walk contrary to him, He brings their enemies against them to afflict them.
And then, in their affliction, when they repent and turn to God and cry out, Repenting of their sin, then he again brings peace.
And in Job's case, this is a great encouragement.
Remember, one of the things that happened to Job was the Sabaeans stealing his livestock and killing the servants who tended to them.
Now the Sabaeans were descendants of Sheba.
It's the same word.
And Sheba came from the line of Ham, who was Noah's cursed son.
You remember Noah was cursed for going in the tent and discovering or uncovering his father's nakedness and the other two sons, Shem and Japheth.
Covered him.
They walked him backwards and covered their father's nakedness.
So Noah said, Cursed be Canaan, which is the same as Ham.
So the Sabaeans would have been the beasts of the field in the spiritual sense.
Things are passed away.
Not a one of us who's not looking forward to that.
After death and hell are cast into the lake of fire in the 20th chapter of Revelation.
We're going to have rest from our enemies.
From the beasts of the field, we'll have rest.
From all that Satan's disciples have inflicted upon us, we'll be at rest.
You may ask, well, how is that peace?
Well, it would behoove us to return to the Hebrew word for peace and learn from it.
So we can have a correct view of what it means for the beast of the field to have peace with us.
As you may be thinking, How is somebody who is remaining as a beast of the field?
I'm a Christian.
We don't see eye to eye.
The Hebrew word for peace in Job 5:23 is the word shalom.
Not shalom.
Shalom.
Slightly different meaning.
You've heard of the word shalom.
And that means the peace in the sense of being safe, healthy, well, and so on.
The word for peace in our text means to requite, to recompense, to restore.
In fact, it is most often translated as the word pay, P-A-Y.
Now, I wouldn't have thought that before studying it.
Exodus chapter 22, verse 9, gives us some insight.
Into how this word for peace was used in the Old Testament.
Exodus 22, 9 says, For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing, which another challengeth to be his.
The cause of both parties shall come before the judges.
And whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay.
That's the word peace.
Double unto his neighbor.
So, this is about a thief.
If you go back in that chapter and you'll see that it's about a thief, the thief has to pay double to his victim in this case.
This doesn't mean the thief is going to like his victim or his victim is going to say, We're buddies now.
That they'll be friends or that they'll hang out together.
It means there's peace between them because the thief has recompensed the victim with double payment.
He's paid him what was owed.
So, when we look at how the beasts of the field will have peace with Job, according to what this word means, we have to look at it, I believe, as the beast recompensing Job for the evil the beast has done to him.
Now, if this beast is an unregenerate person, such as the Sabaeans were.
Then the payment is peace, restoration.
Leave me alone and bring all of my sheep back.
And of course, they can't restore the human life, they can't restore those.
Those oxen that they killed, they're dead.
They can give them other oxen, but they can't give those same back.
That peace does not mean that Job will become a Sabaean.
Or even that the Sabaeans will become like Job.
How does that look in a spiritual sense, this notion of payback, of requiiting, of recompensing?
How will we be at peace against the beast of the field?
And I'm not just talking about the man, the earthly man, but against the kingdom of darkness.
How will there be recompense for their evil against God's people?
Revelation 6 verses 9 through 10.
Revelation 6 verses 9 through 10.
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
Or using the text in Job, they might have asked, when will there be peace with the beast of the field?
When will they be recompense for their evil against us?
And going down to verses 15 through 17 in that same chapter in Revelation, it reads: And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men.
And the chief captains and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains.
And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?
The Apostle Paul tells the Thessalonian church, and therefore us, in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 9, 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 9, for God hath not appointed us to wrath.
But to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
When the wrath of God is poured out on the ungodly.
Then the beasts of the field will have peace.
Not the kind of peace we think of, but the one that the Hebrew word describes here.
The wrath of God that's revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
We'll be that peace with our enemies.
It's not a harmony between us, it's recompense, it's payback.
To the lake of fire, they will go, and in the presence of the Lord, we will remain forever.
Do you remember where we read in verse 22 last week, at destruction and famine, thou shalt laugh?
And we learned that that word laugh meant to mock, to rejoice.
It can be either one.
Well, when is it that we shall rejoice?
When will we have that last laugh?
Revelation 12, verses 10 through 12.
A, little letter A.
Revelation 12, verses 10 through 12, little letter A.
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven.
Now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God.
Day and night.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
And they loved not their lives unto death.
Therefore, listen for this word.
Rejoice.
Ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.
Using our Hebrew word for laugh that meant rejoice, we could say, Therefore, laugh, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.
Remember, peace in Job 5:23 meant to requite, recompense, to pay.
Listen as we close here to how that's described in Revelation 18, verses 4 through 6.
Revelation 18, verses 4 through 6.
And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, speaking of spiritual Babylon, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Reward her.
As she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works, in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double.
Now we're studying the Hebrew word.
Did you know the Greek word here for reward is pay.
Just like the Hebrew word for peace was pay.
Isn't that amazing?
And in verse 20, there in that same chapter of Revelation, Revelation 18:20, after all the payback.
Has begun to be executed upon spiritual Babylon.
God's word says, rejoice over her Thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her.
And that, my friend, is where there will be great laughter, great rejoicing.
For God's people.
Let's pray.
Father, we're so thankful for everyone who came and for those who tuned in.
Thank you for the truth of your word and for all the verses that were read today.
And Lord, I pray that you would just Lodge in our heart the things that you want us to remember and burn off anything that confuses or dilutes your word.
And Father, we look so forward to the next hour as we sing and as we encourage one another and then as we hear our pastor bring the word of God.
And Lord, there's just not a place I'd rather be today.
Thank you for feeding your sheep in Jesus' name.
Amen.
