Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 38-42.

In today’s passage God replies to Job.  God first asked Job rhetorical questions which revealed the human lack of comprehensive knowledge about how things in this universe work.  While modern science has answered some of these questions, the list still reveals that we as humans can never know enough to adequately question God’s decisions.  Job responds by acknowledging that he spoke out of turn with questions whose answers he would be unable to understand.  Then God followed up by asking Job how he could question God’s justice.  God had already established that Job (and by extension, all humans) lacked the knowledge to understand why and how God did what He did.  He then asked questions which indicated that mortals lack the power to implement the justice which Job demanded of God.  Those questions showed that Job (and by extension, all humans) lacked the power to understand the consequences of the action Job had demanded of God.  Job reacted to God by acknowledging that he had spoken of things to wonderful for him to know.  At some point we need to do the same, we need to acknowledge that some questions have answers which are beyond our ability to comprehend.  Yet, the conclusion to the Book of Job makes clear that Job did not sin by asking these questions, while his three friends did sin in the way in which they responded to Job’s questioning.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 34-37.

Reading what Elihu says in today’s passage reminds me once again of those who preach “prosperity gospel”, those who preach that if you do God’s will you will be wealthy and powerful.  Elihu rightly tells us that God will not, cannot, do wrong or pervert justice.  He points out that if God withdrew His spirit from the world all life would cease.  God can do no wrong and cannot commit injustice because He defines what the words “good” and “justice” mean.  Elihu also tells us, correctly, that our sin causes no harm to God, and if we were righteous it would bring no benefit to God.  Whatever sinful or righteous acts we perform only have an impact on our fellow humans, not on God.  However, Elihu also tells us that the wicked always experience obvious suffering and those who do good always experience good fortune and obtain wealth.  I believe that there is more good than bad in what Elihu has to say.  I see chapter 37 verses 23 and 24 as his summation of what he had to say:

The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power;
in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.
Therefore, people revere him,
for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 29-33.

When Job finishes his final monologue the passage tells us that his three friends stopped answering him “because he was righteous in his own eyes.”  This reminds me of a theme which was brought up repeatedly by the writer of the Book of Judges, “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”  Further, it tells us that Elihu, a fourth friend of Job who was not mentioned earlier, was angry because Job had justified himself rather than justifying God.  So, Elihu begins to speak.  He starts by first declaring that he waited for his elders to speak before he voiced his own thoughts because with age should come wisdom.  He then says that young people may possess wisdom as well.  Now that those with more experience have exhausted their arguments against Job and failed to refute him, he will present his own thoughts about Job’s rants.  Elihu starts by declaring that he knows that he is no better in God’s eyes than Job, so Job should not consider anything he says to be a condemnation of Job.

Which brings Elihu to his first point.  He challenges Job’s assertion that he has done no wrong but is nevertheless condemned by God.  In particular, Elihu challenges Job’s assertion that God does not respond to those who call out to Him.  Elihu declares that God does speak, it’s just that we humans do not listen when He does.  God sends a messenger to us, in one form or another, when we sin, who will show us how to be upright and do God’s will.  The messenger might be a dream or a nightmare.  It might be suffering which we experience.  Or, it might be wise advice from a person we meet. We need to be alert and repent of our sins in response to the messages which God sends us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 22-28.

Eliphaz begins his reply to Job by saying something true: God does not need us, and nothing we do can benefit Him, even if we were righteous God would gain nothing from it.  Unfortunately, he immediately follows that by accusing Job of great wickedness.  Eliphaz lists a series of sins of which he is sure Job must be guilty.  Eliphaz goes on to espouse what closely resembles “prosperity Gospel” when he tells Job that he is suffering because of his sin and would be prosperous once more if he would just return to living a righteous life.  Job responds by saying that God should establish days when people can come before Him to request His judgement in the manner that many kings hold court.  If God would do that, Job would come before Him and establish his innocence.  Instead of such a system, Job proclaims, we have a world where no one is secure, where the poor suffer and even the powerful can suddenly become subject to misfortune.  Bildad replies to Job’s claim of innocence by making the point that no one is pure in God’s eyes.  A very true point, but not one which offers much comfort to someone suffering as Job was at this point.  Job replies to Bildad by pointing out that his point offers no comfort to one who is suffering.  Job then says one of the things for which God later calls him out: he declares that God has denied him justice.  Job then finishes today’s passage by telling us something of value: all wisdom comes from God.  No matter where we look, or how hard we search, we will never find wisdom until we turn to God.  There is no other source for wisdom than God.  If we wish to be wise, we must turn our face towards God and listen to what He tells us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 16-21.

The Book of Job is an interesting foreshadowing of many themes which are addressed in the New Testament.  In his suffering Job had begun to hope for death, but he tells us that if all we have to hope for is death, we have no hope.  Which sounds very similar to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15 where he says, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”  Job also goes on to say that his intercessor plead with God for him.  Which fits with what Paul says in Romans 8:34, “Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” And what John writes in 1 John 2:1, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”  Finally, Job also expresses the hope for resurrection when he says, “I know that my Redeemer lives…in my flesh I will see God.”  I know that one day I will die, unless Christ returns before then, but I also know that in my flesh I will see God.  That is the great hope all those who put their trust in Jesus have, no matter what they may suffer in this life.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 11-15.

I often struggle with the Book of Job because the things Job’s friends say have a lot of truth to them, but God condemns them roundly at the end of the book.  However, today I noticed that when Zophar responds to Job, her responds to a straw man, he takes something Job said and paraphrases it to make it more extreme than what Job actually said.  Zophar claims that Job said that his beliefs were flawless, but that is not what Job said.  Job did say that he was blameless, and that is not true because the Bible makes clear that all have sinned.  However, in the context one might take Job’s statement as meaning that he was no more worthy of blame than his friends, who were not suffering as he was.  Zophar went on to insult Job by essentially calling him witless.  Zophar was there to offer Job comfort in his suffering, so he should not have misstated Job’s argument, and he most certainly should not have insulted him.  Job replies by pointing out that Zophar was speaking for God dishonestly, something we should never do.  Further, Job put his claims of innocent in context by asking his friends how they would fair if God were to examine them in detail, would they show any more innocent than Job?  When our friend, or anyone else for that matter, is suffering we should not condemn them,  Also, when we debate others, something which we should save for a time when they are not suffering, we should be careful to argue against positions they actually hold, not what we think they meant by what they said.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 6-10.

In today’s passage, Job expresses how great God is compared to us.  God’s power and wisdom are so vast that no human can resist Him and remain unscathed.  When He acts, no one can stop Him.  Even if we were innocent, being in His presence would cause us to declare our guilt because He is so much more than us.  We cannot even begin to imagine that we might answer any charges God might bring against us, even if such charges were not true.  All of this Job declares, and it is true.  Which leads Job to wish for a mediator, Someone who could listen to us as another mortal would yet who could stand before God as an equal.  Thank God that He has provided such a mediator in the form of Jesus Christ, Who is both God and man.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 1-5.

When Job received word that all of his herds and flocks had been destroyed immediately followed by the news that his children had all been killed, his response was to mourn and worship God.  He acknowledged that all that he had had had come from God (Okay, that is an awkward sentence structure with three hads in a row).  Then, when he was suffering with painful sores over his entire body, he still refused to turn from God, or hold Him to blame.  When his wife told him to curse God and will himself to death, he told her that such talk was that of those who foolishly lacked morals.  He took the position that we should accept both the good and the bad which God sends our way and continue to faithfully serve Him.  Finally, after his friends commiserated with him in silence for seven days, Job expressed his misery by wishing that he had never been born.  Even here he does not hold God at fault, he just expresses his despair over what has happened to him and the physical pain he was suffering by saying he would rather that he had never lived than experience what he was experiencing.  His friend Eliphaz responds to Job’s deep despair  by telling him that if he would just confess his sin and throw himself on God’s mercy things would get better.  When we face hardship, let us follow Job’s example.  And when our friends face hardship, let us understand that everyone has a limit to what they can take and pray to God that He give them relief rather than tell them that they should not talk like that.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 38-42.

Finally, the writer presents God’s response to Job.  After all of Job’s complaints about not being able to go before God to make his case, God comes to him and speaks.  First God comes before Job and asks him to demonstrate that he has the knowledge necessary to judge God’s actions.  Job immediately realizes that he does not, that mortals do not have the capacity to know enough to understand God’s actions. Then, Job having admitted that he lacked the knowledge to judge God’s actions, God asks Job to demonstrate that he has the power to pass judgement on God’s action.  Once again Job realizes that he is completely inadequate to judge God.  In reaction to his realization of God’s power and knowledge, Job despises himself for challenging God and repents of doing so.   And this is the lesson of Job: when we encounter God we repent of considering our suffering gives us a reason to complain.  The lesson of Job explains how the martyrs were able to sing  for joy as they faced painful deaths,

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 34-37.

This passage really troubles me because so much of what Elihu says in it is very good, but the part he gets wrong, he gets VERY wrong.  So, what did Elihu get right?  Well, he was right to point out that Job was in the wrong to declare his innocence of all wrongdoing, for all have sinned.  Second, Elihu was correct in saying that our sin does not cause any harm to God, nor does our good behavior benefit Him.  Elihu tells us that there is no place where we can perform our actions in hiding from God.  He tells us that for all God’s power He despises no one, all are welcome before Him, if they turn from their sin and accept His grace.  Elihu reminds us that God does not do evil or any kind of wrongdoing.  However, Elihu accuses Job of keeping company with the wicked and with evil-doers, despite having no direct evidence that this is true.  Elihu was correct to chide Job for claiming to be innocent of all sin, since he witnessed Job make exactly that claim, but he was wrong to condemn him for associating with the wicked because he had not seen this to be true.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.