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

I am always struck by Job’s friend Elihu.  He is not mentioned earlier in the Book, when the other three were first introduced, and he is not mentioned at the end when God tells the other three to ask Job to pray for them.  In today’s passage we are told that Elihu was angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God, and that he was angry with the other three friends because they condemned Job, but could not refute his arguments.  Now I want to consider what Elihu had to say.  He acknowledges that it was right that he wait and listen while the others, his elders, spoke, but now that they have had their say (and failed to prove Job wrong), he would speak.  In his speech Elihu makes two statements which show greater wisdom than anything said by Job’s other friends.  Elihu declares that he is no better than Job.  He is as much of a flawed, limited mortal as Job.  Then he challenges Job’s complaint that God does not respond when mortals cry out to Him.  Elihu contends that God does indeed speak to us, but we, all too often, fail to hear when He does so.  Elihu makes the claim that God’s apparent silence is our fault for not listening, not God’s fault for failing to speak.  This should remind us of the still, small voice with which God spoke to Elijah, but Elihu does go on to list some of the ways in which God speaks to some of 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.

Job’s friend, Eliphaz, starts off today’s passage with a statement with important meaning.  No human can be of benefit to God, He gains nothing from our righteousness and loses nothing if we sin.  Unfortunately, Eliphaz concludes that Job must have committed some, or multiple, horrible sins.  And while Eliphaz makes a terrible mistake by judging in this manner, he does give us a good list of sins we should not commit.  Eliphaz then ends his monologue by taking a truth and turning it into a falsehood.  He reveals a truth when he says that if we submit to God, lay up His words in our hearts, and treat material wealth as of little value, we will gain the much greater wealth of serving God.  However, Eliphaz takes this truth to an unwarranted conclusion: he concludes that if Job would just turn back to God, he would acquire material wealth and power that dwarfed what he had before the calamity had struck him.  So, while seeking God and following His commands will not, in and of itself, bring us material wealth, what we gain from doing so will be of greater value than anything money can buy.

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.

One of the things I have written about the Book of Job in the past is that I am unsure if we are intended to understand it as events which actually happened, or if it is a story which God inspired someone to write in order to teach us important lessons.  However, even though I am unsure which is correct, I have always written about the Book of Job as if each of those mentioned were real people who carried on the conversation recorded here,  I realized today that there is some value in reading, and thinking about, the Book of Job as if each of the characters mentioned represent different ways of thinking about God and how He interacts with people.  The best part about this latter approach is that it does not require that the people mentioned not be actual people who said the things written here.

Having said that, in today’s passage Job discusses two of the things which are uniquely his viewpoint.  First, he represents those who seek God, even though they are suffering.  He realizes that in order for any mortal to approach God they will need someone to speak on their behalf (as he had expressed in yesterday’s passage).  Further, he tells us that he does indeed have such an intercessor, One who truly cares about him.  Our Intercessor will plead with God on our behalf and request that God exercise His power in our lives.  A request we can be sure will be granted, since our Intercessor is God Himself in the form of Jesus Christ.

Second, Job complains that the wicked do not suffer for their wickedness.  He says this in contrast to the claim by his friends that the wicked always suffer (they imply that if one suffers it must be because they are wicked),  Job goes on to say that not only do the wicked commit sins, the openly defy God and suffer no consequences.  Job has a point, but one which  we must think carefully about.  Yes, it often appears that the wicked suffer no consequences for their wickedness, but we must consider whether this is actually true.  If we truly believe that God has our best interests in mind (which I do), then we know that there is greater happiness and joy to be had by following His commands then by seeking pleasure through sin.

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 have been trying to decide what to write about today’s passage for a few hours now.  I first thought to write that Job’s friends illustrate the lesson that those who are wrong can make arguments which sound convincing and right.  That is definitely true here: Job’s friends make some good points, but they were in the wrong, the argument they were making was wrong.  Then, I realized that while Job was closer to the truth than his friends, he was also wrong.  Job’s friends thought that because he was suffering, he was obviously a sinner, and because they were not suffering, they were obviously more righteous than he.  They thought they were better than him.  Job, on the other hand, challenged God’s justice and demanded that God explain to him why he was suffering.  So, I thought as I read this that this passage teaches us two things.  First, just because someone builds their argument using true statements does not mean that their conclusion is correct.  Second, just because someone reaches an incorrect conclusion does not mean that none of their arguments are valid.

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.

Every time I read today’s passage I am struck by what Job says in chapter 9 verses 32 through 35.  I know I have touched on it previously, but I want to look at it closer this year.  Here Job expresses a wish that there was a being which could act as a mediator between himself and God.  He expressed that desire after describing how no mortal can argue their case before God because He is so much more powerful, just, and righteous than any of us can possibly be.  Standing in the presence of a Being such as God is, leaves even the most upright mortal trembling in fear.  This leads Job to desire a being which could act as a mediator so that the terror of being in God’s presence would not leave us tongue-tied and unable to speak.

Which leads us to two lessons.  If we truly understand who and what God is, we will tremble and be paralyzed by our inadequacy and sinfulness before Him.  The first step to salvation, to being more than a broken, useless thing, is to fear God with a “hide under the table” sort of fear.  Before we can learn of His love and truly understand it we must feel the overwhelming terror of being in His Presence and feel in our bones the need for Someone to mediate between ourselves and God.  And from His Grace and Love, God has provided just such a mediator in Jesus Christ.  Once we perceive our complete inadequacy in the face of God’s omnipotence, we can understand the love which led Him to become human and come to us on our level.  Job cried out of our need for a mediator, and God revealed that He would provide just such a mediator.  Every time I read this passage, I praise God for sending Jesus to be such a mediator between myself (and every other human being) and God.

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.

I find it challenging to write about today’s passage because it contains so many lessons for us.  First, some will attempt to belittle our faith and the righteousness which God had given us by claiming that we only have faith, and only behave righteously, because life has been good to us, because God has blessed us.  They will claim that if we face hardship in this life we will turn from God and commit many acts which God condemns.  And, if we suffer hardship, others will claim that we do so because we have committed horrible, terrible acts.

Job himself gives us a lesson on facing hardship.  When he lost all of his wealth, including his children, he mourned his loss and then worshiped God.  He acknowledged that everything he had lost had come from God in the first place, so God had every right to take it back from him.  In fact, in the middle of mourning his loss he praised the Lord.  Then, when his health was destroyed and he experienced pain all day, every day, he refused to blame God, instead choosing to accept the suffering he experienced just as he had accepted the blessings he had previously experienced.  We should follow Job’s example.

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.

When God first speaks to Job in this passage, He points out how limited human knowledge of the world and the universe is.  The first monologue attributed to God asks the question, “How can we judge God’s actions when there is so much that we know nothing about?”  Then in His second monologue, God points out, that on the scale of the universe, humans lack the power to truly change things.  Together, these two things demonstrate that our finite existence leaves us unable to understand how or why God acts as He does.  Job had sought God, now when he had found Him, or, perhaps I should say, when he was found by Him, Job recognized that his claim that God had been unjust was sinful and repented before the awesomeness of God.

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.

I have written that we should take note that, unlike Job’s other three friends, Elihu is not reprimanded by God at the end of this book.  But in today’s passage Elihu says some things which seem to be more or less the arguments the other three made for which God reprimanded them.  On the one hand, Elihu calls out Job for saying that God denies him justice, but on the other hand, he also seems to follow the others in assuming that Job’s suffering is evidence of Job’s wrongdoing.  Elihu also tells us that it is unthinkable that God would pervert justice because it is God who defines justice.  He tells us that God has no need to run inquiries where He investigates what people have done because He already knows all of their actions and motives.  We cannot hide anything from God, who shows no partiality.  He does not favor the rich, or the politically connected.

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.

I am always horrified by the accusations Eliphaz makes against Job at the beginning of this passage.  He specifically accuses Job of horrible sins.  Up until this point Job’s friends have merely said that Job’s suffering must be the result of some horrible sin which Job has committed, but have refrained from speculating as to what that sin was.  Here, Eliphaz says that Job must be guilty of these specific sins since he was suffering as he was.  What horrifies me is that Eliphaz is spelling out what the other two were thinking all along even though they had not witnessed Job committing these sins. Nevertheless, they were convinced that he was guilty of them.  Making this assumption is every bit as great of a sin as the sins they accused Job of committing.  It is one thing to look at the sins we have seen someone commit and draw a connection between those sins and the suffering which they experience (and even that has problems in that it might lead us to not have compassion for their suffering) and quite another to project back from their suffering to sins which we believe them to have committed because they are suffering.  The first might be acceptable under some circumstances, but the latter is always putting ourselves in the place of God.

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.

As I have read the Book of Job time and again in order to write this blog each year I have become convinced that it is only toward the end of this passage that Job begins to say things for which God rebukes him at the end of the book.  In his first two monologues in today’s passage, Job acknowledges that he has an intercessor/advocate who stands before God pleading his case.  The following statement from the first of Job’s three monologues in this passage expresses the great hope which all Christians have in Christ:

Even now my witness is in heaven;

  my advocate is on high.

My intercessor is my friend
    as my eyes pour out tears to God;
on behalf of a man he pleads with God
    as one pleads for a friend.

I know that my redeemer lives,
    and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
    with my own eyes—I, and not another.

It is only after Zophar once more makes the claim that the wicked always suffer upon this earth that Job points out that this is not the case.  Sometimes, often times, it seems as if the wicked do not suffer in this life at all.  Perhaps the thing we can most do to comfort ourselves about the wicked who seem to live a life of ease with no concerns is remember, that for them the promise that they will see God with their own eyes is not something which gives joy.

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