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

When Job learned that all of his wealth was gone he said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.; may the name of the Lord be praised.”  The passage comments on Job’s reaction by telling us that he did not charge God with wrongdoing.  Then when Job begins to suffer physically the passage seems to say that he still did not accuse God of wrongdoing.  It is important to remember this as we read through Job’s dialogue with his friends in the rest of the book: Job did not accuse God of wrongdoing. However, for today I want to focus on the fact that Job willingly accepted the good and trouble from God.  When God gave him wealth, Job used it to praise God and bring glory to His name.  When God took all of his material possessions away from him, Job continued to praise God.  When God took his health from him, Job refused to blame God or condemn Him.  Like Job, we should be prepared to praise God in the good times and the bad.

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

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

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

Job had asked to speak with God so that he could make his case before Him.  Now God replies with some questions for Job, questions which each and everyone of us should attempt to answer before we question God’s justice.  Many of these questions mankind has found answers to in the centuries since the Book of Job was written, but in doing so we have found more such questions to which we do not know the answers.  God asks Job if he has explored the depths of the sea, or knows the extent of the earth.  Since that time, mankind has explored some of the depths of the sea and discovered the extent of the earth, but we have only succeeded in exploring a small portion of those depths and have discovered that the Universe extends farther beyond this earth than our minds can comprehend.  Job’s responds to God by recognizing that he cannot begin to comprehend all that God is and does.  Despite the fact that God confronts Job over his challenge, it is Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar He demands a sacrifice from.

I am using 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 wrote yesterday, but it is important to repeat it, Elihu is the only person who speaks in the Book of Job whom God does not reprimand for what he says.  In today’s passage he points out that Job is wrong to say that he has not sinned because everyone has sinned.  However, unlike Job’s other friends, Elihu does not attempt to identify Job’s sins as the cause of his suffering.  He does, however, point out where Job had said things which were wrong.  He challenges Job for saying that God has taken away his rights, has denied him justice.

Elihu’s statements in defense of God carry more weight and are more important than his challenge to Job’s claim of innocence.  First, he tells us that God does not sin and can do no wrong.  God pays no more attention to the rich than to the poor.  He sees everything that everyone does and judges them accordingly.  However, for what is going on in the world today the most important thing he says is in verse 17 of chapter 34.  The New Living Translation translates it as “Could God govern if he hated justice?”  But the New International Version translates that sentence in a more general fashion, “Can someone who hates justice govern?”  Elihu’s main argument is that since God does govern the world, we know that he must embrace justice.  However, we also see that anyone who wishes to govern even a small portion of this world must embrace justice.

I could stop there, but there is one more thing which Elihu says which is relevant to this.  Elihu asks why people do not say one of two things to God.

• “I have sinned, but I will sin no more.”
• “I do not know what evil I have done.  Tell me and I will stop at once.”

In order to stop injustice we must first stop sinning ourselves and if we do not know what sins we have committed, ask God to show us.

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

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

We can take a lesson about what is important in life from Job’s list of things of which he is not guilty.  The first of those things, and one to which he returns after touching on another, is lust.  He emphasizes that he has not looked on a woman with lust and calls lust a shameful sin.  The presentation here suggests to me that when a society starts to find lust acceptable all of the other sins become more prevalent.  This does not mean that the other sins to which Job refers are any less bad, just that lust is the one which we are most likely to pass over and justify in others (and perhaps in ourselves).  However, lying and deception, mistreating those over whom we have power, abusing the powerless, and greed are all deep sins of which Job finds it worth proclaiming innocence.  Most of these sins are sins of commission, but Job also gives prominence to sins of omission.  We should all be challenged by Job’s reference to the sins of failing to help the poor or allowing someone to go hungry.  Do we help the poor in all of the ways that we can?  Have we allowed someone to go hungry when it was within our power to feed them?  If we are not sure that the answer to the first is “yes” and to the second is “no”, let us look for ways to change that.

Now we hear from Elihu for the first time.  It has always struck me that Elihu is the only one of the characters in this account whom God does not chastise for what they said when He speaks.  Elihu starts by stating that he waited until his elders were done speaking before speaking his piece.  He only spoke up because he thought none of the others had made the argument which he thought most telling.  Elihu makes clear that, while he thinks he is not inferior to Job or the others, he also does not think that he is better than them.  We need to seek to emulate Elihu when we attempt to correct others, or enter into a disagreement with them.  Consider yourself neither inferior not superior to those with whom you are disputing.  Each and everyone of us has been made in the image of God.

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

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

Once again today I struggle to understand parts of Job’s monologues.  At one point he seems to say that God does not punish the wicked.  Yet, as he expands on his point, he goes on to say that the wicked are cursed and live in fear, that God will drag them away because of their wickedness.  Then Job sarcastically commends his friends for the ways in which they have helped the weak and powerless.  It seems to me that Job is making the case that if we do not seek to help the oppressed we are as guilty as those who oppress them.  I will say that helping the oppressed is not some abstract thing where we protest about the hardship visited upon some group.  Helping the oppressed means identifying specific individuals being oppressed and working with them to help them overcome their troubles.

Even though he believes that his troubles came from God Job refuses to speak or do evil.  He vows to strive to do what is right in God’s eyes.  Despite his suffering, Job declares that he still believes that God will bring judgement upon the wicked.  He acknowledges that for all of his own ability, or even the ability of other people, God is the only source of wisdom.  Mankind may be masters at finding resources for their own enjoyment, but no one can find wisdom apart from God.  Job tells us that wisdom is fear of the Lord and understanding leads one to forsake evil in all its forms.

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

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

I struggle to fully understand what Job says in his monologues.  On the one hand, he accuses God of unjustly punishing him.  On the other hand, he calls on God to make the case for his innocence, and appears to believe that God will do so.  He throws himself on the mercy of God, after proclaiming that God has failed to show him mercy.  This apparent contradiction in Job’s statements is consistent with a person suffering greatly.

In both Bildad’s and Zophar’s arguments in today’s passage we can learn an important lesson.  Neither of their arguments actually address what Job had said.  They have gotten caught up in the argument and have forgotten their purpose in arguing with Job.  They had begun with good, although misplaced, intent.  They started out trying to convince Job of taking actions which they believed would relieve his suffering.  Which brings us a lesson we should take to heart: when we get into an argument we must be careful not to get so caught up in winning the argument that we forget why we were arguing our position in the first place.

Finally, I had always thought that Job believed that death was the end, that once one died everything was over for that person.  I thought that what he says in chapter 17 verses 13-16 represented his belief that there was no reason for hope.  However, today I read it more as a warning that those who take the position that there is no afterlife have no hope.  I see in this statement by Job a parallel to what Paul writes when he says that if Christ did not rise from the dead than His followers are the most miserable of people.   I see Job as saying here that if there is no resurrection from the dead, there is no hope for anyone.  In fact in chapter 19 verses 25-27 he expresses just such a hope, a hope which is fulfilled in Christ.  He says that he knows that his Redeemer lives and that, after his death, he will see God in his own body.  This is the hope which those of us who believe in Christ have.  No matter what suffering we may endure on this earth, death is not the end and we will stand before God once more.

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

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

It is tempting to think that the Book of Job is just about realizing that just because someone is suffering does not mean that they have committed some heinous sin.  However, if that was all it was about, it would not need to be as long as it is.  Zophar voices another of the mistakes which we can make.  He tells Job that all he needs to do to end his depression and suffering is lift his hands to God in prayer and leave all iniquity behind him.  Zophar says that if Job does that, his life will be joyful once more.  Elsewhere in the Bible we see that there is something to this idea, but the context here reveals to us that it is not completely true.  Job’s response to Zophar should show us that when attempting to comfort those who are suffering sometimes it is better to remain silent than to offer what we think are solutions, but are really accusations.

In several of Job’s responses to his friends we see foreshadowing of Jesus’ ministry.  In yesterday’s passage, Job asked for a mediator between himself and God.  A role which Jesus died on the cross to take.  In today’s passage, Job tells us that if the dead can live again, then he could have hope in the anguish he suffered.  Further, Job tells us that if the dead can live again, God would guard our steps and cover over our sins.  Jesus rose from the dead to fulfill that very hope.

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

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

While reading the Book of Job it is important to remember that in the end God confronts Job and condemns his three friends for their lack of compassion.  As a result, this is one of those parts of the Bible which most needs repeated reading to know where the person speaking is expressing a truth we should take to heart and where they are expressing a thought we should reject.  Keeping that in mind I believe that most of what Job says near the beginning of the Book expresses opinions we should value and only later in the Book does he begin to fall into self-pity.  When we suffer we are not sinning when we spend some time expressing how badly we feel.  It is OK to express our anguish.  Closely related to that, Job tells us that pointing out where someone is causing their suffering will hurt their feelings but has value.  However, telling someone that their suffering is because they have done wrong when we do not know anything they have done wrong is worse than useless.  Suffering is not evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the one suffering.

I am using 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 am sure that I have noted this in previous years, but the one who appeared before God and started Job’s suffering is literally the accuser.  Whether this is a title, or merely the role played by this individual is open to debate.  Personally, I believe that the decision by the translators of the New Living Translation to capitalize the word “accuser” in this is accurate and we should view the word “Satan” as it appears after this as “Accuser”.  That is what Satan is.  He is the Accuser.  He accused Job of only worshiping and praising God because he was wealthy.  Then later when Job continued to worship and praise God after losing all of his wealth, he accused Job of only doing so because he was healthy.  Yet, the Accuser was wrong.  Job continued to praise God even after he lost his wealth and continued to praise Him when he became sickly.  Even in the depths of depression which he began to suffer, Job did not stop worshiping God.

We should be willing to accept both the good and the bad from the hand of God.  In fact, we should rejoice when we experience what the world views as bad things because they mean that God has found us worthy to share in Jesus’ suffering.  There is another lesson to this passage as well.  All of us hear the voice of Satan when he accuses us of not being good enough, or of only doing good because of rewards.  The Accuser tries to convince us to give up because our sins count as more than God’s forgiveness.  Or to convince us that if only we did more good that is what it would take to gain God’s approval.  The Accuser tells us that our suffering means that God does not love us, but Jesus tells us that God does love us and suffering is one of the signs of God’s love.