As I looked at where I am in my reading plan I realized I was at the halfway mark. I always find it interesting how when my mind jumps to playing a song when phrases are thought, said, or heard. Today I thought to myself “I’m halfway there” and all I could here was “Wooah, Livin’ on a prayer“. No matter if we are that the beginning of the journey, nearing the end of the journey, or in the middle of the journey, the key is to keep close to God and keep praying and depending on Him. We don’t need to and we shouldn’t be trying to go it alone. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us! He sent the Holy Spirit to be with us as our comforter and our guide and so we need to try to go it alone. So when we need counsel and advice we just need to pray and ask Jesus. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us through it all. Resisting the devil and his temptations and lies that are attempting to rob us of God’s promises, kill us from getting to our destination, and destroy us and any hope or faith we have in order to get us to give up and turn our backs on God. No matter how stormy life is looking or feeling, call to God and allow Him to calm the storm or you so that you can make it thru the storm and come out the other side stronger in faith and courage and boldness to be able to complete the work God has prepared in advance for you to accomplish. It isn’t about what people are saying but rather what God is saying. Consider the source of your advice, what do they believe, are they aligned with you spiritually, shouldn’t they be before you take it all at face value, so ask the Holy Spirit to help you discern what parts of what is being spoken to receive and what to ignore or throw out. God’s plan is to give you a hope and a future. God’s purpose is that you will have life to the full. Sometimes to get there it requires that we have trials and troubles. In trials though, we can consider it pure joy because we know that the testing of our faith produces perseverance and we need to let perseverance finish its work so that we can be mature and complete, not lacking anything.In times of trouble in this world we can take heart because Jesus has already overcome the world.
10 In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [draw your strength from Him and be empowered through your union with Him] and in the power of His [boundless] might. 11 Put on the full armor of God [for His precepts are like the splendid armor of a heavily-armed soldier], so that you may be able to [successfully] stand up against all the schemes and the strategies and the deceits of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places. 13 Therefore, put on the complete armor of God, so that you will be able to [successfully] resist and stand your ground in the evil day [of danger], and having done everything [that the crisis demands], to stand firm [in your place, fully prepared, immovable, victorious]. 14 So stand firm and hold your ground, having [a]tightened the wide band of truth (personal integrity, moral courage) around your waist and having put on the breastplate of righteousness (an upright heart), 15 and having [b]strapped on your feet the gospel of peace in preparation [to face the enemy with firm-footed stability and the readiness produced by the good news]. 16 Above all, lift up the [protective] [c]shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
18 With all prayer and petition pray [with specific requests] at all times [on every occasion and in every season] in the Spirit, and with this in view, stay alert with all perseverance and petition [interceding in prayer] for all [d]God’s people. 19 And pray for me, that words may be given to me when I open my mouth, to proclaim boldly the mystery of the good news [of salvation], 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. And pray that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly and courageously, as I should.
Today’s reading from God’s Word comes from Job 21:
‘Then Job answered and said, “Listen carefully to my speech, And let this be the consolation. Bear with me, and I also will speak; And after I have spoken, you may [continue to] mock [me]. As for me, is my complaint to man or about him? And why should I not be impatient and my spirit troubled? Look at me and be astonished and appalled; And put your hand over your mouth. Even when I remember, I am troubled and afraid; Horror and trembling take hold of my flesh. Why do the wicked still live, Become old, and become mighty in power? Their children and descendants are established with them in their sight, And their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear; And the rod of God is not on them. His bull breeds and does not fail; His cow calves and does not miscarry. They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children skip about. They lift up their voices and sing to the tambourine and the lyre And rejoice to the sound of the flute. They fully enjoy their days in prosperity, And so go down to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) in a [peaceful] moment. Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us, For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. Who [and what] is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what would we gain if we plead with Him?’ But notice, the prosperity of the wicked is not in their hand (in their power); The counsel of the wicked [and the mystery of God’s dealings with the ungodly] is far from my comprehension. “How often [then] is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, And that their disaster falls on them? Does God distribute pain and destruction and sorrow [to them] in His anger? Are they like straw before the wind, And like chaff that the storm steals and carries away? You say, ‘God stores away [the punishment of] man’s wickedness for his children.’ Let God repay him so that he may know and experience it. Let his own eyes see his destruction, And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. For what pleasure does he have in his house and family after he is dead, When the number of his months [of life] is cut off? Can anyone teach God knowledge, Seeing that He judges those on high? One dies in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and quiet and satisfied; His pails are full of milk [his sides are filled out with fat], And the marrow of his bones is moist, Whereas another dies with a bitter soul, Never even tasting pleasure or good fortune. Together they lie down in the dust, And the worms cover them. “Behold, I know your thoughts, And the plots by which you would wrong me. For you say, ‘Where is the house of the noble man? And where is the tent, the dwelling place of the wicked?’ Have you not asked those who travel this way, And do you not recognize their witness? That evil men are [now] reserved for the day of disaster and destruction, They will be led away on the day of [God’s] wrath? But who will confront him with his actions and rebuke him face to face, And who will repay him for what he has done? When he is carried to his grave, A guard will keep watch over his tomb. The [dirt] clods of the valley are sweet to him [and gently cover him], Moreover, all men will follow after him [to a grave], While countless ones go before him. How then can you vainly comfort me with empty words, Since your answers remain untrue?”’
Today’s study provides us with these summary details. Click the links above to dive deeper into today’s reading.
Verses 1-34: Job strikes at the heart of his friends’ assumption that the wicked are judged and the righteous are blessed. Job claims that this simply is not true, if one looks at life objectively: the wicked’s children are established (verse 8), his house is safe (verse 9), his cattle reproduce (verse 10), and so on. He even receives an honorable burial (verses 32-33).
Jobs reply to Zophar’s last speech, ending the second cycle of speeches, refuted the simplistic set of laws by which the mockers lived. He showed that the wicked prosper, and since it is clear that they do (they had argued that the wicked only suffer), then by inference, perhaps the righteous suffer. This presented serious problems for their supposed open and shut case against Job.
This is Jobs reply to Zophar’s second speech: the dogma of retributive judgment fails when one observes truly “wicked” people seeming to prosper. The outcomes of personal fortunes in this life are not the standards of eternity.
Job called for his friends to be quiet and to listen to some amazing and terrifying truth (verses 1-6), namely that the wicked do prosper (verses 7-13), though they deny God (verses 14-15), and they prosper not by their doing, but God’s (verse 16).
Verses 2-5: Job desired to “speak” without being interrupted or subjected to incredulous groans from his friends.
Verses 13-15: Zophar had claimed that longevity and prosperity in this life are linked to one’s wickedness or righteousness (20:4-8). Job countered, emphasizing that the godless and the wicked often enjoy life and go to their deaths in peace (21:32-33; Eccl. 8:10). In fact, Job could not understand why the wicked seemingly live on in their unrighteousness while, as a righteous man, he was dying. The godless are those who say to God, “Depart from us”.
Verses 17-22: Playing off Bildad’s sentiment (see 18:5-6; 18-19), this whole section repeats the assertions of Job’s friends regarding the judgment of sinners. To refute that perspective, Job suggested that his friends were guilty of telling God how He must deal with people (verse 22).
Verses 22-24: Job concluded that in the end, no connection exists between how one lives and the prosperity or poverty a person experiences, and so trying to sort out the life based on observation is futile. Job could see not justice in the world or with God, yet he could clearly recognize “falsehood” in his friend’s “answers”. They had based their assumptions in their own intellect and pride.
Verses 23-26: Some of the wicked live and die in prosperity, but some don’t, canceling the absolutist nature of his counselor’s argument.
Verses 27-28: Again, Job referred to the statements of his friends, Zophar in this case (see 20:7), who were trying to prove their “sin equals suffering” idea.
Verses 29-33: Job knew they would not listen to him, so he suggested they ask travelers, any of whom would tell them that wicked people prosper sometimes in this life, but there will be a day of doom for them when they die.
So where are you at today? How will you respond to the offer from God of grace, mercy, and salvation? Are you ready to lean into all that God has for you? Are you ready to persevere and trust and have your faith built up? My hope and prayer is that You will ask Jesus into your heart so that I will get to spend eternity in God’s presence with you. Are you ready for forgiveness and peace? Are you ready for a hope and a future? Are you ready for a transformation where the old is gone and the new has come? Are you ready to being the journey of knowing right from wrong? Then let’s pray together to invite Jesus into your heart and your life so that His peace which surpasses all understanding can guide you and comfort you, protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If this is the first time you have prayed to invite Jesus into your heart, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If this is a re commitment to Jesus, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If you are still questioning or seeking, don’t go it alone, feel free to leave me a comment so we can discuss it.
Let’s pray:
^^^^^^^^^^^Will you be willing to put your name there today?
Ever been in a situation where you are wondering what just happened? Or how did I get here? Ever had people who say they are your friends try to tell you their thoughts on why or how you got into this situation? Ever had people who say they are your friends try to tell you what you need to do in order to make it better? Ever had people who say they are your friends start to give false accusations for why and how you ended up in that situation? Ever had people who say they are your friends start to give bad advice or reasons for why and how you ended up in that situation?
How will you know what is true? How will you know what is right? How will you know what is helpful? How will you know what is important? How will you know what is necessary? How will you know what to do?
I know from God’s Word that there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors. The key is to know and understand which counsel is good and which counsel you need to ignore? The key is to ask the Holy Spirit to guide your heart and your mind so that you are able to discern. I know that God’s Word never returns void and so I turn to it daily for wisdom and direction. Yesterday after my morning reading and study and post, I headed to my weekly breakfast with a friend, all the way the songs on the radio touched my heart and filled me with joy to overflowing. After a great time together, driving to work more songs that touched my heart played continuing to encourage me and let me know how much God loves me and is with me in and through it all. It enabled an incredible day in the midst of questions and situations and discussions. God is so good! He never leaves me and never abandons me. He sees me right where I am and will help me through it. As my friend shared just because we feel like we are in a dark cave, it isn’t that we have to come out to encounter Jesus, Jesus is in there with us and will help us get out. In the midst of the storm, God will allow His peace that surpasses all understanding to guard our hearts and minds. God is able to cause the storm to stop and bring peace. God is able to cause us to find peace in the midst of the storm. The key is to stick with God in and through it all.
‘Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said, “Therefore my disquieting thoughts make me answer, Because of the uneasiness that is within me. I have heard the reproof which insults me, But the spirit of my understanding makes me answer. Do you not know this from the old days, Since the time that man was placed on the earth, That the triumphing of the wicked is short, And the joy of the godless is only for a moment? Though his pride reaches the heavens And his head touches the clouds, Yet he perishes forever like his own refuse; Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ He flies away like a dream and cannot be found; Yes, he is chased away like a vision of the night. The eye which saw him sees him no longer, Neither does his [accustomed] place behold him any longer. His sons favor the poor [and pay his obligations], And his hands give back his [ill-gotten] wealth. His bones are full of youthful strength But it lies down with him in the dust. “Though evil and wickedness are sweet in his mouth And he hides it under his tongue, Though he desires it and will not let it go But holds it in his mouth, Yet his food turns [to poison] in his stomach; It is the venom of vipers within him. He swallows [his ill-gotten] riches, But will vomit them up; God will drive them out of his belly. He sucks the poison of vipers [which ill-gotten wealth contains]; The viper’s tongue slays him. He does not look at the rivers, The flowing streams of honey and butter [to enjoy his wealth]. He gives back what he has labored for and attained And cannot swallow it [down to enjoy it]; As to the riches of his labor, He cannot even enjoy them. For he has oppressed and neglected the poor; He has violently taken away houses which he did not build. “Because he knew no quietness or calm within him [because of his greed], He does not retain anything he desires. There is nothing left of what he devoured; Therefore his prosperity does not endure. In the fullness of his excess (great abundance) he will be in trouble; The hand of everyone who suffers will come against him [he is miserable on every side]. When he fills his belly, God will send His fierce anger on him And will rain it upon him while he is eating. He may flee from the iron weapon, But the bow of bronze will pierce him through. The arrow is drawn forth and it comes out of his back [after passing through his body]; Yes, the glittering point comes out of his gall. Terrors march in upon him; Complete darkness (misfortune) is held in reserve for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him; It will consume the survivor in his tent. The heavens will reveal his wickedness and guilt, And the earth will rise up against him. The produce and increase of his house will depart [with the victors]; His possessions will be dragged away in the day of God’s wrath. This is the wicked man’s portion from God, And the heritage decreed and appointed to him by God.”’
Today’s reading brings us back to Zophar who gives his second speech to Job and focused on two main ideas:
How the prosperity of the wicked is short lived
How Job is doomed for sure
Zophar speaks to how “the fate of the wicked” is short time of triumphing. He speaks to how sin might seem pleasurable for a time but it won’t last. We know this too as we consider the words of Hebrew 11:25 which says “because he preferred to endure the hardship of the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.”
We see in today’s study notes:
Verses 1-19: Zophar’s second speech focuses on two key ideas: the prosperity of the wicked is short, and his doom is sure.
“Zophar” describes the fate of the wicked in his second speech: they have their “short” times of “triumphing”. There may be “passing pleasures of sin” (Heb. 11:25), but judgement is coming. Job’s spiritual experience did not line up with Zophar’s rigid expectations, so Job was branded a “wicked man”.
Zophar spoiled it all again for Job with his second and last speech (compare 11:1-20), in which he admonished Job again to consider the fate of the wicked.
Verses 4-8: Contrary to Zophar’s confident assertion, sometimes wicked people live long lives. For example, Noah endured the wickedness of his neighbors for 120 years while he preached and built the Ark (Gen. 6:3), and God gave the Canaanites four centuries before He judged them as a nation.
Verses 5-6: “Wicked … hypocrite … triumphing”: The application of Zophar’s words about this wicked, hypocritical, proud person were aimed at Job. He would, like others so wicked, suffer the consequences of his sins (verses 7-29).
Verses 12-19: These verses represent the heart of Zophar’s perceptions about Job’s life and circumstances. Yet his conclusions were wrong because his perceptions were false, Job was not a “wicked man” (20-29). Regardless of what others perceive, the godly can always stand firm in the truth.
In verses 12-22: Evil in a life takes away all the enjoyment, implying that Job had no joy because of sin, such as that (in verse 19).
Verses 20-29: Eloquent oratory is impressive only if it tells the truth. Zophar’s commitment to the retribution principle led him to presumptuous, insulting and false claims. To see things from the perspective of the hurting; and most importantly, from God’s perspective, is the way to truly encourage them.
In verses 23-29: Zophar concluded that more than just losing the enjoyment of life by sin, the wicked fall under the fury of God determined for such wickedness.
So where are you at today? How will you respond to the offer from God of grace, mercy, and salvation? Are you ready to lean into all that God has for you? Are you ready to persevere and trust and have your faith built up? My hope and prayer is that You will ask Jesus into your heart so that I will get to spend eternity in God’s presence with you. Are you ready for forgiveness and peace? Are you ready for a hope and a future? Are you ready for a transformation where the old is gone and the new has come? Are you ready to being the journey of knowing right from wrong? Then let’s pray together to invite Jesus into your heart and your life so that His peace which surpasses all understanding can guide you and comfort you, protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If this is the first time you have prayed to invite Jesus into your heart, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If this is a re commitment to Jesus, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If you are still questioning or seeking, don’t go it alone, feel free to leave me a comment so we can discuss it.
Let’s pray:
^^^^^^^^^^^Will you be willing to put your name there today?
What to do? How to respond? You give your decision and are told you are supported but have one more conversation with someone else. You share your decision and are told that they want you to be happy even though they wouldn’t be happy with your decision and so would support whatever you decide. Then a new conversation starts trying to understand your decision. Not sure if it is a stall tactic or a reverse of course. Just know I feel frustrated and unsure what just happened. When you get mixed messages it makes you wonder what you can and can’t or should and shouldn’t believe.
My trust is in God. My hope is in God. My good friend listens and can empathize with me. My wife hears me and wonders with me. But now what? How long do I have to wait to know? Do I have to take action that will force people’s hands? Do I have to just ask more questions than try to give answers? Do I give my wants and needs and ask what they would recommend? What do I do now? I know that strength will rise as I wait upon the Lord, so I know that in and through all of this that is my aim. I am going to turn to God and His Word and to His people for wisdom and guidance because I know that if I seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness that He will take care of the rest. What to do?
I will keep doing what I know to do. God’s Word never returns void and even as I looked at my phone today’s verse from Matthew 23:11 reminds me:
and my friend shared through the Bible app 1 Peter 1:13 which reminds me:
‘Then Job answered and said, “How long will you torment and exasperate me And crush me with words? These ten times you have insulted me; You are not ashamed to wrong me [and harden your hearts against me]. And if it were true that I have erred, My error would remain with me [and I would be conscious of it]. If indeed you [braggarts] vaunt and magnify yourselves over me And prove my disgrace (humiliation) to me, Know then that God has wronged me and overthrown me And has closed His net around me. “Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not heard; I shout for help, but there is no justice. He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, And He has set darkness upon my paths. He has stripped me of my honor And removed the crown from my head. He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; He has uprooted my hope like a tree. He has also kindled His wrath [like a fire] against me And He considers and counts me as one of His adversaries. His troops come together And build up their way and siege works against me And camp around my tent. “He has put my brothers far from me, And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed [me], And my intimate friends have forgotten me. Those who live [temporarily] in my house and my maids consider me a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight. I call to my servant, but he does not answer; I have to implore him with words. My breath is repulsive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own brothers. Even young children despise me; When I get up, they speak against me. All the men of my council hate me; Those I love have turned against me. My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, And I have escaped [death] by the skin of my teeth. Have pity on me! Have pity on me, O you my friends, For the hand of God has touched me. Why do you persecute me as God does? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh (anguish)? “Oh, that the words I now speak were written! Oh, that they were recorded in a scroll! That with an iron stylus and [molten] lead They were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, And at the last He will take His stand upon the earth. Even after my [mortal] skin is destroyed [by death], Yet from my [immortal] flesh I will see God, Whom I, even I, will see for myself, And my eyes will see Him and not another! My heart faints within me. If you say, ‘How shall we [continue to] persecute him?’ And ‘What pretext for a case against him can we find [since we claim the root of these afflictions is found in him]?’ Then beware and be afraid of the sword [of divine vengeance] for yourselves, For wrathful are the punishments of that sword, So that you may know there is judgment.”’
‘Then Job answered and said, “How long will you torment and exasperate me And crush me with words? These ten times you have insulted me; You are not ashamed to wrong me [and harden your hearts against me]. And if it were true that I have erred, My error would remain with me [and I would be conscious of it]. If indeed you [braggarts] vaunt and magnify yourselves over me And prove my disgrace (humiliation) to me, Know then that God has wronged me and overthrown me And has closed His net around me.
“Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not heard; I shout for help, but there is no justice. He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, And He has set darkness upon my paths. He has stripped me of my honor And removed the crown from my head. He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; He has uprooted my hope like a tree. He has also kindled His wrath [like a fire] against me And He considers and counts me as one of His adversaries. His troops come together And build up their way and siege works against me And camp around my tent. “He has put my brothers far from me, And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed [me], And my intimate friends have forgotten me. Those who live [temporarily] in my house and my maids consider me a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight. I call to my servant, but he does not answer; I have to implore him with words. My breath is repulsive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own brothers. Even young children despise me; When I get up, they speak against me. All the men of my council hate me; Those I love have turned against me. My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, And I have escaped [death] by the skin of my teeth. Have pity on me! Have pity on me, O you my friends, For the hand of God has touched me. Why do you persecute me as God does? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh (anguish)?
“Oh, that the words I now speak were written! Oh, that they were recorded in a scroll! That with an iron stylus and [molten] lead They were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, And at the last He will take His stand upon the earth. Even after my [mortal] skin is destroyed [by death], Yet from my [immortal] flesh I will see God, Whom I, even I, will see for myself, And my eyes will see Him and not another! My heart faints within me. If you say, ‘How shall we [continue to] persecute him?’ And ‘What pretext for a case against him can we find [since we claim the root of these afflictions is found in him]?’ Then beware and be afraid of the sword [of divine vengeance] for yourselves, For wrathful are the punishments of that sword, So that you may know there is judgment.”’
With time being short today I am going to share some of the top call outs from the Bible study. You have the links above to double click or dive deeper into today’s reading.
Verses 1-29: Job’s response to Bildad’s second speech was desperate. This is Job’s second response to Bildad. The common charge of his friends has brought such grief to Job that he cries again for a mediator, and affirms his deep belief in the ultimate justice of Yahweh, even if His justice is revealed in the life to come. Job’s words concerning His “Redeemer” and his belief in the resurrection of the body are among the most significant in the book.
(In verses 1-19), Job felt “strange” by God and abandoned by his “Close friends” and what remained of his “relatives”. No one stood up to defend him. All that was once strong in Job’s life, his family, his social standing, his wealth, his faith, was now broken and “removed”.
In verses 1-5: Job began with the anguished cry that his friends have become defiant and relentless for mentors (verses 2-3), and they have had no effect on his dialog with the sin they imagine is present (verse 4).
Verses 5-7: Job confessed that if God sent him friends like Bildad, who needs enemies? He feared there was no justice.
Verses 8-10: Before his trials began, Job had been one of the most important men in the East. But this adversity had “stripped” him “of” his “glory”, ruining his financial position and his standing in the community. He could no longer see what the future held (“darkness in my paths”).
(In verses 8-21), Job rehearsed his suffering. God had closed him in, stripped him, broken him and turned against him (verses 8-12). His family and friends had failed him (verses 15-19), so that he was to be pitied because God had caused this to occur (verses 21-22). “In my flesh” (verse 26) speaks of a resurrected body. Though it may also be translated “apart from my flesh,” as a spirit being, the emphasis of the original means “from the standpoint of my flesh,” in my resurrected body. Here then is clear evidence of the Old Testament belief in the resurrection of the human body.
In verses 23-29 we see Job at his greatest despair, but his faith appeared at its highest as he confidently affirmed that God was his Redeemer. He wanted that confidence in the record for all to know (verses 23-24). Job wished that the activities of his life were put into words and “engraved in the rock,” so all would know that he had not sinned to the magnitude of his suffering. God granted his prayer. God was his Redeemer (compare Exodus 6:6; Psalms 19:14; 72:14; Isa. 43:14; 47:4; 49:26; Jer. 50:34), who would vindicate him in that last day of judgment on the earth when justice was finally done (Jer. 12:1-3; John 5:25, 29; Rev. 20:11-15).
Verses 23-27: God has humiliated Job (verses 8-12), his friends and relatives have abandoned him (verses 13-20), and he has been reduced to pleading for pity (verses 21-22). But from the depths of degradation he expresses the confidence that if his case could only be recorded for posterity, future generations would judge him favorably (verses 23-24). Furthermore, he knows confidently that he has a “Redeemer” (verse 25, Hebrew goel), One who will champion his cause and vindicate him. The Redeemer is more than an arbiter (9:33) or a witness (16:19) but a Kinsman-Redeemer who will avenge him. Clearly, Job viewed God Himself as the Redeemer, and the Hebrew word is in fact used often of God (Psalm 19:14; Isa. 41:14; etc.).
In the midst of the trial, in the midst of the trouble, in the midst of the struggle, in the midst of the storm, draw closer to God, hold tighter to God, and fear not, just believe. This time on earth is but a breath and our aim is our end of spending eternity with God, so don’t give up, don’t lose hope, don’t fear, put your hope and trust in God and that He knows what He is doing in and through the process and the journey. Our God reigns!
So where are you at today? How will you respond to the offer from God of grace, mercy, and salvation? Are you ready to lean into all that God has for you? Are you ready to persevere and trust and have your faith built up? My hope and prayer is that You will ask Jesus into your heart so that I will get to spend eternity in God’s presence with you. Are you ready for forgiveness and peace? Are you ready for a hope and a future? Are you ready for a transformation where the old is gone and the new has come? Are you ready to being the journey of knowing right from wrong? Then let’s pray together to invite Jesus into your heart and your life so that His peace which surpasses all understanding can guide you and comfort you, protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If this is the first time you have prayed to invite Jesus into your heart, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If this is a re commitment to Jesus, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If you are still questioning or seeking, don’t go it alone, feel free to leave me a comment so we can discuss it.
Let’s pray:
^^^^^^^^^^^Will you be willing to put your name there today?
You are at a crossroads. You are at the door to change. You are facing the decision of more of the same or something different. You are seeking wisdom. You are hearing advice. You are asking questions. The answers are clear in some cases and vague in others. The answers are direct in some cases and open ended in others. Knowing that there is wisdom in many counselors, I ask for input. I trust into God rather than my own understanding in order to pursue God’s perfect plan and will at this juncture. I try to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit in order to discern the right decision. Today I need to choose. Today I need to decide. Today’s decision will impact many. Today’s decision will transform the day to day work and yet allow for similar surroundings. So before I go, I stop and turn to God’s Word.
‘Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said, “How long will you hunt for words and continue these speeches? Do some clear thinking and show understanding and then we can talk. Why are we regarded as beasts, As if [we are] stupid (senseless) in your eyes? You who tear yourself apart in anger, Is the earth to be abandoned for your sake, Or the rock to be moved out of its place? “Indeed, the light of the wicked will be put out, And the flame of his fire will not shine. The light will be dark in his tent, And his lamp beside him will be put out. The vigorous stride will be shortened, And his own counsel and the scheme [in which he trusted] will bring his downfall. For the wicked is thrown into a net by his own feet (wickedness), And he steps on the webbing [of the lattice-covered pit]. A snare catches him by the heel, And a trap snaps shut on him. A noose is hidden for him on the ground, And a trap for him on the path. Terrors frighten him on every side And chase at his heels. The strength [of the wicked] is famished and weakened, And disaster is ready at his side [if he stops]. His skin is devoured by disease; The firstborn of death [the worst of diseases] consumes his limbs. He is torn from his tent which he trusted [for safety], And he is marched and brought to the king of terrors (death). Nothing of his dwells in his tent; Brimstone (burning sulfur) is scattered over his dwelling [to purify it]. The roots [of the wicked] are dried up below, And above, his branch is cut off and withers. Memory of him perishes from the earth, And he has no name on the street. He is driven and propelled from light into darkness, And chased from the inhabited world. He has no offspring or prosperity among his people, Nor any survivor where he sojourned. Those in the west are astonished and appalled at his fate, And those in the east are seized with horror. Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked and the ungodly, And such is the place of him who does not know or recognize or honor God.”’
When people try to convince you of something do they use tactics? Are they using logic tactics? Are they using debate tactics? Are they using emotional tactics? Are they using fear tactics? What motivates you? What are you looking for in your conversations? Is it a peace, but not just someone trying to butter you up, a real peace that surpasses all understanding that allows you to know God’s in it?
We see as we look into the study of Job 18 how Bildad in his second attempt to speak to Job that reason isn’t working and so he moves on to trying to persuade Job with fear by scaring him into reality as he believes that Job is about to die the way of the wicked.
25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
We learn how Bildad in speaking of the wicked, compare them to how birds and animals are captured by “nets”, “snares”, “traps”, “nooses” and how that is the way the wicked will meet their demise.
So where are you at today? How will you respond to the offer from God of grace, mercy, and salvation? Are you ready to lean into all that God has for you? Are you ready to persevere and trust and have your faith built up? My hope and prayer is that You will ask Jesus into your heart so that I will get to spend eternity in God’s presence with you. Are you ready for forgiveness and peace? Are you ready for a hope and a future? Are you ready for a transformation where the old is gone and the new has come? Are you ready to being the journey of knowing right from wrong? Then let’s pray together to invite Jesus into your heart and your life so that His peace which surpasses all understanding can guide you and comfort you, protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If this is the first time you have prayed to invite Jesus into your heart, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If this is a re commitment to Jesus, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If you are still questioning or seeking, don’t go it alone, feel free to leave me a comment so we can discuss it.
Let’s pray:
^^^^^^^^^^^Will you be willing to put your name there today?
Will it be while you are at the top? Will it be while you are climbing? Will it be while you are falling? Will it take hitting rock bottom to turn and start fresh? I remember a time when I had felt cheated and betrayed. I remember a time when I was given a promise and a deal. And how through it I learned the power of forgiveness just before I hit rock bottom. I resisted forgiving them because of the pain, the anger, and the bitterness even though God kept prompting me to forgive. I had so many reasons why they didn’t deserve my forgiveness and that bitter root took hold and just made things worse. Over time when I share my story of why people need to forgive I use the analogy of taking poison and expecting the other person to die, it doesn’t work and it makes you feel horrible. So how bad does it have to get before you will turn to God? How bad do you have to feel before you will turn back to the healer? How bad does it have to get before you will turn to the mediator? How out of control do things have to feel before you will turn to the prince of peace? Is it going to take hitting rock bottom before you can start fresh? Will you have to learn through your own struggles or are you willing to learn through the struggles of others? Will you take your learning and share it with others to help them get out of the downward spiral and look up before they hit rock bottom? Will you remember the lesson and before that bitter root is able to be picked up you will forgive?
Will you put your hope and trust in God? Will you put your hope and trust in people? Will you put your hope and trust in someone who is love? Will you put your hope and trust in someone who never changes? Will you take your chances on shifting sand or will you put your hope and trust on the solid rock? We all have a choice! We all have freewill! So we all get to make the decision for ourselves! So choose wisely and choose before it is too late!
Will you wait for rock bottom to get a new beginning?
Or will you choose sooner?
Consider this visual and where would you want to get off the ride?
Would you be willing to look away, to get off the downward spiral, and to forgive or listen to a message on forgiveness? At work they asked us to do a story slam sharing about a time, something happened, and how it changed us and so my story that I shared was the story of forgiveness. It got recorded and when I asked if I was allowed to share it outside of the company I got a yes and so I posted it to YouTube and here it is below in case you wanted to take a peak and let me know what you hear and if it is helpful to you in your very situation.
‘“My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished, The grave is ready for me. Surely there are mockers and mockery with me, And my eye gazes on their obstinacy and provocation. “Give me a pledge (guarantee, promise) with Yourself [acknowledge my innocence before my death]; Who is there that will be my guarantor and give security for me? But You [Lord] have closed their hearts to understanding, Therefore You will not exalt them [by giving a verdict against me]. He who denounces and informs against his friends for a share of the spoil, The eyes of his children will also languish and fail. “But He has made me a byword and mockery among the people, And I have become one in whose face people spit. My eye has grown dim (unexpressive) because of grief, And all my [body’s] members are [wasted away] like a shadow. The upright will be [astonished and] appalled at this, And the innocent will stir himself up against the godless and polluted. Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his ways, And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger. But as for all of you, come back again, Even though I do not find a wise man among you. My days are past, my purposes and plans are frustrated and torn apart; The wishes of my heart [are broken]. These [thoughts try to] make the night into the day; ‘The light is near,’ they say in the presence of darkness [but they pervert the truth]. But if I look to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) as my home, If I make my bed in the darkness, If I call out to the pit (grave), ‘You are my father’; And to the worm [that feeds on decay], ‘You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you],’ Where now is my hope? And who regards or considers or is even concerned about my hope? Will my hope go down with me to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead)? Shall we go down together in the dust?”’
Today’s reading we see how as Job hits rock bottom, the only way to turn was to God. To look up to Him in his pain and suffering and cry out to Him and His mercies. As he has nothing left he goes to the only place he knows to go, he turns to God. As he doesn’t know what to do he does all he knows to do, he turns to God. As all options seem to have been closed, he turns to God.
We learn how he felt done, all his power was gone and he couldn’t do anything more and was feeling so weak that he was ready to die.
All the mocking and provocation were but temporary. He was but passing through, not fast on a highway type of passing through but more of a journey where he was able to observe and take in what was there.
Job is looking for a pledge, a bond, a security, some type of guarantee or security that justice would be done and that God would make an agreement with him.
We learn how Job believes that his so-called friends we blind and perverse to what was really going on. They didn’t realize or understand what was really going on. He points to how God is the source of light and how man can be blinded and miss out on the wisdom or the purpose. His desire was to go straight to God rather than have to deal with human accusers.
We need to watch out for smooth talkers, people who may try to use flattery in order to get part of the prize, the treasure, or the windfall. We need to know their hearts in order to ensure that it isn’t some fraudulent attempt to twist things. We read how that is a crime and those people would/will have to deal with the consequences.
We see how God feels that he has been made to be ridiculed and scored in the midst of all of this. We read how Job had become the object of contempt.
We learn how his sight is failing due to all the crying and how worn down he has become. He is exhausted from all the suffering, fading like a shadow.
Job shares how astonished he believes that his friends will be when the truth is revealed. That a good person could be afflicted in such a way and without relief from friends or hypocrites.
Job speaks to how he won’t lose his way, he won’t turn from God and curse Him, but instead shall keep his confidences and hope and trust in God because he knows that God will renew his strength as he leans on God. We learn how he will persevere in the midst of the trial.
As we continue, it appears Job is asking his friends to renew their argument and to try again to bring wisdom into the very situation.
Job feels as though he is about to die and his sadness returns. He is feeling that he has lost his purpose and his plans and so no matter what they had to say, he felt it was over for him.
We learn how Job feels he has lost his ability or opportunity to rest so that night when he would have rested was now taken away too. We learn as it continues how not only has the evening lost its time of rest but the day has lost it cheerfulness and become gloomy.
He feels it is near the end and that the grave is going to be his home. The words used are with certainty not supposing and that he has made up his mind.
In verse 14, our study shares some interesting extras and so I am copying them below:
I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
I have said – Margin, cried, or called. The sense is, “I say,” or “I thus address the grave.”
To corruption – The word used here (שׁחת shachath) means properly a pit, or pit-fall, Psalm 7:15; Psalm 9:15; a cistern, or a ditch, Job 9:31; or the sepulchre, or grave, Psalm 30:9; Job 33:18, Job 33:30. The Septuagint renders it here by θανάτον thanaton – death. Jerome (Vulgate), putredini dixi. According to Gesenius (Lex), the word never has the sense of corruption. Schultens, however, Rosenmuller, and others, understand it in the sense of corruption or putrefaction. This accords, certainly, with the other hemistich, and better constitutes a parallelism with the “worm” than the word “grave” would. It seems probable that this is the sense here; and if the proper meaning of the word is a pit, or the grave, it here denotes the grave, as containing a dead and moulderling body.
Thou art my father – “I am nearly allied to it. I sustain to it a relation like that of a child to a father.” The idea seems to be that of family likeness; and the object is to present the most striking and impressive view of his sad and sorrowful condition. He was so diseased, so wretched, so full of sores and of corruption (see Job 7:5), that he might be said to be the child of one mouldering in the grave, and was kindred to a family in the tomb!
To the worm – The worm that feeds upon the dead. He belonged to that sad family where the body was putrifying, and where it was covered with worms; see the notes at Isaiah 14:11.
My mother – I am so nearly allied to the worms, that the connection may be compared to that between a mother and her son.
And my sister – “The sister here is mentioned rather than the brother, because the noun rendered worm in the Hebrew, is in the feminine gender.” Rosenmuller. The sense of the whole is, that Job felt that he belonged to the grave. He was destined to corruption. He was soon to lie down with the dead. His acquaintance and kindred were there. So corrupt was his body, so afflicted and diseased, that he seemed to belong to the family of the putrifying, and of those covered with worms! What an impressive description; and yet how true is it of all! The most vigorous frame, the most beautiful and graceful form, the most brilliant complexion, has a near relationship to the worm, and will soon belong to the mouldering family beneath the ground! Christian reader! such are you; such am I. Well, let it be so. Let us not repine. Be the grave our home; be the mouldering people there our parents, and brothers, and sisters. Be our alliance with the worms. There is a brighter scene beyond – a world where we shall be kindred with the angels, and ranked among the sons of God. In that world we shall be clothed with immortal youth, and shall know corruption no more. Then our eyes will shine with undiminished brilliancy forever; our cheeks glow with immortal health; our hearts beat with the pulsations of eternal life. Then our hands shall be feeble and our knees totter with disease or age no more; and then the current of health and joy shall flow on through our veins forever and eye! Allied now to worms we are, but we are allied to the angels too; the grave is to be our home, but so also is heaven; the worm is our brother, but so also is the Son of God! Such is man; such are his prospects here, such his hopes and destiny in the world to come. He dies here, but he lives in glory and honor hereafter forever.
Shall man, O God of light and life, For ever moulder in the grave? Canst thou forget thy glorious work, Thy promise and thy power to save? Shall life revisit dying worms, And spread the joyful insects’ wing; And O shall man awake no more, To see thy face, thy name to sing? Faith sees the bright, eternal doors, Unfold to make her children way; They shall be clothed with endless life, And shine in everlasting day. The trump shall sound, the dead shall wake, From the cold tomb the slumberers spring; Through heaven with joy these myriads rise, And hail their Savior and their King.
Job has started to lose hope of future life or that he will be able to escape death through this experience. His hope and happiness will go with him.
So where are you at today? How will you respond to the offer from God of grace, mercy, and salvation? Are you ready to lean into all that God has for you? Are you ready to persevere and trust and have your faith built up? My hope and prayer is that You will ask Jesus into your heart so that I will get to spend eternity in God’s presence with you. Are you ready for forgiveness and peace? Are you ready for a hope and a future? Are you ready for a transformation where the old is gone and the new has come? Are you ready to being the journey of knowing right from wrong? Then let’s pray together to invite Jesus into your heart and your life so that His peace which surpasses all understanding can guide you and comfort you, protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If this is the first time you have prayed to invite Jesus into your heart, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If this is a re commitment to Jesus, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If you are still questioning or seeking, don’t go it alone, feel free to leave me a comment so we can discuss it.
Let’s pray:
^^^^^^^^^^^Will you be willing to put your name there today?
‘Then Job answered and said, “I have heard many such things; Wearisome and miserable comforters are you all. Is there no end to [your futile] words of wind? Or what plagues you [so much] that you [so boldly] answer [me like this]? I also could speak like you, If you were in my place; I could compose and join words together against you And shake my head at you. [But instead] I could strengthen and encourage you with [the words of] my mouth, And the consolation and solace of my lips would soothe your suffering and lessen your anguish.
“If I speak [to you miserable comforters], my pain is not relieved; And if I refrain [from speaking], what [pain or anguish] leaves me? But now God has exhausted me. You [O Lord] have destroyed all my family and my household. You have taken a firm hold on me and have shriveled me up, It has become a witness [against me]; And my leanness [and infirmity] rises up [as evidence] against me, It testifies to my face [about my guilt]. His wrath has torn me and hunted me down, He has gnashed at me with his teeth; My adversary sharpens His gaze and glares [with piercing eyes] at me. They have gaped at me with their mouths, With contempt they have struck me on the cheek; They massed themselves together [and conspired] against me. God hands me over to criminals And tosses me [headlong] into the hands of the wicked. I was [living] at ease, but He crushed me and broke me apart, And He has seized me by the neck and has shaken me to pieces; He has also set me up as His target. His arrows surround me. He pierces my kidneys (vital organs) without mercy; He pours out my gall on the ground. He attacks me, making wound after wound; He runs at me like a warrior. I have sewed sackcloth over my skin [as a sign of mourning] And have defiled my horn (symbol of strength) in the dust. My face is red and swollen with weeping, And on my eyelids is the shadow of death [my eyes are dimmed], Although there is no violence or wrongdoing in my hands, And my prayer is pure. “O earth, do not cover my blood, And let there be no [resting] place for my cry [where it will cease being heard]. Even now, behold, my Witness is in heaven, And my Advocate [who vouches and testifies for me] is on high. My friends are scoffers [who ridicule]; My eye pours out tears to God. Oh, that a man would mediate and plead with God [for me] Just as a man [mediates and pleads] with his neighbor and friend. For when a few years are past, I shall go the way of no return.’
In today’s reading we see Job giving another rebuttal to his friends. We see how their words haven’t helped but have hurt Job even more not comforting or healing but hurting and destroying. Job was broken from what had happened to him and his family and yet in the midst of that his friends are of no hope and no help. His friends had come under the pretense of being comforters and even sat and mourned with him quietly for 7 days. Unfortunately after that time they turned on him and tormented him more than they tried to comfort him. We see how our words may start out with the right intention but if or when we turn to bitterness · spite · hate · hatred · resentment · malice · ill will · malevolence · malignancy · animosity · antipathy · enmity · hostility · acrimony · venom · poison · vindictiveness · balefulness · vengefulness · vitriol · virulence · perniciousness · meanness · nastiness · bitchiness · cattiness · maleficence and sarcasm the words start to hurt more than they help. Such words build up frustration in everyone. It becomes a matter of the heart. If the table had been turned we learn how Job wouldn’t have treated them the way they were treating him. We learn how he would have used words that would helped strengthen and comfort them. We can’t assume what the other people are going thru. We can’t assume that we understand what they are going thru because we think we went thru something similar since we don’t really know what they have been thru.
Ever noticed how people respond to things they are passionate about? Ever noticed how people can get angry about things they love? Today’s study puts it this way:
Verses 6-17: It is often the case that a person’s anger reflects his or her love. Believers who get angry with God reveal that they care about Him even though they do not fully understand Him.
(In verses 6-14), Job considered God an “enemy” (verse 9). Job was not alone in struggling this intensely with God. Jacob fought with the Angel of the Lord all night (Gen. 32:24-30); Peter argued with God (Acts 10:9-16). Anger with God can sometimes be a catalyst for spiritual growth. It can mean a person is outgrowing a less mature understanding of God.
Verses 6-9: These poignant thoughts from Job lamented his suffering as severe judgment from God, who had worn him out, withered his strength, and chewed him up by severe scrutiny (“sharpeneth his eyes upon me”).
Verses 12-14: Job refers to God as his “adversary”, who had broken, shaken, shot at, and cleaveth my reins.
Verses 15-20: He had no one to turn to in his sorrow, except God (verse 19), who was silent and had not vindicated him.
Verses 18-21: Job was not crying out for a mediator but for an advocate. He wanted a lawyer who would represent him before God. Here again is the gospel in Job, Jesus is the believer’s advocate at the throne of God (Heb. 7:25; 1 John 2:1).
So where are you at today? How will you respond to the offer from God of grace, mercy, and salvation? Are you ready to lean into all that God has for you? Are you ready to persevere and trust and have your faith built up? My hope and prayer is that You will ask Jesus into your heart so that I will get to spend eternity in God’s presence with you. Are you ready for forgiveness and peace? Are you ready for a hope and a future? Are you ready for a transformation where the old is gone and the new has come? Are you ready to being the journey of knowing right from wrong? Then let’s pray together to invite Jesus into your heart and your life so that His peace which surpasses all understanding can guide you and comfort you, protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If this is the first time you have prayed to invite Jesus into your heart, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If this is a re commitment to Jesus, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If you are still questioning or seeking, don’t go it alone, feel free to leave me a comment so we can discuss it.
Let’s pray:
^^^^^^^^^^^Will you be willing to put your name there today?
What is your purpose and your intention for debating or questioning the other person? Is your goal to win or to understand? Is your goal to win or to inform? Is your goal to solve the problem or defeat the person? When faced with a problem, how will you address it? Will you attack the problem or will you attack the person? Will you allow Jesus to be in the center of the relationship and then partner with the other person to address the problem? Will you attack the problem or will you attack the other person?
Do you know what is going on? Do you totally comprehend it? Are you assuming based on your knowledge and just trying to win the debate? Are you finding that your technique isn’t helping you win the argument? Are you realizing that you are now trying to go after the person? Are you a real friend with a real relationship or are you a so-called friend and just trying to indict the other person so that you win?
‘Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered [Job] and said, “Should a wise man [such as you] utter such windy and vain knowledge [as we have just heard] And fill himself with the east wind [of withering, parching, and violent accusations]? Should he rebuke and argue with useless talk? Or with words in which there is no benefit? Indeed, you are doing away with fear, And you are diminishing meditation before God. For your guilt teaches your mouth, And you choose [to speak] the language of the crafty and cunning. Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; Yes, your own lips testify against you. “Were you the first man to be born [the original wise man], Or were you created before the hills? Do you hear the secret counsel of God, And do you limit [the possession of] wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not equally clear to us? Among us are both the gray-haired and the aged, Older than your father. Are the consolations of God [as we have interpreted them to you] too trivial for you, [Or] were we too gentle toward you [in our first speech] to be effective? Why does your heart carry you away [allowing you to be controlled by emotion]? And why do your eyes flash [in anger or contempt], That you should turn your spirit against God And let such words [as you have spoken] go out of your mouth? What is man, that he should be pure and clean, Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous and just? Behold, God puts no trust in His holy ones (angels); Indeed, the heavens are not pure in His sight— How much less [pure and clean is] the one who is repulsive and corrupt, Man, who drinks unrighteousness and injustice like water! “I will tell you, listen to me; And what I have seen I will also declare; What wise men have [freely] told, And have not hidden [anything passed on to them] from their fathers, To whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them [corrupting the truth]. The wicked man writhes with pain all his days, And numbered are the years stored up for him, the ruthless one. A [dreadful] sound of terrors is in his ears; While at peace and in a time of prosperity the destroyer comes upon him [the tent of the robber is not at peace]. He does not believe that he will return out of the darkness [for fear of being murdered], And he is destined for the sword [of God’s vengeance]. He wanders about for food, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness and destruction is already at hand. Distress and anxiety terrify him, They overpower him like a king ready for battle. Because he has stretched out his hand against God And behaves arrogantly against the Almighty, Running and charging headlong against Him With his ornamented and massive shield; For he has covered his face with his fat, Adding layers of fat to his thighs [giving himself up to pleasures], And he has lived in desolate [God-forsaken] cities, In houses which no one should inhabit, Which were destined to become heaps [of ruins]; He will not become rich, nor will his wealth endure; And his grain will not bend to the earth nor his possessions be extended on the earth. He will not escape from darkness [fleeing disaster]; The flame [of God’s wrath] will wither his branch, And by the blast of His mouth he will go away. Let him not trust in vanity (emptiness, futility) and be led astray; For emptiness will be his reward [for such living]. It will be fulfilled while he still lives, And his branch will not be green [but shall wither away]. He will fail to bring his grapes to maturity [leaving them to wither unnourished] on the vine, And will cast off blossoms [and fail to bring forth fruit] like the olive tree. For the company of the godless is barren, And fire consumes the tents of bribery (wrong and injustice). They conceive mischief and bring forth wickedness, And their inmost soul prepares deceit and fraud.”’
After Job’s latest speech, it has intensified the rebuttal of his friends. Their confrontation was energized by what Job had to say.
Today’s reading begins with Eliphaz, who was the first friend who tried to comfort him, the first to dispute with him and the oldest of them. The discussion or debate has escalated and become much more heated.
We see more questions being raised during this conversation and learn thru the study how the book of Job has more questions than any other book in the Bible with over 300 questions. The questions revolve around the subject of wisdom and trying to get understanding.
We read how Eliphaz was now telling Job that his words in vain and would have as little effect on God as the wind. He compares Job’s speech to the east wind which in that part of the world was the worst wind.
Eliphaz says Job’s words are worthless, unprofitable and do no good but instead cause hurt. We see how Eliphaz’s opinion of Job has degraded and felt that Job’s sins were so great that God wouldn’t even be listening to him.
Today’s study gives the following additional summary of what was discussed:
Verses 7-13: Eliphaz condemned Job for rejecting the conventional wisdom, as if he had more insight than other men (verses 7-9), and could reject the wisdom of the aged (verse 10), and the kindness of God (verse 11).
Verses 7-10: With God, true knowledge is not necessarily linked to age but to consistent obedience (Psalm 119:99-100). Knowledge and wisdom come from doing what God instructs and discovering that He always knows what is right (Deut. 4:6; 1 Tim. 4:12).
Verses 14-16: A strong statement with regard to the sinfulness of man (Rom. 3:23), that attacked Job’s claim to righteousness. (Verse 15), refers to holy angels who fell and brought impurity into the heavens (Rev. 12:1-4). The truth is accurate, that all men are sinners, but irrelevant in Job’s case, because his suffering was not due to any sin.
Verses 15-20: Retributive justice was not only Eliphaz’s philosophy but that of all three friends. They did not see that while suffering is ultimately the result of original sin not all suffering is the result of a person’s particular sin.
Verses 17-35: Eliphaz once again returned to the same perspective and indicted Job for sin because Job was suffering. To support his relentless point, he launched into a lengthy monologue about the wicked and their outcomes in life, including many parallels to the sufferings of Job. He had pain, and didn’t know when his life would end (verse 20). He suffered from fear, every sound alarmed him, and he thought his destroyer was near (verses 21-22). He worried about having food (verse 23). His suffering made him question God (verses 24-26). Once well-nourished, housed and rich (verses 27-29), he would lose it all (verses 30-33). Eliphaz concluded by calling Job a hypocrite (verses 34-35), saying that this was the reason things were going so badly.
Eliphaz again appeals to his personal experience for authority: “That which I have seen.” He then surveys the judgments that fall on the wicked, thus implying that Job is to be numbered among them.
It was interesting as I looked for an image for today’s post, I found this interesting one and clicked one level further and found an interesting podcast about it. Attack the Problem Not the Person – the question was posed from an Amazon employee where he spoke of their way of Attacking the process not the person which leads into the podcast discussion.
So where are you at today? How will you respond to the offer from God of grace, mercy, and salvation? Are you ready to lean into all that God has for you? Are you ready to persevere and trust and have your faith built up? My hope and prayer is that You will ask Jesus into your heart so that I will get to spend eternity in God’s presence with you. Are you ready for forgiveness and peace? Are you ready for a hope and a future? Are you ready for a transformation where the old is gone and the new has come? Are you ready to being the journey of knowing right from wrong? Then let’s pray together to invite Jesus into your heart and your life so that His peace which surpasses all understanding can guide you and comfort you, protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If this is the first time you have prayed to invite Jesus into your heart, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If this is a re commitment to Jesus, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If you are still questioning or seeking, don’t go it alone, feel free to leave me a comment so we can discuss it.
Let’s pray:
^^^^^^^^^^^Will you be willing to put your name there today?
You realize that there is something after this life on earth right? Will you make the most of your time here? Will you make decisions that will last for a time or will you make decisions that will last forever? Will you be a good steward of your time? Will you be a good steward of your energy? Will you be a good steward of your resources?
In this world there will be troubles. How will you choose to respond? In this life you will face trials of many kinds. How will you choose to respond? We can’t control what will come our way but we can control how we respond!
In the midst of everything, are you able to keep the hope that comes from keeping your focus on God rather than yourself? Are you able to look beyond yourself? Are you able to look beyond your situation? Are you able to look beyond your circumstances? In a world that can be filled with such hopelessness, can you still be a light of hope no matter what you are going through?
‘“Man, who is born of a woman, Is short-lived and full of turmoil. Like a flower he comes forth and withers; He also flees like a shadow and does not remain. You also open Your eyes upon him And bring him into judgment with Yourself. Who can make a clean thing out of the unclean? No one! Since his days are determined, The number of his months is with You [in Your control], And You have made his limits so he cannot pass [his allotted time]. [O God] turn your gaze from him so that he may rest, Until he fulfills his day [on earth] like a hired man. “For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, And that the shoots of it will not cease nor fail, [but there is no such hope for man]. Though its roots grow old in the earth And its stump dies in the dry soil, Yet at the scent of water [the stump of the tree] will flourish And bring forth sprigs and shoots like a seedling. But [the brave, strong] man must die and lie face down; Man breathes his last, and where is he? As water evaporates from the sea, And a river drains and dries up, So man lies down and does not rise [again]. Until the heavens are no longer, The dead will not awake nor be raised from their sleep. “Oh, that You would hide me in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead), That You would conceal me until Your wrath is past, That You would set a definite time and then remember me [and in Your lovingkindness imprint me on your heart]! If a man dies, will he live again? I will wait all the days of my struggle Until my change and release will come. [Then] You will call, and I will answer You; You will long for [me] the work of Your hands. But now You number [each of] my steps; You do not observe nor take note of my sin. My transgression is sealed up in a bag, And You cover my wickedness [from Your view]. “But as a mountain, if it falls, crumbles into nothing, And as the rock is moved from its place, Water wears away the stones, Its floods and torrents wash away the soil of the earth, So You [O Lord] destroy the hope of man. You prevail forever against him and overpower him, and he passes on; You change his appearance and send him away [from the presence of the living]. His sons achieve honor, and he does not know it; They become insignificant, and he is not aware of it. But his body [lamenting its decay] grieves in pain over it, And his soul mourns over [the loss of] himself.”’
We read about how Job sees life as being short. Be it when he compares it to but a few days or when he compares it to the life of a flow or even a shadow that fades. In the midst of everything, we see that Job leans on the fact that God is in control of everything in life, even though he may not understand or comprehend their meaning and even challenged with some of them. We learn Job’s view of how life works as the chapter beings from how short life is to how we are all sinners to how soon death comes. We learn how Job uses these facts to request grace from God in the midst of this trials he was going thru in hopes of the intensity reducing as his hope was wading in the pain and suffering going on. Feeling that God’s judgement was taking place, we also learn how Job was at the point of asking to die and remain in the earth till the end of the time of judgement when he could be raised to life when called again by God. It is interesting that he would speak of the subject of revelation when the dead would rise too. We see how even in the midst of the wading hope, the pain and the suffering, the trials and tribulation in his life, Job still reached for the hope of resurrection because of his hope and trust in God. We see how even though Job asked for death it had the hope of life again. We learn through Job’s questioning how we all go through the questions and process of trying to understand the who we are, why are we here, and where are we going. Everyone is looking for and wanting to have purpose.
God creates us all on purpose, with purpose, and for a purpose! I remember the study of A Purpose Driven Life years ago and what it speaks to these questions. When we know the purpose, it gives meaning to our lives (Jer 29:11 – New Century Version). When we know our purpose, it simplifies our lives (Isa 26:3 – Today’s English Version). When we know our purpose, it focuses our lives. When we know our purpose, it keeps us from changing directions, school subjects, university courses, jobs, relationships, churches, etc. We we know our purpose, it helps to magnify life (Philippians 3:13 – NLT).
Job raises so many questions. Some questions will be answered later in the book of Job like:
‘If a man dies, will he live again? I will wait all the days of my struggle Until my change and release will come. ‘
‘“Oh, that the words I now speak were written! Oh, that they were recorded in a scroll! That with an iron stylus and [molten] lead They were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, And at the last He will take His stand upon the earth. Even after my [mortal] skin is destroyed [by death], Yet from my [immortal] flesh I will see God, Whom I, even I, will see for myself, And my eyes will see Him and not another! My heart faints within me. ‘
where the study notes will call out (jumping ahead a bit):
Verses 23-27: God has humiliated Job (verses 8-12), his friends and relatives have abandoned him (verses 13-20), and he has been reduced to pleading for pity (verses 21-22). But from the depths of degradation he expresses the confidence that if his case could only be recorded for posterity, future generations would judge him favorably (verses 23-24). Furthermore, he knows confidently that he has a “Redeemer” (verse 25, Hebrew goel), One who will champion his cause and vindicate him. The Redeemer is more than an arbiter (9:33) or a witness (16:19) but a Kinsman-Redeemer who will avenge him. Clearly, Job viewed God Himself as the Redeemer, and the Hebrew word is in fact used often of God (Psalm 19:14; Isa. 41:14; etc.).
As Christians, we don’t need to live out our lives without hope like the world does but instead let’s take hold of the words of 1 Thessalonians 4:13:
My friends, we want you to understand how it will be for those followers who have already died. Then you won’t grieve over them and be like people who don’t have any hope.
We need to be hope and light into the world around us. People are looking for hope. People are looking for a reason to have hope. We need to point people to God so that they won’t need to live lives of hopelessness.
Today’s study continues to speak to us believers the following:
Verses 18-22: The Christian response to suffering should be neither denial nor fatalistic surrender. Jesus offers people hope beyond the immediacy of their pain. The promise of eternal life prevents present anguish from having the last word. Job returned to his complaint before God, and reverted to a hopeless mood, speaking about death as inevitable (verses 18-20), and causing separation (verse 21). He was painfully sad to think of it (verse 22).
Job 14:18 “And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.” Rather: But (compare Job 13:3-4). The “mountain falling” is the mountain from which great forces detach pieces, as man is subjected to the shattering strokes of God. The second clause shows this to be the meaning. Job was comparing his loss of everything he had, including his children, with the sudden collapse of a mountain. When a volcano erupts, sometimes half of the mountain comes off at the top. Rocks are thrown sometimes for miles away from where they had been. Just as this calamity of the mountain had been sudden, Job’s loss was sudden.
Job 14:19 “The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow [out] of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.” The turbulent waters wear away the stones of the brook by their constant action. “Thou washest away”: Rather, the floods thereof (i.e. of the waters), do wash away the soil of the earth. “And thou destroyest”: I.e. so thou destroyest. The “hope” of man which God destroys is not the specific hope of a renewed life (Job 14:7). This idea is dismissed; but more general, the hope of life. The never ending washing of water over rocks can finally cut a hole into them. The never ending pain of Job’s had cut a hole into his heart. He was full of despair and hopelessness.
Job 14:20 “Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.” When once thou takes away this life, it is gone forever. For he speaks not here of man’s future and eternal life in another world. “He passeth”: I.e. he dies, or is about to die. Man’s death is oft called a passage, or a going, to intimate that it is not an annihilation, but only a translation of him into another place and state. His countenance; either, (1) His visage, which by death and its harbingers is quite transformed in color and shape, as we see by daily experience. Or; (2) The face and state of his affairs, as to worldly riches, and pleasures, and honors, all which he leaves behind him. “Sendest him away”: To his long home by death. Job would feel like fighting back, if he had known this was an attack from Satan. He knew it was useless to fight God. Job thought God was sending this endless oppression, and he was aware he would not be able to endure for long.
Job 14:21 “His sons come to honor, and he knoweth [it] not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth [it] not of them.” The meaning seems to be, “If his sons come to honor, it is of no advantage to him. In the remote and wholly separate region of Sheol he will not be aware of it.” “And they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them”: Equally, in the opposite case, if his sons are brought low, he is ignorant of it, and unaffected by their fate. After a man is dead, his family can come to honor him, but he would not even know they were there.
Job 14:22 “But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.” This is man’s condition; he is miserable both when he dies, because he dies without hope of returning to life, as he had discoursed before. And (as he now adds), while he lives, while his flesh is upon him, and his soul within him. While the soul is clothed with or united to the body, he feels sharp pain in his body, and bitter grief in his soul. Seeing therefore the state of man upon earth is so vain and unhappy every way, Lord, give me some comfort to sweeten my life, or take away my life from me. A man in such great pain as Job is here, was sorrowful of soul.
So where are you at today? How will you respond to the offer from God of grace, mercy, and salvation? Are you ready to lean into all that God has for you? Are you ready to persevere and trust and have your faith built up? My hope and prayer is that You will ask Jesus into your heart so that I will get to spend eternity in God’s presence with you. Are you ready for forgiveness and peace? Are you ready for a hope and a future? Are you ready for a transformation where the old is gone and the new has come? Are you ready to being the journey of knowing right from wrong? Then let’s pray together to invite Jesus into your heart and your life so that His peace which surpasses all understanding can guide you and comfort you, protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If this is the first time you have prayed to invite Jesus into your heart, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If this is a re commitment to Jesus, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If you are still questioning or seeking, don’t go it alone, feel free to leave me a comment so we can discuss it.
Let’s pray:
^^^^^^^^^^^Will you be willing to put your name there today?
When you think about giving or receiving feedback, are there any methodologies or practices you consider in how you deliver it? Do you try the sandwich method where it has to start and end with a positive and then the real meat of the situation comes in the middle? Do you ensure that before you speak you use the T.H.I.N.K. principle: T – is it true? H – is it helpful? I – is it inspiring? N – is it necessary? K – is it kind? Whatever method or model that you use, do you ever consider how it will be/get received by the other person? When you receive feedback, are you observing what technique is being used on you? If they start with something positive are you getting ready for the bomb to be dropped on you when it gets to the inside of the sandwich? If they start with something positive are you waiting for the shoe to drop? Does it make a difference who is trying to give you the feedback? Does it matter if they are someone who has seemed invested and caring about you? Does it matter if they are someone who seemed to not really care or even want to talk before that point? When you receive feedback are you looking for all the queues being used from tone to body language to the actual words being spoken? How do you judge the feedback being provided? Are you able to discern through the Holy Spirit the actual meaning and intent? Are you able to give it up to God to know if it is something that you need to pick up or just leave it alone?
Words have power! We need to use our words wisely! Words have the power to create! Words have the power to tear down! Words have the power to build up! Words have the power to destroy! Words are a gift given by God that we need to be good stewards of! Words have the power to bless! Words have the power to curse! Words have the power to inspire! Words have the power to extinguish! Words have the power to acquit! Words have the power to condemn!
Consider these verses from the AMP translation of the Bible about the importance of how we use our words:
Hebrews 11:3 – By faith [that is, with an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom and goodness of God] we understand that the worlds (universe, ages) were framed and created [formed, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose] by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
Proverbs 12:6 – The [malevolent] words of the wicked lie in wait for [innocent] blood [to slander], But the mouth of the upright will rescue and protect them.
Proverbs 18:21 – Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it and indulge it will eat its fruit and bear the consequences of their words.
Matthew 12:34–35 – You brood of vipers, how can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man, from his [inner] good treasure, brings out good things; and the evil man, from his [inner] evil treasure, brings out evil things.
Matthew 12:36–37 – But I tell you, on the day of judgment people will have to give an accounting for every careless or useless word they speak. For by your words [reflecting your spiritual condition] you will be justified and acquitted of the guilt of sin; and by your words [rejecting Me] you will be condemned and sentenced.”
Colossians 3:16 – Let the [spoken] word of Christ have its home within you [dwelling in your heart and mind—permeating every aspect of your being] as you teach [spiritual things] and admonish and train one another with all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Colossians 4:6 – Let your speech at all times be gracious and pleasant, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how to answer each one [who questions you].
Ephesians 2:1-3 – And you [He made alive when you] were [spiritually] dead and separated from Him because of your transgressions and sins, in which you once walked. You were following the ways of this world [influenced by this present age], in accordance with the prince of the power of the air (Satan), the spirit who is now at work in the disobedient [the unbelieving, who fight against the purposes of God]. Among these [unbelievers] we all once lived in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by the sinful self], indulging the desires of [a]human nature [without the Holy Spirit] and [the impulses] of the [sinful] mind. We were, by nature, children [under the sentence] of [God’s] wrath, just like the rest [of mankind].
Ephesians 4:25 – Therefore, rejecting all falsehood [whether lying, defrauding, telling half-truths, spreading rumors, any such as these], speak truth each one with his neighbor, for we are all parts of one another [and we are all parts of the body of Christ].
Ephesians 4:28 – The thief [who has become a believer] must no longer steal, but instead he must work hard [making an honest living], producing that which is good with his own hands, so that he will have something to share with those in need.
Ephesians 4:29 – Do not let unwholesome [foul, profane, worthless, vulgar] words ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good for building up others, according to the need and the occasion, so that it will be a blessing to those who hear [you speak].
Luke 4:22 – And [as He continued on] they all were speaking well of Him, and were in awe and were wondering about the words of grace which were coming from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”
Romans 3:13 – “Their throat is an open grave; They [habitually] deceive with their tongues.” “The venom of asps is beneath their lips.”
Romans 3:14 – “Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
Romans 3:19 – Now we know that whatever the Law [of Moses] says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that [the excuses of] every mouth may be silenced [from protesting] and that all the world may be held accountable to God [and subject to His judgment].
Romans 10:9–10 – because if you acknowledge and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord [recognizing His power, authority, and majesty as God], and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes [in Christ as Savior] resulting in his justification [that is, being made righteous—being freed of the guilt of sin and made acceptable to God]; and with the mouth he acknowledges and confesses [his faith openly], resulting in and confirming [his] salvation.
Romans 15:6 – so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify and praise and honor the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 3:15 – But in your hearts set Christ apart [as holy—acknowledging Him, giving Him first place in your lives] as Lord. Always be ready to give a [logical] defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope and confident assurance [elicited by faith] that is within you, yet [do it] with gentleness and respect.
Today’s reading from the book of Job comes from chapter 13:
‘[Job continued:] “Behold, my eye has seen all this, My ear has heard and understood it. What you know I also know; I am not inferior to you. “But I wish to speak to the Almighty, And I desire to argue with God. But you smear me with lies [you defame my character most untruthfully]; You are all worthless physicians and have no remedy to offer. Oh, that you would be completely silent, And that silence would be your wisdom! Please hear my argument And listen to the pleadings of my lips. Will you speak what is unjust for God, And speak what is deceitful for Him? Will you show partiality for Him [and be unjust to me so that you may gain favor with Him]? Will you contend and plead for God? Will it be well for you when He investigates you [and your tactics against me]? Or will you deceive Him as one deceives a man? He will surely reprimand you If you secretly show partiality. Will not His majesty terrify you, And will not the dread of Him fall upon you? Your memorable sayings are [worthless, merely] proverbs of ashes; Your defenses are defenses of [crumbling] clay. “Be silent before me so that I may speak; And let happen to me what may. Why should I take my flesh in my teeth And put my life in my hands [incurring the wrath of God]? Even though He kills me; I will hope in Him. Nevertheless, I will argue my ways to His face. This also will be my salvation, For a godless man may not come before Him. Listen diligently to my speech, And let my declaration fill your ears. Behold now, I have prepared my case; I know that I will be vindicated. Who will argue and contend with me? For then I would be silent and die. “Only [O Lord,] do not do two things to me, And then I will not hide myself from Your face: Withdraw Your hand from me and remove this bodily suffering, And let not the dread of You terrify me. Then [Lord,] call, and I will answer; Or let me speak, and then reply to me. How many are my iniquities and sins [that so much sorrow should come to me]? Make me recognize and understand my transgression and my sin. Why do You hide Your face [as if offended] And consider me Your enemy? Will You cause a windblown leaf to tremble? Will You pursue the chaff of the dry stubble? For You write bitter things against me [in Your indictment] And make me inherit and suffer for the iniquities of my youth. You also put my feet in the stocks [as punishment] And [critically] observe all my paths; You set a circle and limit around the soles of my feet [which I must not overstep], While I waste away like a rotten thing, Like a garment that is moth-eaten.’
As today’s reading begins we see that Job’s patience for his friends is starting to fade, we start with hearing how all they had discussed about God’s power and wisdom were not beyond Job but were things that he knows and understands because of what he has already seen and experienced. We see how Job then confronts them that he is not inferior to them when it comes to the things of God and how he didn’t like their condescending and unsympathetic words and tone. Job wasn’t put back by the arguments and attacks by his friends in his time of pain and suffering but instead was even more motivated to have an audience with God. Job wants to understand and reason with God what has taken place. Job first speaks out against his friends, the people who were to be his counsel, his advisers, his helpers with the fact that they would have been more helpful and seemed wiser had they not spoken at all aligning to the words from Proverbs which read:
Even a [callous, arrogant] fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; When he closes his lips he is regarded as sensible (prudent, discreet) and a man of understanding.
We see through today’s reading that even in the midst of his pain and his suffering, that Job hadn’t lost his ability to reason and have wisdom. He wants his friends to listen more than they speak in order that they would be able to attend to what he has to say on his own behalf and hear his cries and conviction to God. We see how Job believes that God will reprimand and condemn them for their judgement and motives. We see how he is questioning their true friendship based on how they were treating him during such a low point in his life. We hear how Job is putting his trust in God rather than his friends. We see how just like in a court trial, Job presents his case before he hands it over to God in prayer. We see how in verse 17 he declares it. We see how in verse 18 he brings his cause and his confidence in God for his justification. We see how in verse 19 he speaks to how if he gave up his hope and his faith in God then who would be his salvation? We see how his belief in his own innocence was attached to his faith and if he gave up on one it would be like giving up on the other.
Job was done his rant and reply to his friends and we see how starting in verse 20 that Job starts to express regret or disappointment, to lament and please with God. We hear Job’s cry to God to meet with him in order to end his pain and stop the terror of the experiences he was going through. Job was more concerned with his relationship with God than the pain and suffering and wanted to ensure that his relationship with God, the God he loved and worshiped would be restored.
Today, we have the benefit of the full Bible that includes the New Testament and the hope of Jesus. Without the hope of the saving Jesus and the resurrection, Job still speaks in alignment to what was yet to come when it comes to man dying and buried. We see this in our concluding verse and what is still yet to come. This ailment was eating away at Job’s body like a moth eating away at a piece of clothing.
‘While I waste away like a rotten thing, Like a garment that is moth-eaten.’
The New Testament speaks to us about the end of our time on earth with verses like:
13 Now we do not want you to be uninformed, believers, about those who are asleep [in death], so that you will not grieve [for them] as the others do who have no hope [beyond this present life]. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again [as in fact He did], even so God [in this same way—by raising them from the dead] will bring with Him those [believers] who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For we say this to you by the Lord’s [own] word, that we who are still alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede [into His presence] those [believers] who have fallen asleep [in death]. 16 For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the [a]archangel and with the [blast of the] trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain [on the earth] will simultaneously be caught up (raptured) together with them [the resurrected ones] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord!
4 And then I saw thrones, and sitting on them were those to whom judgment [that is, the authority to act as judges] was given. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had refused to worship the beast or his image, and had not accepted his mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead [the non-believers] did not come to life again until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. 6 [a]Blessed (happy, prosperous, to be admired) and holy is the person who takes part in the first resurrection; over these the second death [which is eternal separation from God, the lake of fire] has no power or authority, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and they will reign with Him a thousand years.
So where are you at today? How will you respond to the offer from God of grace, mercy, and salvation? Are you ready to lean into all that God has for you? Are you ready to persevere and trust and have your faith built up? My hope and prayer is that You will ask Jesus into your heart so that I will get to spend eternity in God’s presence with you. Are you ready for forgiveness and peace? Are you ready for a hope and a future? Are you ready for a transformation where the old is gone and the new has come? Are you ready to being the journey of knowing right from wrong? Then let’s pray together to invite Jesus into your heart and your life so that His peace which surpasses all understanding can guide you and comfort you, protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If this is the first time you have prayed to invite Jesus into your heart, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If this is a re commitment to Jesus, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If you are still questioning or seeking, don’t go it alone, feel free to leave me a comment so we can discuss it.
Let’s pray:
^^^^^^^^^^^Will you be willing to put your name there today?
Yesterday, even though our family wasn’t all together, even though our incredible friends and neighbors invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with them, I am thankful because of the time with my kids where we went and saw a movie together (getting the early matinee showing of Playing with Fire) that had us laughing, crying, and ending on a happy note that connects with one of my families passions around living passionately. I am thankful because of the time at home for a little repose and then went out for dinner at a local restaurant in the area that had a special Thanksgiving 2019 menu that included prime rib for the kids and turkey dinner for me, with salads and appetizers along with apple pie a la mode for the kids. I was blessed and so thankful because of getting to spend so much time with them and even though I so wish my wife could have been with us. I am so thankful because of my wife’s heart and determination that things got setup for her mom so that we can have peace of mind with her being somewhere safe that will help her heal up and that it also means that my wife will be coming home today. God provides! God is good! God’s ways are not our ways, His ways are better and higher, and deeper than our ways. God gives us purpose! I am thankful!
‘Then Job responded, “No doubt you are the [only wise] people [in the world], And wisdom will die with you! But I have intelligence and understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these [of God’s wisdom and might]? I am a joke to my friends; I, one whom God answered when he called upon Him— A just and blameless man is a joke [and laughed to scorn]. He who is at ease has contempt for misfortune, But misfortune is ready [and anxiously waiting] for those whose feet slip. The tents of the destroyers prosper; And those who provoke God are [apparently] secure, Whom God brings into their power. “Now ask the animals, and let them teach you [that God does not deal with His creatures according to their character]; And ask the birds of the air, and let them tell you; Or speak to the earth [with its many forms of life], and it will teach you; And let the fish of the sea declare [this truth] to you. Who among all these does not recognize [in all these things that good and evil are randomly scattered throughout nature and human life] That the hand of the L ord has done this, In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind? Does the ear not put words to the test, Just as the palate tastes its food [distinguishing between the desirable and the undesirable]? With the aged [you say] is wisdom, And with long life is understanding.
“But [only] with Him are [perfect] wisdom and might; He [alone] has [true] counsel and understanding. Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt; He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up; Again, He sends the waters out, and they overwhelm and devastate the earth. With Him are might and sound wisdom, The misled and the misleader are His [and in His power]. He makes [great and scheming] counselors walk barefoot And makes fools of judges. He loosens the bond of kings And binds their loins with a loincloth. He makes priests walk barefoot, And He overturns men firmly seated and secure. He deprives the trusted ones of speech And takes away the discernment and discretion of the aged. He pours contempt on princes and nobles And loosens the belt of the strong [disabling them]. He uncovers mysteries [that are difficult to grasp and understand] out of the darkness And brings black gloom and the shadow of death into light. He makes nations great, and He destroys them; He enlarges nations, and leads them away [captive]. He removes intelligence and understanding from the leaders of the people of the earth And makes them wander and move blindly in a pathless waste. They grope in darkness without light, And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.”’
Job responds in his defense to what his friends had accused him. Job responds with confidence and firm words. Job was not impressed by the treatment of his friends and let them know it. Job knew that they weren’t the only people with wisdom because he knew that he trusted in God. Job wasn’t going to go it alone but instead would choose to pursue God, looking to Him for forgiveness, protection, and provision.
Job complains that he was not treated with due deference. They had showed no respect for his understanding and rank. They had urged the most common-place topics; advanced stale and trite apothegms, as if he had never heard them; dwelt on maxims familiar even to the meanest persons; and had treated him in this manner as if he were a mere child in knowledge. Thus, to be approached with vague common-places, and with remarks such as would be used in addressing children, he regarded as insult and mockery.
As we look on the topic of feet slipping, the study speaks the following:
the idea is, that a man in adversity, when failing from a high condition of honor, is regarded as an almost extinguished lamp, that is now held in contempt, and is cast away. When the torch was blazing, it was regarded as of value; when nearly extinguished, it would be regarded as worthless, and would be cast away. So when a man was in prosperity, he would be looked up to as a guide and example. In adversity, his counsels would be rejected, and he would be looked upon with contempt. Nothing can be more certain or more common than the fact here adverted to. The rich and the great are looked up to with respect and veneration. Their words and actions have an influence which those of no other men have. When they begin to fall, others are willing to hasten their fall. Long cherished but secret envy begins to show itself; those who wish to rise rejoice in their ruin, and they are looked upon with contempt in proportion to their former honor, rank, and power. They are regarded as an extinguished torch – of no value, and are cast away.
Verses 12:13 – 13:3: This section gives vivid definition to the wisdom, power and sovereignty of God (verse 13). Job, despite his questions about his suffering, affirms that God’s power is visible in nature, human society, religious matters, and national and international affairs. Job, however, expressed this in terms of fatalistic despair. Job knew all this and it didn’t help (13:1-2); so he didn’t want to argue with them anymore, he wanted to take his case before God (verse 3).
Job 12:13 “With him [is] wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding.” While his distress clouded this truth at times, Job knew deep down that God was the only reality in his life. This is speaking of God. He is the source of all wisdom and strength. God’s wisdom and understanding never changes. It is God who makes it possible for us to understand. It is His strength that makes it possible for us to do all things.
Job 12:14 “Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.” To wit, houses, castles, and cities, which God designed to destroy utterly. “He shutteth up”: If he will shut up a man in prison, or in any straits or troubles. “There can be no opening”: Without God’s permission and providence. God builds up and God tears down. This was never more evident than in the nation of Israel. God made Israel great. He made Solomon the richest man who had ever lived. He became unfaithful to God and God took the kingdom away from his family. Israel fell and was taken into captivity because of their unfaithfulness.
Job 12:15 “Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.” God, at his pleasure, causes great droughts, which are among the worst calamities that can happen. He withholds the blessed rain from heaven (Deut. 11:17; 1 Kings 8:35; 17:1), and the springs shrink, and the rivers dry up, and a fruitful land is turned into a desert. And famine stalks through the land, and men perish by thousands. “Also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth”: I.e. he causes the flooding. Once upon a time he overwhelmed the whole earth, and destroyed almost the entire race of mankind, by a deluge of an extraordinary character, which so fixed itself in the human consciousness, that traces of it are to be found in the traditions of almost all the various races of men. But, beside this great occasion, he also in ten thousand other cases, causes by means of floods; tremendous ruin and devastation, sweeping away crops and cattle, and even villages and cities. Sometimes even “overturning the earth,” causing lakes to burst, rivers to change their course, vast tracts of land to be permanently submerged, and the contour of coasts to be altered. All of nature is at God’s command. He brings great droughts and brings floods as he did in the time of Noah. God used the flood in Noah’s time to destroy the people of the earth, because of their great evil.
Job 12:16 “With him [is] strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver [are] his.” Rather (as in the Revised Version), with him is strength and effectual working. God has not only the wisdom to design the course of events (verse 13), but the power and ability to carry out all that he designs. “The deceived and the deceiver are his”: Not only does God rule the course of external nature, but also the doings of men. “Shall there be evil in a city, and shall not he have done it?” (Amos 3:6). He allows some to deceive, and others to be deceived. Moral evil is thus under his control, and, in a certain sense, may be called his doing. But it behooves men, when they approach such great mysteries, to be very cautious and wary in their speech. Job touches with somewhat too bold a hand the deepest problems of the universe. God not only plans the events of the earth, but He has the power within Himself to see that it is done. God rules people, as well as nature. He is the Creator of them all. The person who is deceived was made by God. The deceiver was created by God as well. All mankind is God’s creation. Only those who believe are His sons.
Verses 17-25: A series of action verbs point to God’s sovereignty. While no explanation is given for Job’s suffering, these terms underscore that no event or circumstance can affect God’s sovereign might and purpose.
Job 12:17 “He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools.” The wise counsellors, or statesmen, by whom the affairs of kings and kingdoms are ordered, he leads away as captives in triumph. Being spoiled either of that wisdom which they had, or seemed to have; or of that power and dignity which they had enjoyed. “And maketh the judges fools”: By discovering their folly, and by infatuating their minds, and turning their own counsels to their ruin. The wise counsellors are earthly men, and they are still in the control of God. He can build them up or tear them down as He desires. The judges of the earth must remember that they will someday stand before the Judge of all the world. He judges in righteousness.
Job 12:18 “He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle.” He takes from them the power and authority wherewith they ruled their subjects. Ruled them with rigor, perhaps tyrannized and enslaved them. And he divests them of that majesty which he had stamped upon them, and by which they kept their people in awe. These God can, and often does, take away from them, and thereby free the people from their bonds, of which we have abundance of instances in the history of different nations. “And girdeth their loins with a girdle”: He reduces them to a mean and servile condition. Which is thus expressed, because servants used to gird up their garments, (which, after the manner of those parts of the world, were loose and long), that they might be fitter for attendance upon their masters. He not only deposes them from their thrones, but brings them into slavery.
Job 12:19 “He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty.” Rather, priests. In antiquity priests occupied influential places. Compare what is said of Melchizedek (Gen. 14; of Jethro, priest of Midian in Exodus 2:16). And of the influence of the priests in several crises of the history of Israel. On “spoiled” (see Job 12:17). “The mighty”: Literally the established or perennial. Being in apposition with priests, usually a hereditary class. The word describes those who occupied high permanent place among men. Kings are king, because God ordained it. When a king becomes evil, God may send another king to put him into captivity. It is God who looses him to greatness, or binds him as a common criminal. We saw this very thing in our study of Israel’s captivity in Babylon. God led the king of Babylon to take the king of Israel. Later on, God had another king to overthrow the king of Babylon.
Job 12:20 “He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged.” God deprives trusted statesmen of their eloquence and destroys their reputation and their authority. “And taketh away the understanding of the aged”: He turns wise and aged men into fools and drivellers, weakening their judgments and reducing them to imbecility. Sometimes, God will take a powerful statesman and make him unable to speak. The aged are sometimes, turned into people with no understanding. The Alzheimer’s disease does this to many of the elderly.
Job 12:21 “He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty.” I.e. he makes them contemptible to their subjects and others. “Weakeneth”: Hebrew, he looseth the girdle; which phrase signifies weakness (as Isa. 5:27); as the girding of the girdle notes strength and power (as Isa. 22:21; 45:5). Both these phrases being taken from the quality of their garments, which being loose and long, did disenable a man for travel or work. The king of Babylon was thought of as one of the mightiest men of the world, until the handwriting appeared on the wall condemning him and the city of Babylon. This of course, was the hand of God.
Job 12:22 “He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.” I.e. the most secret and crafty counsels of princes, which are contrived and carried on in the dark. “And bringeth out to light the shadow of death”: There is nothing secret which God cannot, if he choose, reveal. Nor is there anything hid which he cannot make known. Dark, murderous schemes, on which lies a shadow as of death, which men plan in secret, and keep hidden in their inmost thoughts, he can, and often does, cause to be brought to light and made manifest in the sight of all. Every such scheme, however carefully guarded and concealed, shall be one day made known (Matt. 10:26). Many are laid bare even in the lifetime of their devisers. There are no things planned by men that God does not know. They may have planned it in some secret place, but God knows all of their plans. Even plots to kill someone are known of God. Death was defeated for all believers, when Jesus rose from the grave. In that sense, death was defeated by the Light (Jesus Christ).
Job 12:23 “He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them [again].” In this discourse of God’s wonderful works, Job shows that whatever is done in this world both in the order and change of things, is by God’s will and appointment. In which he declares that he thinks well of God, and is able to set forth his power in words as they that reasoned against him were. What before he said of princes, he now applies to nations and people, whom God does either increase or diminish as he pleaseth. “He enlargeth the nations”: He multiplies them, so that they are forced to send forth colonies into other lands. “Straiteneth them again”: Or, leads them in, or brings them back, into their own land, and confines them there. Israel became almost three million people while they were slaves in Egypt. Just over seventy people went into Egypt and almost three million came out. This same three million were reduced to just a remnant by God for their unfaithfulness.
Job 12:24 “He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness [where there is] no way.” The word heart here evidently means mind, intelligence, and wisdom (see the notes at Job 12:3). “Of the chief of the people”: Hebrew “Heads of the people;” that is, of the rulers of the earth. The meaning is, that he leaves them to infatuated and distracted counsels. By withdrawing from them, he has power to frustrate their plans, and to leave them to an entire lack of wisdom (see the notes at Job 12:17). “And causeth them to wander in a wilderness”: They are like persons in a vast waste of pathless sands without a waymark, a guide, or a path. The perplexity and confusion of the great ones of the earth could not be more strikingly represented than by the condition of such a lost traveler. When the leader of the people is filled with confusion and wanders in the wilderness, they wander around as sheep without a shepherd.
Job 12:25 “They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like [a] drunken [man].” Like blind men, as the men of Sodom, when they were struck with blindness. Or “they grope”, or “feel the dark, and not light”, as the Targum. As the Egyptian did when such gross darkness was upon them as might be felt. “And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man”: That has lost his sight, his senses, and his feet, and knows not where he is, which way to go, or how to keep on his legs. But reels to and fro, and is at the utmost loss what to do. All this is said of the heads or chief of the people, in consequence of their hearts being taken away, and so left destitute of wisdom and strength. Those who walk in darkness have no direction in their lives. John 11:10 “But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.”
So how would you respond? You realize you can’t control how others will speak or treat you. You can control your response. So how will you respond?
So where are you at today? How will you respond to the offer from God of grace, mercy, and salvation? Are you ready to lean into all that God has for you? Are you ready to persevere and trust and have your faith built up? My hope and prayer is that You will ask Jesus into your heart so that I will get to spend eternity in God’s presence with you. Are you ready for forgiveness and peace? Are you ready for a hope and a future? Are you ready for a transformation where the old is gone and the new has come? Are you ready to being the journey of knowing right from wrong? Then let’s pray together to invite Jesus into your heart and your life so that His peace which surpasses all understanding can guide you and comfort you, protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If this is the first time you have prayed to invite Jesus into your heart, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If this is a re commitment to Jesus, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If you are still questioning or seeking, don’t go it alone, feel free to leave me a comment so we can discuss it.
Let’s pray:
^^^^^^^^^^^Will you be willing to put your name there today?
My extended family – my parents who raised me, my sister who grew up with me, my uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents who loved me
My friends – who grew up with me, who work with me, who put up with me, who go thru it with me
My church – that pointed me to Jesus, that showed me to serve, that showed me the love of God, that showed me to lead, that shows me
My job – where God positioned me for the second half of my life when he spoke Job 42:12 over it. With great managers and coworkers who are looking to make things better for people looking to make their own way through their own personal ventures.
My home where I get to spend time with and have gotten to raise my family
My incredible neighbors who have helped me to learn and grown living out in the country
This life isn’t always going to be easy but I can walk in the faith and the confidence of God’s Word and God’s promises. And EVEN THOUGH there are days where I feel like I am walking thru the valley of the shadow of death, I know I can fear no evil. EVEN THOUGH I couldn’t have my family together for thanksgiving this year, God has positioned us to be able to be where we need to be in order to accomplish His will and His purpose in and through the lives of others.
And I even take hold of the hard times. I remember those days when things were so tough and I grew bitter and wouldn’t forgive, but BECAUSE OF that I have learned the power of forgiveness and have been able to share that truth with so many others. BECAUSE OF the trials of betrayal and lies, I have learned how to forgive and share that truth with others going thru similar issues ever since.
Here is an opportunity given to me to share a Story Slam with my new workplace at the time and getting to share the power of forgiveness with them through my testimony.
I will get back into the book of Job’s text tomorrow but wanted to leave everything with a Happy Thanksgiving message not only FOR THE things God has given us but also EVEN THOUGH we had trials and troubles and especially BECAUSE OF what God was able to do in and through those times.
So where are you at today? Are you ready to lean into all that God has for you? Are you ready to persevere and trust and have your faith built up? My hope and prayer is that You will ask Jesus into your heart so that I will get to spend eternity in God’s presence with you. Are you ready for forgiveness and peace? Are you ready for a hope and a future? Are you ready for a transformation where the old is gone and the new has come? Are you ready to being the journey of knowing right from wrong? Then let’s pray together to invite Jesus into your heart and your life so that His peace which surpasses all understanding can guide you and comfort you, protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If this is the first time you have prayed to invite Jesus into your heart, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If this is a re commitment to Jesus, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If you are still questioning or seeking, don’t go it alone, feel free to leave me a comment so we can discuss it.
Let’s pray:
^^^^^^^^^^^Will you be willing to put your name there today?
What if you had lost your possessions? What if you had lost your monetary worth? What if you had lost your children? What if you had lost your health? Could you still find a way to be thankful?
What if your friends started to judge you? What if your friends started to accuse you? What if your friends started to attack you? What if your friends started to try and shame you? What if your friends blamed you for something you didn’t do? Could you still find a way to be thankful?
Can you find hope in the midst of troubles? Can you find joy in the midst of trials? Can be thankful FOR THE things God has done in and through you? Can you be thankful EVEN THOUGH things haven’t always been easy? Can you be thankful BECAUSE OF the trials and tests and troubles, knowing that they will all work together for God because of your faith and trust in God?
Today’s reading of Job from God’s Word comes from Job 11:
‘Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said, “Shall a multitude of words not be answered? And should a talkative man [making such a long-winded defense] be acquitted? Should your boasts and babble silence men? And shall you scoff and no one put you to shame? For you have said, ‘My teaching (doctrine) [that God knowingly afflicts the righteous] is pure, And I am innocent in your eyes.’ But oh, that God would speak, And open His lips [to speak] against you, And [that He would] show you the secrets of wisdom! For sound wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God forgets a part of your wickedness and guilt. “Can you discover the depths of God? Can you [by searching] discover the limits of the Almighty [ascend to His heights, extend to His widths, and comprehend His infinite perfection]? His wisdom is as high as the heights of heaven. What can you do? It is deeper than Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead). What can you know? It is longer in measure [and scope] than the earth, And broader than the sea. If God passes by or arrests, Or calls an assembly [of judgment], who can restrain Him? [If He is against a man, who can call Him to account for it?] For He recognizes and knows false and worthless men, And He sees wickedness, will He not consider it? But a hollow (empty-headed) man will become intelligent and wise [Only] when the colt of a wild donkey is born as a man. “If you direct your heart [on the right path] And stretch out your hands to Him, If sin is in your hand, put it far away [from you], And do not let wrongdoing dwell in your tents; Then, indeed, you could lift up your face [to Him] without moral defect, And you would be firmly established and secure and not fear. For you would forget your trouble; You would remember it as waters that have passed by. And your life would be brighter than the noonday; Darkness [then] would be like the morning. Then you would trust [with confidence], because there is hope; You would look around you and rest securely. You would lie down with no one to frighten you, And many would entreat and seek your favor. But the eyes of the wicked will fail, And they will not escape [the justice of God]; And their hope is to breathe their last [and die].”’
As I consider this and ponder this, the words “vengeance is mine says the Lord” come to mind in that we shouldn’t and don’t need to be judging others about things we don’t know and we don’t understand because God won’t be fooled nor mocked and He is able to take care of things himself without our need to judge and accuse. Let’s not fall into the first response being to accuse or assume, let’s make our first response to turn to God for wisdom and discernment how He would choose to use us in the midst of a friends troubles and trials? We need to be considering how when we point at someone there are other fingers pointing back at ourselves and we need to be checking our own lives and hearts and take responsibility and accountability for our own lives. We need to be looking in the mirror and considering what do we need to be doing about our own lives to get more aligned with God’s will and purpose and plan. Receiving Jesus gives us salvation, but God’s plan is that we will have life and life more abundantly and so we need to be move forward from that starting point in alignment with His purpose, plan, and will in order to walk into all the good He has planned for our lives, even in the midst of the trials and troubles.
As we get to verse 5 and following, we learn in today’s study how the words being spoken by Zophah to Job were not helpful but hurtful, they would be helpful if it had been a self-reflection to himself, but in the position Job was in the words brought little to no value.
Verses 5-6: Pastor and scholar Andrew W. Blackwood wrote about this passage, “Such a remark might have considerable value if spoken while looking into the mirror. But from a man who is not suffering, to a man who is suffering, this remark is cruel and utterly without any value at all.”
Job 11:5 “But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;” Plead with thee according to thy desire: he would soon put thee to silence. We are commonly ready, with great assurance, to interest God in our quarrels. But they are not always in the right who are most forward to appeal to his judgment, and prejudge it against their antagonists.
Job 11:6 “And that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that [they are] double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee [less] than thine iniquity [deserveth].” “Secrets of wisdom”: Job would have been much wiser if he had only known the unknowable secret of God; in this case the scene in heaven between God and Satan would have clarified everything. But Job couldn’t know the secret wisdom of God (verses 7-9). Zophar should have applied his point to himself. If God’s wisdom was so deep, high, long and broad, how was it that he could understand it and have all the answers? Like his friends, Zophar thought he understood God and reverted to the same law of retaliation, the sowing and reaping principle, to again indict Job. He implied that Job was wicked (verses 10-11), and thought he was wise, thought actually he was out of control as if he were a “wild donkey” (verse 12). As terrible as the attack of Satan had been on Job, Zophar felt that it was not enough for the sins of Job. Zophar wanted God to speak out loud and condemn Job, where they could all hear it. In God is all Wisdom and Truth. Zophar was saying to Job, that he had no wisdom. He thought if Job had been wise, he would have repented of his sins by now.
Job 11:7 “Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?” Literally, can you attain to the searching out of God? Can you suppose, that is, that whatever your wisdom, learning, subtlety, sagacity, power of insight, you will be able to search out and fully know the character, attributes, modes of thought and actions of the Most High? No. In one sense, all men do well to profess themselves “Agnostics”. Not that they can know nothing of God, but that they can never know him fully and never exhaust the knowledge of him. As the apostle says, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God”! “how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor?” (Rom. 11:33-34). “Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?” Rather. Can you attain to the perfection of the Almighty? Understand, i.e., his inconceivable perfectness. He was asking Job if he thought that he really could know God? He was saying that the wisdom and knowledge of Job would not help him to know God. He was telling Job, that in no way could he measure up to the expectations of the Almighty God. Zophar was a tormenter, not a comforter.
Job 11:8 “[It is] as high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than hell; what canst thou know?” Literally, the heights of the heavens; what can you do? But the meaning is probably that expressed in the Authorized Version. God’s perfectness is unattainable by man’s thought, as the heights of the heavens are by his feet. Deeper than hell; literally, than Sheol, or the receptacle of the dead (see comment on Job 10:21). Paul speaks of the “deep things,” or rather, “the depths” of God (see 1 Cor. 2:10). “What canst thou know? How small a part of the Divine nature can any man thoroughly comprehend and know!
Job 11:9 “The measure thereof [is] longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.” Length is generally ascribed to the earth, and width to the sea. The ends of the earth are used for a great distance, and the sea is called the great and wide sea (see Psalm 72:1). But God and his perfections, particularly his wisdom and understanding, are infinite (Psalm 147:5). And will admit of no dimensions; as his love, so his wisdom, has a height which cannot be reached, a depth that cannot be fathomed, and a length and breadth immeasurable (see Eph. 3:18). From hence it appears that God is omniscient, omnipresent, and incomprehensible; and since he is to be found in Christ, and in him only, it is in vain for us to seek for him elsewhere. Next the sovereignty of God is spoken of. This was speaking of the perfection of the Almighty filling the earth and the seas. The following Scripture says it best.
Ever had someone throw your words back in your face and use them in the totally opposite way? We see starting in Job 11:10 how Zophah does just that.
Verses 10-12: In his rhetorical question in 9:12, Job had compared his own cries to the braying of a wild donkey (6:5). Here, Zophar echoes his question but draws the opposite conclusion and accuses Job of being foolish and “empty-headed” (Psalms 10:14: 39:5).
Job 11:10 “If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?” Namely, a person or family. “And shut up”: In prison, or in the hands of an enemy, or in the net of affliction and trouble (Psalm 66:11). “Or gather together”: Make our condition straight and narrow, as some interpret it. Or, gather together as tares to the fire, or gather to himself man’s breath and spirit (Job 34:14). “Then who can hinder him? From doing what he pleases with his creatures? Who can either block the sentence, or oppose the execution? Who can control his power or arraign his wisdom and justice? If he, who made all out of nothing, thinks fit to reduce all to nothing; if he that separated between light and darkness, dry land and sea at first, is pleased to gather them together again. If he that made, think proper to unmake, who can turn him; alter his mind, or stay his hand, or impede or impeach his proceedings? The answer of course, was no one, not even Satan. We must keep remembering that God gave Satan permission to do this to Job. This was in no way a punishment on Job for sins. This was a proving to Satan and to the on-looking angels that Job was truly a righteous man, and that nothing Satan could do to him would change that.
Job 11:11 “For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider [it]?” Though men know but little of God, and therefore are very unfit judges of his counsels and actions, yet God knows man exactly. He knows that every man in the world is guilty of much vanity and folly, and therefore sees sufficient reason for his severity against the best men. “He seeth wickedness also”: He perceives the wickedness of evil men, though it be covered with the veil of religion. “Will he not then consider it?” Shall he only see it as an idle spectator, and not observe it as a judge to punish it? The worst of this was that Zophar was accusing Job of being vain in his own conceit. He was saying that Job had been pretending to be a Godly man, but was not faithful to God in his heart.
Job 11:12 “For vain man would be wise, though man be born [like] a wild ass’s colt.” Man, who since the fall is void of all true wisdom, pretends to be wise, and able to pass a censure upon all God’s ways and works. “Born like a wild ass’s colt”: Ignorant, dull, and stupid, as to divine things, and yet heady and untraceable. Such is man by his birth; this evil is now natural and hereditary, and therefore common to all men. Of consequence it is not strange, if Job partake of the common distemper. Zophar believed that the troubles which had come to Job was because he was vain and puffed up with pride. Zophar believed they came on Job to cause him to repent.
With Zophah’s assumption of Job being a sinner, He points to God’s power of forgiveness if Job will be willing to confess his sin and repent. We learn how Zophah seemed to believe God worked on a tit for tat type of a system or that you get something from God because you first gave God something. But the earth is the Lord’s and everything it, there is nothing we can give God that He doesn’t already have.
We learn as we start in verse 13 how Zophah continues with the message to Job with the conclusion that his sin would lead to his death.
Verses 13-20: Zophar continues to assume that Job is a sinner but reminds him that God will forgive his sin upon his confession and repentance. Zophar asserted that God operates on the basis of “You give Me something, and I will give you something.” But God does not operate this way. His creation has nothing to give Him that is worth any value (Isa. 64:6).
Verses 13-14: Zophar started out this section speaking directly to Job, “If thou prepare …” and concluded speaking proverbially, “But the “eyes of the wicked …”. In so doing Zophar avoided directly calling Job wicked, but succeeded with ever greater force by being indirect. In the end, he told Job that his sin would bring about his death.
Job 11:13 “If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;” Thy business, O Job, is not to quarrel with thy Maker, or his works. But to address thyself to him by prayer and supplication, sincerely repenting of all your hard speeches, and other sins against God, and seeking him with a pure and upright heart; without which your prayers will be in vain. “Stretch out thine hands”: I.e. pray, which is here described by its usual gesture (as Job 15:25; Psalm 88:9). “Towards him”: I.e. to God, as appears both from the nature of the thing, and from the context.
Job 11:14 “If iniquity [be] in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.” If you have in your hand, or possession, any goods gotten by injustice or oppression, as it seems they supposed he had. Or, he means more generally, if you allow yourself in any sinful practices, the hand being put for action, whereof it is the instrument. “Put it far away”: Keep yourself at a great distance, not only from such actions, but also from the very occasions and appearances of them. “Let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles”: That is, in thy habitation, either in thyself or in thy family. Whose sins Job was obliged, as far as he could, to prevent or reform, as it seems he had done (Job 1:5). He said, tabernacles, because anciently the habitations of great men consisted of several tents or tabernacles. He was giving Job advice here. He wanted Job to put his wickedness far from him, so that God would hear his plea for forgiveness.
Job 11:15 “For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear:” With cheerfulness and holy boldness. “Without spot”: Having a clear and unspotted conscience. “Yea, thou shalt be steadfast”: Shall have a strong and comfortable assurance of God’s favor, and shalt be settled, without any fear of losing thy happiness. After Job had driven his iniquity out of his life, then he could look to heaven and to God for help. He reminded Job that if he was steadfast in the LORD, he had nothing to fear.
Job 11:16 “Because thou shalt forget [thy] misery, [and] remember [it] as waters [that] pass away:” Thy happiness shall be so great that it shall blot out the remembrance of thy past miseries. “And remember it as waters that pass away”: Remember it no more than men remember either a land-flood, which, as it comes, so it goes away suddenly and leaves few or no marks or memorials behind it. Or the waters of a river, which pass by in constant succession. Zophar believed that if Job would repent, his troubles would go away and he would remember them no more. It would be gone as the water passes away.
Job 11:17 “And [thine] age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.” Literally, shall arise above the noonday; i.e. “exceed it in splendor.” Instead of the “thick darkness” to which Job is looking forward (Job 10:21-22). He shall bask in a light brighter than that of the sun at noon. “Thou shalt shine forth”: The Hebrew cannot possibly bear this meaning. The uncommon word used is allied with “obscurity”, and if a verb should mean “thou shalt be obscure,” rather than “thou shalt shine forth.” But it is perhaps a substantive, meaning “darkness;” and the translation of the Revised Version is perhaps correct: “Though there be darkness.” “Thou shalt be as the morning”: “Thy light,” as Professor Lee explains, “shall gradually rise and expand itself far and wide.” It shall dispel the darkness, and take its place,” shining more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18). Zophar was saying if Job would do as he had suggested, he would not face the darkness of the grave and hell. He would bask in the Light of the LORD which was greater than the noonday sun. He would be renewed in the LORD.
Job 11:18 “And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig [about thee, and] thou shalt take thy rest in safety.” From coming into like darkness, difficulties, and distress again, and from every evil and enemy. Nothing shall come nigh to disturb and hurt, nothing to be feared from any quarter, all around: or “shalt be confident”. Have a strong faith and full assurance of it, in the love of God, in the living Redeemer, and in the promises which respect the life that now is, and that which is to come. “Because there is hope”: Of the mercy of God, of salvation by Christ, and of eternal glory and happiness, as well as of a continuance of outward prosperity. Faith and hope mutually assist each other. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and hope of better and future things on a good foundation encourages faith and confidence. “Yea, thou shalt dig about thee”: To let in stakes for the pitching and fixing of tents to dwell in, and for more commodious pasturage. Or for wells of water, for the supply both of the family and the flocks. Or rather, for ditches and trenches to secure from thieves and robbers, or for drains to carry off floods of water. “And thou shalt take thy rest in safety”: Lie down on the bed and sleep in the night season in peace and quietness, having nothing to fear. Being well entrenched, and secure from plundering and flooding. And, more especially, being hedged about and protected by the power and providence of God (see Psalm 3:5). The Targum is, “thou shall prepare a grave, and lie down, and sleep secure.” Zophar was saying something that really would happen to Job after he was restored. It was not something that Zophar really wanted for Job however. He said this to remind Job of the wonders of how it used to be. Job’s hope was not in what Zophar had said, or not said, but in the LORD.
Job 11:19 “Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make [thee] afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee.” Either lie down on his bed, as before, or by his flocks, and where they lie down, and none should disturb him or them. Not thieves and robbers, such as the Chaldeans and Sabeans had been to him, nor lions, bears, or wolves. “Yea, many shall make suit unto thee”: Make their supplications, present their requests and petitions for relief under necessitous circumstances, or for protection from the injuries and insults of others. As the poor and needy, the widow and fatherless, had done to him in times past, when in his prosperity, and when he was a friend unto them, and the father of them (see Prov. 19:6). Or, “the great ones shall make suit to thee”; to have his favor and friendship, his counsel and advice, his company and conversation. He should be applied unto and courted by men of all sorts, which would be no small honor to him (see Psalm 45:12). When Job was restored, there would be no warring parties from his neighbors. Instead of stealing from Job, they would be bringing things to him. Again, this was not what Zophar wished for Job, but it was what would happen.
Job 11:20 “But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope [shall be as] the giving up of the ghost.” Or be consumed. Either with grief and fears for their sore calamities; or with long looking for what they shall never attain, as this phrase is taken (Psalm 69:3; Jer. 14:6; Lam. 4:17). And this shall be thy condition; O Job, if thou persist in thine impiety. “They shall not escape”: They shall never obtain deliverance out of their distresses, but shall perish in them. “As the giving up of the ghost”: I.e. shall be as vain and desperate as the hope of life is in a man, when he is at the very point of death. Or, as a puff of breath, which is gone in a moment without all hopes of recovery. Zophar was speaking this, as if it was the fate of Job. In reality, he was speaking of himself and what would come to him, because he had spoken evil of Job. He was saying that Job had no other hope, but death. He would be needing the prayers of Job to save himself from the fate he just spoke of Job.
So where are you at today? Are you ready to lean into all that God has for you? Are you ready to persevere and trust and have your faith built up? My hope and prayer is that You will ask Jesus into your heart so that I will get to spend eternity in God’s presence with you. Are you ready for forgiveness and peace? Are you ready for a hope and a future? Are you ready for a transformation where the old is gone and the new has come? Are you ready to being the journey of knowing right from wrong? Then let’s pray together to invite Jesus into your heart and your life so that His peace which surpasses all understanding can guide you and comfort you, protect your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If this is the first time you have prayed to invite Jesus into your heart, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If this is a re commitment to Jesus, leave me a comment so that I can rejoice with the angels in Heaven. If you are still questioning or seeking, don’t go it alone, feel free to leave me a comment so we can discuss it.
Let’s pray:
^^^^^^^^^^^Will you be willing to put your name there today?
