Tag Archives: Christ Jesus

Jun 6 2013

Job 21 – Why Should I Not Be Impatient?

evil01Job’s disagreement with his three friends intensifies with indignation an it is born of sound reasoning.  He first tells them to keep their tongues and listen to his rebuttal, then urges them to continue to mock him if they must afterward.  He flatly disagrees with their assessment of the fortunes of those who are wicked, as well as its affect on their children:

Why do the wicked live,
reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
Their offspring are established in their presence,
and their descendants before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,
and no rod of God is upon them.

He asks them for more personal knowledge of how often the wicked are repaid in this life for their deeds, or when they have known God to dole out pain in His anger.  He disputes their claim that God stores up their iniquity for their children,  Job believes in a just God and he makes that clear when he asks who among them will teach God knowledge of justice against the wicked.  One, he says dies with his life full, while another dies without tasting prosperity – but they are dust in the end just the same.

He asks them to ferret out testimony from any front – the wicked are indeed spared from calamity often and escape wrath with frequency in this life, and their stance on this matter does not bear up under scrutiny.  At last he closes this speech with the condemnation they deserve:

“How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy
___________________
some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.

Advertisement
May 30 2013

Job 20 – Out of My Understanding

Job's Comforters, from the Butts set. Pen and ...

Job’s Comforters, from the Butts set. Pen and black ink, gray wash, and watercolour, over traces of graphite (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Zophar is taken aback at Job’s responses to his friends’ criticisms and says so:

 

“I hear censure that insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.”

 

So, being unable to answer Job’s legitimate question as to what his sin might be, Zophar, goes on the attack, making things up as he goes along.  Since Job had been a man of means in the past, he uses his position of wealth as the basis for imagining his crimes (verses 10, 15, 17 and 19).   He predicts Job’s violent death, the destruction of his house, and heaven and earth rising up against him (verse 27).

 

Poetic though he may be, Zophar is cruel and his speech is in the evil spirit.  He supposes that Job must have been greedy and oppressed the poor, and losing everything – indeed his very life – is just reward.

 

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

 

/Bob’s boy

 

___________________

 

some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

 

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.

 

May 23 2013

Job 19 – “My Redeemer Lives”

English: An early engraving by Blake for the B...

English: An early engraving by Blake for the Book of Job (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We’ve said before that reading the Book of Job can be challenging.  By the time you reach this chapter, even with all of the poetry, it can be difficult to stay focused on getting meaning from all of the speeches by Job and his friends.  If you aren’t careful, you can totally miss “the point” in some chapters.  This is one such chapter.

In verses 1-22, he begs his friends to stop tormenting him with their words of judgment, not even being able to name what his sin might be.  He eloquently, but sadly, speaks of his pitiful state, and all of the abuse, abandonment, and even mockery by friends, family, strangers – even children.  He speaks at some length at how God has allowed all of this to befall him.

Then in verse 23 it takes a different turn, and in 25-26 (the NASB has the most accurate translation here), he says:

“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God”

There are several things to note here.  First, the Book of Job is part of the inspired word of God,; and as such, it’s author (possibly Job himself) was guided by the Holy Spirit. Secondly, with some notable exceptions, the Old Testament is less vocal on the subject of life after death, but it seems clear here that Job believes in a physical resurrection.  Abraham believed in physical resurrection as well (Hebrews 11:19).  Third, the certainty Job has that his “redeemer lives” has been a gradual progression through these chapters.  In Job 9:33 he begins to wish for an arbiter or “umpire” between himself and God.  In Job 16:19, he says:

“Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is on high.”

In Job 17:3, he asks God to be his surety, his guarantor. In Job 16:20-21, he says “my eye pours out tears to God, that he would argue the case of a man with God.”  As Peter told us in 1 Peter 1:10-12, the prophets of the Old Testament did not always know the full ultimate development of all of their prophecies, but Job’s insight grows slowly each chapter.  He would have no way of knowing about Jesus, but he now sees God Himself as his Redeemer – the one who would stand for Him in the end before God Himself.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy
___________________
some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.

May 16 2013

Job 18 – Bildad: God Punishes the Wicked

Bildad’s anger at Job for his rebuke of the three friends comes out in this chapter, and he comes out swinging, saying “Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?”   He at first basically says that Job should shut his mouth and listen to them as they in their wisdom explain how his troubles can only be a result of Job’s own wickedness.

His rhetoric is beyond compassion-less – it is cruel and vindictive, using words that condemned Job as one that could not get punishment sufficient for his evil ways.  All of this comes without a single accusation.  Instead, he continues the diatribe that he and the others started concerning their great knowledge of the fate of the wicked.

But his description of all of the bad things that happen to the wicked are completely wrong, as Job has already pointed out. Some of the imagery of this darkly poetic rhetoric may be appropriate to the fate of the wicked after death, and in the judgment.  But it is even more obvious to us today that the wicked do not always suffer such fates during their lifetimes.   Bildad’s assessment is an unfortunate reflection of the attitudes many people of that time had toward others who were less fortunate – but is it so different today?

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy
___________________
some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.

May 9 2013

Job 17 – Where Then Is My Hope?

storm-01In chapter 17, Job is, of course, still at his lowest, and in so many words – a shadow of his former self.  His pain and immense grief having long given way to despair, he tells his friends to speak to him again (verse 10).  But he is certain that they will not offer anything better than they have already (“come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you”).

But contrary to how it may seem, Job is not saying that he has given up hope.  Surely, he says, his days are past and his plans are broken off (verse 11).  But he pleads with God to “put up security” for him (verse 3).  Certain that he has closed the hearts of his friends to true understanding, he asks God not to allow their assessment of him to be vindicated in his death.

For then, he says in verse 15, “Who will see my hope?”  Job still has held on to one thing even at this point – his trust in the Lord, that He is just.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy
___________________
some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.

May 2 2013

Job 16 – God Has Worn Me Out?

In the speech that Eliphaz had finished, the only new invective was that of adding to the list of Job’s supposed sins that he  is also an extreme hypocrite due to his refusal to admit his wickedness.  Job addresses them as the “miserable comforters” they are and declares that if their roles were reversed, he would try to ease their pain instead of making them more miserable.  He would rather they would have just kept silent as when they first arrived.

Depressed_002In the following verses, while he says that God has worn him out, and that his state bears witness of his sins in the eyes of those around him, he seems to have at last concluded that it is not God Himself that has done all of these things to him.  Instead, he says that God has allowed it to happen, and that he has given him up to the hands of the wicked and evil that are tormenting him (verse 11).   And the fact that he still believes that he is not wicked both confuses and saddens him.

How utterly hopeless a feeling it must be to believe that in the face of all that tragedy, not only has mankind turned their backs on him, but the Lord has abandoned him as well.  Now, it sounds like all that he has to look forward to is a few more years just waiting to die.  Job is deep in the clutches of depression, the depth of which we could never really know.

But that is not the whole story here.  In the midst of all this depression and despair, Job not only has hope, he is certain about his assurance.  Job feels that God has abandoned him to evil, yet he speaks with certainty in verses 19-21 of one who will intercede for him: “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high.” And then: “my eye pours out tears to God, that he would argue the case of a man with God.”

Through it all, Job know through divine inspiration, that it is God Himself that will intercede for him.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy
___________________
some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.

Apr 25 2013

Job 15 – Eliphaz Accuses Job

pointing_fingerEliphaz takes the floor again and accuses Job of both impiety and of turning his spirit against God with his words (verse 13) – which Eliphaz only considers as Job’s craftiness, trying to justify himself in the face of his sins.  He rebukes Job for his attitude toward him and his other two friends, speaking indignantly of it and implying that Job seems to believe that he is smarter than they are (verse 9).

Eliphaz then goes into detail about his own knowledge of the ways of wicked men and their abominable behavior and utter disregard for either their fellow man or the Lord Himself.  In verse 21, he states that the wicked who are prosperous will be brought down very low because of their sins.  And in the remainder of the chapter, he implies that Job has much worse to dread in the coming days because of his lack of fear for the Lord.  It is a very bleak picture that this “friend” paints for Job, and a stinging assault on his integrity, which is all that Job feels he has left.  And now Eliphaz would take even that away from him.

How thoughtless and destructive man’s words can be for his fellow man even when they are at their lowest.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy
___________________
some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.

Apr 18 2013

Job 14 – Man Flees Like a Shadow

Job concludes his fourth speech with a soliloquy on the brevity of life.  Although, as we have said before, it is often dark in these early chapters, the poetry in Job is clearer and more beautifully eloquent and evident the further along we go.  Of man being few of days and full of trouble, verse 2 says

He comes out like a flower and withers;
he flees like a shadow and continues not

Job still does not understand; and he continues to wonder why God seems to be angry with him.

Oh …that you would conceal me until your wrath be past,
that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me…
All the days of my service I would wait,
till my renewal should come

rushing waterJob feels totally hopeless and is mistakenly certain that it is God who has brought him to this state.  His pitiful condition elicits a heart-wrenching cry of desperation:

But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
and the rock is removed from its place;
the waters wear away the stones;
the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
so you destroy the hope of man

Job still has not cursed God, but the words are certainly accusatory.  We have to wonder whether God will tire of this.  To that question at least, we will at last get an answer.  But not just yet.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy
___________________
some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.

Apr 11 2013

Job 13 – Worthless Physicians

broken2In the first section of chapter 13, Job rebukes his three friends soundly, calling them “worthless physicians” in verse four, and declaring their eloquent speeches garbage in verse 12.  He accuses them of formulating lies, when they should be comforting him.  And he rightly predicts the future, telling them that God will rebuke them for their position concerning the character of man determining his lot in life.  Then in verses 13-18, he again declares his righteousness, as well as his trust that God will recognize it.

In verses 20-29, he again addresses God.  One  commentator called this last section “a new attack on God.”  But though he will come to reconsider the wisdom of demanding an audience with God, Job is certainly not launching any attack here.  Clearly though, Job is convinced that God must be mistaken about something concerning himself, and he wants his time to plead his case.  He even suggests in verse 26 that God may be punishing him for sins he committed in his youth.  He was a better man now, and wanted the chance to get the Lord to recognize that fact.  But even so, he allows for the possibility that he may really be guilty; and if so, he wants God to tell him what he has done – and that then he should just accept what has happened (verse 19, 23).

These seemingly different and wandering thoughts on Job’s part simply underscore his confusion and pain.  He is hurting so badly, and wants to understand why it is so.  It is this fact that explains much of the value to us in this book that can be very difficult to take at times.  It teaches us much about ourselves.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy
___________________
some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.

Apr 4 2013

Job 12 – Job Replies: The Lord Has Done This

Verse 2 (“No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you”), rather than being flattery, is obvious sarcasm on Job’s part concerning his wise friends.  He already knows, he tells them, about God’s great power and goodness; and he tells them in verse 3 that “I am not inferior to you.”   Job seems to have had enough of their self-righteous speeches about their supposed insight into the wisdom of the ages and the wisdom of God Himself.

whale-001Concerning Job’s description of his treatment by his neighbors in verses 4-5, Coffman comments “he truly spoke of a universal trait of our fallen human nature, namely, that of despising the unfortunate.”  He again disputes his friends’ assertions in verse 6 by pointing out that thieves and other ungodly people do enjoy peace and prosperity.

He then points them toward the animal kingdom, nature, and even the rest of mankind.  Gentle creatures, lush forests, and righteous men are not favored by God with abundance over predators, weeds, or evil dictators. Princes, kings, and even great nations can rise quickly and just as easily fall.  God, Job points out, controls all nature and everything on the earth.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy
___________________
some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.