Archive for month: January, 2020

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 14:13-22.

Job 14:13-15 (NIV) 
13  “If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me! 
14  If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. 
15  You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made.
 
On verses 13-22:  Job longs for life after death, that somehow God would gloriously resurrect his life after he dies (v13-15) and no longer count his sins against him (v16-17).  But as much as Job hopes for this, Job sees resurrection as an unrealistic possibility and concludes that life is hopeless (v18-22).

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 13:20-28.

Job 13:20-28 (NIV) 
20  “Only grant me these two things, O God, and then I will not hide from you: 21  Withdraw your hand far from me, and stop frightening me with your terrors.
22  Then summon me and I will answer, or let me speak, and you reply. 23  How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin………

On verses 20-28:  Here Job asks God to withdraw His hand from him and to stop frightening him so that he can have a conversation with Him (v21-22).  Job invites God to show him in what way he has sinned (v23).  Job goes on to describe God as a mysterious attacker who torments and chases a weak and helpless person (v25), who considers Job his enemy (v24) and who has judgment and bitter things in store for Job (v26).  Job sees God as a prison warden and himself as His prisoner (v27), whose life is wasting away for as long as God is focusing on him (v28).

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 13:1-19.  Let’s go!
 
Job 13:4-5 (NIV) 
4  You, however, smear me with lies; you are worthless physicians, all of you! 
5  If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom.
 
On verses 1-5:   Job is frustrated and fed up with hearing from his so-called “friends”.  He tells them that whatever they have already told him he already knows (v1-2) – “what you know, I already know.  I am not inferior to you” (v2).  He calls his friends “worthless physicians” (v4), lie-smearing accusers whose advice did not help.  He tells them it would be wiser for them just to shut their mouths (“If only you were altogether silent!  For you, that would be wisdom.” (v5)). 
What can we learn from this?  Sometimes the best thing you can do as a friend is to lend your ear and hold your tongue.  Job’s friends would have helped Job far more, and been much better off themselves, had they been “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” (James 1:19).  As Proverbs 21:23 (MSG) says, “Watch your words and hold your tongue; you’ll save yourself a lot of grief.”