Archive for month: February, 2020

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 21:17-34. Let’s go!

Job 21:17-21 (NIV) 
17  “Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? How often does calamity come upon them, the fate God allots in his anger? 
18  How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale? 
19  [It is said,] ‘God stores up a man’s punishment for his sons.’ Let him repay the man himself, so that he will know it! 
20  Let his own eyes see his destruction; let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. 
21  For what does he care about the family he leaves behind when his allotted months come to an end?
 
On verses 17-21:  Whereas Zophar insists that the wicked are cut down in their youth (Job 20), Job has a different perspective.  Job finds that wicked people are rarely punished, at least in this lifetime (v17-18).  Job wishes that there would be clearer punishment from God of the wicked (v19-21).  Job finds that in death, those who prospered while living wicked lives (v23-24) and those who bent over backwards to be righteous (v25) are both treated the same: “side by side they lie in the dust, and worms cover them both.” (v26)  Contrary to his friends’ words about how God wipes out the wicked (v27-28), Job finds that there is no clear denunciation of wicked people (v29-30).  

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 21:1-16.  Let’s go!

Job 21:1-16 (NIV) 
1  Then Job replied: 
2  “Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you give me. 
3  Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on. 
4  “Is my complaint directed to man? Why should I not be impatient? 
5  Look at me and be astonished; clap your hand over your mouth. 
6  When I think about this, I am terrified; trembling seizes my body. 
7  Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? 
8  They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes. 
9  Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not upon them. 
10  Their bulls never fail to breed; their cows calve and do not miscarry. ……

On verses 1-16:  Contrary to Zophar’s assertion in Job 20 that the wicked always die young, Job can’t understand why God allows some wicked people to prosper, living seemingly comfortable lives “growing old and increasing in power” (v7), all the while being indifferent and rebellious toward God (v14-15).

While Job wants nothing to do with the wicked and believes any prosperity they enjoy is ultimately due to the hand of God and “not in their own hands” (v16), still Job is disturbed when he sees those who seem to live rich, prosperous and comfortable lives despite not trusting or even believing in God. 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 20:1-29.

Job 20:5-8 (NIV) 
5  …the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment. 
6  Though his pride reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, 
7  he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ 
8  Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night. 

On verses 1-29:  Here Zophar echoes the same message that Eliphaz and Bildad have spoken in Job 15 and Job 18 respectively: that terror, calamity and disaster are the fate of the wicked.  Zophar, in particular, emphasizes how the wicked die young – how they prosper briefly only to be cut down in the prime of their youth and at the height of their power.  For example, in verse 5 Zophar says, “the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts only a moment”.  About the wicked man Zophar says “the youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust” (v11).