Author Archive for: meiling

Hi GAMErs,

Now onto today’s passage.  Today’s passage is Job 39:1-30.  Let’s go!

On Job 38:39 to Job 39:30:  After silencing Job with questions about the origins of the universe (38:4-18) and about outer space (38:19-38), God now questions Job about the animal kingdom (38:39 to 39:30): lions (v39-40), ravens (v41), mountain goats (v3-4), donkeys (v6-8), wild oxen (v9-12), ostriches (v13-18), horses (v19-25), hawks (v26), and eagles (v27-30).  When God asks questions about each animal, there is an attention to detail and a sense of wonder and excitement in God’s voice.

For example, here’s God talking about a horse:

Job 39:19-25 (NIV) 
19  “Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?
20  Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?
21  He paws fiercely, rejoicing in his strength, and charges into the fray.
22  He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing; he does not shy away from the sword…….

Hi GAMErs,

Now onto today’s passage.  Today’s passage is Job 38:19-41.  Let’s go!
 
Job 38:19-21 (NIV) 
19  “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? 
20  Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? 
21  Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!

On verses 19-38:  Out of the storm God is answering Job.  God moves from asking Job questions about the origins of the universe (v4-18) to questions about the skies and outer space in verses 19-38. 

Notice that in response to Job’s highly confrontational and adversarial way of talking to God and about God, God responds in a confrontational and adversarial way as well.  Just look at God’s tone in verses 19 to 21.  Or in verses 3 and 4.  Or verse 18.  This is perhaps the closest you will find in the Bible to God trash-talking a person whom He loves and will later bless.  

Hi GAMErs,
Now onto today’s passage.  Today’s passage is Job 38:1-18.  Let’s go!

Job 38:1-3 (NIV) 
1  Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:
2  “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
3  Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

On verses 1-18:  Here we see the Lord’s long awaited reply to Job.  Interestingly, God does not directly answer Job’s question about the reason for his suffering.  Rather, in response to Job’s adversarial and confrontational way of approaching God, God asks Job all sorts of questions about the origins of the universe that Job cannot answer.

Notice verse 1 says that the Lord answered Job “out of the storm”.  The storm being referred to here could possibly be an actual weather storm going on while the Lord is speaking to Job.  The “storm” is also referring to the spiritual, emotional, physical, social, and financial torment that Job has faced in losing his family, his fortune, his friends and his health.

Hi GAMErs,

Now onto today’s passage.  Today’s passage is Job 37:1-24.  Let’s go!
 
Job 37:1-24 (NIV) 
1  “At this my heart pounds and leaps from its place. 
2  Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth. 
3  He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth. ……

On verses 1-13:  It is possible that just as Elihu is speaking a storm is taking place, and so Elihu invites Job to listen to the thunder in the background (v1-2).  In any event, whether or not a storm was actually taking place while Elihu was talking, here Elihu speaks about how God is behind all kinds of weather and the elements – lightning (v3), thunder (v4-5), snow (v6), rain (v6), strong winds (v9), ice and freezing conditions (v10), and clouds (v11-13).  Elihu’s point is that because we cannot understand all that God does – “how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash…how the clouds hang poised” (v15-16) – who does Job think he is to believe he can successfully argue his case with God, who is so much bigger than human beings? (v19-20)