Archive for category: GAMEtime Sharing

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 27:1-12. Let’s go!

Job 27:1-12 (NIV) 
1  And Job continued his discourse:
2  “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul,
3  as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,
4  my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will utter no deceit.
5  I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity……..

On verses 1-12:  After his friends have repeatedly tried to convince Job that he has sinned and needs to repent, here in these verses Job is more adamant than ever about his innocence.  As he says in verses 5-6, “I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity. I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.”  Later on, when God appears to Job and speaks to him directly, Job will repent.  But until God appears to him personally, Job will not budge no matter how much his friends try to accuse him.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 24:1-25.  Let’s go!

Job 24:1-17 (NIV) 
1  “Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment? Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?
2  Men move boundary stones; they pasture flocks they have stolen.
3  They drive away the orphan’s donkey and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
4  They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
5  Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children……..

On verses 1-17:  Job sees so much injustice around him – people stealing others’ property (v2), taking advantage of the weak and poor (v3-8), and causing the most vulnerable in society to suffer the most (v9-12).  Job sees murder (v14), adultery (v15), robberies (v16), people reveling in the darkness and avoiding the light (v16-17).  In the face of all this injustice, Job questions why “God charges no one with wrongdoing” (v12) and “Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment?” (v1)

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 22:21-30. These are Eliphaz’s final recorded words in the book of Job.  If we had to separate the wheat from the chaff in all the words Eliphaz has spoken throughout this book, there would be much unhelpful chaff, but these final words in verses 21 to 30 would be the wheat worth keeping.  If looked at in isolation, verses 21 to 30 might be a helpful sermon for us to hang onto.  But given the context, seeing as these words follow a whole bunch of unfair accusations and judgments Eliphaz has already made against Job, it is likely that Job was not encouraged or helped when Eliphaz spoke these words.  But here let’s give Eliphaz some slack and treat Eliphaz’s words in verses 21-30 as a sermon for us today on how to live a life that God blesses. 

Job 22:21 (NIV) 
21  “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.

On verse 21:  The first point Eliphaz gives on how to live a blessed life is: surrender to God.  When we keep demanding our own way, we have no peace.  When we surrender to God, the result is peace.  

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 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).