Archive for category: GAMEtime Sharing

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 18:1-21.  Let’s go!

Job 18:1-4 (NIV) 
1  Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2  “When will you end these speeches? Be sensible, and then we can talk.
3  Why are we regarded as cattle and considered stupid in your sight?
4  You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger, is the earth to be abandoned for your sake? Or must the rocks be moved from their place?

On verses 1-21:  Bildad keeps making the same mistake despite receiving feedback from Job.  Job has already repeatedly expressed, with directness and clarity, how he wishes his friends would talk to him differently (Job 6:25-26; Job 13:3-4; 16:2-4).  Yet instead of giving real consideration to what Job is saying, instead of recognizing the error of his ways and adjusting, Bildad at first gets defensive (v3-4) and then continues on with his same mistaken approach.  Bildad continues to attack Job and uses his indirect but not so subtle way of linking what has happened to Job with what happens to wicked people (v5-21).

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 16:1-22.  Let’s go!

Job 16:1-6 (NIV) 
1  Then Job replied: 
2  “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all! 
3  Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing? 
4  I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you. 
5  But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
6  “Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.
 
On verses 1-6:  Job is in such physical and emotional torment that neither him speaking out nor him trying to stay silent helps (v6).  Job has learned first hand that when a person is experiencing such great pain and loss, what that person needs is to be comforted and encouraged by others, not lectured, judged, accused or argued with him as Job’s friends did with him.  Even if that person’s own poor decisions brought about their suffering, even if their character leaves much to be desired, in the moment of their agony, don’t take that moment to tear them down even more, but hold them up with God’s love.  In so doing, your gentle actions will teach them something about God’s love and grace that your lectures never could.  Save your sermon for later when the pain is less piercing and the grief less agonizing.  
 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 15:1-16.  Let’s go!

Job 15:4-9 (NIV) 
4  But you even undermine piety and hinder devotion to God. 
5  Your sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the tongue of the crafty. 
6  Your own mouth condemns you, not mine; your own lips testify against you. 
7  “Are you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills? 
8  Do you listen in on God’s council? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? 
9  What do you know that we do not know? What insights do you have that we do not have?
 
On verses 1-16:  Even after Job has lost virtually everything and has told his friends exactly what he needs from them – he needs them to shut up and just listen to him (Job 13:5-6) – Eliphaz cannot help himself.  Eliphaz insists on speaking up one more time.  With even more vitriol and accusation on his tongue than before, Eliphaz accuses Job of being foolish (v2-3), undevoted to God (v4), sinful (v5), self-condemning (v6), prideful and arrogant (v7-9), ungrateful to God (v11), rageful (v12-13), vile and corrupt (v14-16). 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 14:1-12.  Let’s go!

Job 14:1-2 (NIV) 
1  “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. 
2  He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

On verses 1-2:  In Job’s pain, anger and frustration, not everything that Job says should be taken as gospel.  Just as we had to do with Job’s friends, we need to fact check Job, separating the wheat from the chaff in his words.  Here in verses 1-2 Job speaks of how finite and short man’s life on earth is.  This is true.  It resonates with other verses in Scripture such as Psalm 103:15-16 where it says, “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.”   Part of living humbly before God is recognizing that life is short and that every day is a gift.  So make the most of today.
 

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.”