It’s All In His Hands

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 12:1-12.  Let’s go!
 
Job 12:1-3 (NIV) 
1  Then Job replied: 
2  “Doubtless you are the people, and wisdom will die with you! 
3  But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know all these things?
 
On verses 1-3:  By not hesitating to judge Job and rebuke Job based on false assumptions, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar came across as arrogant, condescending know-it-alls. What can we learn from this?  When you don’t take the time to understand the person and their situation before you rebuke them, you just end up hurting them and yourself.  You put the other person on the defensive rather than making them feel like you are on their side.
 
Job 12:4-6 (NIV) 
4  “I have become a laughingstock to my friends, though I called upon God and he answered– a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless! 

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T.H.I.N.K. before you speak

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 11:13-20.  Let’s go!

Job 11:14-15 (NIV) 
14  if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,
15  then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear.

On verses 13-20:  When you look at Zophar’s entire speech in chapter 11, a good portion of what Zophar has said is technically correct.  For example, yesterday in our look at verses 1 to 13 we identified numerous points that Zophar correctly made.  Now what was wrong with what Zophar said?  The problem is that Zophar’s guiding assumption was incorrect:  like Eliphaz and Bildad before him, Zophar falsely assumed that Job’s sin was the cause of his suffering (v14).  Thus, no matter how technically true Zophar’s statements were, virtually all of what Zophar had to say was not helpful or relevant for Job to hear.  Zophar was trying to sell something to Job that Job did not need and that would not help Job’s situation.

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The Two Sides of Wisdom

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 11:1-12.  Let’s go!
 
Job 11:7 (NIV) 
7  “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
 
On verses 1-12:  Here Zophar the Naamathite, Job’s third friend, chimes in.  Like Eliphaz and Bildad before him, Zophar’s first words are heavy in judgment and light on grace.  To paraphrase Zophar’s words to Job, “Will no one rebut your idle talk and rebuke your self-proclaimed innocence (v2-4)?  I wish God would speak right now and shut you up, because the fact is God is punishing you less than you deserve (v5-6).  God is so much bigger than you.  Don’t even try to measure His dimensions (v7-9).  If He tries you in His court, you wouldn’t stand a chance (v10).  He sees right through deceitful men and takes note of what evil people do (v11).  But stupid people will become wise about the same time that donkeys give birth to humans (v12).”

What can we learn from this?  Here we must separate the wheat from the chaff in what Zophar says.

Zophar is correct in saying that:

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It Matters How You Question God

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 10:1-22.  Let’s go!
 
Job 10:1-2 (NIV) 
1  “I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul. 
2  I will say to God: Do not condemn me, but tell me what charges you have against me.
 
On verses 1-2:  Because Job hated his life, he had no problems complaining, being bitter and questioning God.  When a person is constantly complaining and bitter, you know there is something unhealthy going on in their heart.  As Jesus says, “out of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).  What comes out of one’s mouth is a reflection of what’s going on inside their heart.  So if you want to change your speech, it starts with letting God change your heart.
 

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Your Story Spoiler Alert

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Hi GAMErs,

Job 9:25-26 (NIV) 
25  “My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy.
26  They skim past like boats of papyrus, like eagles swooping down on their prey.

On verses 25-26:  For a lot of people, when they are in pain, time moves very slowly – minutes feel like hours, days feel like months, and months feel like years. So why is it that Job, who is in great pain, says, “My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away” (v25).  I believe that is because Job has gone from the prime of his life to nearing his death so quickly.  For Job, it’s as if decades have passed in just a few days.

Job 9:27-28 (NIV) 
27  If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression, and smile,’
28  I still dread all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold me innocent.

On verses 27-28:  For Job, trying to cheer himself up and choosing to be joyful is little use when he believes that in the end, God is going to punish him for his sin (v27-28).

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The Greatest Proof That God Is Good

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 9:13-24.  Let’s go!

On verses 13-24: Job feels helpless before God. In his great pain, Job sees God not as a loving Father but as an angry beast fiercer than monsters of the deep like Rahab (not Rahab the prostitute in the book of Joshua but Rahab, being the name for the Egyptian crocodile) (v13).  In Job’s eyes, God is a merciless powerhouse with whom you cannot reason or argue (v15-16).  He is like a UFC opponent who beats Job into submission and multiplies his wounds for no reason (v17), a God who is relentless in making life miserable for Job (v18). His strength cannot be matched (v19), His justice cannot be questioned (v19) and He is so sovereign and holy that even to try to speak to Him about your innocence would be a foolish and self-condemning act (v20). 

Hating life (v21), Job questions what good it is to try to live blamelessly, especially when “He destroys both the blameless and the wicked” (v22). Job also questions how good God really is.  He describes God as one who laughs at the suffering of the innocent (v23) and who gets in the way of the administration of justice, One who “blindfolds judges”.

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Hollywood Theology

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Hi GAMErs,

Job 9:2-4 (NIV) 
2  “Indeed, I know that this is true. But how can a mortal be righteous before God? 
3  Though one wished to dispute with him, he could not answer him one time out of a thousand. 
4  His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?
 
On verses 1-12:  In these verses Job is asking a very important question: “how can mere mortals prove their innocence before God?” (v2)  The answer is we can’t.  Job knows that.  God’s power, wisdom and standards are so beyond our own that there is no way we could ever compare or come close.  But the amazing message of the Bible is that when there was no way we could possibly prove ourselves innocent in God’s sight, in love God sent Jesus Christ His Son – fully God and fully man – to die on the cross for our sins.  In so doing, at the cross God’s need for justice was satisfied while His mercy and forgiveness could be extended to us. It’s only because of God’s mercy expressed through Jesus Christ that we can be righteous and innocent before God.

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Check Your Assumptions Before Giving Your Advice

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 8:1-22.  Let’s go!
 
Job 8:1-4 (NIV) 
1  Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: 
2  “How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind. 
3  Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? 
4  When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
 
On verses 1-4:  Wow.  The first words that come out of Bildad’s mouth to a grieving, distraught Job are these.  It helps to understand where Bildad is coming from.  Believing that Job is questioning God’s justice, Bildad feels the need to come to God’s defense.  But in trying to speak in defense of God, Bildad goes way overboard and says things that are highly offensive to a grieving person.  Bildad denounces Job’s words as nonsense – “Your words are a blustering wind.” (v2)  He also states that what happened to Job’s children was God punishing them for their sin (v4).  Like Eliphaz, Bildad has incorrectly assumed that all suffering is God’s punishment for sin.

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When You Want To Ask God, “Why Me?”

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Hi GAMErs,

Job 7:11 (NIV) 
11  “Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 

On verses 1-11:  Long, difficult days (v1-2), sleepless nights (v3-4), deteriorating health (v5), an unsightly appearance (v5), feeling cut down during the prime of his life (v6), and utter hopelessness (v7-10) – that is Job’s plight.  “Therefore,” Job says, “I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.” (v11)  In other words, because life is so hard for Job, Job has had enough.  He decides it is time to voice his complaint to God.  Has life ever gotten so tough that you felt like you had to express your frustration to God?  It is fine and in fact healthy to do so, but always with humility, remembering that God is God and we are not.

Job 7:16-17 (NIV) 
16  I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning. 
17  “What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention,

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When Friends Let You Down

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 6:14-30.  Let’s go!

Job 6:14-21 (NIV) 
14  “A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
15  But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow
16  when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow,
17  but that cease to flow in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.
18  Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go up into the wasteland and perish.
19  The caravans of Tema look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.
20  They are distressed, because they had been confident; they arrive there, only to be disappointed.
21  Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid.

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