Posts from February 2016

Why aren’t times of judgment kept by the Almighty, why don’t those who know him never see his days? Some seize flocks, drive away the donkey of orphans, take from the widow, and they thrust the poor off the road. The poor hide themselves, act like wild donkeys going out to their toil, seeking game in the desert. They get food from the wasteland for their children. They glean in the vineyard of the wicked, lie naked all night, have…

Job answered, his complaint is bitter, his hand heavy. Job longs to come before God and lay his case before him with arguments. He longs for God to answer and understand what he says. He trust that God would pay attention. He trusts that an upright man could argue with God and Job would be acquitted forever by God his judge. But Job goes forward and doesn’t believe he’s there. He goes backward and doesn’t perceive Him. God is working,…

Eliphaz said – “Can a man be profitable to God? Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you? Isn’t your evil abundant? There is no end to your inquiries. You have exacted pledges for nothing and taken clothing. You haven’t given water to the weary, bread to the hungry, showed favoritism, sent widows away empty, crushed the orphan. This is why you are terrorized and in darkness. God is high in…

Job answered and said to Zophar to let Job’s words be Zophar’s comfort, but after he’s spoken “mock on” (v. 3). Job’s complaint isn’t against man. He asks Zophar to look at him and be appalled with hand over mouth. When he remembers his dismay his flesh shudders. Why do the wicked live to old age, grow mighty in power, see their offspring established, have houses safe from fear, without God’s rod upon them? Why do their bulls breed without…

Answering Bildad Job answered Bildad saying: How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words? 10 times you’ve cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me. Job admits that if it’s true that he erred it remains with himself. Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad were “magnifying” themselves against Job, and using his terrible condition/disgrace to argue against him. God Has Done This Know that God has put him in the wrong and closed his net…

Bildad answered Job – How long will you hunt for words? Consider, then we’ll speak. Are we stupid like cattle in your sight? Shall the earth be forsaken for you? The light of the wicked is put out, his steps are shortened, and his schemes throw him down. He’s cast into a a trap by his own feet. Terrors fight him on every side. His strength is famished, and calamity is ready for his stumbling. It consumes the parts of his…

Job believed his spirit was broken that death was near. He keeps looking at the way his mockers are provoking him. He asks who will lay down a pledge (surety/redeem) for him with God. God closed his friends’ hearts to understanding, but he believes God won’t let them triumph. God made Job a byword (reproach or scorn) of the peoples and he’s like someone men spit on. His eyes grew dim and he is like a shadow. The upright are…

Job answered: He’d heard many things, his friends are miserable comforters. He counters saying that they are windbags. What provokes them to answer? He could speak as they do if they were in his place. He’d join and shake his head at them He could strengthen them with his mouth, and intensify their pain with the “comfort” of his mouth. God has worn him out making his company empty. God has shriveled him up, his condition testifies to his face, “God has torn me…

Eliphaz answered – he accuses Job of being a windbag, arguing in unprofitable talk, words that do no good. He accuses that Job is doing away with the fear of God, and hindering meditation before God, and that Job’s guilt teaches his mouth and crafty tongue. He accuses Job’s mouth as condemning him. He asks multiple questions – are you the first man born? Have you listened to God’s council? Do you limit wisdom yourself? What do you know that…