Tag Archive | job

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 7

Jan7

Day 7. Reading in Job 14 – 16. 

I’m rereading through God’s Word again this year, but I’ll write/blog about it differently. Instead of only an overview of the text, I want it to be more personal.

I invite you to read the scripture for the day and write “in the comments” what was meaningful to YOU. We can encourage each other.

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Job 14.

As a lawyer before God the judge, Job pours out his frustration. Some of it is not pretty. He knows that even a newborn infant is born with sin and will die at God’s discretion. He knows he will die and asks God to leave him alone so he can enjoy his time left. 

Then, Job seems to vacillate between believing and not believing that there is life after death.  Even an old tree that’s been cut down hopes to sprout again at the taste of water. But where is a man after he’s laid in the grave?   

Job asks God to “hide him in the grave” until His wrath passes. To appoint a set time to remember him. “If a man dies, shall he live again? (His answer seems to be Yes.) “All the days of my service, I would wait, till my renewal should come. You would call, and I would answer You.”

  • There are times of stress and anxiety when I would just like to go to sleep and stay there till the troubles are past.  I don’t want to face, endure, or deal with problems. I can sympathize with people sunk in extreme troubles who numb themselves with sleeping pills, alcohol, drugs, etc.  To a tiny degree, I understand what they and Job are experiencing.   
  • Oh, Lord, help me to cling to you for my strength and to be compassionate towards others.

Job 15.

Old Eliphaz is back. He’s now condemning Job for attacking God!  “Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth?”

He condemns Job for thinking he knew more than “the old men of wisdom” who were there with him.  Eliphaz says, “What do YOU know that WE don’t know? Both the gray-haired and the aged are here, (we are) ones older than your father.”   

  • What he says is NOT TRUE. I have white hair, I am “aged,” but I am certainly NOT WISE! Age does not automatically equal wisdom. You’ve heard of ‘old fools’?”

Then (nose in the air, I picture) Elephas berates Job. “I (a gray-haired wise one) will show you. Hear me, and what I have seen, I will declare.” Then he explains how it’s the WICKED MAN who writhes in pain, who hears dreadful news, whose prosperity is destroyed, who does not believe he will return from the dead.  (Yep, he’s pointing at Job.)

The next part is funny because WE know what happens to Job in the last chapter.  Eliphaz says that a wicked man’s (Job’s) wealth will not return, he won’t depart from darkness, and emptiness will be his final payment.  HA!  Just you wait, Eliphaz!

Job 16.

I don’t know how Job can keep coming back. Under such a hostile barrage, I would be squirming, face in the mud, unable to open my eyes.  But Job (you have to cheer for him) speaks back.

He calls these wise men “miserable comforters” with “windy words that have no end.” Job says, Yeah, if he were healthy and “wise” like them, HE could speak like they do.  “I could join words together against you and shake my head at you. I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.” (He’s being sarcastic.)

But then, Job slips into depression and laments what God has done to him. (Don’t blame him for this. Think of his loss, sorrow, pain, and miserable, finger-pointing friends. Even JESUS, on the cross, cried out, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?)

  • Surely, now God has worn me out
  • He has shriveled me up
  • He has torn me in His wrath and hated me
  • He has gnashed His teeth at me
  • I was at ease, and he broke me apart
  • He seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces
  • He set me up as His target; His archers surround me.
  • He breaks me with breach upon breach
  • He runs upon me like a warrior.

(These could almost describe his friends!)  And yet… OH, SEE HOW JOB TRUSTS!!! 

“Even now, behold my witness (advocate) is in heaven, and He who testifies FOR me is on high. My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God that HE would argue the case of a man with God, as a Son of man does with his neighbor.”

  • Yes, let me remember too that I have an “advocate in Heaven,” one who pleads my innocence before God because of His own shed blood. (Like the song says, God looks on HIM and pardons ME.) And I have the Holy Spirit who dwells in me and comforts me.

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 4

Jan4

Day 4. Reading in Job 1 – 5. 

I’m rereading God’s Word this year. And I hope to blog about it differently. Instead of writing only an overview of the text, I want it to be more personal.

I invite you to read the scripture for the day and write “in the comments” what you found meaningful. We can encourage each other.

 

Job 1.

Our pastor once said that Job’s first and last chapters are great, but everything in the middle is foolishness. He said that because none of Job’s friends speak God’s wisdom.  However, 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “ALL scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness,”  So let’s look for that during these dozen days in the book of Job.

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In chapter one, we see what Job never sees or understands, which can be a great comfort to us in our suffering. We may never know why bad things happen to US, but we CAN know that God is in perfect control. He is sovereign. He ALLOWED Satan to hurt and torment Job “for His glory.”  Job’s statement in 1:21 shows total dependence and faith in his God.  This glorifies God. 

  • Shortly after reading through Job last year, I went through a scary time of breast cancer, surgery, and radiation treatment. Throughout those months, I often thought of Job. His declaration of God’s sovereignty, his emotional ups and downs, and his questions and despairs helped me when I was at my lowest.  UNLIKE Job, I was surrounded by friends who held me up in prayer, comforted, encouraged, and helped me practically in so many ways. They kept me looking to God throughout the trial, and I am very grateful.  So now, I’m reading this book from a different perspective.

We know the story.  Job was as blameless and upright as Noah before him, who feared God and turned away from evil.  God chose righteous Noah to go through a great disaster unharmed to bring Him glory. God chose His righteous servant, Job, to endure a great trial with much suffering, bringing Him praise from Job’s own lips. (Job 42). (And, might I say, a slam to Satan.)

As Job lost all his animals (wealth), his children, and even his own health, he “did not sin or charge God with wrong.”

(Well, it WASN’T God who did any wrong to him, but Satan, with God’s permission, who caused all that destruction, death, and pain, just as that old Serpent had done in the beginning in the garden of Eden. Death and pain are his specialties.)  Job was unaware of how God showcased him, or he probably would have felt pride.

  • I wonder…  As Christians, when we experience suffering, maybe we should remember that others are looking at us to see how WE respond.  Are we trusting in our God no matter what happens?  Can we give Him glory by our attitude?  In a way, these words of Jesus apply, “Let your LIGHT so shine before men, that they may see your good works (attitude in suffering), and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) 
  • For me, I often complain loudly when things go wrong. ‘Why is this happening to me?’ I fume.  It’s good that I’m rereading this book of Job.

Job’s wife DID blame God. “Oh, husband, why don’t you just curse God and die!”  Wow. A loving wife she was not. (She will get her due, having to bear ten more children in her latter years! Ha!)

Job 2.

Job is now suffering painfully, with masses of boils erupting all over his body. He uses pieces of broken pottery in the trash heap to scrape off the swollen heads and allow the pus to run out.  To his disgusted wife, he says, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”

  • I wonder…did she sponge off his hurting body with cool water sometimes?  Did she apply salve to the open sores?  Did she bring and feed him a healing broth?  Somehow, I think not.

But a few of Job’s friends came to comfort him. His increasing pain was so great that, in distress for him, they wept, tore their robes, and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then, they sat silently with him in compassion for seven days and nights.

Job 3 – 5.

Then, the “foolishness” begins.

Of course, Job had the right to curse the day he was born. (I think David or King Solomon did this, too.) “Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb, and expire?” he moans (or wails).  It’s understandable, of course, him being in so much pain.

It stirs one of his friends to speak, “Who, that was innocent, ever perished?  As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble…reap the same.”  Thanks, Eliphaz, that really wasn’t comforting.  You’re saying I’m suffering because I sinned against God?

Eliphaz continues ‘laying it on’.  “Affliction does not come from dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground.  As for ‘me,’ I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause...”  And then, in what seems a self-righteous attitude, he tells Job, “Blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.” 

This is true enough, but Eliphaz doesn’t know what we know. Job’s suffering isn’t discipline!  It is proof that God loves him, knows the faithfulness of his heart, and is willing for Satan to do his worst to reveal that man CAN serve God fully. 

 

 

 

 

#2024 GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 13

Jan13

Won’t you read the Bible with me this year?  (You can also listen to an audio recording.) It only takes a few minutes and you will be blessed.

Day 13 – Job 35 – 37 (Elihu continues.)

In chapter 35, Elihu continues to speak to Job (and his other three friends), and he is as far off the truth as they were.  He tells Job the reasons why God hasn’t answered him are three. First was his pride (10 & 12). Second was that Job had wrong motives (13). And the third thing was that Job lacked trust (14).  

Well, actually, those are reasons why OUR prayers are not sometimes answered too. It’s just a shame that God’s silence towards job had nothing to do with them.  (And soon – very soon – God IS going to respond. And then, Job and his friends had better listen!)

Chapter 36 starts out with Elihu claiming to speak on behalf of God. He says his own words are not false and that he is one who is perfect in knowledge.  (Cough! Choke!  Really Elihu???)  He then goes on self-righteously (in my opinion) to describe how Almighty God, his maker, deals with mankind.

He does say some truth about God’s majesty in creation, and (I like this) “God is great, and we know Him not; the number of His years is unsearchable.” (36:26)  He got that right because God IS from eternity past and will go on forever into eternity future. 

He goes on in chapter 37, proclaiming God’s majesty in nature, specifically in the elements; storms of wind, rain, ice and snow.  I love this in verse 13, “Whether for CORRECTION or for His LAND, or for LOVE, He causes it to happen.”  Think of that the next time you read about (or experience) blizzards, flooding, tornados, or heat waves. Wow.

And at the end of the chapter, he almost (unknowingly) preaches at HIMSELF!  “Therefore men fear Him; He does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”  (Hah, Elihu!  Remember 36:4?)

(But alas, am I not like that too?  Lord, forgive me. Thank You.)

 

On Sunday and Monday (posts together, and concludes Job), we will read God’s words to Job and his friends, in a series of hundreds of questions, the answers always pointing to God Himself.  Wow. Talk about an interrogation! 

#2024 GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 12

Jan12

Won’t you read the Bible with me this year?  (You can also listen to an audio recording.) It only takes a few minutes and you will be blessed.

Day 12 – Job 32 – 34 (Elihu, the original “burning man”)

Job’s three friends have exhaused their words of “comfort” (more like condemnation). Job himself seems to have come to the end of his rebuttals. Now, Elihu, who is younger than all of them and seems to have been there all along waiting, takes the stage.

And he’s mad.  Four times in the first 5 verses the word says, he “burned with anger.  I can imagine him sitting in the group all this time and getting more and more steamed up, face red, eyes wide, breathing fast. But he waited his turn out of respect for age. And now, youth wills out and he stands with (in his own mind) authority.

In his first paragraph he disparages their age, saying “It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right” (32:9) and, “Listen to me; let me also declare my opinion.” (32:10, 17)

But, you know what?  He basically says the same things.  It’s all Job’s fault. How dare Job claim to be righteous! God doesn’t afflict a good man! God repays man according to his works!

Elihu digresses a bit in mid chapter 34, praising the almighty, sovereign God, perfectly just and powerful. (Amen, Elihu!)

But he closes the chapter with stinging words agains Job. “Would that Job were tried to the end, because he answers like wicked men. For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against. God.” (34:36-37)

Sigh.

Elihu will speak for three more chapters in tomorrow’s reading. He will continue to condemn Job, but will finally turn his thoughts to God and magnify Him. That will be a welcome relief.

#2024 GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 11

Jan11

Won’t you read the Bible with me this year?  (You can also listen to an audio recording.) It only takes a few minutes and you will be blessed.

Day 11 – Job 29-31 (and then the words of Job ends)

 Today is the end of Job speaking until his confession in the last, short chapter. (Next up is the #4 “Friend” who waxes eloquent for four chapters!!!)

In chapter 29, Job remembers “the good old days” before all this tragedy fell on him.  It was the days when, “God watched over me,” when “the friendship with God was upon my tent,” when “my children were all around me,” and “my steps were washed with butter.”  WOW.

Job goes on to reminisce about when he was respected and honored, when, at his presence young men withdrew and aged rose and stood.  Ahhhh, those were the days, my friend; I thought they’d never end….. (You can almost hear him sigh.)

He lists all the good he did for neighbor and country. He bemoans the time when men “listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel.”

“But NOW… (in chapter 30 he tells how things have changed).  “now they laugh at me.”  “I have become their song, a byword to them.”  And even, “they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.”  What a downfall, what a humbling: to see how it is when men forsake you.

But his anquish is worse when he turns to his God.  “God has cast me into the mire….”  “I cry to You for help and You do not answer me; I stand and you only look at me. You have turned cruel to me….”

Have you ever been in such dispair?  Have you wailed against your God?  I confess, I have not. I’ve complained and whined. God has sometimes seemed silent and distant to me. But never like Job.

Then in chapter 31, it’s as if he gathers himself, straightens up a little and begins to claim his righteousness, how he is undeserving of such a fate. Beginning with verse five, he lists a dozen or more  “if-then” scenarios.  If I had done such and such… then may such and such befall me.

At one point he says “Oh, that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)

Whoa, Job. Be careful what you wish!

Tomorrow we will endure Elihu (4th friend) going on and on. THEN…  God will speak.

#2024 GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, days 7 & 8

Jan8
       Day 7 & 8 — (I combine Sunday and Monday reads.)  Won’t you read the Bible with me this year?  You can also listen to an audio recording. It only takes a few minutes.
Job 14-16
Our guy Job begins the chapter with, “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble,” and you might agree with him.
Did you know Moses agreed too?  Psalm 90:10 says, “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.”
Next in this sad saga, old Eliphaz (Friend #1, in this second round) comes back with more unkind and mistaken condemnation of Job (15). Job (16) says Eliphaz is not much of a friend. He calls him a “miserable comforter,” a blow-hard talking about what he knows nothing about!!
Then Job laments more about his suffering. He accuses God of shattering, shaking, shooting at, and slicing him.   (Just imagine his pain from that horrible skin ailment, that he must constantly scrape scabs/puss away with broken pottery.)
And I complain about a bit of arthritus or allergy! God forgive me.
Job 17-20
(Yes, I know it’s Monday. It’s been a  whole week since we began. We are still in Job! And it’s depressing!  Oh, please don’t quit. Carry on.  Persevere. Endure to the end (of Job, and the Bible!!)
Job is again thinking of death (Wouldn’t YOU if you were enduring all this and without compassionate understanding?). But if he dies, then he asks, “Where then is my hope?”  Oh, Job, remember your words in chapter 13! “Though He slay me, I will hope in HIM,“
Then Bildad (friend #2, in this second round) takes the “podium” and accuses Job of more badness. He asks why Job thinks they are “stupid” in his sight. (Well, duh!)  Bildad waxes eloquent about the “wicked” intimating that this is what poor Job is, ending that it is just the place of the person who knows not God.  (Don’t you wish he could review those first verses in the book that describe Job as upright and blameless?)
Job fervently answers his accuser(s) in chapter 19, “How long will you torment me and break me in pieces with words?”  Yeah! What happened to the concept – “weep with those who weep”?  (Romans 12:15)  But as in a few other places, Job’s soul rises to God and he exclaims, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh shall I see God,” (19:25)  Wow.
Despite, Job’s gasping faith, his third friend, Zophar, cuts him down with, “The wicked will SUFFER!”
We’ve not heard the last of these three “friends,” and even a fourth one will appear in chapter 32 who at first rebukes the others, but then hammers down on Job too.  (Oh, just wait and see how God will treat these guys at the end of chapter 42.  (You can peek at it now, but it will be more satisfying when we get there.)
KEEP READING! Remember the blessing God promised to those who read His word.