Skip to main content

Job 8-12

Job
8:1-9:19  -  Bildad speaks as a ‘know-it-all’. He sees what has happened to Job, and he thinks, ‘Job must have forgotten God’. If Bildad had not been blinded by his own ideas of how things must be, he would have noticed that Job had not forgotten God and he would have realized that bad things can and do happen to people who love God as well as people who don’t love Him. When things are going badly, don’t forget God’s long-term purpose. He is preparing us for ‘eternal life’ (Matthew 19:29). Sometimes, we wonder what’s going on in our lives. We must remember that ‘God’s ways are higher than our ways’ (Isaiah 55:8). We must learn to look beyond our sufferings. They are ‘slight and short-lived’. We must look ahead to the ‘eternal glory that is greater than anything we can imagine’ (2 Corinthians 4:17).
9:20-10:22  -  Job thinks that God is ‘against’ him. He thinks that he is condemned by God (10:2). Where do these negative thoughts come from? Do they come from God? No! God has a very positive view of Job - ‘My servant Job’ (1:8). Job is being attacked by Satan, ‘the accuser’ of God’s people (Revelation 12:10). Satan puts negative thoughts into Job’s mind. What are we to do when Satan attacks us in this way? Look to the Cross of Christ, rejoicing in God’s love for us (Romans 5:8). Take our stand in Jesus Christ - ‘There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1). Remind Satan of Christ’s victory - ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against’ us. Resist Satan - ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ - , confident that ‘we are more than conquerors through Christ’ (Matthew 16:18,23; Romans 8:37).
11:1-12:25  -  Zophar had all the answers - so he thought! It was all so simple - according to Zophar. ‘He must have done something pretty awful to deserve this’ - That’s what Zophar thought of Job and his suffering (11:6). For Job, nothing was simple. He didn’t have any answers. He was very confused. He had been ‘a righteous and blameless man’ (12:4). Now, he was suffering. Was he being punished by God?  Job listened to Zophar. It didn’t ring true! Job didn’t fully understand what was going on. He did know this: Zophar didn’t know what he was talking about. He was shouting his mouth off about things he knew nothing about. Job was not taken in by Zophar’s pious words. He responded with this ‘understanding’ - ‘The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one’ (12:3; 1 Corinthians 2:15).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

1 Kings 5:1-7:12

1 Kings 5:1-6:13   -  Do you ‘rejoice greatly’ when you hear the Word of the Lord (5:7)? God wants to ‘establish His Word’ among us (6:12). He wants to establish His presence among us. He is ‘the Word made flesh’. He ‘dwells among us, full of grace and truth’. He is ‘Emmanuel’ - ‘God with us’ (John 1:14; Matthew 1:23). As you read about the building of the temple, remember God’s Word: ‘You are God’s temple… God’s Spirit lives in you… God’s temple is holy… you are that temple… your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you… We are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will live among them…’(1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16). ‘A dwelling place of God in the Spirit’ - That’s what you are (Ephesians 2:22)! 6:14-7:12   -  Solomon took seven years to build ‘the House of the Lord’ and ‘thirteen years’ to build ‘his own house’ (6:37-7:1)! What are we to make of this? Are we more concerned with pleasing ourselves or serving God? I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Exodus 32:15-34:35

Exodus 32:15-33:23   -   In Moses, we see the holiness and love of God: a deep hatred of sin (32:19), an intense longing for sinners to be forgiven (32). Filled with ‘the fear of the Lord’, Moses was fearless before men. God’s Word to sinners is clear: He warns them (Proverbs 29:1); He calls them to repent (Acts 2:38); He invites them to return to Him (Hosea 6:1). Moses’ faithful and fearless preaching emerged from his closeness to God: ‘The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend’ (11). Moses prayed; God heard; God answered (33:17). Moses prayed for a revelation of God’s glory (33:18). God revealed Himself as the good God, the God of grace and mercy (33:19). Let us go up to God and bring down all that is needed to build the Body of Christ that God may take pleasure in it and that He may appear in His glory (Haggai 1:8). 34:1-35   -   God gives His promise (33:19). God keeps His promise (5-7). The glory of Christ is reve...
Post a Comment
Read more

Numbers 16-18

Numbers 16:1-50   -   ‘You have gone too far!’: They regarded themselves as ‘holy’, yet they refused to go ‘too far’ with God (3)! What kind of ‘holiness’ is this? There is a ‘holiness’ which is more concerned with respectability than obedience to God. Faced with ‘the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’, we dare not say, ‘We will not come up’ (12; Philippians 3:14). We are to be ‘holy’: ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity’ (4; 2 Timothy 2:19). ‘Separate yourselves’ (20): This is not the false separation of the Pharisees - Spiritual ‘pride’ is ‘an abomination to the Lord’ (Proverbs 11:1-2). Maintain your high calling - Don’t get dragged down to the level of those who ‘will not come up’ to where God wants them to be - and remember: ‘By grace... not your own doing... the gift of God’ (Ephesians 2:8). 17:1-18:32   -   The call comes from God - to Aaron, to Christ (17:5; Hebrews 5:4-6). Christ is both the Offering for sin ...
Post a Comment
Read more