wisdom mine

Posted on July 6, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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wisdom mine

Job 28:1-28 (JDV)

Job 28:1 Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined.
Job 28:2 Iron is taken from the ground, and copper is smelted from ore.
Job 28:3 He puts an end to the darkness; he probes the deepest recesses for ore in the gloomy darkness.
Job 28:4 Far from where people live, he sinks a shaft, in places travelers have long forgotten, far from other mortals he dangles and sways.
Job 28:5 Food may come from the ground, but below the surface, it is transformed by fire.
Job 28:6 Its rocks are a source of lapis lazuli, containing flecks of gold.
Job 28:7 That path no bird of prey knows; no falcon’s eye has seen it.
Job 28:8 Proud beasts have never walked on it; no lion has ever prowled over it.
Job 28:9 He uses a flint tool and turns up ore from the root of the mountains.
Job 28:10 He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eyes spot every treasure.
Job 28:11 He dams up the streams from flowing so that he may bring to light what is hidden.
Job 28:12 But where can wisdom be found, and where is insight located?
Job 28:13 No mortal can know its value since it cannot be found in the land of the living.
Job 28:14 The ocean depths say, “It’s not in me,” while the sea declares, “I don’t have it.”
Job 28:15 Gold cannot be exchanged for it, and silver cannot be weighed out for its price.
Job 28:16 Wisdom cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or lapis lazuli.
Job 28:17 Gold and glass do not compare with it, and articles of fine gold cannot be exchanged for it.
Job 28:18 Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning. The price of wisdom is beyond pearls.
Job 28:19 Topaz from Cush cannot compare with it, and it cannot be valued in pure gold.
Job 28:20 Where then does wisdom come from, and where is insight located?
Job 28:21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the sky.
Job 28:22 Abaddon and Death say, “We have heard news of it with our ears.”
Job 28:23 But God understands the way to wisdom, and he knows its location.
Job 28:24 For he looks to the ends of the land and sees everything under the sky.
Job 28:25 When God fixed the weight of the wind and distributed the water by measure,
Job 28:26 when he established a limit for the rain and a path for the lightning,
Job 28:27 he considered wisdom and evaluated it; he established it and examined it.
Job 28:28 He said to mankind, “The fear of Yahveh — that is wisdom. And to turn from evil is insight.”

wisdom mine

Job’s therapists had claimed to be sharing great wisdom. They thought they knew his situation and what caused it. They thought they were helping him by their wisdom. But Job speaks of wisdom as illusive. He knows where gold and silver and precious stones come from. But wisdom can only be found with God. The book of Job challenges us to rethink our assumptions about how the world works.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” James 1:5 ESV

LORD, we pray for wisdom. Forgive us for looking for it in the wrong place.

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hand of correction

Posted on July 5, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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hand of correction

Job 27:1-23 (JDV)

Job 27:1 Job added to his discourse, and said:
Job 27:2 As God lives, who has deprived me of justice, and the Almighty who has made my throat bitter,
Job 27:3 as long as my breathing is still in me and the breath from God remains in my nostrils,
Job 27:4 my lips will not speak unjustly, and my tongue will not utter deceit.
Job 27:5 I will never affirm that you are right. I will maintain my integrity until I die.
Job 27:6 I will cling to my righteousness and never let it go. My conscience will not accuse me as long as I live!
Job 27:7 May my enemy be like the wicked and my opponent like the unjust.
Job 27:8 Because what hope does the godless person have when he is cut off, when God silences his throat?
Job 27:9 Will God hear his cry when distress comes on him?
Job 27:10 Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call on God always?
Job 27:11 I will teach you about God’s power. I will not conceal what the Almighty has planned.
Job 27:12 All of you have seen this for yourselves, why do you keep up this empty talk?
Job 27:13 This is a wicked man’s lot from God, the inheritance the ruthless receive from the Almighty.
Job 27:14 Even if his children increase, they are destined for the sword; his descendants will never have enough food.
Job 27:15 Those who survive him will be buried by the plague, yet their widows will not weep for them.
Job 27:16 Though he piles up silver like dust and heaps up fine clothing like clay —
Job 27:17 he may heap it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide up his silver.
Job 27:18 The house he built is like a moth’s cocoon or a shelter set up by a watchman.
Job 27:19 He lies down wealthy but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, it is gone.
Job 27:20 Terrors overtake him like a flood; a storm wind sweeps him away at night.
Job 27:21 An east wind picks him up, and he is gone; it carries him away from his place.
Job 27:22 It blasts at him without mercy, while he flees desperately from its force.
Job 27:23 It claps its hands at him and scoffs at him from its place.

hand of correction

We have to be careful that we do not read Job as if he is now agreeing with his therapists. He has all along argued that his misfortune was not God’s doing. What he says now sounds a lot like what his therapists have been saying, except Job is arguing that people can live their whole lives in peace and riches before they see judgment. Job offers to teach his therapists about the hand of God. God’s hand corrects the wicked, but it may be a lifetime before that correction comes. That is no problem from God’s perspective, since he is immortal. Job is arguing that we cannot tell if a person is suffering whether it is God’s judgment or some other cause.

LORD, when bad things happen, help us to trust you, but not to blame you.

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we know differently

Posted on July 4, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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we know differently

Job 25:1-26:14 (JDV)

Job 25:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
Job 25:2 Dominion and terror belong to him, the one who establishes harmony in his heights.
Job 25:3 Can his troops be numbered? Does his light not shine on everyone?
Job 25:4 How can a mortal be justified before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
Job 25:5 If even the moon does not shine and the stars are not pure in his sight,
Job 25:6 how much less a mortal, who is a maggot, a son of Adam, who is a worm!
Job 26:1 Then Job answered and said:
Job 26:2 See how you have helped the powerless and delivered the arm that is weak!
Job 26:3 See how you have counseled the unwise and abundantly provided insight!
Job 26:4 With whom did you speak these words? Whose breathing came out of your mouth?
Job 26:5 The departed spirits tremble beneath the waters and all that inhabit them.
Job 26:6 Sheol is naked in God’s presence, and Abaddon has no covering.
Job 26:7 He sends the northern skies over empty space; he hangs the land on nothing.
Job 26:8 He wraps up the water in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst beneath its weight.
Job 26:9 He obscures the view of his throne, spreading his cloud over it.
Job 26:10 He laid out the horizon on the surface of the water at the boundary between light and darkness.
Job 26:11 The pillars that hold up the sky tremble astounded at his rebuke.
Job 26:12 By his power he struck the sea, and by his understanding, he crushed Rahab.
Job 26:13 By his breath the sky gained its beauty; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
Job 26:14 These are but the fringes of his ways; how faint is the word we hear of him! Who can understand his mighty thunder?

we know differently

Job allows Bildad only six verses before he cuts him off. He has had enough. Zophar will not even have another turn. Job’s response is like saying “Do you really think God needs you to defend him?” You see, Job was not on trial, and neither was God. The three therapists and their presuppositions are what this is all about. Their conventional wisdom was making God the author of all the misfortune that Job suffered. We (the readers) know differently. We know about Satan and his insistence on attacking Job to get him to renounce his faith. There is evil here, but it is not in God or his faithful servant. The evil is brought on by Satan, and helped by the prideful and their condemnation of the innocent. Job argues that God is above it all, and he is.

LORD, forgive us for blaming you for the evil that befalls us.

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a plea for vindication

Posted on July 3, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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a plea for vindication

Job 24:1-25 (JDV)

Job 24:1 Why does the Almighty not keep times for judgment? Why do those who know him never see his days?
Job 24:2 The wicked displace boundary markers. They steal a flock and provide pasture for it.
Job 24:3 They drive away the donkey owned by the fatherless and take the widow’s ox as collateral.
Job 24:4 They push the needy off the road; the poor of the land are forced into hiding.
Job 24:5 Like wild donkeys in the wilderness, the poor go out to their task of foraging for food; the desert provides bread for their children.
Job 24:6 They gather their fodder in the field and glean the vineyards of the wicked.
Job 24:7 Without clothing, they spend the night naked, having no covering against the cold.
Job 24:8 Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks, shelterless.
Job 24:9 The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.
Job 24:10 Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry sheaves but go hungry.
Job 24:11 They crush olives in their presses; they tread the winepresses but go thirsty.
Job 24:12 From the city, men groan; the pierced throats cry for help, yet God pays no attention to this crime.
Job 24:13 The wicked are those who rebel against the light. They do not recognize its ways or stay on its paths.
Job 24:14 The murderer rises at dawn to kill the poor and needy, and by night he becomes a thief.
Job 24:15 The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight, thinking, “No eye will see me,” and he covers his face.
Job 24:16 In the dark they break into houses; by day they lock themselves in, never experiencing the light.
Job 24:17 For the morning is like darkness to them. Surely, they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!
Job 24:18 They float on the surface of the water. Their section of the ground is cursed, so that they never go to their vineyards.
Job 24:19 As dry ground and heat snatch away the melted snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned.
Job 24:20 The womb forgets them; worms feed on them; they are remembered no more. That is how injustice is broken like a tree.
Job 24:21 They prey on the childless woman who is unable to conceive, and do not deal kindly with the widow.
Job 24:22 Yet God drags away the mighty by his power; when he rises against them, they have no assurance of life.
Job 24:23 He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it, but his eyes watch over their ways.
Job 24:24 They are exalted for a moment, then gone; they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else. They wither like heads of grain.
Job 24:25 If this is not true, then who can prove me a liar and show that my speech is worthless?

a plea for vindication

Job’s therapists insist that he is going through a time of judgment, but Job argues that people usually do not see that kind of judgment. Job wants to have his time before God, and is assured that his righteousness will be vindicated. Instead most of the innocent will have to wait until the resurrection to see vindication. From God’s standpoint, judgment day is not far off. But most of us will have times where we wish it were here already. We see the helpless being exploited, and we cry out for vindication.

“he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31).

LORD, give us patience to wait for the time of judgment.

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I would plead my case

Posted on July 2, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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I would plead my case

Job 23:1-17 (JDV)

Job 23:1 Then Job answered and said:
Job 23:2 My complaint is bitter today as well. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
Job 23:3 If only I knew how to find him, so that I could go to his throne.
Job 23:4 I would plead my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.
Job 23:5 I would learn how he would answer me; and understand what he would say to me.
Job 23:6 Would he prosecute me forcefully? No, he would certainly pay attention to me.
Job 23:7 There an upright man could reason with him, and I would escape from my endless Judge.
Job 23:8 If I go east, he is not there, and if I go west, I cannot perceive him.
Job 23:9 When he is at work to the north, I cannot see him; when he turns south, I cannot find him.
Job 23:10 Yet he knows the way I have taken; when he has tested me, I will emerge as pure gold.
Job 23:11 My feet have followed in his tracks; I have kept to his way and not turned aside.
Job 23:12 I have not departed from the commands from his lips; I have treasured the words from his mouth more than my daily food.
Job 23:13 But he is unchangeable; who can oppose him? He does what his throat desires.
Job 23:14 He will certainly accomplish what he has decreed for me, and he has many more things like these in mind.
Job 23:15 Therefore I am terrified in his presence; when I consider this, I am afraid of him.
Job 23:16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.
Job 23:17 Yet I am not destroyed by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.

I would plead my case

Job’s therapists insist that he is going through a time of judgment, but Job argues that people usually do not see that kind of judgment. Job wants to have his time before God, and is assured that his righteousness will be vindicated. Instead most of the innocent will have to wait until the resurrection to see vindication. From God’s standpoint, judgment day is not far off. But most of us will have times where we wish it were here already. We see the helpless being exploited, and we cry out for vindication.

“he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31).

LORD, give us patience to wait for the time of judgment.

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come to terms

Posted on July 1, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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come to terms

Job 22:1-30 (JDV)

Job 22:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
Job 22:2 Can a healthy man be of any use to God? Can even a wise man be of use to him?
Job 22:3 Does it delight the Almighty if you are righteous? Does he profit if you perfect your behavior?
Job 22:4 Does he correct you and take you to court because of your piety?
Job 22:5 Isn’t your wickedness abundant and aren’t your iniquities endless?
Job 22:6 For you took collateral from your brothers without cause, stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked.
Job 22:7 You gave no water to the thirsty and withheld food from the famished,
Job 22:8 while the land belonged to a powerful man and an influential man lived on it.
Job 22:9 You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.
Job 22:10 Therefore snares surround you, and sudden dread terrifies you,
Job 22:11 or darkness, so you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
Job 22:12 Isn’t God as high as the sky? And look at the highest stars — how lofty they are!
Job 22:13 Yet you say, “What does God know? Can he judge through total darkness?
Job 22:14 Clouds veil him so that he cannot see, as he walks on the circle of the sky.”
Job 22:15 Will you continue the ancient path that wicked men have walked?
Job 22:16 They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were washed away by a river.
Job 22:17 They were the ones who said to God, “Leave us alone!” and “What can the Almighty do to us?”
Job 22:18 But it was he who filled their houses with good things. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!
Job 22:19 The righteous see this and rejoice; the innocent mock them, saying,
Job 22:20 “Surely our opponents are made to disappear, and fire has consumed what they left behind.”
Job 22:21 Come to terms with God and be at peace; in this way good will come to you.
Job 22:22 Receive instruction from his mouth and place his sayings in your heart.
Job 22:23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be renewed. If you banish injustice from your tent
Job 22:24 and consign your gold to the dust, the gold of Ophir to the stones in the wadis,
Job 22:25 the Almighty will be your gold and your finest silver.
Job 22:26 Then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.
Job 22:27 You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfil your vows.
Job 22:28 When you decide, it will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways.
Job 22:29 When others are humiliated and you say, “Lift them up,” God will save the humble.
Job 22:30 He will even rescue the guilty one, who will be rescued by the purity of your hands.

come to terms

Eliphaz urges Job to “come to terms with God and be at peace.” Behind the advice is the presumption that Eliphaz is arguing God’s position. He really does no such thing. God is not after repentance from Job. God wants Job’s therapists to shut up and leave him alone. But the very fact that Job is suffering misfortune speaks so loudly to them makes the therapists incapable of seeing the truth.

What do you know? is it the truth, or is it just what you have been taught. This very ancient book teaches us to rethink our presuppositions – even our religious ones. Before we dare to proclaim that we are defending God’s position, we had better study his word. We do not want to go our whole lives defending a wrong worldview.

LORD, give us the discernment to know your will from your word.

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not a machine

Posted on June 30, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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not a machine

Job 21:1-34 (JDV)

Job 21:1 Then Job answered and said:
Job 21:2 Listen intently to my words; let this be the consolation you offer.
Job 21:3 Bear with me while I speak; then after I have spoken, you may continue mocking.
Job 21:4 As for me, is my complaint against a human being? Then why shouldn’t I be impatient?
Job 21:5 Look at me and shudder; put your hand over your mouth.
Job 21:6 When I think about it, I am terrified and my body trembles in horror.
Job 21:7 Why do the wicked continue to live, growing old and becoming powerful?
Job 21:8 Their children are established while they are still alive, and their descendants, before their eyes.
Job 21:9 Their homes are secure and free of fear; no rod from God strikes them.
Job 21:10 Their bulls breed without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
Job 21:11 They let their little ones run around like lambs; their children skip about,
Job 21:12 singing to the tambourine and lyre and rejoicing at the sound of the flute.
Job 21:13 They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace.
Job 21:14 Yet they say to God, “Leave us alone! We don’t want to know your ways.
Job 21:15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him, and what will we gain by pleading with him?”
Job 21:16 But their prosperity is not of their own doing. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!
Job 21:17 How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come on them? Does he apportion destruction in his anger?
Job 21:18 Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff a storm sweeps away?
Job 21:19 God reserves a person’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the person himself, so that he may know it.
Job 21:20 Let his own eyes see his demise; let him drink from the Almighty’s wrath!
Job 21:21 For what does he care about his family once he is dead, when the number of his months has run out?
Job 21:22 Can anyone teach God knowledge, since he judges the exalted ones?
Job 21:23 One person dies in excellent health, completely secure and at ease.
Job 21:24 His body is well fed, and his bones are full of marrow.
Job 21:25 Yet another person dies with a bitter throat, having never tasted prosperity.
Job 21:26 But they both lie in the dust, and worms cover them.
Job 21:27 I know your thoughts very well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
Job 21:28 For you say, “Where now is the nobleman’s house?” and “Where are the tents the wicked lived in?”
Job 21:29 Have you never consulted those who travel the roads? Don’t you accept their reports?
Job 21:30 Indeed, the evil person is spared from the day of disaster, rescued from the day of wrath.
Job 21:31 Who would denounce his behavior to his face? Who would repay him for what he has done?
Job 21:32 He is carried to the grave, and someone keeps watch over his tomb.
Job 21:33 The dirt on his grave is sweet to him. Everyone follows behind him, and those who go before him are without number.
Job 21:34 So how can you offer me such futile comfort? Your answers are deceptive.

not a machine

Job’s therapists had been charging him with sin, and taking the calamity that had fallen upon him as evidence. Job replies – essentially – “what world do you live in?” In the world that Job knows about, justice does not happen mechanistically. Good men suffer, while the wicked are often spared any consequences to their depravity. They go to Sheol (where everyone goes at death to await resurrection and judgment) in peace. Justice is delayed until judgment day. This life is not a machine, dispensing out justice to those who need it. If it were, then people in Job’s condition would obviously be guilty of something to deserve their fate.

LORD, this world is not fair, but you are. You promise hope beyond this world. Thank you.

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karma

Posted on June 29, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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karma

Job 20:1-29 (JDV)

Job 20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
Job 20:2 This is why my disquieting thoughts compel me to answer, because I am upset!
Job 20:3 I have heard a rebuke that insults me, and my insight makes me reply.
Job 20:4 Don’t you know that ever since antiquity, from the time a human was placed on the land,
Job 20:5 the joy of the wicked has been brief and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?
Job 20:6 Though his arrogance reaches the sky, and his head touches the clouds,
Job 20:7 he will vanish forever like his own dung. Those who know him will ask, “Where is he?”
Job 20:8 He will fly away like a dream and never be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
Job 20:9 The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will no longer see him.
Job 20:10 His children will beg from the poor, because his own hands must give back his wealth.
Job 20:11 His frame might be full of youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in dust.
Job 20:12 Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue,
Job 20:13 though he cherishes it and will not let it go but keeps it in his mouth,
Job 20:14 yet the food in his stomach turns into cobras’ venom inside him.
Job 20:15 He swallows wealth but must vomit it up; God will force it from his stomach.
Job 20:16 He will suck the poison of cobras; a viper’s fangs will kill him.
Job 20:17 He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and curds.
Job 20:18 He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he doesn’t enjoy the profits from his trading.
Job 20:19 For he oppressed and abandoned the poor; he seized a house he did not build.
Job 20:20 Because his appetite is never satisfied, he does not let anything he desires escape.
Job 20:21 Nothing is left for him to consume; therefore, his prosperity will not last.
Job 20:22 At the height of his success distress will come to him; the full weight of misery will crush him.
Job 20:23 When he fills his stomach, God will send his burning anger against him, raining it down on him while he is eating.
Job 20:24 If he flees from an iron weapon, an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce him.
Job 20:25 He pulls it out of his back, the flashing tip out of his liver. Terrors come over him.
Job 20:26 Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned by human hands will consume him; it will feed on what is left in his tent.
Job 20:27 The sky will expose his iniquity, and the ground will revolt against him.
Job 20:28 The possessions in his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God’s anger.
Job 20:29 This is the wicked person’s due from God, the inheritance God ordained for him.

karma

Zophar argues that reversal of fortune is always God’s doing.

Those who are exalted (6) he brings down to the depths.
Those experiencing sweetness (12) he poisons.
The full he devours (22,26).


A world in which our condition is always the result of our past actions is comforting to the rich, and sometimes the poor prefer it as well, because it challenges them to take command of their own destiny. No one is comfortable being a pawn in the game of life. But the book of Job reminds us that there are more players than just ourselves. Sometimes our best efforts are trumped by those with better hands. In the end, the purpose of the game is not to win. It is to walk away still being friends with all the players. Job knew that. His therapists did not.

LORD, no matter what happens to us, help us to hold on to our relationship with you.

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my eyes will look at him

Posted on June 28, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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my eyes will look at him

Job 19:1-29 (JDV)

Job 19:1 Then Job answered and said:
Job 19:2 Until when will you torment me and crush me with words?
Job 19:3 You have humiliated me ten times now, and you mistreat me without shame.
Job 19:4 Even if it is true that I have sinned, my mistake concerns only me.
Job 19:5 If you really want to appear superior to me and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,
Job 19:6 then understand that it is God who has wronged me and caught me in his net.
Job 19:7 I cry out: “Violence!” but get no response; I call for help, but there is no justice.
Job 19:8 He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass through; he has veiled my paths with darkness.
Job 19:9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.
Job 19:10 He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined. He uproots my hope like a tree.
Job 19:11 His anger burns against me, and he regards me as one of his enemies.
Job 19:12 His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and camp around my tent.
Job 19:13 He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.
Job 19:14 My kin stop coming by, and my close friends have forgotten me.
Job 19:15 My house guests and female servants regard me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.
Job 19:16 I call for my servant, but he does not answer, even if I beg him with my own mouth.
Job 19:17 My breath is offensive to my wife, and my own family finds me repulsive.
Job 19:18 Even young boys scorn me. When I stand up, they mock me.
Job 19:19 All of my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.
Job 19:20 My skin and my flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.
Job 19:21 Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for God’s hand has struck me.
Job 19:22 Why do you pursue me as God has? Will you never get enough of my flesh?
Job 19:23 I wish that my words were written down, that they were recorded on a scroll
Job 19:24 or were inscribed in stone forever by an iron stylus and lead!
Job 19:25 But I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the end he will stand on the dust.
Job 19:26 Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet I will see God from my flesh.
Job 19:27 I will see him myself; my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me.
Job 19:28 If you are saying, “How will we pursue him, since the root of the problem lies with him?”
Job 19:29 then be afraid of the sword, because wrath brings punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.

my eyes will look at him

Moses, describing the creation of Adam, says that God formed him or “of dust from the ground.” (Gen. 2:7). The good news of the resurrection is described by Job using the same term that details what we are made of. Job proclaims “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” But that word “earth” is not the word used in Genesis 1:1. It is the same word translated dust in Genesis 2:7. The dust that the Messiah will stand on at the last day will be the dust of Job’s body. But then something amazing happens. Job continues “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes shall see and not another.” The Messiah stands over the dust of Job’s dead body and brings it back to life!

This is the hope that the Bible gives humanity. It is not survival after death but rescue from death. It is not being “found naked” (without a body) in the intermediate state but being “further clothed” with a resurrection body. The Bible says that when Jesus Christ returns “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” The nature of that change is made clear as well: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” We are dust: that is what we are made of, but our destiny is to be more.

LORD, thank you for the hope of resurrection.

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cheering Bildad

Posted on June 27, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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Photo by Aidan Roof on Pexels.com

cheering Bildad

Job 18:1-21 (JDV)

Job 18:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
Job 18:2 Until when will you stop talking? Show some sense, and then we can talk.
Job 18:3 Why are we regarded as cattle, as stupid in your sight?
Job 18:4 You who tear your throat in anger — should the ground be abandoned on your account, or a rock be removed from its place?
Job 18:5 Yes, the light of the wicked is extinguished; the flame of his fire does not glow.
Job 18:6 The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him is put out.
Job 18:7 His powerful stride is shortened, and his own schemes trip him up.
Job 18:8 Because his own feet lead him into a net, and he strays into its mesh.
Job 18:9 A trap catches him by the heel; a noose seizes him.
Job 18:10 A rope lies hidden for him on the ground, and a snare waits for him along the path.
Job 18:11 Terrors frighten him on every side and harass him at every step.
Job 18:12 His strength is depleted; disaster lies ready for him to stumble.
Job 18:13 Layers of his skin are eaten away; death’s beginning consumes his limbs.
Job 18:14 He is ripped from the security of his tent and marched away to the king of terrors.
Job 18:15 Nothing he owned remains in his tent. Burning sulfur is scattered over his home.
Job 18:16 His roots below dry up, and his branches above wither away.
Job 18:17 All memory of him is be destroyed from the ground; he has no name anywhere.
Job 18:18 He is pushed from light to darkness and chased from the inhabited world.
Job 18:19 He has no children or descendants among his people, no survivor where he used to live.
Job 18:20 Those in the west are appalled at his fate, while those in the east tremble in horror.
Job 18:21 Surely such is the dwelling of the unjust man, and this is the place of the one who does not know God.

cheering Bildad

Bildad is irritated with Job’s insistence that he is suffering innocently. To Bildad, Job is a loser. He has lost both house and household: everything that he could rely on. Bildad’s worldview has only one answer for such tragedy. It has to be the judgment of God. If you and I did not have access to the secret information shared earlier in this book, we would probably be cheering Bildad on. Can we learn from this ancient book? Can we dare to look beyond the obvious and have compassion on the losers we know?

LORD, give us the compassion to stop branding people, and actually help the needy.

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