Job 17:1 My breath is disturbed. My days are extinguished. A graveyard awaits me. Job 17:2 Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion. Job 17:3 Accept my pledge! Put up security for me. Who else will be my sponsor? therefore,You have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not honor them. Job 17:5 If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail. Job 17:6 He has made me an object of scorn to the people; I have become a face people spit at. Job 17:7 My eyes have grown dim from aggravation, and my whole body has become but a shadow. Job 17:8 The upright is appalled at this, and the innocent are roused against the godless. Job 17:9 Yet the righteous person will hold to his way, and the one whose hands are clean will grow stronger. Job 17:10 But come back and try again, all of you. I will not find a wise man among you. Job 17:11 My days have slipped by; my plans have been torn up, even the things dear to my heart. Job 17:12 They turned night into day and made light seem near in the face of darkness. Job 17:13 If I await Sheol as my home, spread out my bed in darkness, Job 17:14 and say to rot, “You are my father,” and to the maggot, “My mother” or “My sister,” Job 17:15 where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me? Job 17:16 Will it go down to the gates of Sheol, or will we descend together to the dust?
A graveyard awaits
Job did not anticipate an answer to his problem in death. He would not be vindicated at death. A graveyard awaited him, and he did not find his hope there. His hope (we will discover in chapter 19) is a resurrection.
Job 16:1 Then Job answered and said: Job 16:2 I have heard many things like these. You are all working hard to comfort me. Job 16:3 Is there no end to your windy words? What provokes you that you continue answering? Job 16:4 I could also talk like you if you were in my place, I could string words together against you and shake my head at you. Job 16:5 Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation from my lips would bring relief. Job 16:6 If I speak, my suffering is not relieved, and if I hold back, does any of it leave me? Job 16:7 Surely, he has now exhausted me. You have devastated my entire family. Job 16:8 You have shrivelled me up — it has become a witness; my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face. Job 16:9 His anger tears at me, and he harasses me. He gnashes his teeth at me. My enemy pierces me with his eyes. Job 16:10 They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join themselves together against me. Job 16:11 God hands me over to the unjust; he throws me to the wicked. Job 16:12 I was at ease, but he shattered me; he seized me by the scruff of the neck and smashed me to pieces. He set me up as his target; Job 16:13 his archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and pours my bile on the ground. Job 16:14 He breaks through my defences again and again; he charges at me like a warrior. Job 16:15 I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust. Job 16:16 My face has grown red with weeping, and darkness covers my eyes, Job 16:17 although my hands are free from violence and my prayer is pure. Job 16:18 Ground, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help find no resting place. Job 16:19 Even now my witness is in the sky, and my advocate is in the heights! Job 16:20 My friends scoff at me as I weep before God. Job 16:21 I wish that a healthy man might argue with God just as any son of Adam would for a friend. Job 16:22 For only a few years will pass before I go the way of no return.
Job knew that he was going to die. If he did not die of his present illness, at least in a few years he would succumb to the inevitable (Job 16:22). So, he asks a very important question, a question that much of the world still gets wrong. He asks where his hope is. Is it in death? No, death is going to Sheol and darkness and decay (the worm). Death is not Job’s hope. Job’s hope is the LORD.
Martha told Jesus that she knew her dead brother would rise on resurrection day.
“Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”” John 11:24
Jesus told Martha that he would be the one to raise Lazarus (and every other believer)from the dead on that day:
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.1 Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”” John 11:25-26
Job, by faith looked beyond the reality of his own death, and held to a hope in God. He did not know Jesus’ name, but he trusted him just the same.
LORD, give us the wisdom to – like Job –put our hope not in death, but in your resurrection.
Job 15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: Job 15:2 Does a wise person answer with empty counsel or fill himself with the hot east wind? Job 15:3 Should he argue with useless talk or with words that serve no purpose? Job 15:4 But you even frustrate the fear of God and hinder meditation before him. Job 15:5 Your iniquity teaches you what to say, and you choose the language of the crafty. Job 15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I; your own lips testify against you. Job 15:7 Were you the first of Adam ever born, or were you brought forth before the hills? Job 15:8 Do you listen in on the council of God, or have a monopoly on wisdom? Job 15:9 What do you know that we don’t? What do you understand that is not clear to us? Job 15:10 Both the gray-haired and the elderly are with us — older than your father. Job 15:11 Are God’s comforts not enough for you, or the words that deal gently with you? Job 15:12 Why has your heart misled you, and why do your eyes flash Job 15:13 as you turn your breath against God and allow such words to leave your mouth? Job 15:14 What is a mere mortal, that he should be pure, or one born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Job 15:15 If God puts no trust in his holy ones and the sky is not pure in his sight, Job 15:16 how much less one who is revolting and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water? Job 15:17 Listen to me and I will inform you. I will describe what I have seen, Job 15:18 what the wise have declared and not concealed, that came from their ancestors, Job 15:19 to whom alone the land was given when no stranger passed among them. Job 15:20 A wicked person writhes in pain all his days, throughout the number of years reserved for the ruthless. Job 15:21 Dreadful sounds fill his ears; when he is at peace, a robber attacks him. Job 15:22 He doesn’t believe he will return from darkness; he is destined for the sword. Job 15:23 He wanders about for food, asking, “Where is it?” He knows the day of darkness is at hand. Job 15:24 Trouble and distress terrify him, overwhelming him like a king prepared for battle. Job 15:25 For he has sent out his hand against God and has arrogantly opposed the Almighty. Job 15:26 He rushes headlong at him with his thick, studded shields. Job 15:27 Though his face is covered with fat and his waistline bulges with it, Job 15:28 he will dwell in ruined cities, in abandoned houses destined to become piles of rubble. Job 15:29 He will no longer be rich; his wealth will not endure. His crops will not spread over the ground. Job 15:30 He will not escape from the darkness; flames will burn up his shoots, and by the breath of God’s mouth, he will depart. Job 15:31 Let him not put trust in worthless things, being led astray, because what he gets in exchange will prove worthless. Job 15:32 It will be accomplished before his time, and his branch will not flourish. Job 15:33 He will be like a vine that drops its unripe grapes and like an olive tree that sheds its blossoms. Job 15:34 Because the company of the godless will have no children, and fire will consume the tents of those who offer bribes. Job 15:35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb prepares deception.
what Job knew
Eliphaz’ question in verse 9 was a good one – if only he had not meant it as a rhetorical device. Job did have access to a kind of knowledge that his three “comforters” did not. Job trusted in his creator. Job was not sinless. He admitted that he had sinned in his youth, and that God was not holding him accountable for those sins. He knew forgiveness. A person can endure much suffering and still stay true to God if that person has a relationship with God based on grace. Do you know Job’s secret? Do you know God’s forgiveness?
LORD, give us the wisdom to trust you, and to rely upon your grace.
Job 14:1 A human born of woman is short of days and full of trouble. Job 14:2 He blossoms like a flower then withers; he flees like a shadow and does not last. Job 14:3 Do open your eye to one like this? Will you bring me into judgment against you? Job 14:4 Who can produce something pure from what is impure? No one! Job 14:5 Since a person’s days are determined and the number of his months depends on you, and since you have set limits he cannot pass, Job 14:6 look away from him and let him rest so that he can enjoy his day like a hired worker. Job 14:7 There is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its shoots will not die. Job 14:8 If its roots grow old in the ground and its stump starts to die in the soil, Job 14:9 the scent of water makes it thrive and produce twigs like a sapling. Job 14:10 But a healthy man dies and fades away; Adam expires – and where is he? Job 14:11 As water disappears from a lake and a river becomes parched and dry, Job 14:12 so a man lies down never to rise again. He will not wake up until the sky is no more; they will not stir from their sleep. Job 14:13 If only you would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until your anger passes. If only you would appoint a time for me and then remember me. Job 14:14 If a healthy man dies, will he come back to life? If so, I would wait all the days of my struggle until my relief comes. Job 14:15 You would call, and I would answer you. You would long for the work of your hands. Job 14:16 For then you would count my steps but would not take note of my sin. Job 14:17 My rebellion would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity. Job 14:18 But as a mountain collapses and crumbles and a rock is dislodged from its place, Job 14:19 as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the topsoil from the ground, so you destroy a mortal’s hope. Job 14:20 You completely overpower him, and he goes away; you change his appearance and send him away. Job 14:21 If his sons receive honor, he does not know it; if they become insignificant, he is unaware of it. Job 14:22 He feels only the pain of his own body and mourns only for his throat.
not trees
Job laments that human beings are not like trees. A tree may be cut down, but given the right conditions, it may sprout back again from the apparently dead stump. But, Job complains, human beings are not like that. When a man’s life comes to an end, he lies down and sleeps, not to wake up again.
Job is not arguing against the concept of the resurrection. Even in this chapter, he pleads with God to hide him in Sheol (death) until his wrath is past, and then remember him, causing him to live again (13-14). One cannot ask for a more clear statement of the hope of resurrection. Later, Job asserts that he has a Redeemer who lives, and that he (Job) will see God in a resurrected body, long after his present body has been consumed.
So, since Job is not arguing against the notion of a resurrection, why does he insist that death is a sleep that one does not wake up from? He is contrasting the fate of humans with that of trees. Trees have something within their nature that allows them to bounce back from apparent death. God has not put such a nature within us. If we want to live again, we will need a resurrecting God. Sleep is an appropriate metaphor for death because if you see people sleeping, you expect them to wake up. Think about that the next time you walk through a cemetery. These “sleeping places” are monuments to the fact that we all depend upon God for our future life.
Job 13:1 Note, my eyes have seen all this; my ears have heard and understood it. Job 13:2 Everything you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. Job 13:3 Yet I prefer to speak to the Almighty and argue my case before God. Job 13:4 You use lies like plaster; you are all worthless doctors. Job 13:5 If only you would shut up and let that be your wisdom! Job 13:6 Hear now my argument and listen to my defense. Job 13:7 Should you keep testifying unjustly on God’s behalf or speaking deceitfully for him? Job 13:8 Should you show partiality to him or argue the case in his defense? Job 13:9 Would it go well if he examined you? Could you deceive him as you would deceive a mortal? Job 13:10 Surely, he would rebuke you if you secretly showed partiality. Job 13:11 Would God’s majesty not terrify you? Would his dread not fall on you? Job 13:12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ash; your defences are made of clay. Job 13:13 Be quiet, and I will speak. Let whatever comes happen to me. Job 13:14 I will put my flesh in my teeth and take my throat in my own hands. Job 13:15 Even if he kills me, I will put my hope in him. I will still defend my ways before him. Job 13:16 Yes, this will result in my deliverance, for no godless person can appear before him. Job 13:17 Pay close attention to my words; let my declaration ring in your ears. Job 13:18 Now then, I have prepared my case; I know that I am right. Job 13:19 Can anyone indict me? If so, I will be silent and die. Job 13:20 Only grant these two things to me, God, so that I will not have to hide from your presence: Job 13:21 remove your hand from me, and do not let your terror frighten me. Job 13:22 Then call, and I will answer, or I will speak, and you can respond to me. Job 13:23 How many iniquities and sins have I committed? Reveal to me my transgression and sin. Job 13:24 Why are you hiding your face and considering me your enemy? Job 13:25 Will you frighten a wind-driven leaf? Will you chase after dry straw? Job 13:26 Because you record bitter accusations against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth. Job 13:27 You put my feet in the stocks and stand watch over all my paths, setting a limit for the soles of my feet. Job 13:28 And he wears out like something rotten, like a moth-eaten garment.
proverbs of ash
Job told his attending friends that their maxims were proverbs of ash. They look good on paper, but that is all they are good for. Reality is seldom as simple as a choice between a and b. Reality jumps up and confronts our preconceived principles. Job was a reminder to the world that conventional wisdom does not always work. God is sovereign, and he is free to perform miracles or withhold them. He does not work on our schedule.
LORD, forgive us for our simple expectations. Teach us to trust you when we cannot figure you out.
Job 12:1 Then Job answered and said: Job 12:2 Truly you are the people, and wisdom will die with you! Job 12:3 But I also have a heart like you; I am not inferior to you. Who doesn’t know the things you refer to? Job 12:4 I am a laughingstock to my friends, by calling on God, who answers me. The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock. Job 12:5 The one who is at ease holds calamity in contempt and thinks it is prepared for those whose feet are slipping. Job 12:6 The tents of robbers are safe, and those who trouble God are secure; God holds them in his hands. Job 12:7 But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. Job 12:8 Or speak to the land, and it will instruct you; let the fish of the sea inform you. Job 12:9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of Yahveh has done this? Job 12:10 The throat of every living thing is in his hand, as well as the breath of all mankind. Job 12:11 Doesn’t the ear test words as the palate tastes food? Job 12:12 Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life. Job 12:13 Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are his. Job 12:14 Whatever he tears down cannot be rebuilt; whoever he imprisons cannot be released. Job 12:15 When he withholds water, everything dries up, and when he releases it, it overturns the ground. Job 12:16 True wisdom and power belong to him. The deceived and the deceiver are his. Job 12:17 He leads counselors away barefoot and makes judges go mad. Job 12:18 He releases the bonds put on by kings and fastens a belt around their waists. Job 12:19 He leads priests away barefoot, and overthrows established leaders. Job 12:20 He deprives trusted advisers of speech and takes away the elders’ good judgment. Job 12:21 He pours out contempt on nobles and disarms the strong. Job 12:22 He reveals mysteries from the darkness and brings the deepest darkness into the light. Job 12:23 He makes nations great, then destroys them; he enlarges nations, then leads them away. Job 12:24 He deprives the land’s leaders of reason and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland. Job 12:25 They grope around in darkness without light; he makes them stagger like a drunk.
dishonored
Job reminds his friends that he had been known as a wise man too, before his calamity came. His response to their insistence that he repent for the sin that obviously brought this disaster upon himself is to remind them that ultimately God does what he wishes, and no king, man, or animal can stop him. God is sovereign. Nothing that he does is unfair, for the universe is his. For now, Job has been removed from the honor that was once his as a wise man. That does not mean he has lost his wisdom. Job is down and out. Our temptation is to ignore and deplore those who have met misfortune. We should not yield to that temptation.
LORD, give us the discernment to listen to your voice, no matter whose mouth it is coming from.
Job 11:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said: Job 11:2 Should so many words go unanswered and such lips be acquitted? Job 11:3 Should your babbling put others to silence, so that you can keep on ridiculing with no one to shame you? Job 11:4 You have said, “My teaching is sound, and I am pure in your sight.” Job 11:5 But if only God would speak and open his lips against you! Job 11:6 He would show you the secrets of wisdom, because true wisdom has two sides. Know then that God has chosen to overlook some of your iniquity. Job 11:7 Can you fathom the depths of God or discover the limits of the Almighty? Job 11:8 They are higher than the sky — what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol — what can you know? Job 11:9 Their measure is longer than the ground and wider than the sea. Job 11:10 If he passes by and throws someone in prison or convenes a court, who can stop him? Job 11:11 Surely, he knows which people are worthless. If he sees iniquity, will he not take note of it? Job 11:12 But a stupid person will gain understanding as soon as a wild donkey is born a human! Job 11:13 As for you, if you redirect your heart and spread out your hands to him in prayer — Job 11:14 if there is iniquity in your hand, remove it, and don’t allow injustice to dwell in your tents — Job 11:15 then you will hold your head high, free from fault. You will be firmly established and unafraid. Job 11:16 Because you will forget your suffering, recalling it only as water that has flowed by. Job 11:17 Your lifetime will be brighter than noonday; its darkness will be like the morning. Job 11:18 You will be confident, because there is hope. You will look carefully around and lie down in safety. Job 11:19 You will lie down with no one to frighten you, and many will seek your favor. Job 11:20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail. Their way of escape will be destroyed, and their only hope is a breathing throat.
beyond ignorance
Zophar is guilty of only seeing what has happened to Job and assuming that it proved that Job has acted foolishly and brought this tragedy upon himself. He urges Job to repent. Job lived in ignorant times, and there was a lot about God and his plan that Job did not know. But he knew God, and had a relationship with him. God’s grace reached beyond Job’s ignorance and touched him. His sickness, and all the “bad luck” that he had did not change that relationship. Zophar did not see things correctly because he failed to see Job from God’s eyes. “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
LORD, give us insight into the hearts of people. Help us to see them as you do.
Job 10:1 My throat is disgusted with my life. I will give vent to my complaint and speak with the bitterness of my throat. Job 10:2 I will say to God, “Do not just condemn me! Let me know why you prosecute me. Job 10:3 Is it good for you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands, and favor the plans of the wicked? Job 10:4 Are your eyes flesh, or do you see as a mortal sees? Job 10:5 Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a healthy man, Job 10:6 that you look for my iniquity and search for my sin, Job 10:7 even though you know that I am not wicked and that there is no one who can rescue from your power? Job 10:8 “Your hands shaped me and formed me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Job 10:9 Please remember that you made me like clay. Will you now return me to dust? Job 10:10 Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? Job 10:11 You clothed me with skin and flesh and wove me together with bones and tendons. Job 10:12 You gave me life and faithful love, and your care has guarded my breath. Job 10:13 “Yet you concealed these thoughts in your heart; I know that this was your hidden plan: Job 10:14 if I sin, you would notice and would not acquit me of my iniquity. Job 10:15 If I am wicked, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am filled with shame and have drunk deeply of my affliction. Job 10:16 If I am proud, you hunt me like a lion and again display your miraculous power against me. Job 10:17 You produce new witnesses against me and multiply your anger toward me. Hardships assault me, wave after wave. Job 10:18 “Why did you bring me out of the womb? I should have died and never been seen. Job 10:19 I wish I had never existed but had been carried from the womb to the grave. Job 10:20 Are my days not few? Stop it! Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little Job 10:21 before I go to the dark and shadowy ground, never to return. Job 10:22 It is a dark ground, like a deep shadow, darkness, and disorder, where even the light is like the darkness.”
like clay
Job appeals to God as his creator — reminding him that he was made like clay. Clay vessels can be smashed. We are vulnerable. We are not invincible. When disaster happens, we need a God made of different stuff.
Job 9:1 Then Job answered: Job 9:2 Yes, I know what you’ve said is true, but how can a mortal settle his case before God? Job 9:3 If one wanted to take him to court, he could not answer God once in a thousand times. Job 9:4 God’s heart is wise and his strength omnipotent. Who has stubbornly resisted him and come out intact? Job 9:5 He removes mountains while they know nothing, flipping them over in his anger. Job 9:6 He shakes the land from its place and its pillars tremble. Job 9:7 He commands the sun not to shine and conceals the stars. Job 9:8 He alone spreads out the sky and marches on the waves of the sea. Job 9:9 He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky. Job 9:10 He does great and unsearchable things, miracles without number. Job 9:11 Note: If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him; if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him. Job 9:12 Note: If he snatches something, who can stop him? Who dares ask him, “What are you doing?” Job 9:13 God does not hold back his anger; Rahab’s assistants cringe in fear beneath him! Job 9:14 How then can I answer him or select my arguments against him? Job 9:15 Even if I were in the right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy. Job 9:16 If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said. Job 9:17 He batters me with a whirlwind and multiplies my wounds without cause. Job 9:18 He doesn’t let me catch my breath but fills me with bitter experiences. Job 9:19 If it is a matter of strength, look, he is the powerful one! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? Job 9:20 Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty. Job 9:21 Though I am blameless, I no longer care about my throat; I renounce my life. Job 9:22 It is all the same. Therefore, I say, “He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.” Job 9:23 When catastrophe brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent. Job 9:24 The land is handed over to the wicked; he blindfolds its judges. If it isn’t he, then who is it? Job 9:25 My days fly by faster than a runner; they flee without seeing any good. Job 9:26 They sweep by like boats made of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey. Job 9:27 If I said, “I will forget my complaint, change my expression, and smile,” Job 9:28 I would still live in terror of all my pains. I know you will not acquit me. Job 9:29 Since I will be found guilty, why should I struggle in vain? Job 9:30 If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye, Job 9:31 then you dip me in a pit of mud, and my own clothes hate me! Job 9:32 Because he is not a man like me, that I can answer him, that we can take each other to court. Job 9:33 There is no mediator between us, to lay his hand on both of us. Job 9:34 Let him take his rod away from me so his terror will no longer frighten me. Job 9:35 Then I would speak and not fear him. But that is not so; I am on with myself.
collision
Job affirms that Bildad is right in saying that God is just. But he is also convinced that he has a right relationship with God, so nothing he had done brought this calamity upon him. Truth collides with truth. God is both the problem and the solution, yet Job realizes that there is no arbiter. Whatever happens, God is going to have to do it. In Job’s day – as well as today – many spend their lives looking for ways to manipulate things to their advantage. Some choose science, others demonic magic, others religion, but they are all trying to do the same thing. Job realizes that it cannot be done. Fate cannot be changed on this side of the human/divine divide. Even if Job were able to convince his friends that he is innocent, that would not change things. He is helpless before an omnipotent God.
LORD, we rely upon you. Rescue us from the lie that we can handle things.
Job 8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: Job 8:2 Until when will you go on saying these things? Your mouth’s words are a puff of breath. Job 8:3 Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? Job 8:4 Since your children sinned against him, he gave them over to their rebellion. Job 8:5 But if you earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy, Job 8:6 if you are pure and upright, then he will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells. Job 8:7 Then, even if your first was meager, your days afterward will be full of prosperity. Job 8:8 You see, ask the previous generation, and pay attention to what their fathers discovered, Job 8:9 since we were born only yesterday and know nothing. Our days above the ground are a shadow. Job 8:10 Will they not teach you and tell you and speak from their understanding? Job 8:11 Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Do reeds flourish without water? Job 8:12 While still uncut shoots, they would dry up quicker than any other plant. Job 8:13 Such is the destiny of all who forget God; the hope of the godless will be destroyed. Job 8:14 His source of confidence is fragile; what he trusts in is a spider’s web. Job 8:15 He leans on his web, but it doesn’t stand firm. He grabs it, but it does not hold up. Job 8:16 He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine; his shoots spread out over his garden. Job 8:17 His roots are intertwined around a pile of rocks. He looks for a home among the stones. Job 8:18 If he is uprooted from his place, it will deny knowing him, saying, “I never saw you.” Job 8:19 Surely this is the joy of his way of life; yet others will sprout from the dust. Job 8:20 Look, God does not reject a person of integrity, and he will not support evildoers. Job 8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with a shout of joy. Job 8:22 Your enemies will be clothed with shame; the tent of the wicked will be no longer
apparent signs
Bildad uses an excellent argument, which would no doubt have been very successful except for the fact that Job was innocent. Bildad compares Job’s previous fortune to that of a Papyrus plant, which grows quickly and looms above other plants, – a signh of strength –yet it can be easily destroyed. The assumption was that Job was being punished for sin. How often do we see people in sad circumstances and conclude that they must have brought their fate upon themselves? How often do we suffer setbacks and ask God what we did to deserve them? This is the same mindset that caused the rich Pharisees in Jesus’ day to miss God entirely. Personal health and wealth are not barometers of our spiritual condition.
LORD, we seek a relationship with you. We will not settle for the apparent signs. We want the substance.
Devotions 