What we hear in this chapter is the prayer of a man who is used to being honest with his creator. He has been humbled and has suffered unjustly and he is not just sitting around quoting worship songs. He is disappointed, and that is OK. God is a big guy. He can take it. Our Father would rather hear our honest complaints than the highest praise coming from an insincere heart.
LORD, thank you for listening when we vent. Thank you for hearing how we feel, and still caring for us.
Listening to Job describe the kind of life he had lived, it is not hard to understand how much of a temptation he had to do as his wife had suggested: curse God and die. But Job remained faithful to the God who allowed him to lose it all. Job understood that even though he had lost all the power, wealth and influence that anyone could want, he had not lost his relationship with God. Yes, he regrets what he lost, but he stays true to himself.
LORD, give us the wisdom to hang on to you, no matter what we might lose.
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.
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.
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 is 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.
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.
Eliphaz urges Job to “agree 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.
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.
Zophar argues that reversal of fortune is always God’s doing.
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.
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.
(adapted from my article Formed from the dust – Snips and Snails.)
Job 30
Job 29
Job 28
Job 27
Job 25-26
Job 23-24
Job 22
Job 21
Job 20
Job 19
