CbC Jan. 12-18

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January 12, Sunday

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Reading A12 — Job 1 — Job’s Disaster Audio link: Job 1 (ESV)

The Mystery of Godliness — There is much mystery about the book of Job.  Chronologically, this reading plan sets it around the time of Abraham, although there are also good arguments for placing it later.  There is also a geographical mystery here, in that the location of “the land of Uz” (v. 1) is unknown.  A third mystery is how the writer of this book knew about the encounter in heaven between Satan and God.  On the other hand, those unknown points need not hamper our understanding of the message of this book.  The godly character of Job is described twice in this first chapter, saying that he was “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (vv. 1, 8).  What a great model he is for us in his relationship with God and the world around him!  After Job lost his children and everything he owned, his response was the opposite of Satan’s prediction that “he will curse you” (v. 11).  Instead, Job “fell to the ground and worshiped” (v. 20) and exclaimed, “blessed be the name of the LORD” (v. 21).  Is that the way you and I handle tragedy in our lives?  Job’s focus was on God, whereas our focus in times like that is more likely on ourselves.  We know how all of this turned out for Job, but we don’t know yet how it will turn out for us.  The key is to trust God.  He is infinitely wise, loving, and good, and He will ensure that “all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

January 13, Monday

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Reading A13 — Job 2 — Job’s Sores Audio link: Job 2 (ESV)

Core of Integrity — The heavenly encounter with Satan is repeated, in which God describes Job’s character in the exact same words that He used before Job lost his children and fortune: “there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil” (v. 3, cf. 2:8).  Unfortunate circumstances didn’t alter Job’s character or his attitude toward God.  God said that “he still holds fast his integrity” (v. 3).  The dictionary defines integrity as not only being honest but also being undivided with strong moral principles.  Job was the same core person after the tragedy as he was before it happened.  Disaster didn’t change his core because God was his core, and God doesn’t change.  As if Satan’s attacks were not enough, Job’s wife joined the attack, asking, “Do you still hold fast your integrity?  Curse God and die” (v. 9).  Insult was added to injury.  Job’s response was that we should have the same attitude toward God whether suffering or not.  He received no comfort from his wife.  Then entered his three “friends,” who turned out to be no better comforters than Job’s wife.  Their reason for visiting Job was good, coming “to show him sympathy and comfort him” (v. 11).  The first seven days went well because “no one spoke a word to him” (v. 13).  Scraping oozing pus from sores on the outside of Job’s body didn’t change what was healthy on the inside—he maintained integrity.

January 14, Tuesday

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Reading A14 — Job 3 — Job’s Curse of Birth Audio link: Job 3 (ESV)

Understandable Despair — This chapter shows the stark humanness of Job as he laments that he was ever born.  He is fully focused on his circumstances here; he had suffered greatly with loss of wealth, family, and health.  Where Satan had earlier accused God of putting a “hedge” of protection and blessing around Job (1:10), now this man of integrity feels trapped in the “hedge” of God’s imprisonment of suffering (3:23).  We may have been in a similar state of mind in our past, or maybe even now, where life seems to have lost its value.  Why am I even alive?  Where is God when I have hurt for so long?  God doesn’t really answer that question for Job until the end of this book, and we may not find the answer until after we die.  In the meantime, we need to concentrate on the core.  God is still there, He is still good, He still loves us, and He has a good reason for what is happening in our lives.  Matthew Henry, the Welsh commentator of Scripture, wrote 300 years ago that we should “in the midst of life’s greatest comforts, to be willing to die, and in the midst of its greatest crosses, to be willing to live.”

January 15, Wednesday

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Reading A15 — Job 4 — Eliphaz’s Charge Audio link: Job 4 (ESV)

Circumstantial Character? — Who was this Eliphaz the Temanite, who began the assault on Job?  Teman was a grandson of Esau whose father was also named Eliphaz.  Teman became a city in Edom.  Since Job’s friend, Eliphaz, was from Teman or was a descendant of Teman, this would place the story of Job at least four generations later than Abraham, around the time of the events described in Genesis 36.  Eliphaz’s statement to Job suggested that the cause for his tragic circumstances was that he was not innocent, not right with God.  He asked Job to remember this: “who that was innocent ever perished?” (v. 7).  Later, in the so-called vision he had, the “spirit” that spoke to him asked, “Can mortal man be in the right before God?” (v. 17).  This might be a good time to be reminded that although the Word of God is true, there are places in it that expose uninspired ideas of misguided people.  This is one of them.  In fact, for this reason, all the comments made by Job’s friends in this book should be believed with caution and compared with other Scripture.  So, Eliphaz’s primary argument implied that Job had somehow sinned, which was why his circumstances had turned sour.  This is the same basic argument of all of Job’s friends, the false conclusion that circumstances reveal the quality of one’s character.

Additional Information:  The structure of this main section of the book presents three nearly complete sets of the three friends’ argumentative attack on Job’s character, followed by Job’s responses:

Speakers	Chapters
Eliphaz	4-5	15	22
Job	6-7	16-17	23-24
Bildad	8	18	25
Job	9-10	19	26-29
Zophar	11	20	————
Job	12-14	21	————

January 16, Thursday

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Reading A16 — Job 5 — Is it God’s Discipline? Audio link: https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/popPlayer.cfm?type=esv_n&b=18&c=5

Call for Help in Trouble — Eliphaz first challenged Job to “Call now” to seek help from his troubles (v. 1), and then suggested that Job should do what he would do: “As for me, I would seek God” (v. 8).  That is certainly good advice, as God would urge us later through the psalmist, “call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psa. 50:15).  Eliphaz incorrectly assumed that Job’s trouble came from God in the form of discipline for some wrongdoing, saying, “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty” (Job 5:17).  Similar ideas are presented by the writer of Hebrews, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him” (Heb. 12:5), and by Solomon, “the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights” (Prov. 3:12).  Job’s troubles, however, were not discipline because he was “a blameless and upright man…” in God’s sight (v. 3, cf. 2:8).  Whether our trouble comes from our own foolishness, from the evil intentions of others, or from the discipline of God, we are to turn to Him for help.  “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1).

January 17, Friday

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Reading A17 — Job 6 — Job Despairs of Life Audio link: Job 6 (ESV)

Withholding Kindness — Job began his first response with words of helpless desperation.  What had happened to him was like a heavy weight, and he despaired of life.  The Apostle Paul felt the same way at one point when he was “so utterly burdened beyond … strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Cor. 1:8).  Job knew that God was behind his affliction (Job 6:4) but he did not know why, and he asked God to end his life (v. 9).  This is similar to frustrating times we sometimes have, when it seems that God is silent and distant from us.  We still have the Bible, however, and He constantly speaks to us through His Word.  Job then jabbed Eliphaz and his friends a little bit about their empty efforts of trying to comfort and help him.  They were really withholding “kindness from a friend” (v. 14) by mistakenly accusing him of doing wrong.  Job challenged them to “Teach me … make me understand how I have gone astray” (v. 24), but they could not.  We should also be cautious about assigning blame to others in our life who are going through a difficult time.  We don’t know their heart and we don’t know God’s plan for them.  We should show love and kindness and leave the matter of any discipline up to God.

January 18, Saturday

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Reading A18 — Job 7 — Job Complains to God Audio link: Job 7 (ESV)

What is Man? — As Job continued his response to Eliphaz in this chapter, he made a statement that sounds familiar to us: “What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him” (v. 17).  Its familiarity comes from this similar statement in Psalms: “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psa. 8:4).  There is a difference in attitude and emphasis between these two statements, however.  The psalmist is in awe of God because He had “crowned him with glory and honor” (Psa. 8:5).  Just before Job’s statement, however, he said to God, “Leave me alone, for my days are a breath” (Job 7:16).  Amid his suffering, Job was not thinking about “glory and honor” but about just being “normal” so he could escape his suffering.  He didn’t know that he was being tested and that he was going to be a model for several thousand years for godly people who are struggling with how to maintain their faith and hope in the middle of hardship.  What is man?  He is a model of both God’s glory and how to suffer with spiritual integrity.  People are watching us during our times of suffering.  Do we show a difference?  Our difficulties are temporary compared to eternity.  There will be no pain in heaven—forever.