Simple Gifts

The book of Job is wisdom literature, like Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.

What can we add to what has already been written on the Book of Job?

Is it the oldest book in the canon as its historical milieu would place it, or was it written (down) much later?

Is it merely a literary story meant to illuminate the relation between God and man-in-the-created-order, or is it historical?

We are not so foolish as to claim that we know any of these answers, or how God has in fact put His word together, but we have learned not to put the plausible stories of man in the place of what He says in His word. We will never go far wrong if we simply trust what God says, being careful readers of scripture.

What we do know is that Job is a masterpiece of literature by any metric, and one of (if not) THE greatest works of wisdom literature ever crafted. I cannot help but end with a quote from another such brilliant work:

Ecclesiastes 7:23–29

All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?

I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness.... Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things — which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found.... See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. (ESV)

Ecclesiastes 12:10–13

The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.

The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (ESV)

The book of Hosea is especially apropos at this time (October 2024) as we are currently drafting our second Christian Atheist series on malaki (the Hebrew word explicitly this time), which first occurs in Exodus 23:20–24:

“Behold, I send an angel [malak - "a messenger"] before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.

“But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. “When my angel [malaki - "my messenger"] goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. (ESV)

The Hebrews described by Hosea are the same as those described by Moses in the Pentateuch and, by extension, the Christian church of today. We are all unfaithful spouses of our Lord. By right, God's holiness should "break out" against us, and we should be consumed. His faithfulness, however, is new every morning. But we should never forget that we serve a holy God, and we live by His grace:

Malachi 3:6

[6] “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed." (ESV)

Join Jenny and me in this faithless and compromising generation in cleansing our lives from all elements of unfaithfulness, unbelief and disobedience to our LORD's revealed word.

Farther up, and farther in to God's infinite wisdom, love and knowledge!

We highly recommend this excellent summary of Hosea:

https://youtu.be/kE6SZ1ogOVU?si=xmg5ZhYVRTILGC6y

Malachi 3:7

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. (ESV)

The prophetic books of Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel mark a radical change in the life of God's people, Israel. Starting with Jeremiah, the Babylonian exile is predicted, and then experienced. Daniel is taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar during Jeremiah's ministry, and after the 586 BC fall of Jerusalem, Ezekiel is called by God to minister to Israel in exile. Indeed, these prophets were aware of each others' ministries, and God's voice in them. Twice Ezekiel refers to Daniel (14:14 and 28:3), and Daniel mentions Jeremiah's prophecies (Daniel 9) as a source of his own prophetic ministry.

Reading Jeremiah should be a learning experience par excellence, as getting clear on all its details and references - seeking to understand the discoveries of biblical archaeology that relate to it, and all the history of Israel, including the two kingdoms, their kings and their successes and failures, their faithfulness and their apostasy - sets one up to understand both the whole progression of scripture from Genesis to Revelation, and God's plan of salvation set in place "before the foundation of the world."

Listen and read with a mind open to God's voice. Search the scriptures to answer the questions you encounter, search the archaeology to display the truth of God's word verified, search the language to understand better the nuances of God's meaning. Read/listen carefully, reverently and inquisitively, and God will show you amazing things! You have HIS promise of that!

We suggest, as usual, starting here:

https://youtu.be/RSK36cHbrk0?si=KaJSPPn7n6z7x_Pl

The Book of Lamentations was most likely written by the prophet Jeremiah, though there is no internal mark of authorship. It is the heartfelt "alas!" (its original title in Hebrew) from the soul of one who has witnessed his beloved people and their homeland ravished by a foreign invader, in this case Babylon. Its form is Hebrew-alphabet acrostic poetry, and its themes are those common to the OT prophetic tradition.

For Jenny and I this book is notable for its parallels at a different level of experience with the book of Malachi, which we have studied so carefully this year. The setting, of course, is different, as Lamentations follows on the destruction of the Jerusalem (586 BC) and the Solomonic Temple, and the Babylonian exile. However different the setting, however the thematic patterns are everywhere evident. For example:

"Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

"For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed." Malachi 3:6 (ESV)

There are many, many more pattern-repetitions throughout the Bible. We would encourage our listeners to become sensitive to these patterns, as God speaks very clearly through them to us.

As in so many other cases, this summary of the book of Lamentations is a helpful place to start in appreciating this great book:

https://youtu.be/p8GDFPdaQZQ?si=nJyo81hMQXyorNZL

In keeping with our intensive study of Israel's history this year, Jenny and I have concentrated our attention on the Exilic and Post-exilic prophets. We've included Jeremiah in this list, even though he spans the immediate pre-exilic period, leading up to the Babylonian exile.

The most enigmatic exilic prophet, most certainly, is Ezekiel. His name means "God's strength." We encourage our listeners to struggle with Ezekiel's difficulty, as we believe God has a great deal of undiscovered meaning in this text. Some of the most exciting references, for me, are those to his contemporary prophet-in-exile, Daniel (Ezekiel 14:14, 20 and 28:3).

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

The book of Job is wisdom literature, like Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.

What can we add to what has already been written on the Book of Job?

Is it the oldest book in the canon as its historical milieu would place it, or was it written (down) much later?

Is it merely a literary story meant to illuminate the relation between God and man-in-the-created-order, or is it historical?

We are not so foolish as to claim that we know any of these answers, or how God has in fact put His word together, but we have learned not to put the plausible stories of man in the place of what He says in His word. We will never go far wrong if we simply trust what God says, being careful readers of scripture.

What we do know is that Job is a masterpiece of literature by any metric, and one of (if not) THE greatest works of wisdom literature ever crafted. I cannot help but end with a quote from another such brilliant work:

Ecclesiastes 7:23–29

All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?

I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness.... Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things — which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found.... See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. (ESV)

Ecclesiastes 12:10–13

The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.

The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (ESV)

The book of Hosea is especially apropos at this time (October 2024) as we are currently drafting our second Christian Atheist series on malaki (the Hebrew word explicitly this time), which first occurs in Exodus 23:20–24:

“Behold, I send an angel [malak - "a messenger"] before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.

“But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. “When my angel [malaki - "my messenger"] goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. (ESV)

The Hebrews described by Hosea are the same as those described by Moses in the Pentateuch and, by extension, the Christian church of today. We are all unfaithful spouses of our Lord. By right, God's holiness should "break out" against us, and we should be consumed. His faithfulness, however, is new every morning. But we should never forget that we serve a holy God, and we live by His grace:

Malachi 3:6

[6] “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed." (ESV)

Join Jenny and me in this faithless and compromising generation in cleansing our lives from all elements of unfaithfulness, unbelief and disobedience to our LORD's revealed word.

Farther up, and farther in to God's infinite wisdom, love and knowledge!

We highly recommend this excellent summary of Hosea:

https://youtu.be/kE6SZ1ogOVU?si=xmg5ZhYVRTILGC6y

Malachi 3:7

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. (ESV)

The prophetic books of Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel mark a radical change in the life of God's people, Israel. Starting with Jeremiah, the Babylonian exile is predicted, and then experienced. Daniel is taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar during Jeremiah's ministry, and after the 586 BC fall of Jerusalem, Ezekiel is called by God to minister to Israel in exile. Indeed, these prophets were aware of each others' ministries, and God's voice in them. Twice Ezekiel refers to Daniel (14:14 and 28:3), and Daniel mentions Jeremiah's prophecies (Daniel 9) as a source of his own prophetic ministry.

Reading Jeremiah should be a learning experience par excellence, as getting clear on all its details and references - seeking to understand the discoveries of biblical archaeology that relate to it, and all the history of Israel, including the two kingdoms, their kings and their successes and failures, their faithfulness and their apostasy - sets one up to understand both the whole progression of scripture from Genesis to Revelation, and God's plan of salvation set in place "before the foundation of the world."

Listen and read with a mind open to God's voice. Search the scriptures to answer the questions you encounter, search the archaeology to display the truth of God's word verified, search the language to understand better the nuances of God's meaning. Read/listen carefully, reverently and inquisitively, and God will show you amazing things! You have HIS promise of that!

We suggest, as usual, starting here:

https://youtu.be/RSK36cHbrk0?si=KaJSPPn7n6z7x_Pl

We continue our project of reading ALL of God's word for our listeners. From the American Standard Version, as all copyright is expired.

If you enjoy our content, consider donating through PayPal via https://ko-fi.com/thechristianatheist

Take a moment to enjoy our weekly Photos of the Day videos here - short slideshows with relaxing music ...https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_9GPi4HTqoZ8xFgTldbBaA

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured

https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords

https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com

#thechristianatheist #drjohndwise #drjohnwise #johnwise #christian #atheist #christianity #atheism #jesus #jesuschrist #god #bible #oldtestament #newtestament #nocompromise #rationality #faith #philosophy #philosopher #culture #society #hegelism #hegelianism #hegel #reason #incarnation #history#psychology #theology #literature #humanities #hardquestions #postmodernism #woke #wisdom #ethics #science #poetry #paradox #oxymoron

We continue our project of reading ALL of God's word for our listeners. From the American Standard Version, as all copyright is expired.

If you enjoy our content, consider donating through PayPal via https://ko-fi.com/thechristianatheist

Take a moment to enjoy our weekly Photos of the Day videos here - short slideshows with relaxing music ...https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_9GPi4HTqoZ8xFgTldbBaA

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured

https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords

https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com

#thechristianatheist #drjohndwise #drjohnwise #johnwise #christian #atheist #christianity #atheism #jesus #jesuschrist #god #bible #oldtestament #newtestament #nocompromise #rationality #faith #philosophy #philosopher #culture #society #hegelism #hegelianism #hegel #reason #incarnation #history#psychology #theology #literature #humanities #hardquestions #postmodernism #woke #wisdom #ethics #science #poetry #paradox #oxymoron