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“I hear censure that insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me…”  - Job 20:3

Zophar has some sharp words for Job at the opening of today’s reading, in response to Job’s complaints that everyone – his relatives, his friends, and God – has failed him.  Try to picture Zophar’s posture, as you would an actor on stage, when he tells Job, “You’ve insulted me…” 

Job’s response pushes in a deeper, darker direction, and his burgeoning argument hits a crescendo in chapter 23.  Giving full voice to the lament within him, he asks: “Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?  Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.  Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.”  Furthermore, “They say to God, ‘Depart from us!  We do not desire the knowledge of your ways…’” 

Feel Job’s torment in these chapters.  He is no longer concerned with justifying himself to his friends, asking rhetorically, “is my complaint against man?”  ‘No,’ we hear.  It is against God; it is against the injustice that Job has witnessed from both directions – he suffers, while the wicked prosper.  This is what Job wants his friends to wrap their heads around – and so we’re forced to wrestle with it, too. 

At this point, it might feel like we’ve walked far enough into the dark woods and now it’s time to turn back.  For some time we’ve come upon no fresh water, no clearing has materialized, and the crest of each hill just presents even darker valleys.  The forest is getting thicker, and the hour is getting late.  It feels like if we go much further, we will not be able to find our way back to the safety of camp. 

But we can, and should, keep walking with Job, for he cannot turn back.  The story drives further, relentlessly, toward an unknown destination.  Our trust is that the payoff, whatever it is, will be worth it.

Our verse for this week is Luke 16:13: No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Job 20 through 24.  Now let’s read it!

Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? 

"Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!  Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  – Job 19:21-25

This lament of Job’s comes at the end of today’s reading, after a second round of “comfort” from Eliphaz and Bildad.  At this point, halfway through our story, Job is pleading for mercy from his friends. 

To prepare for it, listen to the attitude that runs through the speeches of these two men: “…Your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.  Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you…” Eliphaz charges.  Bildad is more direct: “Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?”   

Remember that their initial conversation was cordial but accusation was implied: they believed that Job must have sinned, because, in their eyes, suffering was the result of iniquity.  Job rejected this, but, of course, only he knows whether he should repent.  And this rejection of his friends’ “wisdom” draws a personal rebuke. 

I’ve asked you before to place yourself in Job’s position.  Today I invite you to sit in the seat of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.  Put the first chapter out of your mind – in other words, allow yourself as much knowledge as they have – and imagine what you would say to Job.  With these blinders on, how would you attempt to encourage and exhort him?  Does Job’s view of God align with what you’ve seen of Him?  Is he speaking righteously, or will you charge him, as Eliphaz does, with “windy knowledge and unprofitable talk”?

Our verse for this week is James 4:7: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Job 15 through 19.  Now let’s read it!

Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? 

"Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!  Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  – Job 19:21-25

This lament of Job’s comes at the end of today’s reading, after a second round of “comfort” from Eliphaz and Bildad.  At this point, halfway through our story, Job is pleading for mercy from his friends. 

To prepare for it, listen to the attitude that runs through the speeches of these two men: “…Your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.  Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips testify against you…” Eliphaz charges.  Bildad is more direct: “Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?”   

Remember that their initial conversation was cordial but accusation was implied: they believed that Job must have sinned, because, in their eyes, suffering was the result of iniquity.  Job rejected this, but, of course, only he knows whether he should repent.  And this rejection of his friends’ “wisdom” draws a personal rebuke. 

I’ve asked you before to place yourself in Job’s position.  Today I invite you to sit in the seat of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.  Put the first chapter out of your mind – in other words, allow yourself as much knowledge as they have – and imagine what you would say to Job.  With these blinders on, how would you attempt to encourage and exhort him?  Does Job’s view of God align with what you’ve seen of Him?  Is he speaking righteously, or will you charge him, as Eliphaz does, with “windy knowledge and unprofitable talk”?

Our verse for this week is James 4:7: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Job 15 through 19.  Now let’s read it!

“If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,'  I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.  I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?”  - Job 9:27-29

Our reading today follows the above, where Job acknowledges his powerlessness before God.  Even if Job were to put on a cheerful face, to wash himself clean, he could not escape should God choose to plunge him back into the pit.  For “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both…” he laments.  Whatever God wants to do, God will do.  Remember how Job responded to his wife in chapter 2: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"  Keep this question in mind as you listen to Job’s speeches today. 

The only other speaker today is Zophar, the final counselor who’s been sitting with Job.  His charge of iniquity is similar to that of his partners, but he also challenges Job’s understanding of God Himself.  Listen carefully:  "Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?... If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and let not injustice dwell in your tents.  Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish; you will be secure and will not fear.  You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away.

You may have spotted the tension between these two images of God: in Job’s world, who is in charge?  How about in Zophar’s?  It seems that Job’s lament is the feeling of powerlessness before an all-powerful God.  How does Zophar want to resolve that?  Job’s response in the next three chapters tells you what he thinks of this advice.

At this point you may be looking for a right-or-wrong type of answer here.  If so, this book will continue to disappoint.  Remember the pain and grief through which Job is speaking and into which his friends are trying to console.  Remember the high opinion that both the author and the LORD held of Job in the first chapters.  Listen both to Job’s words and attitude.  Where do you sympathize with him, agree with him, or do you yourself want to rebuke him? 

Our verse for this week is James 4:7: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Job 10 through 14.  Now let’s read it!

“If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,'  I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.  I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?”  - Job 9:27-29

Our reading today follows the above, where Job acknowledges his powerlessness before God.  Even if Job were to put on a cheerful face, to wash himself clean, he could not escape should God choose to plunge him back into the pit.  For “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both…” he laments.  Whatever God wants to do, God will do.  Remember how Job responded to his wife in chapter 2: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"  Keep this question in mind as you listen to Job’s speeches today. 

The only other speaker today is Zophar, the final counselor who’s been sitting with Job.  His charge of iniquity is similar to that of his partners, but he also challenges Job’s understanding of God Himself.  Listen carefully:  "Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?... If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and let not injustice dwell in your tents.  Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish; you will be secure and will not fear.  You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away.

You may have spotted the tension between these two images of God: in Job’s world, who is in charge?  How about in Zophar’s?  It seems that Job’s lament is the feeling of powerlessness before an all-powerful God.  How does Zophar want to resolve that?  Job’s response in the next three chapters tells you what he thinks of this advice.

At this point you may be looking for a right-or-wrong type of answer here.  If so, this book will continue to disappoint.  Remember the pain and grief through which Job is speaking and into which his friends are trying to console.  Remember the high opinion that both the author and the LORD held of Job in the first chapters.  Listen both to Job’s words and attitude.  Where do you sympathize with him, agree with him, or do you yourself want to rebuke him? 

Our verse for this week is James 4:7: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Job 10 through 14.  Now let’s read it!

The three friends who sit with Job are not simply random names, and the original reader would have recognized their homelands.  Eliphaz was from Teman, of the land of Edom, Israel’s brother and renown in the ancient world for its wisdom tradition.  Bildad was a Shuhite, descended from Shuah, son of Abraham and his second wife Keturah, from Arabia.  Finally, Zophar was a Naamathite, likely from the region of Canaan. 

While this information is not necessary to follow the story, it does add a layer of understanding. Though Job’s origins are shrouded in mystery, his friends likely represented more to the original reader – depicting various strands of wisdom in the ancient world.  Pay attention to how accurately they depict the LORD’s character, based on what you know of Him from the law and the prophets.

Yesterday’s reading ended in the middle of a speech by Eliphaz the Temanite.  Eliphaz first responds to Job’s complaint by affirming the gift that Job’s wisdom has brought others: “Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.”  But this wisdom, in Eliphaz’s mind, has not helped Job deduce the obvious: “…Who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?  As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.”

The charge of iniquity is intensified today by Bildad.  Reflecting on the fate of Job’s children he asks, “Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.”  Furthermore, he challenges Job to beg for mercy: “If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.” 

Consider that Job is forced not only to deal with his grief and pain, but now to respond to each of these challenges.  Listen carefully to his responses today.  Remember, also, that you know the background for Job’s suffering to which Job and his friends are not privy.  What of their theories does he absorb, and what does he repel?  How does he feel, and how does he convey that feeling?  And, finally, what questions is Job himself asking? 

Our verse for this week is James 4:7: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Job 5 through 9.  Now let’s read it!