You Can Read the Bible Guided Podcast

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!

Today we begin a series of readings in the Wisdom section of the Hebrew Bible, starting with the story of Job. 

“There was a man in the land of Uz…”  The first five verses give us all the background information we’ll receive about the primary character.  We learn that he is a man of unusual wealth and unquestionable character.  All this is prelude, however, to the real story, which begins on a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them…

Pay close attention to the back and forth of the dialogue in the heavenly court.  It is the LORD who asks, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”  The Accuser challenges, “Of course, since you have blessed him and protected him, ‘but stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.’” 

The gauntlet is thrown, and the attention, for the next forty chapters, is on the questions that Job’s trials produce.  This story is not about the details of Job’s situation but the search for meaning within it.  Pay attention to how the author carefully develops Job’s character.  However, his wife’s challenge: "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die..." is a possible outcome throughout. 

If you’re unfamiliar with Job, I won’t ruin the story for you.  As with the law, writings, and prophets, the wisdom genre has its own patterns and tendencies.  You’ll notice for yourself repetitions and alliterations, especially in the first chapter.  Nor will I attempt to place this story within any historical framework – though you will see clues throughout that hint at historical intersections.  You will not find Uz, definitively, on any map.  Job is not included in any genealogy or lineage, and appears sparingly elsewhere in the Bible.  Even the divine conversation has no analogue in the rest of the Old Testament. 

These details are secondary to the primary purpose, and to the primary subject – which is neither Job, nor suffering, but the true nature and character of the LORD.    

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

Job 1 through 4.  Now let’s read it!

Today we begin a series of readings in the Wisdom section of the Hebrew Bible, starting with the story of Job. 

“There was a man in the land of Uz…”  The first five verses give us all the background information we’ll receive about the primary character.  We learn that he is a man of unusual wealth and unquestionable character.  All this is prelude, however, to the real story, which begins on a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them…

Pay close attention to the back and forth of the dialogue in the heavenly court.  It is the LORD who asks, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”  The Accuser challenges, “Of course, since you have blessed him and protected him, ‘but stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.’” 

The gauntlet is thrown, and the attention, for the next forty chapters, is on the questions that Job’s trials produce.  This story is not about the details of Job’s situation but the search for meaning within it.  Pay attention to how the author carefully develops Job’s character.  However, his wife’s challenge: "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die..." is a possible outcome throughout. 

If you’re unfamiliar with Job, I won’t ruin the story for you.  As with the law, writings, and prophets, the wisdom genre has its own patterns and tendencies.  You’ll notice for yourself repetitions and alliterations, especially in the first chapter.  Nor will I attempt to place this story within any historical framework – though you will see clues throughout that hint at historical intersections.  You will not find Uz, definitively, on any map.  Job is not included in any genealogy or lineage, and appears sparingly elsewhere in the Bible.  Even the divine conversation has no analogue in the rest of the Old Testament. 

These details are secondary to the primary purpose, and to the primary subject – which is neither Job, nor suffering, but the true nature and character of the LORD.    

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

Job 1 through 4.  Now let’s read it!

Possibly around 450 B.C.

‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.  Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’   – Exodus 19:4-6

Malachi has a distinctive style that you will easily pick up.  In the first verses a rhythm is introduced: “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob's brother?” declares the LORD.  “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated…”  This cycle of accusation-retort-response is used effectively at least seven times in Malachi. 

There is no timestamp on the oracle of the word of the LORD that came to Malachi, but it is almost certainly after the time of Zerubbabel, and likely as late as Ezra and Nehemiah, because there is a functional temple in place.  Otherwise, nothing is known of this prophet, but we will deduce much about the setting into which he preached.

Indeed, the prevailing concern that runs through the first chapter-and-a-half is propriety in Temple worship.  In chapters 1 and 2 He condemns the priests for defiling the altar with imperfect sacrifices and in leading the people astray.  The LORD ridicules their weariness of duty and asks if they would treat their governor with such contempt. 

In the middle of chapter 2 the LORD moves on to the population of Judah, leveling two accusations against them: their marriages to the daughters of foreign gods, and their faithlessness to the wife of your youth.  Listen carefully to how the LORD drills deeply into this accusation.  It is the voice of one who has been quite attentive to life in Judah. 

The book turns toward the future in chapter 3: Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the LORD whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.  This is, however, more warning than encouragement, as the LORD declares: “Then I will draw near to you for judgment.”  Listen to the list of those He will witness against, and remember the law that was given to them through Moses. 

Read all the way to the end, through the refiner’s fire and the windows of heaven and the book of remembrance, because there is one final promise in store as the prophetic canon is closed. 

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

The prophet Malachi.  Now let’s read it!

Possibly around 450 B.C.

‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.  Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’   – Exodus 19:4-6

Malachi has a distinctive style that you will easily pick up.  In the first verses a rhythm is introduced: “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob's brother?” declares the LORD.  “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated…”  This cycle of accusation-retort-response is used effectively at least seven times in Malachi. 

There is no timestamp on the oracle of the word of the LORD that came to Malachi, but it is almost certainly after the time of Zerubbabel, and likely as late as Ezra and Nehemiah, because there is a functional temple in place.  Otherwise, nothing is known of this prophet, but we will deduce much about the setting into which he preached.

Indeed, the prevailing concern that runs through the first chapter-and-a-half is propriety in Temple worship.  In chapters 1 and 2 He condemns the priests for defiling the altar with imperfect sacrifices and in leading the people astray.  The LORD ridicules their weariness of duty and asks if they would treat their governor with such contempt. 

In the middle of chapter 2 the LORD moves on to the population of Judah, leveling two accusations against them: their marriages to the daughters of foreign gods, and their faithlessness to the wife of your youth.  Listen carefully to how the LORD drills deeply into this accusation.  It is the voice of one who has been quite attentive to life in Judah. 

The book turns toward the future in chapter 3: Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the LORD whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.  This is, however, more warning than encouragement, as the LORD declares: “Then I will draw near to you for judgment.”  Listen to the list of those He will witness against, and remember the law that was given to them through Moses. 

Read all the way to the end, through the refiner’s fire and the windows of heaven and the book of remembrance, because there is one final promise in store as the prophetic canon is closed. 

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

The prophet Malachi.  Now let’s read it!

Chapter 12 opens with the same formula that began chapter 9: The burden of the word of the LORD.  But instead of other nations, this word of the LORD concerns Israel itself… Judah specifically.  It looks forward to a day when Judah and Jerusalem will be cleansed of their sin.  Listen intently through chapters 12 and 13 as the scenes shift rapidly and terror and grace, fear and mercy, are fitfully interwoven.

Two goals become clear in chapter 14: first, that Jerusalem is not being restored for its own glory, but to be elevated, set aside as “Holy to the LORD;” and, second, that the call will go out to all nations to worship the LORD there.  These, again, are interwoven with the chaos of war and plagues that have marked Zechariah’s prophecy thus far.  Those who go up to Jerusalem to worship the King will be fed and protected.  Those who do not will suffer famine and plague. 

Just in these twelve prophets we’ve read a plethora of genres and rhetorical techniques.  There was the living metaphor and call to repentance of Hosea, the historical teaching moment of Joel, Obadiah’s and Nahum’s condemnation of foreign powers, Micah’s and Amos’s demands for justice from those in power, Haggai’s conviction that his countrymen are not taking the temple seriously, and the narrative of Jonah’s adventures.  No two books in these twelve, or in the whole Bible, really, are exactly the same.  Each reflects a nuance of the LORD’s authority, power, and creativity that may or may not be present in others. 

Remember that this book, as with the whole Bible, is about the LORD and His character.  He is both the primary subject and actor.  Through all that you read here remember the LORD’s ultimate purpose, expressed distinctly in chapter 14: When the LORD comes, and sets His feet on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem, The LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.

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

Zechariah 12 through 14.  Now let’s read it!

Chapter 12 opens with the same formula that began chapter 9: The burden of the word of the LORD.  But instead of other nations, this word of the LORD concerns Israel itself… Judah specifically.  It looks forward to a day when Judah and Jerusalem will be cleansed of their sin.  Listen intently through chapters 12 and 13 as the scenes shift rapidly and terror and grace, fear and mercy, are fitfully interwoven.

Two goals become clear in chapter 14: first, that Jerusalem is not being restored for its own glory, but to be elevated, set aside as “Holy to the LORD;” and, second, that the call will go out to all nations to worship the LORD there.  These, again, are interwoven with the chaos of war and plagues that have marked Zechariah’s prophecy thus far.  Those who go up to Jerusalem to worship the King will be fed and protected.  Those who do not will suffer famine and plague. 

Just in these twelve prophets we’ve read a plethora of genres and rhetorical techniques.  There was the living metaphor and call to repentance of Hosea, the historical teaching moment of Joel, Obadiah’s and Nahum’s condemnation of foreign powers, Micah’s and Amos’s demands for justice from those in power, Haggai’s conviction that his countrymen are not taking the temple seriously, and the narrative of Jonah’s adventures.  No two books in these twelve, or in the whole Bible, really, are exactly the same.  Each reflects a nuance of the LORD’s authority, power, and creativity that may or may not be present in others. 

Remember that this book, as with the whole Bible, is about the LORD and His character.  He is both the primary subject and actor.  Through all that you read here remember the LORD’s ultimate purpose, expressed distinctly in chapter 14: When the LORD comes, and sets His feet on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem, The LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.

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

Zechariah 12 through 14.  Now let’s read it!