SCRIPTURE: Job 10
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
What do you gain by oppressing me? Why do you reject me, the work of your own hands, while smiling on the schemes of the wicked? [Job 10:3]
You formed me with your hands; you made me, yet now you completely destroy me. Remember that you made me from dust— will you turn me back to dust so soon? [Job 10:8-9]
Have you ever felt like this?
Though I have not gone through something like this myself, I have been with people who have.
When the bad news just keeps coming: diagnosed with cancer, teenagers in trouble with the law, friends letting you down, bills not getting paid, an expensive car repair – all in the same day.
“Enough, just stop it” we yell, “I can’t take it anymore!”
I have been with people who honestly felt that God was oppressing them, that He was out to get them.
And what makes it worse is when people with no regard for God seem to do so well, as if God is smiling at them.
This is a dark place to be, a place of despair and defeat.
It is a land as dark as midnight, a land of gloom and confusion, where even the light is dark as midnight. [Job 10:22] Continue reading despair in dark places

SCRIPTURE: Job 9
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together. The mediator could make God stop beating me, and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment. Then I could speak to him without fear, but I cannot do that in my own strength. [Job 9:33-35]
Job has no doubt Who is God, and that he cannot challenge the God of the Universe.
If it were a court case, he could not even utter a word before God, because it would be immediately clear that he was a sinner, an unreliable witness.
And yet Job senses that he has something to say to God, just no right to say it.
If only there were a mediator, someone to stand in his defense that was sinless, that had a right to speak before God. Continue reading there is a redeemer

SCRIPTURE: Job 8
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Can papyrus reeds grow tall without a marsh? Can marsh grass flourish without water? While they are still flowering, not ready to be cut, they begin to wither more quickly than grass. The same happens to all who forget God. The hopes of the godless evaporate. [Job 8:11-13]
Jesus told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one: “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! [Matthew 13:3-8]
It seems to me that Jesus and Job’s friend are pretty much saying the same thing.
Those who forget God will wither, their hopes will evaporate. Continue reading almost true

SCRIPTURE: Job 7
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
I cannot keep from speaking. I must express my anguish. My bitter soul must complain. [Job 7:11] What are people, that you should make so much of us, that you should think of us so often? For you examine us every morning and test us every moment. Why won’t you leave me alone, at least long enough for me to swallow! [Job 7:17-19]
Can you feel Job’s frustration, can you sense his despair?
Job is not just “praying” in the religious sense, he is talking to God, actually he is yelling at God.
Many people (including Job’s friends) would accuse Job of being disrespectful, of being irreverent wit God.
What impacts me as I read this is the raw, bold and honest way that Job talks to God.
This is not religion, this is real, raw relationship! Continue reading real, raw relationship

SCRIPTURE: Job 6
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
My brothers, you have proved as unreliable as a seasonal brook that overflows its banks in the spring when it is swollen with ice and melting snow. But when the hot weather arrives, the water disappears. The brook vanishes in the heat. [Job 6:15-17]
Have you ever been let down by your friends?
People you looked to for support did not show up, or said things that only made things worse?
Job’s misery is made worse by the heartless accusations of his friends.
He describes them as an unreliable brook – sometimes overflowing and sometimes dry.
The sad reality is that people – even those you are close to – will let you down; and you will let others down.
We are not God, we cannot perfectly meet the needs of others, nor can they meet our needs. Continue reading a stream that never fails

SCRIPTURE: Job 5
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
We have studied life and found all this to be true. Listen to my counsel, and apply it to yourself. [Job 5:27]
As we read through Job, we will hear great truths espoused by Job’s friends, and yet in the end God does not honour their counsel [Job 42:7-8].
There are so many quotable sayings in their speeches, yet God says of Job’s friends that they did n ot speak accurately about God.
This does not mean that everything they said is wrong; rather it was the conclusion they came to from all their theological ideas – “God treats people as they deserve”.
This is the bottom line for Job’s friends: you must have sinned, repent and God will heal you!
The lesson I take from this is that we can have great knowledge and wisdom, yet our counsel can be inaccurate, misleading. Continue reading the kind of God I communicate

SCRIPTURE: Job 4
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed? My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same. [Job 4:7-8]
This is the most commonly felt answer to the question ‘why does God allow suffering’ – those who suffer must have sinned.
“What did I do to deserve this?”; “God must be punishing me for something I did!”; “Live a good life and you will be blessed; live a bad life and you will pay for it.”
The problem with Eliphaz’s ‘theology’ is that it makes God look like an exacting Judge rather than a loving Father. Continue reading because I sinned?

SCRIPTURE: Job 3
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
I cannot eat for sighing; my groans pour out like water. What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true. I have no peace, no quietness. I have no rest; only trouble comes. [Job 3:24-26]
Job is with his close friends, and now he bursts out in pain and frustration – he wishes he hand never been born.
His pain is so great, his misery so unbearable, he finally gives up on life.
He does not ‘curse God and die’ as his wife suggested, he just wishes that God’s will had been that he never had been born at all.
He is wishing for a different cup, to borrow words from Jesus.
He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” [Matthew 26:37-39] Continue reading honest despair

SCRIPTURE: Job 2
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong. [Job 2:9-10]
Though it is his wife speaking, Satan is the spirit behind her words.
We should not blame her, its one thing to endure our own suffering, its another thing to helplessly see others suffer.
It reminds me of a book I read years ago called “Silence” (Shusako Endo) where a priest in Japan is compelled to renounce his faith not through his own torture, but the torture and murder of the villagers he converted.
Job’s wife has been through too much – she also lost her children – and she cannot take it anymore.
Her ‘folly’ is not that she is despairing of all that she is going through, but in thinking that cursing God and dying will make things better.
If this is bad, think about what cursing God and dying will be like… Continue reading Satan is a jerk

SCRIPTURE: Job 1
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Satan replied to the Lord, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!” “All right, you may test him,” the Lord said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence. [Job 1:9-12]
The story of Job is well known; it was written as a theodicy (an explanation for why God allows suffering).
Scholars indicate that it was not originally a Jewish story, though someone (Moses?) brought it into the sacred reading list because of how it addressed the hard question of God and suffering.
The basic idea is that God allows Satan to test Job, to show that his confidence is not because of favours received but because of his devotion to God. Continue reading theodicy