SCRIPTURE: Job 38
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. [Job 38:3-4]
Finally, after extended controversy between Job and his friends, we now get to God’s response.
But we are in for disappointment if we expect Him to answer to us.
Notice how God answers Job’s questions with a question – with a host of questions.
These are rhetorical questions, the answer is obvious. Continue reading when God questions me

SCRIPTURE: Job 37
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
We cannot imagine the power of the Almighty; but even though he is just and righteous, he does not destroy us. No wonder people everywhere fear him. All who are wise show him reverence. [Job 37:23-24]
I have to admit it, I like much of what Elihu has to say; his reminder about the greatness of God is especially good for me.
Up until now I have usually dismissed the speeches of Job’s friends, thinking that what they said was mostly wrong.
This raises an interesting question for me: are the speeches of Job’s friend also God’s message to us, do we listen to them with the authority of scripture since we know that God later rejects their counsel [Job 42:7]?
One interesting thing that I just noticed is that when God rejects the counsel of Job’s friends, He only mentions the first three friends, but not Elihu.
Anyway, today I am choosing to reflect positively on what Elihu says, because it makes sense to me.
All who are wise show him reverence. [Job 37:24] Continue reading with deepest, tenderest fears

SCRIPTURE: Job 36
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Let me go on, and I will show you the truth. For I have not finished defending God! [Job 36:2]
Does God need to be defended by us?
I often think about this when I hear about people or religions that impose punishments against people who speak against their God or their faith.
Is God so weak that He needs our help in defending Him?
Does Jesus need me to defend Him? Continue reading befriend… not defend!

SCRIPTURE: Job 35
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
But it is wrong to say God doesn’t listen, to say the Almighty isn’t concerned. [Job 35:13]
Have you ever felt that God wasn’t listening to you?
Have you ever complained that God didn’t seem to care for you?
Well, according to Elihu, this is wrong and you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
How dare you speak against God, how dare you accuse God of not listening, not caring. Continue reading expressing our doubts

SCRIPTURE: Job 34
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Job, you deserve the maximum penalty for the wicked way you have talked. For you have added rebellion to your sin; you show no respect, and you speak many angry words against God. [Job 34:36-37]
The book of Job presents two approaches to the struggle with evil and why suffering happens.
Job’s friends have everything figured out in their systematic theology; Job wrestles with God and accuses Him of cruelty and injustice.
The same happens today (with variations): some people develop ‘systems’ that explain it all; others wrestle with God and some even give up on God because of it.
For those who have it figured out, those who struggle with God are irreverent, arrogant and defying God.
History is filled with examples of times when established religion challenged and punished those that went against their systematic theologies. Continue reading systematic theology

SCRIPTURE: Job 33
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it. He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. He whispers in their ears and terrifies them with warnings. He makes them turn from doing wrong; he keeps them from pride. He protects them from the grave, from crossing over the river of death. Or God disciplines people with pain on their sickbeds, with ceaseless aching in their bones. [Job 33:14-19]
I like what Elihu has to say so far, for the most part.
Yes, God is always speaking, but we do not always hear Him.
God speaks through all kinds of mediums – other people, our circumstances, the bible, history, dreams, suffering.
In all of these ways, and so many more, He is trying to get our attention, to show us our need for Him.
As C.S. Lewis once wrote: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” (from The Problem of Pain). Continue reading open, humble hearts

SCRIPTURE: Job 32
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Job’s three friends refused to reply further to him because he kept insisting on his innocence. Then Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the clan of Ram, became angry. He was angry because Job refused to admit that he had sinned and that God was right in punishing him. He was also angry with Job’s three friends, for they made God appear to be wrong by their inability to answer Job’s arguments. [Job 32:1-3]
Will this never end; just when Job’s three friends finally quit arguing with him, up steps this new guy Elihu.
And for the next 7 chapters we are going to have to listen to him attack Job
Can anything be added that hasn’t already been said?
A big part of me is tiring of this debate, I can’t wait to get to the end of this book so I can move on. Continue reading here we go again

SCRIPTURE: Job 31
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
For lust is a shameful sin, a crime that should be punished. It is a fire that burns all the way to hell. It would wipe out everything I own. [Job 31:11-12]
In this chapter Job is agreeing with God’s perspective about sin – that it is evil and ought to be punished.
Job’s complaint with God is not that he should be forgiven, or that sin should be overlooked, but that he agrees with God about the seriousness of sin and did everything humanly possible to resist it – and still he suffers.
As far as he knew, he did not minimize sin, or tolerate indiscretion or indecency; he was a self-disciplined, devout follower of God and of good.
Today I will not reflect on Job’s innocence, nor on his complaint, but on his view of sin, and in particular sexual sin. Continue reading burning with lust

SCRIPTURE: Job 30
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Did I not weep for those in trouble? Was I not deeply grieved for the needy? So I looked for good, but evil came instead. I waited for the light, but darkness fell. My heart is troubled and restless. [Job 30:25-27]
Poor Job: at one time everyone honoured him as a godly man, and now even the dregs of society mock him and spit on him as worthless, an outcast.
Though his heart was devoted to God, and to loving and helping people, his life has become a joke.
I have known Jesus-followers who experienced the same crisis – they devoted themselves to following Jesus and doing His work in the world, and who ended up despised and defeated, and object of scorn and laughter.
I think of one person who gave up everything to do mission work in a foreign country, and no matter how much he loved and sacrificed, he did not see any results – in fact the opposite, he was ridiculed by the people he served and abandoned by his supporters back home.
I can imagine him saying: So I looked for good, but evil came instead. I waited for the light, but darkness fell. My heart is troubled and restless. [Job 30:26-27] Continue reading peace through sorrow

SCRIPTURE: Job 29
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
When I was in my prime, God’s friendship was felt in my home. The Almighty was still with me, and my children were around me. [Job 29:4-5] I thought, ‘Surely I will die surrounded by my family after a long, good life. [Job 29:18]
Job is reminiscing about the good old days, when he was blessed and honoured, loving God and people, living a godly life and enjoying the good life!
Like many christians living in the west today, he assumed that his blessing was the result of his good life, and that he would continue to enjoy God’s favour as long as he continued to live the right way.
And like many christians in the west today, he was confused when things turned bad, wondering why God allowed bad things to happen to him – afterall, he was a good, faithful servant of God!
Make no mistake, there are many christians in my experience who see their good lives as the result of good, decent living; and many of them experience a crisis of faith when things go wrong! Continue reading the good life?