Month: June 2024

Job 22:26-27 For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God. Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.

Several times Job’s friends showed a partial knowledge of God’s truth and character, but they had a trouble accurately applying this truth to life. Such was the case with Eliphaz, who gave a beautiful summary of repentance. He was correct in saying we must ask God’s forgiveness when we sin, but his statement does not apply to Job in this instance, who was innocent.

We may always, any time, all the time delight in God, in His love, in the joy of the Lord, and in the peace of God that passes understanding. Lift up your face to God and stand boldly in His Presence for Jesus earned that spot for you. Then pray to God in Jesus’ name and He will hear you. This is a beautiful description of repentance and faith in Christ.

Repentance, faith, and prayer is our daily response to all the problems and pains of everyday living. No matter what else is going on in life, God is always there with forgiveness and an answer. He hears us and we are so thankful that we keep our promises.

Job 22:21-23 Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart. If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacle.

Eliphaz believed that suffering is God’s punishment for evil deeds, so he suggested several sins that Job might have committed. He wanted to restore Job, but first confession and repentance would be necessary. Conventional wisdom said that suffering is a punishment for some sin and physical blessing comes from being good. But Job contended that he was innocent.

This common belief is wrong thinking, of course, but it is the argument underlying the Book of Job. Nevertheless, Eliphaz is speaking a truth here, something that is good for all of us, in good times and in bad: acquaint yourself with God by renewing and strengthening your faith in Christ; receive the law with repentant faith; lay up his words of Law and Gospel in your heart by hearing and believing; return to God, compelled by His love.

The result will be peace and good and being built up. Hearing the Word produces faith which receives forgiveness, life, love, peace, and joy.

Job 21:14-15 Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of his ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

Unbelievers ignore, forget, push away, or deny God, intentionally, or even unintentionally. What’s in it for me if I serve God? What good do I get out of believing God? Prayer doesn’t work.

In this chapter, Job refutes Zophar’s idea that evil people never experience wealth and happiness. In the real world wicked people do indeed prosper. In this verse, the response of the wicked to prosperous times is to forget God and to think that they don’t need him. Prosperity is not necessarily a blessing when it leads to an attitude that thinks, “I don’t need God.” Living through good times can be more dangerous than living through bad times. It is too easy to ignore God and leave Him out of our life when things are going well. The heart gets hard, and then it gets harder for a hard heart to come to God when we need Him.

It is better for us to respond to life always with a need for and a dependence on God. The Law reminds us of our guilt and shame, weakness and emptiness, sinfulness and selfishness, no matter how outwardly good our life seems to be. The Law leads us to the Gospel in humility, repentance, and faith in Jesus. When life is hard we need the Good News of Christ. When life is soft we need the word of Law to bring us to Christ. We know there is an answer to the question “What’s in it for me?”

Job 19:25-26 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.

This verse may be one of the most profound expressions of faith spoken in the Bible. In the midst of extreme suffering, loss, and pain, in the face of accusations by friends, and in the middle of suicidal thoughts, Job is enabled by his faith to respond with a powerful statement of faith in the bodily resurrection.

He knows well what anyone can see: the human, physical body decays and is totally eaten up with worms and maggots. But he is given a supernatural faith to see another and a future world, a new life in which he will stand in a new body in the presence of God, his Redeemer who lives. In this very resurrected body he himself will see God.

For the believer in Jesus Christ, this faith response of knowing my Redeemer lives, and I will live with Him, sustains me in all the trials and hardships of life.

Job 16:20 My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.

Though friends desert me, offer no comfort, and even scorn me, I will turn to God and turn my problems over to Him. “Do your friends despise, forsake, you, Take it to the Lord in prayer.” The world will disappoint us and let us down in the midst of our human suffering. It is then that we respond by turning to God in prayer. Pour your heart out to the Lord. He will listen.

The words “unto God” is the key. To what else would we turn when in need? This is the point: give it all to the Lord! He will handle it and work it out for good. Only He is the source of true comfort and encouragement. He may speak and comfort through other humans at times, but the He is still the source of comfort. We may turn to the Lord and pour out our tears to Him as a first resort, not as the last resort. He takes our tears and puts them in a bottle. There will come a day when God Himself will wipe away all the tears from our eyes.

After Job learned his lessons God restored to him his former blessings. We also go through life losing people and things, but the hope and promise of the Gospel assures us of Paradise restored.

Job 16:5-6 But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief. Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?

Job calls his friends “miserable comforters,” They were supposed to be comforting him in his grief. Instead, they condemned him for causing his own suffering. If the shoe were on the other foot, Job would strengthen them and assuage their grief. But their response to his grief is just the opposite of comfort. But he, whether he speaks or is silent, is not assuaged or eased.

Job gives hints about being a better comforter: 1) don’t just talk for the sake of talking, 2) don’t sermonize by giving pat answers, 3) don’t accuse or criticize, 4) put yourself in the other person’s place, and 5) offer help and encouragement.

Our response to the suffering of others, and our own suffering, can strengthen and assuage with the Gospel. We need the assurance of the mercies of God (the blood of Jesus) through the comfort of the Gospel. Encouragement and strengthening comes through the reassurance that God still loves us because of Christ.

Speaking the gospel, not the law, gives comforting hope and assuages grief. We need to hear and speak the words of God’s love as often as possible. God shows His love and sympathy for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Job 15:31, 35

Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity, for vanity shall be his recompense….They conceive mischief and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.

Deceit and lies come from Satan to keep us away from God. He deceives with a thousand lies to make us believe vanities. Vanity is emptiness, futility, transience, a fleeting vapor that does not satisfy. “All is vanity,” says Ecclesiastes. All the things of this world will pass away. Why do we trust in them?

2 Corinthians 4:18: “ We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Unseen things are the things of God, of the Spirit, of heaven, of Truth, of Life. That life is substantive, real, and eternal. Jesus has brought us into that kingdom, where there is truth and not deceit, light and not darkness, life and not death, pleasantness and not pain, eternity and not transience.

God has given us truth, reality, substance, life, and eternity in His Son, who is the Word of God. Faith sees it. Physical eyes see the lies. We have the Word of God, which does not deceive and bring vanity. We are blessed, for we have not seen and yet have believed.

Job 13:5 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him; but I will maintain mine own ways before him.

Job’s response in this verse is commendable and true and then at the same time damning and false. He maintains both trust in God and trust in self. He first says in response to God that he will trust Him even if He kills him. This is an amazing statement of faith: whatever God does I will still believe that He is good. He knows what He is doing and He is doing a good and right thing for me, regardless of how it feels to me at the moment. Oh, that we could all be given such faith.

But then he contradicts what he just confessed, by defending his own works and ways. Is he trusting in the Lord alone for goodness and salvation, or is he trusting in himself, that his own works righteousness saves him? And so it is with us, who are at the same time saints and sinners. We are saints who trust Jesus for full salvation, and at the same time we are sinners who defend our own ways. Job wanted an audience with God to accuse Him for treating him unfairly.

Job 8:13 So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish.

Bildad speaks and wrongly assumes that Job was trusting in something other than God for security. He says that such supports are fragile and sure to collapse. People need security and will look for it everywhere but to God. However, our money, possessions, knowledge, and relationships will fail or be gone. Only God can give lasting security.

The principle is true, although the accusation against Job is false. This was not Job’s problem, but it is still true. When we forget or ignore God or put Him on the shelf we are left without anything to give us a sure hope or a secure foundation. Hope for the unbeliever is a vanishing wisp. Our natural response to difficult times and an uncertain future is to trust in something other than God. So in despair or disappointment we are reminded to turn to God for the security we need.

Trust in God is basic for our life and wellbeing. When we are brought to faith in Jesus through the Gospel our faith is increased resulting in love, joy, peace, hope, and security. In a sinful world it is easy to forget God, and that’s why we respond by remembering God and exposing ourselves to reminders. God is here!

Job 7:11 Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

Job’s natural response to his intense suffering is to complain. Naturally. Job’s honest reaction is to speak aloud and cry out to God and anyone who will listen. His spirit is in anguish and his soul is bitter.

We also speak out and complain when trouble and pain or loss comes our way. But complaints can be used as a reminder to pray instead. Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God will guard your hearts in Christ Jesus.”

Complain or pray is the choice we have when trouble comes. The choice we make depends on our understanding of our God’s relationship with us. Is He looking at us with Law or with Gospel? Job says God is a watcher or observer. Is He watching us to see if we trip up or make a mistake, or is He watching over us to protect and bless us? If we see a vindictive, judgmental God then we will complain. If we see a loving, forgiving God then we will pray.

Job endured a lot, but through it all he learned his lessons. He repented of his sinful condition and believed God is God and that God is good. The Holy Spirit uses the experiences of life to teach us just that through the Word. The school of experience is a great teacher, but it needs the Word and the Spirit to apply the right view of God to our faith and life. How you see God’s relationship with you determines your response. Does He observe us with critical scrutiny or with compassion? The Gospel tells us the answer.