June 12, 2022 Bible Study — We Cannot Tell From Surface Appearances Whether Someone Is Righteous Or Wicked

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 11-15.

I struggle with what to write about today’s passage.  Sometimes it feels like the Book of Job uses more words to make its point than necessary.  However, in part that is because we oversimplify the point this book is making.  The writer actually makes a very nuanced and complex point.  In today’s passage, Job’s friends essentially say that those who devote their hearts and lives to God, and only those who do so, will be wealthy and happy.  They say that the wicked are constantly tormented, and subject to sudden disasters, while the righteous never suffer such things.  Therefore, they say, we can conclude that anyone who is tormented, or subject to sudden disasters, is wicked., and those who are financially secure with stable lives must be righteous.  Job, on the other hand, expresses his desire to stand before God to be judged.  It is important to remember that at the end of the book when God speaks, while He admonishes Job for challenging His justice,  He calls upon Job’s friends to ask Job to pray for them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.