Tag Archives: Job 1-5

Daily Bible Study

June 10, 2023 Bible Study — The Lord Gives And The Lord Takes Away; May The Name Of The Lord Be Praised

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 1-5.

I find it challenging to write about today’s passage because it contains so many lessons for us.  First, some will attempt to belittle our faith and the righteousness which God had given us by claiming that we only have faith, and only behave righteously, because life has been good to us, because God has blessed us.  They will claim that if we face hardship in this life we will turn from God and commit many acts which God condemns.  And, if we suffer hardship, others will claim that we do so because we have committed horrible, terrible acts.

Job himself gives us a lesson on facing hardship.  When he lost all of his wealth, including his children, he mourned his loss and then worshiped God.  He acknowledged that everything he had lost had come from God in the first place, so God had every right to take it back from him.  In fact, in the middle of mourning his loss he praised the Lord.  Then, when his health was destroyed and he experienced pain all day, every day, he refused to blame God, instead choosing to accept the suffering he experienced just as he had accepted the blessings he had previously experienced.  We should follow Job’s example.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 10, 2022 Bible Study — Praise God, Even When He Allows Us To Suffer

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 1-5.

I am not sure if I have ever thought about the first point I want to write about today.  When God held up Job as blameless and upright, Satan belittled Job’s dedication to doing right by claiming it was purely self-serving.  Satan claimed that Job only shunned evil because God had blessed him with material wealth, that if God withdrew that blessing Job would curse God.  When God pointed out to Satan that Job was still blameless and upright after God had allowed Satan to take everything from him, Satan moved the goalposts by claiming that Job would curse God if he lost his health.  This illustrates something Satan, and those who serve him, will often do, claim that the righteous only do good out of selfish interest, and when evidence has been provided that their original accusation was unfounded make a new accusation requiring further proof.

Having commented on that I want to look at Job’s response to the troubles which came upon him.  When he lost everything, including his children, instead of bemoaning his fate Job praised God and acknowledged that everything he had lost had been a gift from God in the first place.  And then when he had lost his health, Job stated that we should accept God’s plan, whether it led to good things for us or bad.  So, let us follow Job’s good example and praise God, even when things go against us, and recognize His greatness even when our health is failing us.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 10, 2021 Bible Study Praising God In Both The Good Times And The Bad Times

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 1-5.

When Job learned that all of his wealth was gone he said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.; may the name of the Lord be praised.”  The passage comments on Job’s reaction by telling us that he did not charge God with wrongdoing.  Then when Job begins to suffer physically the passage seems to say that he still did not accuse God of wrongdoing.  It is important to remember this as we read through Job’s dialogue with his friends in the rest of the book: Job did not accuse God of wrongdoing. However, for today I want to focus on the fact that Job willingly accepted the good and trouble from God.  When God gave him wealth, Job used it to praise God and bring glory to His name.  When God took all of his material possessions away from him, Job continued to praise God.  When God took his health from him, Job refused to blame God or condemn Him.  Like Job, we should be prepared to praise God in the good times and the bad.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 10, 2020 Bible Study The Accuser Tries To Convince Us That We Suffer Because We Are Not Good Enough To Be Loved By God

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 1-5.

I am sure that I have noted this in previous years, but the one who appeared before God and started Job’s suffering is literally the accuser.  Whether this is a title, or merely the role played by this individual is open to debate.  Personally, I believe that the decision by the translators of the New Living Translation to capitalize the word “accuser” in this is accurate and we should view the word “Satan” as it appears after this as “Accuser”.  That is what Satan is.  He is the Accuser.  He accused Job of only worshiping and praising God because he was wealthy.  Then later when Job continued to worship and praise God after losing all of his wealth, he accused Job of only doing so because he was healthy.  Yet, the Accuser was wrong.  Job continued to praise God even after he lost his wealth and continued to praise Him when he became sickly.  Even in the depths of depression which he began to suffer, Job did not stop worshiping God.

We should be willing to accept both the good and the bad from the hand of God.  In fact, we should rejoice when we experience what the world views as bad things because they mean that God has found us worthy to share in Jesus’ suffering.  There is another lesson to this passage as well.  All of us hear the voice of Satan when he accuses us of not being good enough, or of only doing good because of rewards.  The Accuser tries to convince us to give up because our sins count as more than God’s forgiveness.  Or to convince us that if only we did more good that is what it would take to gain God’s approval.  The Accuser tells us that our suffering means that God does not love us, but Jesus tells us that God does love us and suffering is one of the signs of God’s love.

Daily Bible Study

June 10, 2019 Bible Study — How Do We Deal With Suffering? And How Do We Comfort Those Who Suffer?

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 1-5.

There are a lot of things that can be learned from studying the opening chapters of the Book of Job.  I want to focus on Job’s response to suffering misfortune.  When Job received news that he had lost all of his worldly possessions and that his children had been killed in a disaster, all on the same day, he threw himself on the ground in grief and worshiped God.  Then later when he was struck with a terrible illness and his wife advised him to curse God and die, he declined to do so.  Job was willing to accept both the good and the bad which came from God.  Job continued to worship and praise God even as he suffered.  Doing so is not easy and human nature spurs us to do as Job’s wife advised, but following Job’s example will bring us joy in due time.

Eventually, Job expressed the wish that he had never been born.  Such a response to suffering such as Job’s is perfectly understandable.  Job’s friend Eliphaz felt a need to respond to his friend’s deep depression, which is only natural.  We need to read what Eliphaz says here in light of the fact that at the end of this book God takes him to task for what he said to Job.  And here I find it quite clear what Eliphaz did wrong.  He begins by telling Job that he is wrong to be depressed by what he is experiencing.  Even the good advice which Eliphaz gives in the middle of this monologue becomes a sort of condemnation because of the rest of what he says.  Certainly it is good advice to suggest that those who suffer depression, whether they do so in isolation or as a result of other suffering, take it to God, because God has indeed done wonderful things which are too marvelous to understand, but Eliphaz worded his suggestion so as to imply that Job had not already done so.  In a way. Eliphaz’s response to Job suggests that Job’s suffering is not real.  When we encounter those who are suffering, we should strive to remember that their suffering is real, even if the cause may not be.  Perhaps Eliphaz meant to suggest to Job that pretending to be happy would help his situation.  That would not have been bad advice, sometimes pretending to feel a particular emotion will cause us to feel that emotion.  It probably would not have helped in this case.  I will repeat that Eliphaz was wrong to suggest that Job was in the wrong for feeling badly about the suffering he was enduring.

Daily Bible Study

June 10, 2018 Bible Study — Remaining Faithful While Suffering Serves as an Example To Others

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 1-5.

    Sometimes I think that the translators have done us a disservice by using “Satan” as a proper name. The Hebrew word means “adversary” and I think it would aid our understanding of this passage, and several others, if the translators had used “The Adversary” rather than “Satan”. Of course, this usage of Satan goes back to the New Testament writers who chose to use a transliteration of the Hebrew word in their Greek writings. Nevertheless, everywhere in the Bible where we see the word “Satan” we should be aware that the original writers were thinking “The Adversary” or perhaps just “adversary”.

    Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of this book is the fact that Job suffered in order to prove to Satan that he would not stop living righteously, even in the midst of suffering. And here is where reading “Satan” rather than “The Adversary” affects our thinking. (I am struggling with how to word the thought which struck me today reading this). Most of us have heard someone say something similar to what Satan said here about Job, or its opposite:

“Well, of course he/she is law-abiding and upright. See how privileged they are!”

OR

“Well, it is no wonder they commit crimes, look at all of the things they have suffered.”

Sometimes people suffer so as to serve as examples to the people who say such things, or more importantly to the people who excuse their sin using such arguments. There are people who will not stop honoring and serving God, even when they suffer. And having all of the blessings of this world does not mean that someone will necessarily do so. There are people who have been healthy and wealthy their entire lives for whom everything seems to go their way.

    Another important point to remember when reading the Book of Job is that at the end God tells Job’s friends that they were in the wrong regarding what they said to him. So, in light of that, I am going to look at this first exchange between Job and Eliphaz. When Job’s three friends arrived they sat and mourned his suffering with him in silence for seven days. Finally Job expressed his deep depression. I find two themes in Job’s statement. He wishes he had never been born rather than suffer the way that he was and he asks why he is suffering. Eliphaz replies by saying that suffering comes to those who have done wrong, that it is how God corrects us for doing wrong. By saying this Eliphaz implies that Job must be suffering because he did something wrong. If only Job would confess and repent of his sins his suffering would cease.

Daily Bible Study

June 10, 2017 Bible Study — The Book Of Job: God’s Answer To Proponents of Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 1-5.

    Something which struck me about the introduction to this passage is that Satan kept raising the bar on Job. When it was pointed out that Job was righteous, Satan claimed that it was only because he was wealthy. When Job lost all of his wealth, and even his children, he continued to praise God. Yet when that happened Satan did not admit that he had been wrong. No, he contended that Job only remained righteous because he was healthy. Here we see an example of the thought process of those who are always finding something to blame in others.They always find excuses for not admiring those who do what is right. Even when he was suffering terribly, Job refused to curse God. He accepted that the good he had previously received had been a blessing from God and that God was within his rights to withdraw that blessing. Job was willing to accept from God whatever God chose to deliver, whether good or bad.

    Finally, after much time spent suffering, Job expressed his desire to die. even here he did not condemn God. He merely wished that he had never been born, and failing that he wished that he could die. I do not think I have ever noticed before, but the Book of Job is an answer to proponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Job’s question for his friends was, “Why must I go on living? Why can’t I just die? Why must I go on suffering?” In response to this, Eliphaz, the first of Job’s friends to speak, essentially tells him, “Man up! You don’t have it so bad.” Further Eliphaz implies that Job must have done something wrong to be suffering as he was. Eliphaz was attempting to offer Job hope and comfort, but he got too caught up in trying to find the solution Job could implement to be fully compassionate.

Daily Bible Study

June 10, 2016 Bible Study — Praising and Worshiping God, Even When We Suffer

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 1-5.

    The basic lesson in Job is that the righteous sometimes suffer and we do not always know why. Every one needs to read Job regularly. It is a reminder that following God does not necessarily lead to prosperity. That sometimes we will be called upon to be faithful in the face of adversity. Even Job’s wife could not stand to see his suffering. She advised him to curse God and die. I do not think we should look down on her for this. She was just at her breaking point from seeing Job suffer and thus angry at God for him. Yet, in all of his suffering Job continued to worship and praise God. We should follow his example.