Tag Archives: Job 22-28

Daily Bible Study

June 14, 2023 Bible Study — The Value Gained By Serving God Is Beyond Measure

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 22-28.

Job’s friend, Eliphaz, starts off today’s passage with a statement with important meaning.  No human can be of benefit to God, He gains nothing from our righteousness and loses nothing if we sin.  Unfortunately, Eliphaz concludes that Job must have committed some, or multiple, horrible sins.  And while Eliphaz makes a terrible mistake by judging in this manner, he does give us a good list of sins we should not commit.  Eliphaz then ends his monologue by taking a truth and turning it into a falsehood.  He reveals a truth when he says that if we submit to God, lay up His words in our hearts, and treat material wealth as of little value, we will gain the much greater wealth of serving God.  However, Eliphaz takes this truth to an unwarranted conclusion: he concludes that if Job would just turn back to God, he would acquire material wealth and power that dwarfed what he had before the calamity had struck him.  So, while seeking God and following His commands will not, in and of itself, bring us material wealth, what we gain from doing so will be of greater value than anything money can buy.

 

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

Daily Bible Study

June 14, 2022 Bible Study — While Sin Often Leads Someone To Suffer, Suffering Is Not Evidence That Someone Sinned

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 22-28.

I am always horrified by the accusations Eliphaz makes against Job at the beginning of this passage.  He specifically accuses Job of horrible sins.  Up until this point Job’s friends have merely said that Job’s suffering must be the result of some horrible sin which Job has committed, but have refrained from speculating as to what that sin was.  Here, Eliphaz says that Job must be guilty of these specific sins since he was suffering as he was.  What horrifies me is that Eliphaz is spelling out what the other two were thinking all along even though they had not witnessed Job committing these sins. Nevertheless, they were convinced that he was guilty of them.  Making this assumption is every bit as great of a sin as the sins they accused Job of committing.  It is one thing to look at the sins we have seen someone commit and draw a connection between those sins and the suffering which they experience (and even that has problems in that it might lead us to not have compassion for their suffering) and quite another to project back from their suffering to sins which we believe them to have committed because they are suffering.  The first might be acceptable under some circumstances, but the latter is always putting ourselves in the place of God.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 14, 2021 Bible Study Confessing To A Sin We Did Not Commit Is Just As Bad As Denying A Sin We Did Commit

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 22-28.

Throughout the entire Book of Job, Job’s friends insist that he is guilty of some great sin and Job denies that to be true.  In fact, despite having no evidence of Job’s sin other than the fact that he is suffering, the more he denies having committed some great sin the more insistent his friends become that he confess it.  Finally Job tells them that he will not commit the sin of lying by confessing to a sin he has not committed.  In many ways this reminds me of stories I have heard about things going on at various institutions around the country today, where they hold seminars and insist that people confess to having oppressed others.  Job reminds us that it is just as much a lie to confess a sin which we have not committed as it is to deny a sine which we have committed.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 14, 2020 Bible Study Fear of the Lord Is True Wisdom

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 22-28.

Once again today I struggle to understand parts of Job’s monologues.  At one point he seems to say that God does not punish the wicked.  Yet, as he expands on his point, he goes on to say that the wicked are cursed and live in fear, that God will drag them away because of their wickedness.  Then Job sarcastically commends his friends for the ways in which they have helped the weak and powerless.  It seems to me that Job is making the case that if we do not seek to help the oppressed we are as guilty as those who oppress them.  I will say that helping the oppressed is not some abstract thing where we protest about the hardship visited upon some group.  Helping the oppressed means identifying specific individuals being oppressed and working with them to help them overcome their troubles.

Even though he believes that his troubles came from God Job refuses to speak or do evil.  He vows to strive to do what is right in God’s eyes.  Despite his suffering, Job declares that he still believes that God will bring judgement upon the wicked.  He acknowledges that for all of his own ability, or even the ability of other people, God is the only source of wisdom.  Mankind may be masters at finding resources for their own enjoyment, but no one can find wisdom apart from God.  Job tells us that wisdom is fear of the Lord and understanding leads one to forsake evil in all its forms.

Daily Bible Study

June 14, 2018 Bible Study — Finding Wisdom

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 22-28.

    Job’s friends continue to argue with him and accuse him of some terrible sin while Job maintains his innocence. Then Job speaks of wisdom. For all of mankind’s ability to do more than animals he is no more able to find wisdom on his own than those animals. We can dig into the earth for copper, iron, gold, and precious gems. We can smelt the ores of those metals in fire to purify them. We can build great works to obtain resources. We can examine the earth and determine where to dig to find the minerals which we desire. But we cannot find wisdom without turning to God. Understanding and wisdom come only from God. True wisdom is fear of the Lord and avoiding evil demonstrates understanding.

    All of this reminds me of my throw away line to my friends who are non-believers. I often tell them, “Stay out of trouble.” To which they often reply, “That’s no fun.” I answer that with, “If you don’t get caught, you are not in trouble.” The conversation usually ends there, but sometimes they will take it further by saying that sometimes it is fun to get caught. Which brings the next statement, “If you like the consequences, you weren’t really caught.” Left unsaid is the important corollary, if you don’t like the consequences, you were caught, even if no one else knows. On those occasions where I discuss this philosophy further, I mention to people that, as far as I am concerned if someone gets hurt, you got caught. The point of this whole discussion here is that when I was younger I realized that I strove to choose my actions to be calculated to stay out of trouble. As I got older, and I believe wiser, I realized that there were times where I did not get caught by others, but I did not like what happened and that felt as bad as getting caught by others. Which as God moved in my spirit led me to the realization that my sins led me to consequences I did not like. God does not tell us not to sin for arbitrary reasons. He tells us not to sin because He knows we will not like the consequences.

Daily Bible Study

June 14, 2017 Bible Study — God Is the Source of True Wisdom

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 22-28.

    Eliphaz starts today’s passage with a great statement. God does not need us and if we are righteous it does not benefit God anymore than if we are not. However, he immediately goes downhill from there. Job had asked his friends, since they were convinced he was a terrible sinner, to tell him what sin he had committed. So, Eliphaz begins postulating terrible sins that Job had committed. There is only one problem with Eliphaz’s accusations. The only evidence for them is that Job is suffering. Eliphaz goes on to preach a form of prosperity gospel…which is not good news at all. He says that only the wicked suffer and that things always go well for the righteous. In fact, he essentially says that those who are suffering are wicked and those who are wealthy and “living the good life” are righteous. This is a heresy which people fall for time and again, that having wealth and a good life is evidence that one is righteous. This is not true and has never been true.

    Job responds to Eliphaz by complaining that he cannot find God. He acknowledges that God knows where we are going and will test us to show our metal. God controls our destiny and will guide us to where we can best serve His purpose. If that is in suffering, we will suffer. If that is in comfort, we will be comfortable. Then Job says something for which God later chides him. Job questions God’s justice. He admits that the wicked will face God’s judgment, but questions why it is so slow.

    Once more Bildad questions Job’s innocence. He points out that no one can be innocent when compared to God. We have all sinned in some way which is exposed by God’s great righteousness. As true as Bildad’s point is, it is useless to comfort someone who is suffering as Job was suffering. It failed in any way to ease that suffering. Job uses the failure of his friends’ wisdom to offer him any comfort to highlight something important. Mankind has learned how to extract treasures and resources from the depths of the earth, getting ever better at obtaining and using such treasures as time goes by. We have learned how to find ever more hidden treasures as the years pass. Yet there is one treasure which no one can find, wisdom. For all of man’s great learning and developing new techniques to obtain treasures and resources, he has failed to find any new ways to obtain wisdom. Only God knows where to find true wisdom. Only God can direct us there. It is only by asking God for it that we can obtain true wisdom.