Tag Archives: Job 38-42

Daily Bible Study

June 17, 2023 Bible Study — Once We Encounter God We No Longer See It As Suffering

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 38-42.

Finally, the writer presents God’s response to Job.  After all of Job’s complaints about not being able to go before God to make his case, God comes to him and speaks.  First God comes before Job and asks him to demonstrate that he has the knowledge necessary to judge God’s actions.  Job immediately realizes that he does not, that mortals do not have the capacity to know enough to understand God’s actions. Then, Job having admitted that he lacked the knowledge to judge God’s actions, God asks Job to demonstrate that he has the power to pass judgement on God’s action.  Once again Job realizes that he is completely inadequate to judge God.  In reaction to his realization of God’s power and knowledge, Job despises himself for challenging God and repents of doing so.   And this is the lesson of Job: when we encounter God we repent of considering our suffering gives us a reason to complain.  The lesson of Job explains how the martyrs were able to sing  for joy as they faced painful deaths,

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

Daily Bible Study

June 17, 2022 Bible Study — Our Finite Minds Cannot Truly Comprehend The Infinite God

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 38-42.

When God first speaks to Job in this passage, He points out how limited human knowledge of the world and the universe is.  The first monologue attributed to God asks the question, “How can we judge God’s actions when there is so much that we know nothing about?”  Then in His second monologue, God points out, that on the scale of the universe, humans lack the power to truly change things.  Together, these two things demonstrate that our finite existence leaves us unable to understand how or why God acts as He does.  Job had sought God, now when he had found Him, or, perhaps I should say, when he was found by Him, Job recognized that his claim that God had been unjust was sinful and repented before the awesomeness of God.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 17, 2021 Bible Study Our Finite Minds Cannot Fully Comprehend God’s Infinite Wisdom

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 38-42.

In today’s passage God responds to Job’s demands for a hearing before Him in two parts.  It will help us to understand the lesson here if we realize that Job’s complaints can be boiled down to, “If I were God, I would do things differently.”  In His first response God asks Job about his knowledge of things which God has done in the past and over which God exercises control.  This first portion teaches us that we do not, can not, know enough to second guess God in a useful way: we do not know enough to know that things would be, could be, better if they were done differently.  In His second response to Job God asks Job about his power to do things.  This second portion teaches us that we are not powerful enough to understand what would happen if God used His power in the way we think we would if we had that power.  Ultimately, we, with our finite minds and abilities will be unable to comprehend the reasons why God has done some of the things He has done in His infinite knowledge and wisdom.

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

Daily Bible Study

June 17, 2020 Bible Study Job Was Wrong to Question God’s Justice, But It Was His Three Friends Whom God Called to Account

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 38-42.

Job had asked to speak with God so that he could make his case before Him.  Now God replies with some questions for Job, questions which each and everyone of us should attempt to answer before we question God’s justice.  Many of these questions mankind has found answers to in the centuries since the Book of Job was written, but in doing so we have found more such questions to which we do not know the answers.  God asks Job if he has explored the depths of the sea, or knows the extent of the earth.  Since that time, mankind has explored some of the depths of the sea and discovered the extent of the earth, but we have only succeeded in exploring a small portion of those depths and have discovered that the Universe extends farther beyond this earth than our minds can comprehend.  Job’s responds to God by recognizing that he cannot begin to comprehend all that God is and does.  Despite the fact that God confronts Job over his challenge, it is Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar He demands a sacrifice from.

Daily Bible Study

June 17, 2019 Bible Study — We Lack the Knowledge To Question 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 38-42.

When Elihu finishes speaking, God responds to Job’s challenge.  The questions which God asked of Job reveal how little we humans truly know about the universe, they reveal that we lack the knowledge to understand the hows and whys of what God does.  Even though modern science has answered many of the questions posed here, those answers reveal that there is even more to know.    Further some of the questions show us that even when we think we know the answer, we are really only guessing.  We weren’t there, we did not see it happen.  

The passage further points out that not only don’t we have the knowledge to understand why God does what He does, we lack the power to genuinely understand what it would mean if God did as we thought that He should.  We lack the power to imagine what the unintended consequences would be if God acted as we think that He ought.  We recognize that there are beasts which we cannot tame and use as beasts of burden.  If we lack the power to do that, how could we possibly think we should exercise the power of God in other ways?

Daily Bible Study

June 17, 2018 Bible Study

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 38-42.

    Throughout the book Job had challenged God to answer him. Now God does so. Job had questioned why God acted as He did, questioning whether His acts were truly just. Now God replies by asking Job some questions. Faced with God’s questions Job realized that he did not know enough to question God’s decisions. Looking at the questions which God asked Job, we see that science has learned the answer to many of them, but the point still stands: Our limited minds are not capable of knowing and understanding enough to second guess God. It is human nature for us to question God when we see injustice in the world. However, if we truly seek God, He will reveal Himself to us, and like Job, we will find that we have to confess that we lacked understanding and repent of our anger towards God. In the end we see that it was Job’s three friends, who defended God with inaccurate generalizations made universal, who were condemned by God. Job called on God for answers when he perceived wrong in the way the world worked. His friends declared that what Job perceived must be the way things ought to be. God’s response was that Job was correct to think that it looked wrong, but that Job did not know enough to understand what was going on.

Daily Bible Study

June 17, 2017 Bible Study — We Have No Basis To Question God, But Questioning Is Better Than Blind Faith

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 38-42.

    Now we come to the conclusion of the Book of Job. God grants Job his request and allows Job to make his case directly to Him. Job had been critical of God’s decisions. God points out that Job does not know enough and is not powerful enough to understand why God did what He did. God asks Job some questions which the writer presumed that no human could answer. Mankind has researched and found answers to many of those questions, but the key question still stands, “Were you there when the Universe was created? Did you see how God established the rules which it follows?” Those questions are key because Job was not there, and neither were any of us. All that we can know of that is what we can figure out from the clues which God has left us. There are many people in the world who question and challenge God the way Job did. And yet, it was Job whom God commended at the end, not his friends who defended God with blind faith.

Daily Bible Study

June 17, 2016 Bible Study — We Cannot Know Enough to Understand All Of God’s Reasons

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 38-42.

    After all of this time where Job and his friends were debating, God answers Job. God asks Job a series of questions. Science has provided us with answers to some of these questions, but many of them are beyond the ability of science, or any other method, to answer. Job had demanded that God explain to him why he was suffering, just as we often demand to know why some tragedy has happened. Here God is telling us that, sometimes, we do not know enough to understand the answer. When God confronted Job he recognized that he was wrong to question God’s judgment and justice. While Job was wrong in questioning God’s justice, three of his friends had been wrong in the way in which they attempted to defend God by condemning Job. God told Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar that they needed to request Job to intervene for them with Him because they had been wrong in their accusations against Job. It has always struck me as strange that Elihu is not mentioned either here or at the beginning of the Book.