Job 40:1 - 42:17

God finishes His say

Job comes clean, admitting he has nothing to say in answer to God's reminding him of who God is.

I find the pattern of conversation interesting in this section:

• Job admits he has no answer
• God questions Job's ability to dispense justice
• God gives two examples from creation (behemoth and leviathan) of His might
• Job 'remembers' who God is

Remember Job has never cursed God throughout the book but he HAS questioned God's justice. So here God goes right to it, asking Job if he believes that he knows better than God how to dispense justice.
I don't think it is important that WE know what creatures are referred to when God speaks of behemoth and leviathan but my guess would be that the five guys present DO know what He is talking about and they understand the illustration: That God, who created these incredible beasts, also can control them in ways beyond man's comprehension.
After being severely dressed won by God Job confesses that he spoke of things he "did not understand".
God then turns to the 'friends' and says that they have not spoken of Him "what is right" as Job has.
It's easy to skip right through God's punishment of the 'friends' but I think it is some pretty significant stuff:

sacrifice 7 bulls and 7 rams:
Not a cheap offering to be sure, a rather costly one actually.
And not just one, but 7...a number representing perfection
And not just sacrifice but Job must also pray for them
Sacrifice AND intercession in order that God might forgive them of their folly.
Wow.
Of course then we get the happy ending where God's justice DOES seem to show up in a way we understand it and Job winds up better off than he had been before.

I'm almost tempted to want to start over with this book and study it much more in depth. There is a lot more here than I have imagined in the past...seems like a lot of early symbolism.

Good Stuff

Job 38:1-39:30

The Lord shows up to have His say.

This section doesn't start well for Job.
The storm that seems to have been approaching in the previous chapters has now arrived.
"Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm"

God starts off with what seems like a condemnation of Elihu, who was speaking at the end of the previous chapter:
"Who is this that darkens My counsel with words without knowledge?"
But if you read ahead a little you find out that He is talking about Job.

Then comes the bit we'd not want to hear from our earthly fathers let alone our heavenly father:
"Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me."

DOH!!

The thing that seems key to me here is that God is not disciplining Job for sin but rather for a lack of faith. In his complaining, his arguing for wanting a hearing, Job forgot who God is, forgot His sovereignty.
There is a pretty constant theme throughout the old testament of "remembering".
Remembering what God has done in a specific place: Samuel setting up the Ebenezer stone.
Remembering what God has promised: The rainbow given as a sign to Noah
Remembering what God has spoken: Joshua setting up the stone at Shechem.
Remembering what God has done for His people: The passover
...and numerous other examples.

So here in this early story of Job we see how important it is for us to remember who God is in terms of His sovereignty, His majesty, His power, His creativity, His wisdom. etc.etc.

Again, Job's complaint, "Let me at least face my accuser (God) and present my case because I am wronged!", is way out of line when help up the the light of God saying, "Do you remember who I AM ?"

It makes me wonder how often I allow circumstances, dire or otherwise, to shape my mental picture of God.
How good are we at remembering?

Job 35:1-37:24

Elihu throws it down today...
I started reading this and again it sounded like Job's 'friends'.
But then I slowed down to try to catch whether this was a different sort of argument.
Elihu seems to reminding Job, pointing out to him what he already knows about God.
Almost as if he is saying, "Look, quit asking where God is in all this, instead hold on to the fact that you know God rescues the afflicted. Instead of focusing on your problem focus on what you know about God."

It's almost like Elihu is the herald, giving a little taste of what God is about to say when He shows up.

Consider the fact that the second half of chapter 36 and most of chapter 37 almost seem to be describing a literal storm that they can see approaching them as they talk:

36:30 See how He scatters His lightning about Him,
bathing the depths of the sea.

36:32 He fills His hands with lightning
and commands it to strike its mark.
36:33 His thunder announces the coming storm
even the cattle make known its approach.

37:2 Listen, listen to the roar of His voice
to the rumbling that comes from His mouth.
37:3 He unleashes His lightning beneath the whole heaven
and sends it to the ends of the earth.
37:4 After that comes the sound of His roar;
He thunders with His majestic voice.
When His voice resounds
He holds nothing back.
37:5 God's voice thunders in marvelous ways;
He does great things beyond our understanding

All of this followed by a seemingly simple sentence at the start of chapter 38:
Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm.

Elihu bothers me, if I am being honest, when he says things like:
Be assured that my words are not false;
one perfect in knowledge is with you

But he seems to be speaking correctly.
So is he arrogant? Don't think so or God would probably have had words for him.
Confident? certainly
Angelic perhaps? Who knows...

In any case his words announce the arrival of the Lord...who shows up tomorrow.

Job 32:1-34:37 - The unknown youngster

Suddenly we get a new character in the drama.
Elihu, "He is my God", son of Barakel, "God blesses"

He gives a nod to the older gentlemen, claiming to have remained silent out of respect for their seniority, then he launches.
It is easy to just read through this almost skimming over the surface because it sounds so much like what has gone on for most of the previous chapters. But if you skim ahead to the end of the book ( My wife does that all the time ) you find that while God is not pleased with the other three friends He doesn't have anything bad to say about Elihu. That alone makes him interesting.

So what is different about Elihu's argument?

The previous quadrilog (Conversation between 4 people) has been mainly comprised of Job complaining of his uprightness and his three 'friends' arguing he must have unconfessed, hidden, ongoing, secret sin. In truth neither party has caused the other to budge a single inch.
Job has been crying out for the opportunity to present his case before God.

Elihu doesn't try to convince Job that he MUST have sinned as the others have done. Instead he argues God's character. (Keep that in mind when God shows up in a day or two.)

It seems to me that perhaps Job has been arguing his innocence based on man's economy. "I've done what was required of me."
Where Elihu is making an argument based on God's economic scale. "You may have done what was required of you but how can you even begin to question God when you KNOW that, beyond all temporary circumstance, He is just?"
It could almost be argued that Elihu is saying that ALL men deserve death but that if they have a mediator between themselves and God then they are renewed and God hears their prayers. (33:12-26)

I almost wonder if this is one of those hidden nuggets in the bible that explicitly foreshadows the need for Christ's intervention on man's behalf.

Job 30:1-31:40

Interesting read this morning.
Job continues his complaint that he has acted righteously and his further complaint that God is silent. It seems to me that what pains him most is God's seeming silence. Time and time again he begs for the opportunity to present his case.
If you take what he is saying in these verses and flip them from negative to positive then Job is claiming that, in his 'account' he has:

• Wept for those in trouble and grieved for the poor
• Remained pure as regards sexual immorality
• Been honest in his business dealings
• Treated his servants justly
• Fed the poor, widows and orphans
• Clothed those in need
• Rightly understood that his wealth was from the Lord
• Guarded his tongue
• Provided materially for his employees
• Opened his home to strangers in need
• Confessed his sin
• Kept clean books

...and by God's own account in chapter one none of this is exaggeration!
Yet in the midst of losing everything he still hasn't made the complaint that so many make today, "I did all of that for nothing, forget trying to be good."
The fact that he doesn't go there seems to indicate something about Job's heart.
He did all that he did in the above list out of a love for God, a love that survives even though Job feels like he has been the victim of terrible injustice at the hand of God.

His 'friends' have been making the black and white argument:
"You sin, you lose it all. Therefore, Job, you're guilty."
Job seems to have been saying, "I used to think that too but now I realize I have seen the wicked prosper and I KNOW I am right with God so I'd just like to be able to plead my case, or die."
It is God's silence on the matter that he is lamenting.

Today finishes with: "The words of Job are ended"
So we get to hear closing arguments from the three stooges next.