Job Responds to Eliphaz
After Eliphaz gives his speech, Job responds deeply.
The anguish of Job is very heavy. He opens his argument by describing how heavy his grief weighs on him. It outweighs the sands of the sea. His grief is like having the arrows of God shoved inside and the poison oozes into his spirit. This is very descriptive and the reader gets a sense of a slow death; at least that is the way Job sees it.
Job no longer wants to participate in the joys of life. Rather, I think he wants to die. In fact, he wouldn't mind if God crushed the life out of him. If God did this he would have one consolation; that in his pain he would not deny the words of the holy one.
Job says he has no strength. He says his friends are undependable and they are no help. I think that I have this right; that Joe compares them to the following situation. A seasonal brook swells with water from melting snow and ice. In the summer it is dry but caravans of folks come to the brook to get a drink but then there is nothing and they die. These friends are like the dry brook in the summer. When Job goes to drink, to be comforted, there is nothing. So, in essence, his friends are letting him die emotionally and spiritually.
Job says his friends disregard his cry of desperation. He speaks to them in desperation but they assume that he is guilty or lying. He says that they would even send an orphan into slavery or sell a friend.
These chapters give a little insight into his suffering. He says that his body is covered with maggots and scabs. His skin breaks open and oozes with pus.
Job Cries Out to God
He then stops talking to his friends and cries out to God. He expresses the pain and heartache. He tells God that he is like a vapor or a breath. God may see him now but not for long. Just as a cloud breaks up and disappears, so will the one who dies will disappear and not come back.
He tells God that he cannot keep from speaking and that his bitter soul must complain. He is like a dragon or monster under lock and key. He'd rather strangle to death than to suffer from his sores. He hates his life and doesn't want to live. Job describes what he believes to be close to death because soon, he will lie down in the dust and die. Then Job says to God, if I have sinned, please forgive me.
Bilbad Speaks
The next friend Bildad speaks. Job sounds like the wind, he says. Once again, another friend questions his purity. Not only is Job not right but his children must have sinned against God and deserved their punishment. Bildad tells him to pray and seek the favor of God and if Job is pure, God will rise up and restore his home. He suggests that Job may have forgotten God.
Perhaps all of the bad things only happen to the godless. Bilbad goes through a list of what the godless must be like. For example, they seem like a lush plant growing in the sunshine, but if it is uprooted or cut, it is as though it never existed. Life ends and another will grow in its place. But if a person has integrity, God will not reject a person. He will let that person's mouth be filled with laughter and lips with shouts of joy.
Job Responds to Bilbad
Job responds to Bilbad by letting him know that he realizes the greatness of God. Afterall, he made all the stars -- the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the southern sky. Actually, I can imagine Job sitting near a window in his home at night, looking at the stars and seeing the greatness of God in God's handiwork. But then Job goes on to explain that in all of the greatness of God, if he gets angry, even the monsters of the sea are crushed beneath his feet. So who is Job that he can answer God or even reason with him?
Once again, Job declares his innocence to Bilbad. But to Job, whether he is innocent or wicked, it is all the same to God. In fact, God laughs at the death of the innocent. If Job were to wash himself with soap, clean his hands with lye, you could plunge him into a muddy ditch and his clothes would hate him. I guess Job is thinking that he is that offensive with his sores.
Job then wishes for a mediator between God and himself. The mediator could make God stop beating him. I'm guessing that Job believes that God is doing this to him and that there is no escaping this punishment that he is experiencing. If only Job could talk to God without fear but he can't do this in his own strength.
My Thoughts
Job's suffering is immense. I can't imagine to sit in my skin and look at it wasting away, smelling because it is rotting and watching the maggots wiggle in the pus oozing from the sores. The smell must have been bad. He must have looked horrible... so much so that I'm sure no one wanted to be around him. This is the anguish that Job experienced. He did nothing but good and he became an object of pain and suffering without cause.
Thousands of years later, we can examine what he says and perhaps find ourselves in some parts of the story. Perhaps we accuse him too and think that he had to do something to get God upset with him. Perhaps we may suffer in some of the ways that Job did and we may wish to die too. Perhaps our emotions make us think that God has deserted us and that like Job, our own clothing hate to be with us because we are filthy. But I must read on because the story does not stop there. Job keeps the dialog open as I will see in the rest of the chapters.
I am not too sure what I could say about his friends. They are not too good at comforting Job or even helping him. I guess they call themselves helping by getting him to admit his awful sins so that God could cleanse him. Of course, they are wrong. None of them know that Job is being tested and he is actually as righteous as he says he is.
That's it for today.
After Eliphaz gives his speech, Job responds deeply.
The anguish of Job is very heavy. He opens his argument by describing how heavy his grief weighs on him. It outweighs the sands of the sea. His grief is like having the arrows of God shoved inside and the poison oozes into his spirit. This is very descriptive and the reader gets a sense of a slow death; at least that is the way Job sees it.Job no longer wants to participate in the joys of life. Rather, I think he wants to die. In fact, he wouldn't mind if God crushed the life out of him. If God did this he would have one consolation; that in his pain he would not deny the words of the holy one.
Job says he has no strength. He says his friends are undependable and they are no help. I think that I have this right; that Joe compares them to the following situation. A seasonal brook swells with water from melting snow and ice. In the summer it is dry but caravans of folks come to the brook to get a drink but then there is nothing and they die. These friends are like the dry brook in the summer. When Job goes to drink, to be comforted, there is nothing. So, in essence, his friends are letting him die emotionally and spiritually.
Job says his friends disregard his cry of desperation. He speaks to them in desperation but they assume that he is guilty or lying. He says that they would even send an orphan into slavery or sell a friend.
These chapters give a little insight into his suffering. He says that his body is covered with maggots and scabs. His skin breaks open and oozes with pus.
Job Cries Out to God
He then stops talking to his friends and cries out to God. He expresses the pain and heartache. He tells God that he is like a vapor or a breath. God may see him now but not for long. Just as a cloud breaks up and disappears, so will the one who dies will disappear and not come back.
He tells God that he cannot keep from speaking and that his bitter soul must complain. He is like a dragon or monster under lock and key. He'd rather strangle to death than to suffer from his sores. He hates his life and doesn't want to live. Job describes what he believes to be close to death because soon, he will lie down in the dust and die. Then Job says to God, if I have sinned, please forgive me.
Bilbad Speaks
The next friend Bildad speaks. Job sounds like the wind, he says. Once again, another friend questions his purity. Not only is Job not right but his children must have sinned against God and deserved their punishment. Bildad tells him to pray and seek the favor of God and if Job is pure, God will rise up and restore his home. He suggests that Job may have forgotten God.
Perhaps all of the bad things only happen to the godless. Bilbad goes through a list of what the godless must be like. For example, they seem like a lush plant growing in the sunshine, but if it is uprooted or cut, it is as though it never existed. Life ends and another will grow in its place. But if a person has integrity, God will not reject a person. He will let that person's mouth be filled with laughter and lips with shouts of joy.Job Responds to Bilbad
Job responds to Bilbad by letting him know that he realizes the greatness of God. Afterall, he made all the stars -- the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the southern sky. Actually, I can imagine Job sitting near a window in his home at night, looking at the stars and seeing the greatness of God in God's handiwork. But then Job goes on to explain that in all of the greatness of God, if he gets angry, even the monsters of the sea are crushed beneath his feet. So who is Job that he can answer God or even reason with him?
Once again, Job declares his innocence to Bilbad. But to Job, whether he is innocent or wicked, it is all the same to God. In fact, God laughs at the death of the innocent. If Job were to wash himself with soap, clean his hands with lye, you could plunge him into a muddy ditch and his clothes would hate him. I guess Job is thinking that he is that offensive with his sores.
Job then wishes for a mediator between God and himself. The mediator could make God stop beating him. I'm guessing that Job believes that God is doing this to him and that there is no escaping this punishment that he is experiencing. If only Job could talk to God without fear but he can't do this in his own strength.
My Thoughts
Job's suffering is immense. I can't imagine to sit in my skin and look at it wasting away, smelling because it is rotting and watching the maggots wiggle in the pus oozing from the sores. The smell must have been bad. He must have looked horrible... so much so that I'm sure no one wanted to be around him. This is the anguish that Job experienced. He did nothing but good and he became an object of pain and suffering without cause.
Thousands of years later, we can examine what he says and perhaps find ourselves in some parts of the story. Perhaps we accuse him too and think that he had to do something to get God upset with him. Perhaps we may suffer in some of the ways that Job did and we may wish to die too. Perhaps our emotions make us think that God has deserted us and that like Job, our own clothing hate to be with us because we are filthy. But I must read on because the story does not stop there. Job keeps the dialog open as I will see in the rest of the chapters.
I am not too sure what I could say about his friends. They are not too good at comforting Job or even helping him. I guess they call themselves helping by getting him to admit his awful sins so that God could cleanse him. Of course, they are wrong. None of them know that Job is being tested and he is actually as righteous as he says he is.
That's it for today.
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