Job knew a lot of what Bildad said in chapter 8 was true.  Bildad spoke of a pefectly holy, righteous God.  Job said, "In truth I know that this is so, But..." (9:2).  He was wrestling with his whole concept of God.  How can God be righteous and yet let righteous people suffer?  Job's contention was always that he had been walking circumspectly in righteous paths.  In chapter 10, Job started to ask the big question: "Why?"  He has quite a long list of things that he wants to say to God!  Have I ever wanted to ask God something like this: "Lord, I know you are righteous, but how can You let some guy go in and mow down 32 'innocent' people in cold blood?"  Or on a more personal note: "Lord, I have prayed and prayed and yet You don't seem to answer me - why?"

 

Job said, "is there any taste in the white of an egg?" (6:6).  I have been trying to tell Bekah this for ages!  The yolk is where taste is.

 

Chapters 6 and 7 are of Job speaking.  Job asked his friends to please not condemn him because his righteousness was his only comfort (6:10).  This is actually a great thought to me.  When everything seems to be going wrong in my life, when friends are acting ugly, when the money situation seems bad, when there is no encouraging word - I can still KNOW I am walking in my integrity!  It's great that our God does not demand that we FEEL right about our life...He demands that we KNOW we are walking in the right path.  And this is comforting, because then our faith and spiritual understanding is not based upon whether or not our life is going smoothly.  It's based upon our relationship to God.  Hallelujah!< ... Read More »

Today we read Eliphaz's first response to Job's situation.  He began by instructing Job not to be impatient about his situation!  He tried to get Job to see his mess was because of sin...because "who ever perished being innocent?" (4:7).  This sets the tenor for the rest of the book as the three friends go back and forth with Job telling him he must be sinning for all this to have happenned to him.

 

At one point, Eliphaz said, "As for me, I would seek God" (5:8).  Well, good for him.  But that was not at all helpful to Job!  He has made the assumption that Job is NOT seeking God.  And here is Eliphaz's simple solution to suffering: figure out what you are doing to make God angry with you, stop doing it, and you will stop suffering.  I have to say Eliph ... Read More »

I have a good feeling about the next three months.  We are going to be so inundated with wisdom we won't know what to do with it all!  I want to encourage everyone participating in the OT Poetry readings to PRAY for wisdom and understanding in your daily prayers.  If we ask God for wisdom, He WILL give it to us!  And what better time to ask than when we are studying this section of scripture?

 

Again, if you happen to miss a day or two of the reading for some reason, don't think you have to "catch back up" necessarily.  This is especially true with the Proverbs reading, because we will be reading through Proverbs three times over the next three months.  If you miss a reading this month, chances ... Read More »