Job 26-31
The section we are reading today is the last of the back and forth with the three miserable comforters. The whole first part of Job until the end of Chap 31 is a negative lesson to us. Job continues to justify himself as “blameless and upright”. The comforters continue to reason with him from human logic about God, which is that we receive what we deserve. The book is coming to a central point which will be the focus of this oldest lesson. Read with us today and don’t give up on this great story about man and God. It may take reading this several times in order to see the message in the speeches. Remember that this story probably predates the written Word that we take so for granted. It was told as an epic poem and speech where the speaker told the story to the hearers to give them understanding of the God that they could not see.
The other rich pictures in this book are the geographical, astronomical, zoological, metallurgical, gemology, oceanography and other knowledge that we hear that we seldom give the people of that time credit for understanding. Our modern scientists and methods are not as advanced as we think ourselves.
Job 26:1-4(NLT) Job’s Ninth Speech: A Response to Bildad
1 Then Job spoke again:
2 “How you have helped the powerless!
How you have saved the weak!
3 How you have enlightened my stupidity!
What wise advice you have offered!
4 Where have you gotten all these wise sayings?
Whose spirit speaks through you?
Job 27:1-6 Job’s Final Speech
1 Job continued speaking:
2 “I vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights,
by the Almighty who has embittered my soul—
3 As long as I live,
while I have breath from God,
4 my lips will speak no evil,
and my tongue will speak no lies.
5 I will never concede that you are right;
I will defend my integrity until I die.
6 I will maintain my innocence without wavering.
My conscience is clear for as long as I live.
Job 28:1-12 Job Speaks of Wisdom and Understanding
1 “People know where to mine silver
and how to refine gold.
2 They know where to dig iron from the earth
and how to smelt copper from rock.
3 They know how to shine light in the darkness
and explore the farthest regions of the earth
as they search in the dark for ore.
4 They sink a mine shaft into the earth
far from where anyone lives.
They descend on ropes, swinging back and forth.
5 Food is grown on the earth above,
but down below, the earth is melted as by fire.
6 Here the rocks contain precious lapis lazuli,
and the dust contains gold.
7 These are treasures no bird of prey can see,
no falcon’s eye observe.
8 No wild animal has walked upon these treasures;
no lion has ever set his paw there.
9 People know how to tear apart flinty rocks
and overturn the roots of mountains.
10 They cut tunnels in the rocks
and uncover precious stones.
11 They dam up the trickling streams
and bring to light the hidden treasures.
12 “But do people know where to find wisdom?
Where can they find understanding?
Job 28:27-28 Then he saw wisdom and evaluated it.
He set it in place and examined it thoroughly.
28 And this is what he says to all humanity:
‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom;
to forsake evil is real understanding.’”
Job 30:20-23 0 “I cry to you, O God, but you don’t answer.
I stand before you, but you don’t even look.
21 You have become cruel toward me.
You use your power to persecute me.
22 You throw me into the whirlwind
and destroy me in the storm.
23 And I know you are sending me to my death—
the destination of all who live.
Job 31:33-35 33 “Have I tried to hide my sins like other people do,
concealing my guilt in my heart?
34 Have I feared the crowd
or the contempt of the masses,
so that I kept quiet and stayed indoors?
35 “If only someone would listen to me!
Look, I will sign my name to my defense.
Let the Almighty answer me.
Let my accuser write out the charges against me.
-Tom Siderius
Questions to Consider:
Are you starting to see the focus of this book on the relationship of man and God?
Do you see how it grapples with the question of why bad things happen to good people?
Seek Grow Love 