Day 15, January 15 Bible Reading
Day 15, January 15
Job 8-10 Bildad and Job debate I
Job 8
8:1-7 Bildad’s turn. He said your words be like a strong wind, only hot air. Is God corrupt to pervert justice? Then Bildad hit Job where it hurts, saying if your kids sin, they should be taken out. He concludes saying if you seek God and were pure you would be restored. Was he right?
8:8-10 Bildad then encourages Job to look back at all those who came before him in order to see the pattern that God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked. But is this true?
8:11-18 Bildad now uses the papyrus as a metaphor for a hypocrite. Like a papyrus reed, hypocrites grow up quickly, they are hollow and without substance, they are easily bent, they show false humility, and bear no fruit. Just as a papyrus quickly withers and dies, so will the hypocrite who seems to find favor at first, but then his true self is found out. Bildad is eloquently calling Job a hypocrite.
8:19-22 Bildad’s message is essentially the same as Eliphaz’, only he is more to point. He tells Job that this is a result of him sinning and if he would just repent, he would soon find relief from all this punishment from God.
Job 9
9:2-12 Job replies to Bildad. He agrees, how can a man be righteous before God, who can contend with God? He is wise, mighty, removes mountains, commands the sun, seals the stars, he made the constellations: Bear, Orion, Pleiades. So why did Job rehearse again who God is?
9:13-20 In verse 13, we see Rahab. This is not the prostitute who hid the spies later on, but this is the name of a sea monster, or a dragon. “Rahab” means proud, or strong, and so when the text tells us that this sea monster’s helpers “bowed” beneath God, we are given a clue here as to how much stronger God is than even this sea monster.
Job understands that God is great and mighty, but he doesn’t understand how God’s power will help him. God seemed to be so far away. Job is not claiming sinless perfection here, but relative innocence in comparison with the extreme punishment he seems to be enduring.9:21-24 Job sincerely believes in his innocence, but now he is beginning to question even that. Job is even beginning to think that God is just sitting up there laughing at his misery and pain right now. And if this all didn’t come from God, then where else could it come from?
9:25-31 Job seems to think that his life is flying past him now as fast as an eagle swoops in on his prey, and what if he never finds out why all this happened? Job felt that even if he cleansed himself with snow water and soap, God had already condemned him and he would just be thrown into the pit again, so why bother? He would be so filthy that even his clothes would hate him.
9:32-35 Job realizes that he cannot go directly to God and plead his case, so he cries out for a mediator between God and man. What a beautiful picture of our absolute need for Jesus, who became that mediator for us! God is the judge, not the accuser.
Job 10
10:1-7 Job now decides that he will begin complaining, although he is not bitter against God, but is simply miserable. This type of complaint may just be him bringing his case before God’s courtroom. Job wants God to show him why He is contending with him. Are God’s days like a man that he finds time to search out his sin?
10:8-12 Job understood very well that God created him. He knew that he came from dirt and would return to dirt. God was responsible for knitting Job’s body together, every little bit of it. God loved him and breathed life into him and cared for him, so why does God now want to destroy him?
10:13-17 We do not know how much Job knew at this time, but he does think that God is keeping secrets from him. If God knows he is secretly wicked, from the beginning, woe is he. But if God knows he is righteous he cannot lift his head. Job feels he is hunted by a fierce lion.
10:18-22 If God went to all that work creating Job only to bring all this misery upon him now, why did He even bother to create him in the first place?
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