Day 18, January 18 Bible Reading

 

Day 18,  January 18

Job 18-21   Bildad and Job debate II / Zophar and Job debate II

Job 18

• 18:2-4 Bildad begins his second round with Job by returning Job’s words from 16:3. He wants to know why Job thinks they are stupid.Should the world stop for Job?
  
  

• 18:5-10 Bildad now sets out to describe to Job the darkness of a wicked life. A new twist on the same old theme. Bildad uses six different terms related to hunting in this section, trying to lay the analogy of what happens to a wicked man when he becomes the prey.
  
  

• 18:11-16 Bildad returns to Job’s words again in 16:9-14, and use his own words to show that he must be wicked. Job lost way too much weight and his ribs stick out now. He has some kind of a skin disease, which applies only to wicked (implied). It is almost as if Death’s eldest son has devoured him. “They parade him before the king of terrors” is also a reference to death. Lots of death in this passage.
  
  

• 18:17-21 Replying again to 16:18-19, where Job wants his innocence to cry out from the earth, Bildad instead says if he dies in his wickedness, no one will ever remember him. Bildad even mocks him for having no children now that he lost all ten of his. Not only does Bildad say that Job is wicked but he also adds insult to injury by saying that he doesn’t even know God. Do we use these same insults when we are conversing with our friends today?

Job 19

• 19:2-6 Job’s friends continue to hurt him with their words. Words do hurt and we need to be careful today what words we use with others as well. However, as much as they hurt, Job still maintains his innocence, but Job takes it one step further now and actually accuses God of wronging him. Have you ever felt that God was in the wrong in your situation in life?
  
  

• 19:7-12 Now when Job cries out to God, He doesn’t answer. God has stripped Job of his glory (language that leads us to believe that he was a king). Job now lays out a very odd analogy for this moment, describing the siege of a city.

• 19:13-20 “He has removed my brothers far from me.” This is not blood brothers of the same mother, but likely all his relatives, including these three “friends.” His servants won’t obey him, his wife thinks his breath stinks, and even his closest blood brothers (of his own mother) want nothing to do with him. Little kids run away, and his besties hate him now. He feels like the whole world has turned their back on him. All he has left is his rotting body.
  
  

• 19:21-24 Job begs his friends for pity, since he has none from God. Job wishes that all his words were written down. Well we are reading them now right? :-)
  
  

• 19:25-29 “For I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth!” And now we hit the gold! Perhaps he realized that if his words indeed were written down forever that he would want to leave something of value! The Hebrew word for “redeemer,” goel, has a courtroom meaning. When one was wrongly accused in court, a “goel” would defend you. More powerful than our attorneys today, a “redeemer” could acquit you of all false accusations, of all wrong doing, and could even exact vindication. A redeemer was a defender and a champion of the oppressed.
  
  
  

Job 20

• 20:2-11 Zophar also replies to his own first debate with Job, so think of each of these as one continuing conversation with each friend. Job’s speech upset and wounds Zophar, but he will try to respond with understanding. Surely Job must know that the wicked only triumph for a season, but then their deeds will catch up with them.
  
  

• 20:12-19 This is a different argument.  Zopjhar is saying, yes a wicked man, like you Job, enjoyed the good things of life for a while, but what is sweet will soon become sour. “He swallows down riches … God casts them out of his belly.” He intimates that Job oppressed the poor and seized his house which he did not build.
  
  

• 20:20-29 Zophar now accuses Job of being self-sufficient and warns him that no matter where he turns, he cannot run from the judgment of God. When Job complained about being poisoned by God’s arrow in his last round with Zophar, Zophar then turns that around on him and says that only wicked men are pierced by God’s arrows in judgment. Zophar’s feelings about Job’s guilt seemed to have increased greatly over time. Now Job is not only wicked, but stubborn, and his great losses are a testimony to that fact.
  
  Zophar’s final words to Job: “This is the portion from God for a wicked man, the heritage appointed to him by God.” 

Job 21

• 21:2-16 Job pleads with his friends to actually listen to him and when he is done, they can continue mocking him. Job now brings up the age-old question, “Why do good things happen to bad people, and why do bad things happen to good people?” We noticed this with Jacob recently as well. Why do the wicked have a fine home, riches, lots of kids, and perfect health -- all the things Job had taken away?
  
  

• 21:17-21 Job’s argument is how often do you actually see the wicked get judged? And it doesn’t count if something bad happens to their kids. Job wants to see the wicked person pay for his own wickedness in his lifetime. How often does it really happen? Good question.
  
  

• 21:22-26 Job suddenly seems to realize that God is wise after all, but it still seems unfair that both the righteous and the wicked have the same fate in the end.
  
  

• 21:27-34 Job can read his friends’ minds now. They think he is crazy for questioning God, but he has clearly shown that not all wickedness is punished and not all righteousness is rewarded. Job knew there was a day of judgment coming, but he just wished it would happen much sooner. The wicked will die, they have a proper burial, everyone will say good things about them anyway. His friends only had empty words for him.