Day 20, January 20 Bible Reading

Day 20,  January 20

Job 25-28   Bildad and Job debate III / Job’s discourse on wisdom

Job 25 

• This discussion is going nowhere.  Each side drew a line in the side and no one was budging.   Bildad just has one question - “How can a mortal be righteous before God?”
  
  

• It is a misnomer to think that the main theme in the book of Job is “Why do bad things happen to good people”.  No.  The real issue in Job is “How can a man who is inherently bad become good in the eyes of God?”. 
  
  

• Essentially Bildad is turning the argument on it’s end.  If no one can be made righteous, then it makes no sense to talk about “why do bad things happen to good people”, because the mere fact that you are experiencing this level of suffering, is confirmation that you are indeed wicked, you are “Raca”, totally worthless and unredeemable, worthy of Hell Fire [Gehenna].  End of story.  It is your fault [and it very well may have been].  You have to repent, because you have sinned.
  
  

• The problem with this line of thinking is that it assumes that the main indicator of your sinfulness, is the fact that bad things are happening to you.  Do we think like this today?  Yes we do.  How many people still think that the evidence of God having approval of you, is that you got that blessing, you got that house, you got that promotion, that nothing wrong has happened to you.  The danger here is placing your identity and [lack of] self worth on circumstantial evidence. 
  
  

• The real issue is whether you think that Christ/God cannot do anything about making it right, about making the pure from the impure;
  
  Has He stopped from creating light out of darkness?  Sometimes things happen so that the work of God might be displayed, the same efficacious work that takes vessels of dishonor and impossibly make them into vessels of honor.  The same  work that brings life from death.  The same work that is about redemption and setting creation free.
   

• This is what Bildad missed.

Job 26

• Job is about to have the last word [or so he thinks].  He musters all his strength to fully unload on his three friends, After he does, “talk was done”[Job 32:1] “2:1 So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes”

• Here is what Job said that caused the three friends to stop talking:
  
  

• I never said that God was not great [Job 26]: Hell/ Grave/ Sheol is naked before Him, and Abaddon [Destruction] is uncovered [Job 26:6].  He can do whatever he wants from spreading the northern skies over empty space, suspending the earth over nothing, orchestrates convection and convention with the clouds, marks out the horizon as a boundary between light and darkness, causes earthquakes and the pillars of heaven to tremble, as the power to churn up the sea…
  
  
  

Job 27

• However God has denied me justice [Job 27]: God can do anything He wants.  He has also denied me justice. In spite of that I will not speak wickedness or deceit. 

• Just so you know, I agree God punishes the wicked: [Job 27:13-14] “Here is the fate God allots to the wicked, the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty: 14 However many his children, their fate is the sword; his offspring will never have enough to eat.”

Job 28

• But we Need Wisdom to Not Blindly Conclude that I am wicked Just because He punishes me:  People can mine the earth for silver, gold, iron, smelt copper, but they have no idea where wisdom is located.  Furthermore, men really do not put value on wisdom, just on hard work, education, skills, intelligence, science, etc. [Job 28:5-13]
  
  

• Only God Has Wisdom.  We get it By Fearing Him, Not Rationalizing: [Job 28:20-28] “Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell?  21 It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds of the air. 22 Destruction [Abaddon] and Death [Sheol’  say,'Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.'  23 God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells,  24 for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.   25 When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters,  26 when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm, 27 then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;he confirmed it and tested it. 28 And he said to man, 'The fear of the Lord-that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.'"