This program of daily devotions is designed to take you through the Bible in three years. It is our desire to help you gain a better general understanding of God's Word.
Please understand that in a study this brief, we will be concerned with only the major emphases and context of the Scriptures.
Each day a devotion for one or two chapters is posted, beginning with chapter one of Genesis and going through chapter twenty-two of Revelation. You are free to print each page as it appears. If you miss a day, you may contact us and request that devotion. Please send your request, along with $.50 (p&handling) for each page to:
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Job
CHAPTER 29
Now Job begins to look back and mourn for that which was. His desire is not so much for the comforts of physical life as it is for the closeness of God.
He yearns for the time when God's "candle shined" upon his head (verse 3) and the good advice ("secret") of God was the guide of his household (verse 4), and when the presence of God was like the presence of his children (verse 5).
When a person really knows the presence of God in his life, it is recognizable to others (verse 7-8).
Once I was working with another man and we stopped to eat lunch. We had been out inspecting some construction work, and just stopped at a local fast burger place. We ordered, got our meal and went to sit down. We both put our meal on the table, then bowed our heads and gave God thanks for the meal. I had hardly said "amen" when there was a light hand on my shoulder. A lady said, "Sir, my husband and I remarked when you came in the door that you two men were Christians. Now you have shown us that God is working in your lives. May we pray for you?" Well, that just made our faces light up! What a great thing to know that others SEE Christ working in our lives!
9 The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
10 The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
11 When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:
12 Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.
16 I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.
17 And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
18 Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
Job counts the presence of God seen in his life as a great joy. Even princes stopped talking when Job spoke because they knew what he had to say was meaningful. People "blessed" (verse 11) him when they heard and saw the presence of God in his life. He was a helper to all the needy (verses 12-13). The righteousness of God "clothed" him (verse 14) and he was compelled to help those who were destitute (verses 15-16). Also, because of God's righteousness in him, Job was an adversary to the wicked (verse 17). When God's presence was fully upon him, Job believed he would die in peace ("in my nest") after a long life.
Job's life was "rooted and grounded" in God, and he was fed constantly with God's Word (verse 19). He was a guide to men because of the guidance of God (verse 25).
When God's presence is fully assured in our own hearts, then God is seen by others. Goodness flows out of a person when he walks daily with God.
"BUT NOW," Job says. Things are so much different now! Those who had respected him in the past, are now treating him with disdain and contempt. The very ones whom he had helped now deride him. Why? What is different? The difference is that people look shallow at a man's life. When Job was covered with good clothes, had money, and was young and strong - people respected him. They considered that to be the presence of God in his life.
In fact, even Job himself looks at life a little like that. The general perception of humanity upon humanity is that God is not "blessing" a man when he is poor and destitute.
OH! How FAR we miss the truth when we "give respect to persons" (James 2:9). Why do we try and determine the presence of God by the prosperity of the person?
Job's friends do not realize that God is blessing him even now. And even Job considers the closeness and power of God's presence to be missing in his life.
2 Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?
3 For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.
4 Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.
5 They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)
6 To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.
8 They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.
9 And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.
10 They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.
11 Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.
One or two of these three "friends" who have spoken so unkindly to Job, he probably helped to become what they were. These statements seem to communicate that those who were destitute, Job gave a helping hand, and now they are the very ones who accuse him of sinfulness.
They were without food (verse 3).
But now they use Job as the "topic of conversation" (verse 9) and consider him evil because of his loss of prosperity. Because God has allowed affliction in Job's life, these people consider that he has done something wrong (verse 11).
Consider this: sometimes God allows affliction for our betterment. It comes not in recompense for wrongs done; but rather as testing to make us stronger.
12 Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.
13 They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.
14 They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
15 Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.
16 And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
17 My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.
18 By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
19 He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.
Evidently all three of these "friends" who came to speak to Job are younger than he. He indicates they are "youth" (verse 12). Job is very concerned that they would treat him so unkindly; it hurts him very badly (verses 13-15).
Not only do their words hurt him, but also his condition hurts (verse 16). The emotions in his life are as if his bones were "pierced" (verse 17).
The clothes which once were so easily worn, are now very uncomfortable on his itching and scaling skin (verse 18).
And the reason for ALL this hurt is that God has allowed this affliction to come upon him (verse 19). Job is not complaining God is unrighteous to bring him affliction. Job is complaining that mankind determines the presence of God by the prosperity of the saint. He is complaining that when men suffer in this life, other men count them evil.
20 I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.
21 Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.
22 Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.
23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
24 Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
25 Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?
26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
27 My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.
28 I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.
29 I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
30 My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.
31 My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
The complaint of the affliction Job takes directly to God. He realizes from where is poured out all blessings and adversity (James 1:17).
But his concern is that God is not listening (verse 20)!
Have you experienced a time of difficulty in your life when you felt like God was not listening? I remember when Ann and I lost our first child. It seemed that God was being very bitter toward me. WHY? WHY?
Yet we cannot fathom the infinite wisdom of God. We must simply trust that He always treats us in righteousness having our betterment as His end for us.
At the moment Job cries out to God. He says God has "opposed" him and used His great power against him (verses 20-21). He knows that the righteous end of all men is death (verse 23-24).
But why does God afflict him so when he was trying to do "good" in this life (verses 25-26).
Job considers himself to be dying. He knows that, to most, death comes after illness. And he is mourning his affliction and death.
Here is a lesson for all we who come behind Job. Sometimes affliction comes by the hand of God in order to make us rely upon Him even more, and thus become stronger. Please continue in Bible Study with us.
1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
2 Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;
3 When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;
4 As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;
5 When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;
6 When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
7 When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!
8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.
This gave him strength in his life (verse 20), and others readily listened to him (verses 21-24).
CHAPTER 30
But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.
They were digging roots for food (verse 4).
They were despised of men (verse 5).
They were living in caves (verse 6).
The diseases Job suffers are destroying his body (verse 30). And his harp which he used to praise God is now mourning (verse 30).
But one thing the reader must note: Job is not counting God unrighteous. He just wants to know WHY?