Notes for January 12, 2012

Job 11

2-4: Even today believers are maligned when they express any confidence that God has saved them. Many cults, denominations and movements deny that the Christian can ever know for sure that he is saved and that he will be saved.  Job’s friends attack him because he insists that he is right with God.

5-6: Zophar wishes that God would speak for Himself and correct Job.

7-12: How can Job presume to know God? Obviously Zophar himself doesn’t know God or he would understand how someone else could know God.

2 Timothy 1:12  For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

13-14: Zophar adds that Job cannot approach God with unclean hands. Is this not stating the obvious, something that Job readily admits?

16-19: Security will come after you confess your sins and approach God with clean hands.

Yes, yes, Job knows this and has done this; but still there is trouble.

20: The unrepentant will perish.

Poor Job. His friends keep pointing fingers at him and falsely accusing him.

Job 12

Job answers.

2: You guys know everything. The world will be in a real mess after you die. (What sarcasm!)

6: Look around and you will see that the unrighteous DO prosper. Proponents of a health and wealth gospel should look around and see how many rich and healthy heathen there are.

7-11: Creation knows that God is in control of all things.

12-25: God controls the length of our days. God breaks things down and we cannot build them up again. God shuts doors and we cannot open them. When God withhold the rain, drought results. He rules over kings and princes. He knows the secret deeds and thoughts of men. Clearly Job believed in the sovereignty of God.

Job 13

Job continues.

1: This is what I have observed.  Of course we are to live by faith and not by sight; but when a lifetime of sight contradicts our faith, it’s time to reconsider.

2: I’m not inferior to you, Job counters. A holier-than-thou attitude can humiliate its listeners into submission; but Job will not be pushed down.

3: His friends have insisted that Job speak with God about these problems–and Job agrees that this is the best course of action.

4-6: But his friends have not been any help at all! And Job pleads with them to consider his reasoning. Too few people actually know how to listen; and fewer still know how to analyze another person’s reasoning. The brain wasn’t designed to keep the skull from imploding.

7: Beware of those who put themselves in God’s place. Many religious leaders speak their own thoughts and not God’s.

13: Stop bothering me.

15-16: Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. He shall be my salvation. Does Job’s confidence in God shine forth?

18: I know I shall be justified. (Do you know that you will be justified by God?)

22: Lord, call me and I will answer; and Lord, please answer me when I call You.

23: I want to know my sins. The world would be a different place if everyone wanted God to show his sins.

24-28: Lord, why are these things happening to me?

Bible study notes for January 10, 2012

Job continues his defense to Eliphaz, and Bildad can hold his peace no longer.

Job 7

1-2: Job doesn’t inquire about predestination, but rather about everything coming to an end.

4: Job’s insomnia, restlessness resulting from troublesome days. Sound familiar?

6: The days go by too quickly and the night comes too soon. See also 9:25.

7-16: Why won’t God allow me to sleep? God gives His beloved sleep (Psalm 127:2)

17-18: I’m not so important that I should receive all this attention.

20-21: Job’s confession prefaces his prayer for pardon.

Job 8:

At this point Bildad joins the conversation, hoping to persuade Job.

2-3: Job, you are slandering the name of God.

4-6: Job, pray, and everything will be better. God will see to that.

7-10: the argument from history/tradition: Job, listen to the voices from the past.

Note: There are two forms of this argument:

a.  We’ve never done it this way before.

b.  We’ve always done it this way before.

Both argue the same point: we are right and you are wrong.

13-19: Fools and hypocrites suffer dryness of soul, as you do. (It’s difficult to escape the conclusion that Job is to consider himself either a fool or an hypocrite.)

20-21: Will God cast away a perfect man? Then God has not cast you away or else you are either a fool or an hypocrite.

22: If God be for you, who can be against you?

Notes for January 9, 2012

Eliphaz continues in his attempt to persuade Job that Job’s trouble is no accident, that Job must have done something to bring this upon himself.

Job 5

1-5: Danger to one’s children and business arises from his being a fool. (Note the obvious implication concerning Job)

6: Trouble doesn’t just happen; there must be a cause.

7: Men seem to have lots of trouble in their lives.

9-16: My advice: seek the Lord while He may be found because you can be sure He will discover that sin of yours which has caused all this trouble.

17-26: If you would but submit to God’s discipline, you would find that everything would be turned around and you will live happily ever after.

27: I know what I’m talking about; so take heed to what I’ve said.

Truth and Error

a. TRUTH: a father’s sin can have ill effect upon his family and his business; but not every suffering child does so because of the sin of his father.

b. TRUTH: everything has a reason for its being, every action has a cause; but we are not always able to see that reason.

c. TRUTH: nobody is exempt from trouble in this life

d. TRUTH: God does know all about us and God does what is best for His people; but God doesn’t promise full health or absolute wealth to those who follow Him.

Job 6

Job responds to Eliphaz in this and the following chapters.

1-7: The troublesome grief has brought a giant amount of pressure upon Job’s life.

4: God is responsible for all of this.

5-6: My complaint is reasonable.

8-9: If God would abandon me, then I could resolve this issue; but He won’t and I can’t.

10-13: I feel like I’m carrying a ton of bricks; and I can’t do it any longer.

14-21: You haven’t handled this well at all.

22-26: Did I ask for your help? No, I did not. Instead of helping me, you have seriously hurt me.

27-30: I know about these things as much as you do; you should listen to me!

Discussion thoughts:

a. Carrying too much weight can break a roof, a bridge, a wagon and a man’s spirit. The Pharisees may lay heavy burdens upon us (Luke 11:46); but the Lord Jesus gives us light work (Matthew 11:30), never more than we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13).

b. We must be careful when we see God’s hand at work in our lives that we do not assume that everything that is not according to our plan is meant to be against us. The friction that we experience may be God’s sandpaper polishing us that we might better reflect His image in our lives.

c. Jeremiah once considered quitting; but he realized that something inside him wouldn’t allow him to be silent. Quitting may be an easy out; but it is not always the best solution.

d. Weep with them that weep (Romans 12:15), and comfort the afflicted (2 Corinthians 1:3-5); but be sure that your counsel is of God and not empty phrases. Job’s friends did more good by coming and sitting silently for a week than they did in the many words that they uttered afterwards.

e. In grief, we should be willing to listen to those who would be our comforters.

f. In grief, we should be willing to express ourselves so that others might be our comforters.