Bible study notes for January 10, 2008
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?