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Notes: Job 30-31

English Language Bible Study Guide for January 20, 2008

Job rehearsed his blessed past in chapter 29; but now…

Job 30

Three times Job mentions “now” (verses 1, 9 and 16).

1-8: But now I no longer have respect in the community

9-10: And now I am despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

Psalm 22:7  All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8  He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

11-15: Because God has afflicted me, everyone around me takes liberty to add to my affliction. Consider all they have done:

  • 11: They let loose all manner of meanness
  • 12: They rise up against me and push me away
  • 13: They keep mentioning my trouble and they twist the truth about my life
  • 14: They fall on me like a tidal wave
  • 15: Their attack on my character is actually an assault on my soul

16-24: And where is God?

  • 19: He has cast me into the mire
  • 20: He doesn’t hear me when I cry to Him
  • 21: He has positioned Himself against me
  • 22: He moves me about as with a strong wind
  • 23: He holds my life in His hands

26-31: I have been my brother’s keeper; I have been the humanitarian’s humanitarian.

And when I looked for good, then evil came;

when I waited for light, there came darkness.

Who would recognize the Job of God’s testimony in the Job of these words?

 

Job 31

Job continues the thought that he had lived a God-honoring life, and that he can’t think of any reason of his own doing that these tragedies have struck him.

If I…

walked in vanity

hastened to deceit

turned away from the right path

have blotted my testimony

was deceived by a woman

stalked my neighbor

despised my servants

withheld from the poor

hurt widows

ate while orphans starved around me

refused clothing to the needy

struck orphans

trusted in gold

rejoiced in my wealth

worshipped the sun or moon

took pleasure in the downfall of my enemies

cursed those who hated me

denied my sinfulness

stolen any of that which I possessed

Then I…

deserve this affliction.

But I…

have done none of these things.

 

The words of Job are ended.

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Notes: Job 28-29

English Language Bible Study Guide for January 19, 2008

Job 28

1-11: Look around and you will find many things here and there across the earth.

12-28: But where can you find wisdom?

In these words Job sounds much like wise Solomon in the Book of Proverbs.

Proverbs 1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 9:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

13-19: What is wisdom worth? What would you pay for wisdom?

20: What is the source of wisdom?

23: God!

Consider these Biblical doxologies:

1Timothy 1:17  Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Jude 1:25  To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Throughout our lives many people are presented to us as wise; but Job, along with Solomon and David (and all believers through the ages) has the understanding that true wisdom is with the one who knows God.

Psalm 111:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments:

 

Job 29

Job longs for “the good old days.”

  • 2: when God preserved me
  • 3: when God’s light brightened my path
  • 4: when as a youth I knew God’s presence
  • 5: when my children were alive
  • 6: when I enjoyed prosperity
  • 7-11: when I was held in high reputation by all men
  • 12-13: when I helped the poor and orphans
  • 14: when I was clothed in righteousness and justice
  • 15: when I ministered to the blind and the lame
  • 16: when I sought the truth
  • 17: when I crusaded against the wicked
  • 18: when I could have died in peace after many days
  • 19: when my influence was widespread
  • 21-23: when men listened to everything I had to say
  • 24: when I could joke with people
  • 25: when men listened to my advice

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Notes: Job 25-27

English Language Bible Study Guide for January 18, 2008

Here end the remarks of Job’s friends who have missed the mark of comforting Job in his grief; and here begins Job’s lengthy soliloquy (chapters 26-31).

Job 25

If you have trouble following Bildad’s reasoning, you are not alone.

2: Yes, God commands and instills fear in men.

3: No, we cannot count God’s servants; and there is no place where God’s light does not shine.

4: But what these questions have to do with the question about how a man might be justified with God remains to be seen.

For sure we know that a man is justified not by works, but by faith.

Romans 3:28  Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

5: Even the bright lights of the heavens are not so glorious as God.

6: Man is but a worm in God’s sight.

Psalm 22:6  But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

(Note that the above verse refers to Christ! Bildad didn’t know what he was talking about.)

 

Job 26

In the next six chapters, Job is free of the badgering of his friends, free to ponder many ideas.

2-3: You, my friends, have done me no good.

4: Where did you get these ideas? Who have you been speaking to?

5-14: God is powerfully in control of all things, including hell (verse 6) and the crooked serpent (verse 13).

Little did Job know then how right he was.

Doctrinal note: See that Job knew something of the Spirit of God (verse 13 and 27:3). See also Genesis 1:2.

Job 27

2-6: If Job were to deny his righteousness, he would prove that his friends had been right all along. By denying his own justification by God, Job would be justifying the lies of his accusers. Christians should remember this: whenever we doubt God’s salvation in Christ we are saying that the devil is right.

11-23: In agreement with the preacher’s word’s in the Book of Ecclesiastes, Job declares the vanity of life without God.

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Notes: Job 23-24

English Language Bible Study Guide for: January 17, 2008

After Eliphaz’s slanderous remarks, Job responds.

Job 23

2-9: Yes, I would like to speak to God; but I cannot find Him.

3: I wish I knew where He is.

4: I have a lot of things I’d say to Him.

5: I want to know what He has to say about all of this.

8: No matter where I look, God is not there.

Contrast this with the Psalmist’s comments.

Psalm 139:7  Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
8  If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10  Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
11  If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
12  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

10-12: Yet Job has confidence that these trials will not destroy his relationship with God.

I Corinthians 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

13-14: No man has been God’s counselor; God does as He wills. Absolute freedom of will and absolute power belong to God alone.

15-17: When Job thinks about God, Job realizes that God is not a man and that God’s thoughts are not man’s thoughts nor are God’s ways man’s ways.

 

Job 24

1: Why don’t men realize that we must all stand before God? Why do men persist in their sin even though they acknowledge that God sees everything we do and He knows our every thought?

2-17: Job’s catalog of the sins of man could be taken from today’s newspaper. Man’s inclination towards and practice of sin has only become greater with the intervening generations. Eliphaz’s accusations against Job should have been made against Mankind, with the conclusion that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

  • 2: destroying the boundaries of personal property
  • 2: stealing portable goods
  • 3: oppressing orphans and widows
  • 4: ignoring the poor and needy
  • 5: looking for someone or something to conquer
  • 6: caring only for themselves
  • 7-8: withholding clothing and shelter from the cold and naked
  • 9-10: robbing the poor and orphans
  • 13: rejecting God’s ways
  • 14: murdering
  • 15: committing adultery
  • 21: mistreating those who cannot have children
  • 22: threatening the lives of others

12: Though the wounded cry out for justice, there seems to be no reckoning in this life.

18-20: But in the end, the wicked will be judged.

24: They may be exalted for a little while, but eventually, in God’s time, the wicked will be destroyed.

25: “And,” Job states emphatically, “if that isn’t the case, prove me wrong.”

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