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Notes: Job 34-35

January 22, 2008 by

English Language Bible Study Guide for January 22, 2008

What do you think of Elihu? Is he to be admired or pitied?

In today’s reading we find him continuing to attack Job and to present a defense of the Almighty. Yet when did Job claim to be without sin? And when did Job accuse God of injustice?

Job 34

1-4: Elihu prefaces this series of comments with a call for his audience to listen carefully.

5-9: Job has lived and spoken carelessly, if not maliciously and foolishly.

10-30: Let us remember who God is and what He has done.

  • He is just (10-12, 17, 19,23)
  • He is sovereign (13-15)
  • He is powerful (20, 24)
  • He is omniscient (21-22, 25)
  • He is strict with sinners (26-28)
  • He governs His creation (29-30)

(Credit for this succinct listing goes to Matthew Henry who mined it from the treasure of God’s Word)

Elihu is right about this. We give honor to earthly rulers and authorities; why not more honor to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

31-33: How Job should address God

34-37: Why Job’s friends should agree with Elihu

 

Job 35

Elihu addresses two errors which he perceives in Job’s thinking.

1-8: Religion is for God’s sake alone, and has no benefit to man

9-13: God is deaf to the cries of the oppressed

After this Elihu explains why God may delay His merciful deliverance (14-15), and concludes (16) by repeating the oft-spoken lie that Job’s comments are vain and foolish.

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Notes: Job 32-33

January 21, 2008 by

English Language Bible Study Guide for January 21, 2008

Job’s friends have given up hope of correcting Job; and Job has declared that he found their counsel to be worthless.  But the book doesn’t end here.

Job 32

Elihu speaks to Job’s friends.

2: Although we are told a bit about his family tree, we don’t know how long this young man has been listening.

2-3: Elihu is angry with Job because he justified himself rather than God; and Elihu is angry with Job’s friends because they didn’t have a satisfactory answer to Job’s questions.

4-7: He had been quiet throughout the previous discourses because of his age, and his hope that the elders would have been able to teach Job why these things had happened to him.

8: Elihu alludes to inspiration; later we understand that he was alluding to his being inspired.

9-11: Age does not guarantee wisdom.

14-22: I will not use your lame arguments with Job.

 

Job 33

Elihu addresses Job.

1-7: You asked for a representative of God to speak on His behalf; here I am.

8-12: You have spoken badly about God.

13-24: God draws men to Himself by various means

  • 13-15: by dreams and visions
  • 16-18: by quiet inspiration
  • 19-22: by hardship and troubles
  • 23-24: by His messengers, preachers of salvation by ransom

25-28: Consider what God saves man from

29-30: God often uses these methods to save man.

31-33: So you should listen carefully, Job.

 

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Notes: Job 28-29

January 19, 2008 by

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

January 18, 2008 by

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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