Author: Bryan Richardson

Re:Verse passage – Job 38:1-7; 40:6-9 (day three)

“Now gird up your loins like a man;
I will ask you, and you instruct me.”

Is God mad here? Is he offended? Indignant? Irritated? How about “none of the above?” It’s not hard to misidentify intensity as annoyance. But God knows the limits of a human being – that a man, finite as he is, doesn’t have access to the larger sweep of events across the unseen realm of the spiritual nor the vast expanses of the cosmos. To wit, Job wasn’t aware of the conversation between God and Satan about Job himself. So no, God’s not aggravated. He is, on the contrary, taking Job seriously by meeting him where he is, matching his zeal. Job has argued ardently and vehemently. God doesn’t hate Job for his ignorance. He loves him enough to have the conversation for which Job has pleaded.

Re:Verse passage – Job 32:1-10; 33:2-4, 22-30; 35:9-10; 37:14-24 (day three)

“Therefore men fear Him;
He does not regard any who are wise of heart.”

One can sense at the core of Elihu’s musings a discontent with what has come to be regarded as wisdom. Elihu looks at the cumulative thinking from each perspective, and he doesn’t see much that’s promising. He basically says, “None of you has got it right.” He himself doesn’t claim definitive insight, but he finds the ideas of his elders – Job included – to be deficient in dealing with the questions that arise from Job’s plight. This young person doesn’t say, “Get out of the way so we can do it my way.” He does say, “I haven’t heard true wisdom yet, so let’s keep seeking.” That’s the kind of youthful passion that can soften hardened positions and set a people up for God’s revelation.

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:20-27 (day three)

“Why do you persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?”

The old joke, “If you can’t be an example…be a warning,” becomes poignantly real here, and it’s not in the least funny. Job’s life had invited people to aspire to all that is honorable, lovely, and noble. Now, his life invited people to castigate him as one who had it coming all along. No wonder Job dives headlong into a burst of defiant longing: “I know that my Redeemer lives.” If he were to discover otherwise, it would mean that no one is listening, and in the end, no one cares. Such a fate would destroy him. Therefore, he holds fast to the declaration that it cannot – must not – be. One might say his hope is wishful thinking. The Bible says otherwise: “My hope comes from the Lord.”

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:13-19 (day three)

“My intimate friends have forgotten me.”

Bereft of his children, separated physically and emotionally from his wife, deserted by friends, no longer possessing social standing, and unable to find God, Job, from all he can see, has achieved non-person status. It’s worse than death because intimacy with others is out of reach. He can’t contact anyone and seemingly no one can contact him. He’s like the astronomers sending messages into the void of space not knowing whether any form of sentient life will ever receive – or answer – those messages. He is, in his experience, alone in the universe. Isolation is deadly to a human being. His cry to others and particularly to God – “Why have you forsaken me?” – is the very cry that will one day cross the lips of the Savior Job longs to find.

Re:Verse passage – Job 9:32-35 (day three)

“There is no umpire between us,
Who may lay his hand upon us both.”

From time to time in his long articulation of his plight, Job says something that begs the question – at least as his words reach our ears in the year of our Lord 2022. Job says, “If only there were a mediator between God and me.” (The translation “umpire” seems kind of humorous, but it gets the job done.) The question Job’s utterance begs is this: Is there no mediator? Job takes it as a given that there is not. But that was then; this is now. And what a “now” it is. Jesus is that mediator – the only one between God and man, as Hebrews teaches us. This mediator, though, is no neutral party, but a fellow sufferer with us, that we might also know his resurrection.

Re:Verse passage – Job 7:1-21 (day three)

“Will You never turn Your gaze away from me,
Nor let me alone until I swallow my spittle?”

Is it a good thing for God to take notice of you? You might say yes, especially when you think of our Lord’s anguished cry from the Psalms as he suffered: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” But in this passage, Job views God’s attentiveness as an unbearable burden. If you had said to Job, “May God be near you in this time,” he may well have replied, “That’s the problem.” Sometimes individuals develop a view of God that tortures them instead of comforting them. A person can get to the point at which she believes God is disgusted with her no matter what she does. What recourse does she have then? This book keeps getting darker.

Re:Verse passage – Job 2:11-13, 22:5-6, 9-11 (day three)

“Sudden dread terrifies you,
or darkness, so that you cannot see.”

The desire for order runs deep within you. A chaotic universe is a terrifying universe. When you suffer, you might think one of two things: that your suffering results either from some evil you enacted, or from some error in the cosmic workings which God will fix when you voice your complaint to him. Either way proceeds in an orderly, logical fashion. This is the paradigm in which Job’s friends and Job himself seem to operate. But for there simply to be no discernable reason and no remedy on the horizon – this gives rise to alarm. Total darkness and total silence looks and sounds an awful lot like an empty, impersonal universe. Job discovered that very problem long ago. And that’s why we need to explore this book.

Re:Verse passage – Job 2:1-10, 3:11, 20-26 (day three)

“Why is light given to him who suffers,
And life to the bitter of soul,
 Who long for death, but there is none?”

Whoever put the account of Job together took actual events and expressed them in poetic form because of poetry’s power and economy of language. Poetry sometimes has a (false) reputation of being somewhat out of touch with reality. But the question in this passage is most assuredly a real one, and it most certainly arises from a heart that has seen hope disappear. This book is so honest that Job isn’t asking this question rhetorically. No, he’s really wondering: what’s the point to the shining of the sun and the beating of the heart when he’d rather be dead? This book is for everyone – everyone – who asks if there is a reason to go on.

Re:Verse passage – Job 1:13-22 (day three)

“Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.”

The emotional equivalent of a tsunami occurred in Job’s life; horrific personal disasters crashing in wave upon wave against one lone man. He remained unbowed. Job faced staggering tragedy with a stalwart confidence that God – his puzzling authorization of these events notwithstanding – was going to take notice of Job’s righteousness soon, and some kind of redress of grievances would happen. As hopeful as this stance seems, Job finds out that such a posture isn’t strong enough for life in this world. He finds something strong enough eventually, but the rest of the book is far from a straight line from disaster to renewal. That’s because this book isn’t a platitude. It’s not a pep talk. It’s life as it actually is. That’s where you’ll find God. Job did.

Re:Verse passage – Job 1:1-12 (day three)

“The sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.”

Nobody knows for sure what is meant by “the sons of God.” Fallen angels, mysterious divine beings, righteous individuals, and, in Genesis, the sons of Seth — all of these suggestions and more have been advanced as possible explanations of this puzzling phrase. Does this kind of meeting still happen? Are conversations like this going on right now? Do God and Satan keep in touch? Well, Jesus kept company with a shady crowd, and that’s an earthly example of what it seems was already happening in heaven. One thing is for sure. No evil will startle God. And apparently, the devil isn’t good at keeping his own plans hidden from the Lord. Don’t you worry.