Job 4:1-7:21, 1 Cor 14:18-40, Psalms 37:30-40, Proverbs 21:27
Today’s the 22nd day of August. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we move through the back half of the week now. So, yesterday in the center of the week we began some new territory in the Bible as we began the book of Job and we kind of talked about that. And as we got into the book we saw sort of the scenario, this horrible day that Job experienced in which he lost everything of value, everything that he loved. His friends came and sat with him, sat Shiva with him, we talked about that. So, now as we continue through the book of Job, we’ll see the conversations between the friends and Job begin to materialize. And, so, Job, he really wants answers, he wants to know why, but at the same time he doesn’t have those answers because he doesn’t know that there is one because he doesn’t believe he’s done anything wrong. He’s like actually tried really hard to be a righteous person. And, so, his friends are gonna tell him why these things happened, but that’s not gonna work for Job. Job wants to hear straight from God. And, so we begin. Today Job 4 through 7 and we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week.
Commentary:
Okay. So, as we mentioned yesterday when we were getting into the book of Job, and even as we kind of recapped at the beginning of today’s reading, unspeakable tragedy descended upon Job, horrible, horrible tragedy in his life and then his friends came and they set Shiva and waited, but the rest of the book…most of the rest of the book is a conversation between these friends and Job. And, so, that conversation has begun, and Job’s poured out the anguish of his soul. And then today Job’s friend named Eliphaz was trying to comfort him, and he was essentially trying to say to Job, “look, things happen for a reason”, but that if Job would just trust in the Lord, like if he would just put his trust in God, then God would rescue and restore him. So, that sounds like something any of us would say, right? It’s a very familiar…we say these kinds of things all the time when we’re…when we’re trying to be comforting and we’ll see that’s happening throughout the book. I mean, there’s a point they’re gonna get mad at each other, but his friends are trying to reason with Job, they’re trying to sort this out and try to help him with all of all the right things to say, basically. But Job knows all the right things to say. That's…that’s the thing. He knows all the right things to say. He’s been the comforter too, like he knows how to say it. In other words, he has the theology, right? Like, he can say the right thing but it’s not working. It’s not enough. And, so, Job just becomes more agitated as they try to basically talk him out of his position and give him all of the right things to say, but the right things to say are not providing any real answers for Job. He doesn’t want human explanations. He doesn’t want them to say the right thing and rationalize it all out and smooth out all the hard edges and realities. Job wants God to come personally and explain exactly what he did wrong to incur the judgment that he thinks God is…is pouring out upon him. And he does think this. He said it was his own mouth. Like, so just like quoting from Job, “surely the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me. My spirit drinks their poison. God’s terrors are arrayed against me.” So, as we continue through the weekend and into next week, more of this conversation between Job and his friends, this is gonna be heard. And if we pay attention we’re gonna find that that we can identify with both sides of the conversation. We can identify with Job’s suffering and confusion, but we’ll also be able to hear our own voices in what his friends are offering us counsel, comfort. And, so, you know, after that doesn’t work, c,omforts gonna turn to debate and debates gonna to turn to argument and that’s gonna take us through all the different aspects of our own suffering. And we should start wondering like, who’s right here, which is the point…which is the point. And, so let’s stay connected to the story of Job over these next days because it’s actually taking us into our own suffering and…and it’s revealing that we know way, way, way less than we think we do.
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into that. We all suffer. We don’t like to talk about it unless it’s happening and then we talk about it incessantly, but we would rather avoid it altogether. In fact we…we set our lives up in such a way that we do battle against it continually and when we are suffering we are rarely thinking that this has purpose and that something good is happening inside of us, or that something good will come from it. We’re just lost in it and it’s a very confusing thing. And, so, we thank You for allowing us to explore it together and to explore it from ancient times in the book of Job. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.