Job continued his monologue from chapter 26 into Job 27.
I've linked to the NIV-UK. I've never tried that version so I thought I would today!
Interestingly, the NIV-UK laid out the text a little differently by breaking it up into sections. This sectioning isn't apparent in the online version of the NIV. I got my hardback edition of the NIV Study BIble and I noticed the spacing is a little bit larger between the sections and those spacings track with the NIV-UK online edition.
I didn't notice any obvious "Britishism!"
vv. 1-6
And Job continued his discourse:
As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul,
as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,
my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will utter no deceit.
I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.
I can only say that Job is a transparent soul here as he has been throughout. With one hand, he acknowledges God is the source of his life "the breath of God in my nostrils," is powerful by calling him "the Almighty" and is present, "as surely as God lives." And on the other hand, he complained bitterly by saying God "has denied me justice" and "has made made me taste bitterness of soul."
He laid it all on the line in this paragraph in essence saying, my conscience is clear and my hands are clean as far as I can tell and I'm not caving into your suggestions that I am suffering because I sinned somewhere somehow.
vv. 7-10
May my enemies be like the wicked, my adversaries like the unjust!
For what hope has the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
Does God listen to his cry when distress comes upon him?
Will he find delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?
My NIV Study Bible notes for this section suggested that Job is calling his friends enemies and calling down judgement on them. Perhaps. Probably so.
I think Job may also be stating in reverse what he believes with the rhetorical questions.
Put another way: I do have hope because I'm trying to follow God even as my life is draining away. God does listen to my cry amidst this distress. I am still trying to find delight in God and I will keep calling on him even if it is to complain!
vv. 11-12
I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.
You have all seen this yourselves. Why then this meaningless talk?
By Job's words and unwillingness to cave in to "conventional wisdom" he is teaching his friends what a real relationship with God looks like.
vv. 13-23
Here is the fate God allots to the wicked, the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:
However many his children, their fate is the sword; his offspring will never have enough to eat.
The plague will bury those who survive him, and their widows will not weep for them.
Though he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay,
what he lays up the righteous will wear, and the innocent will divide his silver.
The house he builds is like a moth's cocoon, like a hut made by a watchman.
He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.
Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest snatches him away in the night.
The east wind carries him off, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.
It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power.
It claps its hands in derision and hisses him out of his place.
In 10 lines, Job layed out vividly what will happen to the wicked. What does a person possess? He described family, possession and sense of self. The wicked will lose all of it.
Job has lost family. Job lost his wealth. Job lost his health. But the one thing he still has: his sense of self before God.
So the righteous can lose almost as much as the wicked. But oh what a difference that one thing makes.
Lord, have mercy on my soul. How much of my sense of self is in stuff that can be taken away? I confess far too much. Help me to cast myself at your feet and ask for help in keeping the right perspective on my life. I have so much living here in the USA. I'm grateful for that. But help me not to be blinded from where my life truly comes from and has its meaning. Christ have mercy on my soul. Amen.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Job 26
In Job 26, Job spoke.
Then Job replied:
How you have helped the powerless!
How you have saved the arm that is feeble!
What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!
And what great insight you have displayed!
Who has helped you utter these words?
And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?
Job took Bildad to the woodshed here saying what he said was simply not helpful.
After dismissing Bildad, Job turned to the existential reality of all human beings.
The dead are in deep anguish,
those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
Death is naked before God;
Destruction lies uncovered.
Is this a hint of afterlife theology?
If the dead have no existence (i.e. the body dies there is nothing left) then would they feel anguish?
And the construction of these lines of poetry paints a picture of a collection of those who have died who "live" (exist?) "beneath the waters" in a nether world?
Job, for a guy who had been ranting at God, extols God's power.
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth over nothing.
image source: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap971026.html
Only a few hundred astronauts have seen the Earth suspended over nothing!
He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
He covers the face of the full moon,
spreading his clouds over it.
He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
for a boundary between light and darkness.
The pillars of the heavens quake,
aghast at his rebuke.
By his power he churned up the sea;
by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.
By his breath the skies became fair;
his hand pierced the gliding serpent.
Huh? Cut Rahab to pieces?
Turns out Job has used this imagery before in Job 9:13. The text notes in the NIV Study Bible says that it is a reference to an ancient mythological sea monster! The Jewish online encyclopedia offered this information about Rahab.
And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?
Our ability to understand God and the things of God are limited!
We are so busy with our lives that we occasionally note his whisper. What would we comprehend if God raised the volume? It would be like trying to drink from a fire hose.
Lord, have mercy. Great are your works we can see in the creation a reflection of your glory. Thank you that you whisper so I can understand some things. Help me to submit to you in humility knowing you know far more about the ways of the universe. And what faint whispers in my frailty I manage to hear, help me to act upon. Amen.
Then Job replied:
How you have helped the powerless!
How you have saved the arm that is feeble!
What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!
And what great insight you have displayed!
Who has helped you utter these words?
And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?
Job took Bildad to the woodshed here saying what he said was simply not helpful.
After dismissing Bildad, Job turned to the existential reality of all human beings.
The dead are in deep anguish,
those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
Death is naked before God;
Destruction lies uncovered.
Is this a hint of afterlife theology?
If the dead have no existence (i.e. the body dies there is nothing left) then would they feel anguish?
And the construction of these lines of poetry paints a picture of a collection of those who have died who "live" (exist?) "beneath the waters" in a nether world?
Job, for a guy who had been ranting at God, extols God's power.
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth over nothing.
image source: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap971026.html
Only a few hundred astronauts have seen the Earth suspended over nothing!
He wraps up the waters in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.
He covers the face of the full moon,
spreading his clouds over it.
He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters
for a boundary between light and darkness.
The pillars of the heavens quake,
aghast at his rebuke.
By his power he churned up the sea;
by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces.
By his breath the skies became fair;
his hand pierced the gliding serpent.
Huh? Cut Rahab to pieces?
Turns out Job has used this imagery before in Job 9:13. The text notes in the NIV Study Bible says that it is a reference to an ancient mythological sea monster! The Jewish online encyclopedia offered this information about Rahab.
And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?
Our ability to understand God and the things of God are limited!
We are so busy with our lives that we occasionally note his whisper. What would we comprehend if God raised the volume? It would be like trying to drink from a fire hose.
Lord, have mercy. Great are your works we can see in the creation a reflection of your glory. Thank you that you whisper so I can understand some things. Help me to submit to you in humility knowing you know far more about the ways of the universe. And what faint whispers in my frailty I manage to hear, help me to act upon. Amen.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Job 25
Job 25 picked up with one of Job's friends speaking ... and its real short!
I guess the friends are getting tired. I think this is the shortest monologue so far?
A bit of "inside baseball" on reading the Bible before we breakdown the short speech from Bildad.
The Bible contains various literary forms. Each literary form contains sort of an "agreement" between the author and the reader. If you want to explore this idea some more check out How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth.
Anyway, in poetry, one of the things to look for is parallelism. For instance, sometimes, Line 1 will say something and line 2 will say the same thing but using different words. Or line 1 will say something and line 2 will say the opposite to make a point. And other times, line 1 will say something and line 2 will explain line 1 and even on occasion subsequent lines will explain line 1.
So what do we have here?
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
"Dominion and awe belong to God;
Bildad's first line is then explained by the following three lines ...
he establishes order in the heights of heaven.
Can his forces be numbered?
On whom does his light not rise?
All of them are pictures of God's power.
The next set is 3 pairs of lines that say similar things but in different words.
How then can a mortal be righteous before God?
How can one born of woman be pure?
See the parallels?
Mortal = born of woman. Righteous = pure.
image source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/details.php?gid=165&sgid=&pid=1750
If even the moon is not bright
and the stars are not pure in his eyes,
Moon = stars. These are similar in that they are objects in the sky. Today, with science, we know the moon is a cold rock in space while stars are hot fiery massive objects. But to the ancients, they were lights in the sky.
Not bright = not pure.
Again, the theme of purity and how we are not pure compared to God.
how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot -
a human being, who is only a worm!"
Mortal = human being. Maggot = worm. Technically, maggots and worms aren't the same kind of thing. But they are icky crawly things! I resisted the temptation to link to an image of a worm or a maggot.
Is Bildad wrong in what he is saying?
As a general observation on the state of humanity, it is a correct assessment.
But in the case of Job, it isn't relevant. Yes, he is born of a woman and a sinner. But he has also cast himself before God and is righteous in God's eyes such that God has allowed Job to be tested to demonstrate faith in difficult circumstances.
Lord, I come before you in humility knowing you are a powerful and righteous God and that I'm sinful and mortal. Yet, I can come boldly because you have cleansed me through Jesus. I can be shamelessly audacious in asking you for help in the meeting the needs of others. Please give wisdom to friends who are making important decisions. Please provide for the needs of people I know regarding employment issues. I do not know who might click on this blog post but whatever their need might be, may they seek you for help. Help me to live righteously with honesty when I fall short. Give me a mix of love, boldness and humility in how I interact with others. Amen.
I guess the friends are getting tired. I think this is the shortest monologue so far?
A bit of "inside baseball" on reading the Bible before we breakdown the short speech from Bildad.
The Bible contains various literary forms. Each literary form contains sort of an "agreement" between the author and the reader. If you want to explore this idea some more check out How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth.
Anyway, in poetry, one of the things to look for is parallelism. For instance, sometimes, Line 1 will say something and line 2 will say the same thing but using different words. Or line 1 will say something and line 2 will say the opposite to make a point. And other times, line 1 will say something and line 2 will explain line 1 and even on occasion subsequent lines will explain line 1.
So what do we have here?
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
"Dominion and awe belong to God;
Bildad's first line is then explained by the following three lines ...
he establishes order in the heights of heaven.
Can his forces be numbered?
On whom does his light not rise?
All of them are pictures of God's power.
The next set is 3 pairs of lines that say similar things but in different words.
How then can a mortal be righteous before God?
How can one born of woman be pure?
See the parallels?
Mortal = born of woman. Righteous = pure.
image source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/details.php?gid=165&sgid=&pid=1750
If even the moon is not bright
and the stars are not pure in his eyes,
Moon = stars. These are similar in that they are objects in the sky. Today, with science, we know the moon is a cold rock in space while stars are hot fiery massive objects. But to the ancients, they were lights in the sky.
Not bright = not pure.
Again, the theme of purity and how we are not pure compared to God.
how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot -
a human being, who is only a worm!"
Mortal = human being. Maggot = worm. Technically, maggots and worms aren't the same kind of thing. But they are icky crawly things! I resisted the temptation to link to an image of a worm or a maggot.
Is Bildad wrong in what he is saying?
As a general observation on the state of humanity, it is a correct assessment.
But in the case of Job, it isn't relevant. Yes, he is born of a woman and a sinner. But he has also cast himself before God and is righteous in God's eyes such that God has allowed Job to be tested to demonstrate faith in difficult circumstances.
Lord, I come before you in humility knowing you are a powerful and righteous God and that I'm sinful and mortal. Yet, I can come boldly because you have cleansed me through Jesus. I can be shamelessly audacious in asking you for help in the meeting the needs of others. Please give wisdom to friends who are making important decisions. Please provide for the needs of people I know regarding employment issues. I do not know who might click on this blog post but whatever their need might be, may they seek you for help. Help me to live righteously with honesty when I fall short. Give me a mix of love, boldness and humility in how I interact with others. Amen.
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