January 31


Job 18-20

Congrats to those who have reached this milestone of one month in the Scriptures! We are in the 2nd cycle of speeches in the book of Job. We continue in The Message translation and read chapters 18-20.

Today’s reading encompasses Bildad’s second speech, Job’s reply to it, then Zophar’s second speech.  There seems to be no shortage of discouragement in this passage if that’s what anyone is looking for.  We know Job wasn’t looking for discouragement, but there’s a boatload of it dumped on Job.  Enter Bildad for round two:


18 – He asks, “when will you end these speeches?”  Job could have cut in, “when will you end yours?  Come to think of it, are you even talking to me?”  Bildad’s next line sounds like much of the online chat room arguments that clog the internet anymore. “Be sensible and we can talk.” Bildad chides.  A little Proverbs is in order to counter such statements.  Many who argue with strangers online have long forgotten that they’re ALL thinking very similarly.  It goes something like, “I am thinking properly and the rest of you are off-the-rails.”  Pardon me, how is sensible constructive discussion to take place when 90% of the population thinks that they personally are in the top 2% of the population in terms of functional sanity and likeability?  [By the way, that statistic is a psychological fact.]  Discussions don’t take place in these venues, only “put-down” contests.  Point to ponder, is Bildad being sensible? Is he letting Job talk?  It makes one muse as to whom Bildad is talking to, or if he indeed even knows.  He launches into a scathing monologue about the wicked.  Is he talking to Job as he describes the fate of the wicked in a nutshell?  The wicked are lost in the dark, lifeless, trapped, fearful, devoured, doomed, decimated, desolate, ‘absent’, forgotten, and scorned.  Granted, the wicked are destined for all that.  Why insinuate that Job is among them?  It’s fair to ask, is Bildad’s “helping” ,,, helping anyone?
19 – Job’s epic reply to Bildad’s second speech is the stuff of literary legend. His question to Bildad in verse two is a matter that society ought to learn.  Words torment and crush.  How many suicide attempts result from a harsh word?  How many are averted by a kind word?  People are so hopelessly cruel to each other that as soon as youngsters begin communicating, elementary schools need to teach the phrase, “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me…”  Do they have a choice about teaching this?  Honestly, no, because the cruel words are going to keep coming.  The rebuttal Job offers to Bildad runs through verse six.  Then Job expounds with a list of the wrongs that he feels God has dealt his way.  Keep in mind the Bible is honest with us about these grand characters we find throughout the Bible.  It shows us their feelings.  Personal feelings are not ensconced behind a curtain of piety in the Bible.  Job’s feelings are real.  And it is in order to mention Job 2:7 again, lest we think Job’s words expound truth.  Be reminded who is tormenting Job and who Job is imploring.  God is not harming Job here…REMEMBER this!  Job resumes with the social agonies as his peers, his kin, guests, servants, maids, his wife even, brothers, and friends, all have scrapped him and walked off.  Job must have looked like the end of a war.  Right after Job pleads for mercy and to be remembered in vv.21-24 he launches into an eruption of faith that is verbiage to comfort billions all through history: “I know that my Redeemer lives.”  What an eternal reminder to all who feel crushed by life’s woes and tribulations!
20 – Zophar wastes no time and chimes right in with a monologue that leaves any sane man shaking his head in disbelief.  Job is in sheer dismay and agony.  And Zophar, (who is near him) grumbles about how he is disturbed; that he personally has been dishonored.  You hope he’s kidding, right?  He begins his loathsome run by attempting to seem eloquent and ecclesiastical.  He drones on about certain death for all, the vacuous brevity of all flesh, and the stark contrast of the imposter we think is vibrancy that will indeed yield us all to the grave.  Zophar not only states that time is our enemy but also that evilness is at issue for Job.  Face it, if Job wasn’t suffering, Zophar wouldn’t be talking!  What Zophar says to Job is more fitting for Isaiah to dub upon the Assyrians or for Jeremiah to address to the Babylonians.  But this is being said clearly and within earshot of Job.  Would you like to serve Zophar some of his own venom?  Job is a good and upright man who honored God and shunned evil (1:1).  This prose that Zophar points at Job is not germane.  Job is not wicked, nor guilty, nor an oppressor, nor due any of this calamity that has befallen him.  Yet Zophar pompously delivers all the appalling material we hear in chapter 21.  Have you been talked to in these tones amid misfortune?  May we suggest that you ignore all lies, pause and strengthen yourself in the joy of the LORD and declare, “I know that my Redeemer lives!”

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