Introduction: Believed by many to be the oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job tells the story of the incredible suffering and divine restoration of the ancient man Job. Much to our chagrin, it does not answer the age-old question, “Why the righteous suffer?” Instead, it teaches us to trust God in our infirmities, no matter how unjust and unexplainable they may appear to be.

Job 1:1, 8; 2:3, 9 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — Perfect integrity is an integrity that is as unimpeachable in private as it is in public.

 

The true measure of your integrity is who you are when nobody is looking.

 

One little lie can level lifelong integrity.

 

Job 1:1-3, 13-22 —The greatest of men blame God for nothing, but bless God in everything.

 

The heart is best beheld in bereavements rather than blessings, for a heart that belongs to God will blame Him for nothing and bless Him in everything.

 

Job 1:4-5 — We have horribly failed as Christian parents, if our children merely profess Christ with their lips, while living lives that prove they curse Christ in their hearts.

 

Many parents today, unlike Job, don’t pray for their children, but party with their children. Instead of praying heartedly, they too party hardy.

 

Job 1:6-7 — Satan does not come before God because he gets to, but because he has to. God is not accessible to him, but he is accountable to God. (Job 2:1-2)

 

Far from a formidable foe to God, who frustrates God’s plans and purposes, the devil is a mere pawn in the hands of God, who God uses to fulfill His plans and purposes.

 

Job 1:7 — Apollyon is persistently on the prowl, so you should be perpetually on the watch and perennially on your guard, lest you fall prey to one of his plethora of imperiling plots. (Job 2:2; 1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 9:11) 

 

The closer we get to Christ, the more Satan will circle us as prized prey.

 

Job 1:8-12 — God places His protective hedge around His people, so that Satan has no power over them, except what God permits for His own purposes.

 

There is nothing the devil can do to you that God doesn’t allow him to for your good and God’s glory.

 

Job 2:1-2 — Satan does not come before God because he gets to, but because he has to. God is not accessible to him, but he is accountable to God. (Job 1:6-7)

Far from a formidable foe to God, who frustrates God’s plans and purposes, the devil is a mere pawn in the hands of God, who God uses to fulfill His plans and purposes.

Job 2:2 — Apollyon is persistently on the prowl, so you should be perpetually on the watch and perennially on your guard, lest you fall prey to one of his plethora of imperiling plots. (Job 1:7; 1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 9:11) 

 

The closer we get to Christ, the more Satan will circle us as prized prey.

 

Job 2:3-8 — As a last resort, the devil brings out his big guns—disease and death—against the stalwart saint, to coerce him or her into renouncing Christ and reneging on his or her Christian commitment.

 

Despite the devil’s desire to afflict and annihilate God’s chosen saints, especially the choicest among them, he will find them impregnable to him, immune to disease, and invulnerable to death, unless God lifts from them, for His plans and purposes, His protective hedge around them.

Job 2:9 — Many, like Job’s wife, speak without the slightest suspicion that it is Satan who has pulled their chain. (Job 1:11; 2:5) 

 

Far more tongues in this fallen world are set afire by Hell than by Heaven. (James 3:6; Acts 2:1-4)

 

Job 2:10 — To be grateful when blessed and to gripe and grumble when burdened and bothered is to prove oneself a bad buffoon.

 

Contrary to popular opinion, great faith is not proved by everything going right, but by proving oneself faithful when everything goes wrong.

 

If a man can keep himself from sinning at all with his lips, he can keep himself from sinning any in his life, but, unfortunately, no sinner has ever so thoroughly tamed his tongue. (James 3:2, 8)

 

Job 2:11-13 — Sometimes profound suffering calls for prolonged silence.

 

Sometimes it’s more comforting to offer the suffering your company rather than your counsel, especially when you’re not sure of your counsel and it may prove cruel rather than comforting and charitable to the sufferer.

 

Job 3:1-12 — It's possible for the favored of Heaven to fall prey to deep despair upon earth, even to the depths of antinatalism, the protestation of procreation on the premise that the sorrows of life so outweigh the joys that it’s better to have never been born. (Job 1:8; 2:3)

 

Contrary to popular opinion, happiness is not the true measure of spirituality in this fallen sin-cursed world. Some times the most spiritual among us is the saddest of us all. Remember, Jesus wasn't a "seventh heavenist," but a man of sorrows. 

 

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, "the Prince of Preachers," like so many heroes of the Christian Faith, struggled throughout his life with depression. He once said of his affliction: "I, of all men, am perhaps the subject of the deepest depression at times...I am the subject of depression so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to." Yet, like the Psalmist, Spurgeon learned that God intended his affliction for his good (Psalm 119:71). Thus, he famously proclaimed, "I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.”

 

Once I heard a song of sweetness,

As it cleft the morning air,

Sounding in its blest completeness,

Like a tender, pleading prayer;

And I sought to find the singer,

Whence the wondrous song was borne;

And I found a bird, sore wounded,

Pinioned by a cruel thorn.

 

I have seen a soul in sadness,

While its wings with pain were furl’d,

Giving hope, and cheer and gladness

That should bless a weeping world;

And I knew a life of sweetness,

Was of pain and sorrow borne,

And a stricken soul was singing,

With its heart against a thorn.

 

Ye are told of One who loved you,

Of a Saviour crucified,

Ye are told of nails that pinioned,

And a spear that pierced His side;

Ye are told of cruel scourging,

Of a Saviour bearing scorn,

And He died for your salvation,

With His brow against a thorn.

 

Ye “are not above the Master.”

Will you breathe a sweet refrain?

And His grace will be sufficient,

When your heart is pierced with pain.

Will you live to bless His loved ones,

Tho’ your life be bruised and torn,

Like the bird that sang so sweetly,

With its heart against a thorn?

 

Job 3:13-19 — Death is indiscriminate and the grave the great equalizer. 

 

The grave is level ground; for within it there is no distinction between sovereigns and stillborns, monarchs and miscarriages, oppressors and the oppressed, or the tranquil and the troubled.

 

Job 3:20-26 — Although humanly perplexing, there is a divine purpose for every life, even the lives of those who pursue the grave like a buried treasure, because they are plagued with problems and have no prospects for the future.

 

The most meaningful lives are not necessarily the merriest, but might be the most melancholy.

 

Job 4:1-2 — Cruel and condemning comforters, like Job’s, can never contain themselves. Though it would be better for them and others if they would, they can’t, because they’re too taken with their own thinking and too enamored with the sound of their own voice.

 

As is proven by his diatribe in Job 4:1-5:27, Eliphaz, one of Job’s cruel comforters, was an ancient version of a modern-day prosperity preacher, preaching that good fortune is proof of spirituality and bad fortune of sin?

 

Job 4:3-5 — We cannot encourage the discouraged if we become evidently dismayed over our own discouragements.

 

Those overcome by trials cannot encourage others to overcome trials.

 

Job 4:6-9 — We are neither protected from perils by our piety nor immunized from infirmities by our integrity.

 

Sorrow is not always reaped from the sowing of personal sin. Many a righteous Job may be found on an ash heap.

 

Job 4:12-21 — If personal sin is the source of all personal suffering, as Eliphaz explained, then, how, as Eliphaz envisioned, could any sinner be sinless enough to live free of all suffering?

 

The want of problems in one’s life is no prove of piety nor is the presence of woes in one’s life proof of wickedness.

 

Job 5:7 — Man is born in sin and therefore born to suffer, for as sure as sparks fly upward from a fire, sinners will suffer in this fallen world.

 

Although Jesus assured us of eventual triumph over this world, He also assured us of the inevitability of trouble in this world. (John 16:33)

 

Job 5:17-19 — We should not despise the discipline of the Lord, for though it  crushes, it corrects, though it wounds, it makes whole, and though it is grievous, it is for our good.

 

The chastening of the Lord confirms that we are His children, for it is only His children that He chastens.  (Hebrews 12:5-8)

 

Job 6:1-4 — It is hard not to toot a sour note when one’s troubles seem to outweigh the sands of the sea. Likewise, it is easy to get a poisoned spirit when one feels pierced with a plethora of poison tipped troubles. 

 

In times of trouble, we must neither resort to rash speaking nor relent to a resentful spirit. 

 

Job 6:5-7 — Just because donkeys bray over the lack of grass, cows low over the lack of fodder, and men complain over flavorless food, doesn’t mean a man has the right to grip and grumble to God over his griefs.

 

To complain to Christ about your problems is to usurp the place of Christ in your life, as though you know what is best better than He does. 

 

Job 6:10 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — You can rejoice, even in unrelenting pain, if you have not refuted your faith nor repudiated God’s Word. 

 

To stand on God’s Word weak-kneed and to hold to your faith white knuckled, while under life’s backbreaking burdens, is the guarantee of a great faith. 

 

Job 6:11-21 — No man with no hope for his future can be helped by his friends.

 

The Christian’s hope is a living and everlasting hope, because it is found in the ever-living Christ. It is safe and secure for as long as Christ, who lives forevermore, is alive. Therefore, it, like Christ, is eternal and never ending. (1 Peter 1:3; Revelation 1:18)

 

Job 6:25 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — The truth may hurt, but it is better to be cut and corrected by it than to be comforted and commended by a lie.

 

Not only is the Christian to speak the truth in love, but true love always speaks the truth. It never speaks lies, in the hope of sparing someone’s feelings, but always speaks the truth, in the hope of saving someone’s soul. (Ephesians 4:15)

 

Job 6:26-30 — The desperate cry of the despairing should not be disregarded as mere wind nor should their despair be presumed to be proof of their wickedness.

 

Even the highly favored of Heaven, like Job, can fall prey to deepest, darkest despair. 

 

Job 7:1-4 — Whereas a manual laborer, who is assigned to moiling and monotonous labor, longs for an evening’s rest at the end of his difficult day, a man, who is weary of a lamentable and laborious life, longs for eternal rest at the end of his difficult days. 

 

“A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.” (Charlotte Bronte)

 

Job 7:6-10 — Life is swift, swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and short, like a breath or a cloud, which quickly dissipates and disappears.

 

The brevity of this life should bring us clarity about the gravity of eternity, for focusing on the fleeting at the forfeiture of the forever is both a foolish and fatal frivolity! 

 

Job 7:17-21 — Man’s significance is made plain by the abundant attention God pays to him. If man didn’t matter, God would pay him no mind. He would not only ignore man’s sin, but also be indifferent about man’s salvation. 

 

All the proof you will ever need of your significance to God is a quick glance at the bloody, bruised, and torn figure of Christ hanging on the cross of Calvary for your salvation!

 

Job 8:3-4 — Although a just God never perverts justice, many a preacher does when he attributes every human tragedy to an act of divine judgment, as though those who die in disasters deserve to do so, being more sinful than those who survive disasters or are spared from them. 

 

Jesus taught us that catastrophes should not cause us to condemn their unsuspecting casualties, but ought to be seen by us as calls to repentance, lest we someday unrepentantly perish unexpectedly. (Luke 13:1-5)

 

Job 8:5-7 — The God-condemned preaching of Bildad, like the heretical preaching of present-day prosperity preachers, proclaimed riches to be proof of righteousness and worldly prosperity proof of purity of heart. (Job 42:7-9)

 

Instead of signifying shoo-ins for Heaven, who are made enviable by God, riches can be a stumbling block to Heaven, to those who are estranged from God. (Mark 10:23)

 

Job 8:8-10 — Just as the present generation will do well to learn from previous generations, today’s younger generation will do well to learn from today’s older generation.

 

A younger generation that doesn’t learn from its older generation dooms itself to repeat the errors of its  elders.

 

Job 8:13-19 — Not only is the seeming success of the ungodly a fake facade, but their faith is in fragile things, their hope is fleeting fast, and their joy is to be soon forgotten. 

 

To look away from the Lord, our only Savior, and to other things, is like leaning on a spider’s web for your stability and security.

 

Job 8:20-22 — Rejoicing is not necessarily indicative of righteousness nor gladness and laughter a sure sign of godly living.

 

Many a holy saint has found himself an unhappy soul in this horrific fallen world.

 

Job 9:1-4 — How can a feeble and fallible man bring a case before the Heavenly bar against his omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipotent (all-powerful) God?

 

It is the height of hubris for the creature to bring charges against the Creator, for the earth to judge the Judge of all the earth, or for a mere man to make accusations against  the Almighty, to whom all men are ultimately accountable. (Romans 9:20; Genesis 18:25; Romans 14:12)

 

Job 9:7-9 — The stars do not control our lives, but our Lord controls the stars.

 

Christians are not under the control of the constellations, but the constellations are under the control of Christ. 

 

Esau and Jacob were born of the same father and mother, at the same time, and under the same planets, but their nature was wholly different. You would persuade me that astrology is a true science? (Martin Luther)

 

Job 9:10-11 — The invisible God who does innumerable incredible things is often indiscernible in our lives.

 

Although God is always at work, His invisible hand often goes undetected until seen over our shoulder with 20/20 hindsight. 

 

Job 9:12 — God will not quit His work nor can His work be questioned. 

 

God can neither be inhibited nor interrogated. 

 

Job 9:14-16 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible)— God does not answer to man, and man has no right to argue with God nor to demand God’s attention.

 

All man can do before the Heavenly bar is throw himself on the mercy of the court. 

 

Job 9:17-20 — No man can defend himself against a deluge of divers difficulties by declaring himself undeserving of them.

 

No matter how much we perceive life’s difficulties to be unjust, they can never be determined to be more than our just desserts nor can God ever be declared to be anything but just in His dealings with us.

 

Job 9:22-24 — Although both the saint and the sinner may die in a disaster, be waylaid by the wicked, or be the victim of injustice, a sovereign God will see to it that it ultimately works out for His glory and the saint’s good. (Romans 8:28)

 

When this passing world is done, 

When has sunk yon glaring sun,

When we stand with Christ in glory, 

Looking over life’s finished story, 

Then, Lord, shall I fully know—

Not till then—how much I owe.

 

Job 9:25-26 — The days of our lives fly by as fast as a speedy runner, as fast as a swift ship, and as fast as an eagle swooping down for its prey. 

 

Life Is Just a Minute (By: Benjamin E. Mays) 

I’ve only just a minute,

Only sixty seconds in it.

Forced upon me, can’t refuse it,

Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it,

But it’s up to me to use it.

I must suffer if I lose it,

Give an account if I abuse it,

Just a tiny little minute,

But eternity is in it. 

 

Job 9:27-28 — Acquittal with God is not acquired by covering a bad attitude with a good appearance.

 

It’s not by your appearance that you are spiritually assessed by God, but by your attitude. 

 

Job 9:32-35 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — Man cannot force God to deal with him on human terms, but must fear God and come to Him on divine terms.

 

For you to object to God’s terms is for you to be left on your own. 

 

Job 10:1-22 — If you do not trust God in your troubles, you will blame God for your troubles. Instead being reliant upon God, you will become resentful toward God.

 

If in times of trouble, we fail the grace of God—turn from God in resentfulness rather than to God in reliance—we will become bitter toward God and a stumbling block to others. (Hebrews 12:15)

 

Job 11:3 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — I suspect this verse is the life verse for many present-day politicians, who expect all tongues to be bridled, but their babbling ones, themselves to be held above reproach, and all who disagree with their drivel to be roundly and readily ridiculed.

 

Most people speak, because they believe they have something to say, but most politicians speak, because they believe they must say something. 

 

Job 11:6 — As Zophar argued, God exacted less from Job than Job’s iniquity deserved. Despite all Job had suffered, he, like all of us, deserved worse; namely, Hell.

 

The last thing we should ask God for is justice, what we deserve, which is damnation and Hell. Instead, we should ask God for grace and mercy, what we don’t deserve, which is salvation and Heaven. 

 

Job 11:7-9  — No man can fully know all there is to know about God, for the knowledge of Him is higher than Heaven, deeper than Hell, bigger than the earth, and broader than the sea.

 

“A comprehended God is no God.” (John Chyrsostom)

 

Job 11:12 (HCSB Holman Christians Standard Bible) — Stupid men have as much of a chance of becoming smart as wild donkeys do of being born human beings. 

 

Ignorance can be educated, crazy can be medicated, but there is no cure for stupid.

 

Job 11:18 (HCSB Holman Christians Standard Bible) — It is the consolation of hope that serves as the cornerstone of human courage and confidence.

 

In Dante’s Inferno a sign hangs above the entrance to Hell that reads, “Abandon all hope, you who enter here.” Truly, Hell is hopelessness.

 

Job 12:1-4 — Public opinion, which consists mostly of the well rehearsed and oft repeated popular cliches of the day, lauds itself as infallible and laughs at all who refuse to follow it, especially those who look instead for all of their answers to life's questions from God.

 

Truth is not determined by public opinion, to believe otherwise, turns public opinion into tyranny and truth into popular thinking.

 

Job 12:7-25 — Either the hand of God is in all things or there is no hand of God at all.

 

If God is not real and does not reign, then, life is without rhyme or reason. 

 

Job 12:22 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — Only God can reveal divine mysteries or radiate the deepest darkness with divine light.

 

Only God can bring us out of the darkness of human ignorance into the illumination of divine light.

 

Job 12:23 — Don’t be deceived, it's God alone who makes nations great or destroys them. America's fate is not in the hands of Americans, but in the hands of the Almighty.

 

It’s not MAGA Americans, but only God Almighty who can make America great again. Therefore, our Christian prayer closets are far more important than our country’s polling places.

 

Job 13:1-3 —Like Job, we too should desire dialogue and an audience with God over debate and an argument with men.

 

A moment in prayer with God will do you more good than a millennium of parleying with guys and gals. 

 

Job 13:4 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — There is no more deceptive nor dangerous lie than one coated with truth.

 

A half-truth is still a whole lie. 

 

Job 13:5 — Sometimes the smartest thing to do is keep your mouth shut.

 

When you don’t know what you’re talking about, you ought not to be talking.

 

John 13:7-8 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — Many a presumptuous man has presumed to argue for God by putting his own untrue and unjust words in God’s mouth.

 

God can speak through a man, but no man speaks for God. While we should speak and share God’s Word with others, we should never substitute our words for God’s Word to others. 

 

Job 13:12 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — Many a catchy Christian cliche and popular platitude is as about as profitable as ash to those in anguish.

 

Not every problem can be simply solved with three points and a poem or a bumper sticker or T-shirt quip. 

 

Job 13:13-16 — From the depths of despair, Job rose to the pinnacle of all professions of faith, when he arose from his ash heap to publicly proclaim, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!”

 

A true faith in God is one that can be professed no less passionately nor positively with one’s dying breath. 

 

Job 13:20-24 — It is hard to appeal to God when we wrongfully assume we’re in His angry grip. Furthermore, it is hard to have a contrite heart before God when we wrongfully assume He has charges against us that are unknown to us.

 

It is both a grave and great mistake to assume that our every adversity is evidence of God’s enmity against us for some unindicted iniquity.     

 

Job 13:25-27 — Though we, like Job, may feel God terrifies, taunts, thwarts, and toys with us, nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, as it was with Job, God may be showing us off rather than putting us in His sights.

 

Contrary to popular opinion, being highly favored of Heaven might not mean you’ll have less, but more hardships than others, since you’ll be more targeted by Hell. 

 

Job 13:28 — Our fallen and corrupt bodies are truly rotting and ragged things, of which we will soon be disrobed.

 

While people are obsessed with the care of their mortal bodies, most are oblivious to the care of their immortal souls.

 

Job 14:1-3 — Man’s life is no more than a few trouble-filled days. It is fleeting, like a flower that quickly blooms and withers or like a shadow that suddenly appears and disappears.

 

God will not judge us on the quantity of our lives, but on the quality of our lives. He will not judge us by the troubles we were dealt, but by how we dealt with our troubles.

 

Job 14:4 — It is impossible for any man to make the unclean clean or the impure pure. Yet, what is impossible with man, is possible with God. (Luke 18:27)

 

Through Christ, God, without compromising His perfect justice, has not only made it possible for the unclean to be cleansed and the impure to be purified, but also for the unjust to be justified. (Romans 3:21-26)

 

Job 14:5 - If God has numbered our days, is He constantly recalculating them, subtracting or adding days depending upon how many Cheetos we eat or vitamins we take?

 

Our personal longevity is preordained by the Lord, so we’ll not live one day past Providence’s predetermined limit.

 

Job 14:14 — The age-old question of life after death—“If a man die, shall he live again?”—which was trepidatiously asked by Job in antiquity, was thankfully answered by Jesus in the affirmative. (John 11:25-26)

 

If this life is all, then, it’s all for nothing, but if there is life after death, then, the afterlife is all-important. 

 

Job 14:15 — As the work of God’s hands, man has hope of being raised from the dead by the hand of God.

 

God neither disregards nor discards His handiwork. 

 

Job 15:2-3 — There is no such thing as a wise windbag.

 

Wisdom never wastes its breath! 

 

Job 15:4 — Others’ prayers to God can be restrained by the unrestrained tongues of those who are irreverent toward God. 

 

Loose talk about the Lord can keep others from talking to the Lord.

 

Job 15:5-6 — Sin is most often made manifest by the mouth, which, more than anything else, serves as an adverse witness against all sinners.

 

On the day of judgment, our words shall serve as witnesses for or against us; they will either justify or condemn us. (Matthew 12:36-37)

 

Job 15:12-13 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — The eyes, being the window to the heart, show the state of the heart. For instance, an angry stare shows an angry heart and a tender look shows a tender heart. (Matthew 6:22-23)

 

“The eyes are a window to the soul.” (William Shakespeare) 

 

Job 15:31 — To be led astray by trusting in worthless things is to squander one's life accumulating worthless treasures.

 

Made up gods guarantee misspent lives.

 

Job 16:1-2 — Cruel comforters are not only guilty of maligning others by misinterpreting and misapplying Scripture, but also of spiritual malpractice, which always leaves others comfortless rather than comforted.

 

No enemy combatant is more demoralizing than an excoriating counselor.

 

Job 16:3 (NLT New Living Translation) — Hot air never refreshes the anguished and hurting.

 

As you partake of the world's [verbal] fare,
[Here’s some] darned good advice to follow.
Spit out all of the hot air
And be careful what you swallow. (Dr. Sues)

 

Job 16:4-5 — The hurting do not need us to harangue them with our words or to wag our heads at them. Instead, they need us to help them rather harass them, and to exhort and encourage them rather than to excoriate them.

 

We should not backhand, but give a helping hand to all of those we find on the ash heaps of life. 

 

Job 16:19, 21 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — It’s not the accusations of our accusers in this world, but the arbitration of our Advocate in Heaven that determines our guilt or innocence before God.

 

Because Christ, who ever lives at the Father’s right hand to make intercession for us, as our advocate, argues our case before the Heavenly bar, we are assured of an eternal acquittal. (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1)

 

Job 17:3 — Here is the crux of Job’s contention with his cruel comforters, unlike them, Job did not believe that he could make himself right with God or reconcile himself to God, but that he could only be reconciled to God by God, who alone could make things right between them.

 

Our reconciliation with God is only possible because of what Jesus has done for us, which we could have never done for ourselves. Therefore, we must stop trying to make ourselves right with God and start trusting Jesus to do it for us.

 

Job 17:4 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — Hearts closed to understanding will never be honored by God, but always humiliated by God, for their hardheadedness and hardheartedness.

 

Those not in the know will never be in the right. 

 

Job 17:9 — As long as one’s path is righteous and one’s hands are clean, one’s conscience is not stricken and one’s confidence grows stronger and stronger. (1 John 3:21)

 

The righteous are proven by their perseverance on the path of righteousness. (Matthew 24:13)

 

Job 17:10-16 — Job sarcastically challenges his cruel comforters to futilely try again to deliver him from his despair, but trenchantly argues that death alone can do so.

 

If we retain our faith in God, we will hold fast to our endless hope, but if we relinquish our faith in God, we will horribly fear a hopeless end.

 

 

Job 18:7 — The wicked are cast down by their own counsel and done in by their own deliberations.

 

To live by your wit and human reason rather than by God’s Word and divine revelation is to self-afflict your mortal soul with a fatal wound.  

 

Job 18:8-10 — The schemes of the wicked will prove to be snares for their own feet.

 

The wicked are doomed to end up dangling by their heels from their own heinous devices.

 

Job 18:14, 21 — Terror is a king that will inevitably rule over all who do not know God, especially in death, which Aristotle called, “The most terrible of all terrors.”

 

Those who do know God are not only freed from their fear of death by Christ (Hebrews 2:13-15), but also given 365 “fear nots” in God’s Word, one for every day of the year.

 

Job 18:17-20 — Although the predecessors of a wicked man were affrighted, thinking forward to their own demise, and the successors of a wicked man are astonished, thinking back on his demise, all the wicked are doomed to eternal demise and to be forever forgotten.

 

While the righteous will be remembered, the memory of the wicked will rot. (Proverbs 10:7)

 

Job 19:4-5 — A man’s failings are his own fault. He should acknowledge his guilt and repent, not be gloated over by others and reproached.

 

Sinners are not only ultimately responsible for their own sins, but also unqualified to reproach others for their sins.

 

Job 19:7-12 (NLT New Living Translation) — All of us can sympathize with Job, in that we too have felt at times that the heavens were brass and banded against us.

 

John of the Cross called these seasons of sensed divine abandonment “dark nights of the soul” and Martin Luther coined a word for them—“Anfechtungun.” Both considered these spiritually arid times in the wilderness of this world to be periods of utmost “unselfing” and utter surrender to the unknown, but ultimately perfect will of God.

 

Job 19:13-20 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — All of us can sympathize with Job, in that we too have felt at times forsaken by our own family and friends, as well as ill-served and ill-treated by others, especially when we ourselves were in ill-health.

 

This verse in Scripture, Job 19:20, is the source and origin of the well-worn expression, “By the skin of my teeth.”

 

Job 19:23-27 — Once again Job rises from his ash heap and insufferable situation to the pinnacle of profession to not only profess his undying faith in his ever-living Redeemer, but to also call for his profession of faith to be carved in stone for posterity.

 

From the depths of his despair, Job boldly declares his confidence in Christ. He emphatically states from the depths of his exuberant soul that someday he shall see Christ upon this earth with his own eyes, even if it is after his mortal demise and his mortal body’s decay. 

 

Job 19:28-29 — Those who set in judgment over the suffering need to be careful lest they suffer judgment themselves.

 

Those who backhand and excoriate the suffering are in danger of experiencing suffering firsthand.

 

Job 20:1-3 — Prompted to speak impetuously by one’s hurt feelings never proves to be prudent nor productive.

 

The mouth should never be motivated to speak by mean-spiritedness. 

 

Job 20:4-5 — The mirth and merriment of the wicked is but for a moment. 

 

Sin may have pleasure for a season, but its season of pleasure is always short-lived. (Hebrews 11:25)

 

Job 20:6-11 — Though the wicked live with their heads in the clouds, their bones will eventually lie in the dust.

 

Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? 

Like a swift-fleeing meteor, a fast-flying cloud, 

A flash of the Lightning, a break of the wave, 

Man passes from life to his rest in the grave. (William Knox)

 

Job 20:12-15 — Although wickedness is sweet in the mouth, it is sickening once swallowed. It may appear palatable and even delectable, but always proves in the end to be nauseating and poisonous.

 

To feast upon wicked fare is to fatally feed oneself forbidden fruit. 

 

Job 20:18-21 (NLT New Living Translation) — All the ill-gotten gain grasped and gripped by the wicked in their greed will be pried from their cold dead hands in the grave.

 

It doesn’t matter if you get all you can and can all you get, because you still can’t take it with you when you go. 

 

Job 20:24-29 — The inheritance of the wicked is inescapable judgment, impermanent possessions, and universal condemnation.

 

The ultimate lot of the wicked is a most lamentable one indeed. 

 

Job 21:7-16 — Job grapples here with the age-old question of why the wicked prosper and are not punished by God for their ingratitude, impertinence, and incorrigibleness.

 

Many grievously suffering saints have greatly struggled with the glaring successes of insufferable sinners. 

 

Job 21:17-21 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — Job’s problem with the wicked not being promptly punished by God was a product of his own impatience. (Job 21:4 NLT)

 

Whereas God is patient, long suffering toward sinners, not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9), Job was impatient, wanting to see sinners promptly punished and presently perishing for their sins. Thankfully, God is not like Job, lest no sinner should be mercifully spared to be miraculously saved.

 

Job 21:22-26 — Death is indiscriminate, making no distinction between the vitality of youth and the infirmity of old age nor between the blessings of prosperity and the bitterness of poverty.

 

Man’s final appointment is a matter of divine sovereignty, not discernible equity or human seniority. (Hebrews 9:26)

 

Job 21:27-34 — Job’s friends could no more comfort him with their argument that his suffering was caused by his sin than Job could convince his friends that some sinners seemingly do not suffer at all.

 

While Job confesses to being puzzled over life’s perplexities, his friends not only claim to have life all figured out, but also that all of life works out just as they’ve figured. 

 

Job 22:2-3 — Not only does God need nothing from man, but man can add nothing to God.

 

Although God is indispensable to us, we are not indispensable to God.

 

Job 22:4-11 — It is an atrocious heresy to attribute all affliction to the abundant wickedness and innumerable iniquities of the sorely afflicted.

 

The last thing the suffering need is to be falsely accused or to have their faith assailed. 

 

Job 22:12 — A light year is the distance light can travel in a year at 186,000 miles a second. The farthest know star is estimated to be 28 billion light years away from the earth. Yet, according to the Bible, God is higher than the highest star.

 

William Beebe, the naturalist, used to tell this story about Teddy Roosevelt. At Sagamore Hill, after an evening of talk, the two would go out on the lawn and search the skies for a certain spot of star-like light near the lower left-hand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus. Then Roosevelt would say: “That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns, each larger than our sun.” Then Roosevelt would grin and tell Beebe, “Now I think we are small enough! Let’s go to bed.”

 

Job 22:14 — God walks on the circuit of heaven; that is, on the arch of the earth. Here, in possibly the oldest book in the Bible, the Scripture speaks, as it does elsewhere, of the earth being round. (Isaiah 40:22)

 

Hundreds of years before man discovered that the earth was spherical, the divinely inspired Scripture declared it!

 

Job 22:21 — Now is the time to acquaint yourself with God, for acquaintance to God is the prerequisite for peace with God.

 

Good will come to you when you come to God. 

 

Job 22:21 (NLT New Living Translation) — There is no peace with God without submission to God, for our enmity with God will never end unless we surrender to Him.

 

Only by coming to God in complete surrender can we continue on with God into spiritual prosperity.

 

Job 22:21-30 — Eliphaz’s words are true, but wrongly targeted. In fact, if Eliphaz himself had been better acquainted with God, he would have understood that human anguish is not proof of divine unacquaintance.

 

Those truly acquainted with God wholeheartedly delight in God,  keep their vows to God, and have their prayers answered by God.

 

Job 23:2-7 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — A clear conscience does not seek God’s exoneration, but God’s explanation for excruciation, believing that there is always some divine reason for the distress of the righteous.

 

We cannot force ourselves onto the docket of the Heavenly bar, no matter how much or how long we complain about our case not being heard. Heaven’s courtroom convenes in God’s time, not ours. 

 

Job 23:8-9 — There are times when we can’t find a trace of God, despite how diligently we look in every direction.

 

When darkness veils his lovely face,

I rest on his unchanging grace;

In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the veil. (Edward Mote)

 

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face. (William Cowper)

 

Job 23:8-10 — In the flames of feeling God-forsaken our faith in God is strengthened by being sorely tested and surely refined into finest gold.

 

God sends trials not to reduce nor ruin us, but to raise and refine us.

 

Job 23:10-12 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — Those who follow in God’s tracks, as well as treasure and not turn away from His truths, will always emerge tried-and-true when tested.

 

Pure gold is proven by testing. If there was no testing, there would be no way to tell pure gold. 

 

Job 23:13-17 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — God is immutable and His plans and purposes inevitable; no man on earth, no devil in Hell, no angel in Heaven can prevent them from coming to pass.

 

No one sure of God’s perfect love for us will ever be scared by God’s sovereignty over us. However, those, like Job, whose perils have persuaded them that God is unjustly perturbed at them, will not only doubt God’s perfect love, but also be petrified at the prospect of Divine Providence. (1 John 4:18)

 

Job 24:1 — If God has set a time to judge the wicked, why does He not expedite it and make an example of them? After all, would the immediate punishment of the wicked not provide people with an incentive to be pious?

 

Contrary to Job’s opinion, swift divine retribution would no more incentivize repentance from sin than the supernatural resurrection of the dead (Luke 16:31). Nowhere is this seen more clearly in Scripture than in the book of Revelation (Revelation 9:30-31; 16:8-11). Only the power of the Gospel, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and the miracle of regeneration can turn the sinner from sin to the Savior.

 

Job 24:2-12, 18-25 — The prayers of the poor, under the oppressive injustices of the wicked, may appear to be presently ignored, but they will inevitably be answered by God, who will in indubitably annihilate the wicked. 

 

According to Job, his contention that the prosperity of the wicked is fleeting and that the wicked themselves will forever perish is an unchallengeable certainty. (Job 24:25)

 

Job 24:13-17 — The wicked, such as the murderer, the thief, and the adulterer, rise up at twilight and run from daylight.

 

Sinners hate the light, lest it expose their evil, but delight in the dark, because it shrouds their sin. (John 3:19) 

 

Job 25:2-3 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — God, who rules the universe, should be universally revered.

 

God commands the stars by night, which are legion and utterly innumerable, and the light of the sun by day, which is universally imparted. 

 

Job 25:4 — The answer to Bildad’s critical question—How can a man be justified with God or ever be clean before God?—is found in the blood of Christ alone! (Romans 5:9; 1 John 1:7)

 

NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS (Robert Lowry)

 

What can wash away my sin? 

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

What can make me whole again? 

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

 

For my pardon this I see: 

nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

For my cleansing this my plea: 

nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

 

Nothing can for sin atone: 

nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

Naught of good that I have done: 

nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

 

This is all my hope and peace: 

nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

This is all my righteousness: 

nothing but the blood of Jesus.

 

O precious is the flow 

that makes me white as snow; 

no other fount I know; 

nothing but the blood of Jesus.

 

Job 25:4 — Only the wisdom of divine omniscience could devise a plan of salvation that would solve the insoluble problem of justifying and purifying unjust and imperfect men without compromising in anyway the perfect justice of a just and perfect God. (Romans 3:21-26)

 

Thanks to the blood of Jesus, no sin is swept under the rug of divine justice by a just God's justification of a believing and unjust sinner.

 

Job 25:5-6 — If the nighttime brightness of the moon and stars are dim in comparison to the brilliance of God’s glory, how can man, a mere creature from the dust, hope to dazzle God with his diminutiveness?

 

In one of his most beloved hymns, Issac Watts wrote: “Alas! and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die! Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?” Watt’s words, however, have been changed in modern-day hymnals to read, “sinners such as I,” instead of, “for such a worm as I.” I guess today’s WOKE world felt the need to worm its way out of such a definitive and derogatory scriptural description of all of fallen humanity.

 

Job 26:2-4 — We could call these words of Job divinely inspired sarcasm, since he sarcastically skewers, here on the sacred pages of Scripture, his three terrible would-be teachers.

 

One of Job’s trio of terrible teachers, Eliphaz, had previously professed to have been enlightened with wise words from a mysterious spirit (Job 4:12-16). Here, Job asks his cruel comforters to identity the spirit speaking through them. This, as the Apostle John teaches us in 1 John 4:1-3, is essential to determining a terrible teacher from a true one, as well as a false prophet from a faithful one.

 

Job 26:7 — Possibly 2,000 years before Christ, as well as 4,000 years ago, the ancient man Job declared that the earth was suspended in space.

 

What other explanation, apart from divine inspiration, is there for this declaration from ancient antiquity of this modern-day scientific discovery?

 

Job 26:14 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — As fallen men we behold God’s ways from the fringes and hear His Word but faintly; consequently, our understanding of Him is at best fragmental. 

 

"It is completely incomprehensible to us how God can reveal himself and to some extent make himself known in created beings: eternity in time, immensity in space, infinity in finite, immutability in change, being in becoming, the all, as it were, in that which is nothing. This mystery cannot be comprehended; it can only be gratefully acknowledged." (Herman Bavinck)

Job 27:1-6 — Pardon the pun, but Job’s words here to his cruel and condemning comforters could be pithily paraphrased, “I’ll be damned if you are right.”

 

Although Job blames God and complains to God, he never blasphemes God nor curses God. Furthermore, he holds on to his integrity, despite the efforts of the devil and his mouthpieces—Job’s wife and cruel comforters—to pry his integrity out of his hands. (Job 1:11; 2:5, 9)

 

Job 27:7-12 — Job warns his cruel comforters that God’s judgment of the wicked could fall on them for their own wickedness; that is, for falsely accusing him of wickedness.

 

God’s law calls for false witnesses to face the same fate that they tried to foredoom the falsely accused to. (Deuteronomy 19:16-19)

 

Job 27:13-23 — Job has no qualms with his cruel comforters’ contention that the wicked will certainly be judged by God, but his quarrel is with their assumption that his present predicament is proof of his personal sin and of God’s severe punishment of him.

 

It’s possible to get your exhortation of Scripture right, but your application of it wrong. For instance, Scripture does say in one place, “Judas went out and hanged himself,” and then in another, “Go do thou likewise.”

 

Job 28:1-28 — Wisdom cannot be prospected like a gem nor purchased with gold, it can only be procured from God.

 

Wisdom is found in the fear of the Lord and sound reason in repentance from sin. (Job 28:28) 

 

Job 29:1-6 — Job seems to insinuate here that it is a “secret” to him why he enjoyed fellowship with God and the favor of God in the past, only to be forsaken by God in the present. After all, he figured he was no less faithful to God currently than he had been previously.

 

God will ever remain a mystery to those who not only interpret good fortune as divine acceptance and bad fortune as divine abandonment, but who also believe both good and bad fortune are products of one’s personal goodness or badness.

 

Job 29:3 — We need the lamp of the Lord to shine over us and the light of the Lord to show us the way through our every dark day. 

 

Surrender your life to God and the light of God will shine on your life.

 

Job 29:7-11, 21-25 — Job laments being reviled by his friends and longs for the days when he was respected and revered by his fellows.

 

Whereas others once hung on Job’s every word, Job was now being hung by others with his every word.

 

INFLUENTIAL TODAY IGNORED TOMORROW

 

Walter Winchell, the most feared and influential newspaper columnist in history, whose words could make or break politicians and celebrities, ended up handing out complimentary mimeographed sheets of his own column on a street corner to anyone who would take one. When he died, no one came to his funeral, but his own daughter. 

 

Job 29:12-20 — Like so many today, Job mistakenly believed his past charity assured him of future prosperity.

 

Many a benevolent act is born out of the hope of benefiting the benevolent more than the beggarly. In other words, much of what passes for charity today is more concerned with getting a good return on one’s giving than with doing a good turn for the needy.

 

Job 30:1 — The old and affirmed are often derided by the descendants of those they would not have elected as dog catcher.

 

Retirement is the realm of nobodies who were somebodies, but are now overlooked by almost everybody. 

 

Job 30:1-8 — Job, who was once held in high esteem by the highly esteemed, suddenly found himself disdained by both the despicable and the deplorable.

 

It is truly adding insult to injury when the injured are insulted by the ignominious and insufferable. 

 

Job 30:9-15 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — The breach in God’s protective hedge (Job 1:10) and the loosening of Job’s bowstring had left Job feeling both vulnerable to, as well as defenseless against, the mockery of men. 

 

How could Job, with his children all dead and his wealth all gone, sitting on an ash heap, and scrapping his boiled-covered body with a piece of shard pottery, possibly prove himself to be the highly favored of Heaven to a world plumb full of earthly hecklers? 

 

Job 30:18-19 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — Job felt like God had grabbed him up by the nap of the neck and thrown him down in dust and ashes.

 

God often knocks us to our knees to get us to pray, so that we can see from our knees that life’s stumbling stones are stepping stones rather than grave stones.

 

Job 30:20 — What Job found truly intolerable in all of his troubles was the troubling feeling that he had been forsaken by God.

 

To the true man or woman of God, it is not life’s trials, troubles, or even tragedies that are intolerable. Instead, it is the absence in our lives of any sense of God’s presence. It’s when the heavens are brass, the still small voice of the Spirit is deafly silent, and the wind of the Spirit is deathly still. It is when we feel orphaned in the wilderness of this world, with no pillar to lead us, no water from the Rock to quench our thirsty souls, nor any daily manna from Heaven to spiritually sustain us. It is when the hoof prints of the devil are all around us, but the finger prints of God are nowhere to be found. It is when God has hidden His face from us and we have lost the light of His countenance. It is then, and only then, that we can sympathize, as well as empathize, with this ancient man Job. 

 

Job 30:25 —Job complains that though he had cared and cried for others no man cared and cried for him.

 

Job, on his ash heap, reminds us here of Elijah under his juniper tree (1 Kings 19:4) and of David, who also bewailed that “no man cared for [his] soul” (Psalm 142:4). 

 

Job 30:26 — Darkness is never more startling nor staggering than when surprisingly encountered in one’s speculative expectation of light. 

 

“No darkness is so dark as that which falls on eyes accustomed to the light.” (Charles Spurgeon)

 

Job 30:31 — Job’s harp was no longer used for music, but for mourning, and his flute was no longer used for worship, but for weeping.

 

Once I heard a song of sweetness,

As it cleft the morning air,

Sounding in its blest completeness,

Like a tender, pleading prayer;

And I sought to find the singer,

Whence the wondrous song was borne;

And I found a bird, sore wounded,

Pinioned by a cruel thorn.

 

I have seen a soul in sadness,

While its wings with pain were furl’d,

Giving hope, and cheer and gladness

That should bless a weeping world;

And I knew a life of sweetness,

Was of pain and sorrow borne,

And a stricken soul was singing,

With its heart against a thorn.

 

Ye are told of One who loved you,

Of a Saviour crucified,

Ye are told of nails that pinioned,

And a spear that pierced His side;

Ye are told of cruel scourging,

Of a Saviour bearing scorn,

And He died for your salvation,

With His brow against a thorn.

 

Ye “are not above the Master.”

Will you breathe a sweet refrain?

And His grace will be sufficient,

When your heart is pierced with pain.

Will you live to bless His loved ones,

Tho’ your life be bruised and torn,

Like the bird that sang so sweetly,

With its heart against a thorn?

 

Job 31:1-4 — Knowing that God was always looking at him, Job kept himself from looking upon a woman with lust.

 

As Jesus taught in His famous Sermon on the Mount, sin is conceived in the heart before committed by the hands. (Matthew 5:28)

 

Job 31:5-6 — The integrity of all who walk in falsehood and rush to deceit is weighed in the scales by God and found wanting.

 

How much weight does your word carry with God?

 

Job 31:9-12 — Job pleaded his complete innocence of the crime of infidelity.

 

The seduction of a siren can ignite an all-consuming internal fire.

 

Job 31:13-15 — If I slight my accountability to others, how can I stand and give account of myself to God.

 

“Mankind was my business.” (The words of Jacob Marley to Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol)

 

Job 31:16-23 — If God condemns those who refuse to share their few crumbs with the hungry or their fleece with the cold, how much more will He condemn the opulent who refuse to share their wealth with those oppressed and in want?

 

Paupers should be as eager to share their extra morsels with the needy as the prosperous should be to share their extra millions.

 

Job 31:24-25 — To make gold your god or to be puffed up over your possessions is to forever impoverish your soul.

 

The pockets of all corpses are equally empty. 

 

Job 31:26-28 — Job had never sinned against God by substituting the worship of the creation, such as the worship of the sun and the moon, for the worship of the Creator.

 

To throw the kiss of worship to God’s shining sun rather than to God’s saving Son or to man-made gods rather than to the God who made man is to kiss your immortal soul goodbye.

 

Job 31:29-32 — Job had neither cursed his nemeses nor been compassionless toward the needy.

 

As our Lord taught in His famous Sermon on the Mount, the disinclination to curse one’s enemies is a distinguishing mark of the children of God. (Matthew 5:43-48)

 

Job 31:33-34 — To conceal our sins rather than confess them, because we fear the crowd more than we do Christ, is a fatal mistake.

 

Many a man has unfortunately forfeited his soul in order to save face.

 

Job 31:35-40 — These verses contain Job’s closing argument in his own defense.

 

So confident is Job that his case is open and shut that he vows to wear it like a crown and confidently walk up to God demanding complete exoneration.

 

Job 31:40 — Job was sorely mistaken when he thought he had the final word, for, as all men learn, God always has the last word.

 

"We are silent at the beginning of the day, because God should have the first word, and we are silent before going to sleep, because the last word also belongs to God." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

 

Job 32:1-5 — It is time to be angry when men justify themselves rather than God and accuse each other of unproven accusations.

 

Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar were condemned by God for contending that Job suffered because he sinned, but Elihu, who contended that Job sinned because he suffered, was not condemned by God.

 

Job 32:6-9 — It is not human seniority, but the Holy Spirit that gives man understanding; therefore, wisdom is not the exclusive monopoly of the elderly.

 

Hoary hair is not proof of one’s wisdom, nor youth of one’s foolishness. While our world has no shortage of old fools, it has some who are wise and mature beyond their years.

 

Job 32:11-13 (GNT Good News Translation) — Men cannot be convinced by us, but must be convicted by God, of what is right and wrong.

 

We cannot argue men out of Hell or into Heaven. Only the power of God, not the power of human persuasion, can ever do so. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5) 

 

Job 32:18-21 (NLT New Living Translation) — Preachers should step into pulpits with this passage of Scripture pounding in their hearts.

 

When asked by his brother Charles why so many came to hear him preach, John Wesley answered, “They don’t come to hear me preach, but to watch me burn.” Unfortunately, there are few fiery pulpits and inflamed preachers in contemporary churches. 

 

Job 33:5 — Others’ rebuke should be readily rebuffed if we are in the right, lest upbraiding wrong wins out over undefended truth.

 

We should always be ready to give an answer to anyone who questions our faith. (1 Peter 3:15)

 

Job 33:6-7 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — Why should you fear people, who, like you, are but pinched off pieces of clay?

 

“We fear men so much, because we fear God so little. One fear cures another.” (William Gurnall)

 

Job 33:12-13 — The Almighty is greater than man and answerable to no man.

 

It is the epitome of a fool’s errand for humanity to arraign divinity.

 

Job 33:19-30 — Whereas Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar argued that suffering was punishment for sin, Elihu argued that suffering prevented sin, by making the suffering penitent.

 

Contrary to the collective counsel of Job’s cruel comforters, the purpose of Job’s suffering was neither to punish him for sin nor to prevent him from sinning.

 

Job 34:10-12 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — There are impossibilities with God. For instance, it is impossible for God to be unjust or to do anything wrong.

 

It is impossible for a perfectly just God to pervert justice.

 

Job 34:13-15 — God is both the self-appointed Sovereign over, as well as the sole sustainer of, all living things.

 

If God, in His sovereignty, should withdraw His breath from humanity, all who dwell on earth would return to the dust of the earth.

 

Job 34:16-20 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — How could the world exist, much less endure, if it was governed by a God who hates justice?

 

God, who owns everything and is over everyone, can neither be bribed by the prosperous nor bullied by the powerful to pervert justice.

 

Job 34:21-28 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — An omniscient God need not investigate to either execrate or exonerate.

 

God doesn’t need to launch an impeachment investigation to remove leaders from office or to replace them with others, for no cover-up can hide any high crime or misdemeanor from His all-seeing eye.

 

Job 34:29 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — We have no call to complain when God is silent and no chance to see when God is concealed.

 

God’s silence should never be misunderstood as an admission of injustice or of indifference. Neither should we conclude that God has something to hide when He chooses to conceal Himself.

 

Job 34:30 — People are ensnared by the insincerity of political leaders. By putting up with political hypocrisy people make themselves prey to the profligacy of politicians.

 

Honest people will end up reeling whenever hypocritical politicians end up reigning. 

 

Job 34:33 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — God will never meet you on your terms. You will either meet God on His terms or never meet God at all!

 

Fallen humanity snubs God, scorns God’s terms, and then demands that God stoop down to meet each person on their individual and personal terms. 

 

"If others are offended by God’s Word, let them be offended, for they have offended God long enough." (John MacArthur)

 

Job 37:23-24 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — The Almighty, who is far exalted beyond man’s comprehension, is to be feared, not faulted, especially since all of His fault finders forfeit His favor and call forth His fury.

 

It is truly insane for an ignorant and faulty man to find fault with a faultless and infinite God, who is far beyond man’s finite comprehension.

 

Job 38:1-3 — Man up for a whirlwind encounter with omnipotence if you dare in your ignorant arrogance to arraign the Almighty over imagined injustices.

 

Human wind bags end up answering to a divine whirlwind, for God does not answer to any of us, but all of us will answer to God.

 

Job 38:4-7 — God not only laid the foundations and set the corner stone of the earth, but also stretched the survey line around this terrestrial sphere and determined its dimensions, as all the heavenly host sang together and shouted for joy.

 

Angels, which are symbolized and referred to as stars in Scripture (Revelation 1:20), are not “sons of God” by birth, like Christ, or by adoption, like Christians, but by creation, like Adam (Luke 3:38).

 

Job 38:8-11 — It is God who confines the sea behind bars and bellows out to its mighty breakers, “Stop here!” 

 

Only Christ can corral the swelling sea! (Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:37-41)

 

Job 38:12-15 (NLT New Living Translation) — It is God who commands the dawn and commences the day, in order to cease the dastardly deeds done in the darkness of night.

 

It is heavenly “Sonlight” that dispels the dark deeds of an earthly midnight.

 

Job 38:16-18 — The extent of God’s sovereignty encompasses the depths of the sea, the gates of death, and the ends of the earth.

 

There is no reality not under the realm of God’s regality!

 

Job 38:19-21 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — It is God alone who points out the path to light and prohibits darkness from overstepping its parameters. 

 

Thinking yourself a know-it-all because of your longevity, just proves your stupidity.

 

Job 38:22-23 — It is God who storehouses the snow and hail until the divinely appointed times for them to providentially pelt the earth.

 

Snowstorms and hailstorms are providential, not coincidental.

 

Job 38:24 — God disperses the light where He wants it and demands the wind to blow where He will.

 

Both the glaring sun and the gusting wind are under the control of God.

 

Job 38:25-30 — It is God who determines if the land is to be made fruitful by rain and dew or flooded and frozen by cloudbursts and frost.

 

The hardworking farmer is dependent on the Heavenly Father for a fruitful harvest.

 

Job 38:31-33 — It is God who commands the stars, binding them with cords into clusters and coordinating the constellations of heaven with the seasons of the earth.

 

Christians should plan their lives by the Word of the Almighty, who reigns over the stars, not by the words of astrologers, who claim to read the stars.

 

Job 38:34-35 — It is God who commands the clouds to rain and the lightning to strike.

 

Contrary to popular opinion, there is someone who really can; in fact, who really does, control the weather.

 

Job 38:36 — It is God who gives intelligence to man’s mind and insight to man’s heart. It is up to man, however, whether or not he implements it and is instructed by it. 

 

When we’re through learning, we’re through.

 

Job 38:37-38 — God tallies the clouds and tilts them to pour water upon a parched earth.

 

Although people see many things looking at clouds, the one thing we should all see is God.

 

Job 38:39-41 — It is God who provides prey for the lion and rations for the raven.

 

Both the prowling lion and the scavenging raven are provided for by Divine Providence.

 

Job 39:1-4 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — It is God who watches over the expectant doe and the birth and growth of her fawn.

 

"All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all." (Cecil Frances Alexander)

 

Job 39:5-8 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — It is God who grants the wild donkey the freedom of wide open spaces.

 

"All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all." (Cecil Frances Alexander)

 

Job 39:9-12 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — It is God alone who can harness the strength of fierce and untamed beasts in order to employ them in His service.

 

"All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all." (Cecil Frances Alexander)

 

Job 39:13-18 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — It is God who makes the ostrich both slow-witted and swift-footed.

 

"All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all." (Cecil Frances Alexander)

 

Job 39:19-25 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — It is God who crowns the mighty horse’s neck with a flowing mane and charges the soldier’s fearless steed furiously into battle.

 

"All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all." (Cecil Frances Alexander)

 

Job 39:26 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — It is God who endows the spread wings of the swift flying hawk with exceptional speed.

 

"All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all." (Cecil Frances Alexander)

 

Job 39:27-30 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — It is God who enables the eagle to soar to a perch on the highest crags from where he peers down on all his prey.

 

"All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all." (Cecil Frances Alexander)

 

Job 40:1-4 — All who contend with God will be silenced when they encounter God and are called to account by God.

 

In the presence of God, all who’ve crowed about their own virtue and shook their fists in the face of the Holy One will confess they’re vile and put their hands over their hushed mouths.

 

Job 40:5 — To speak a single word of complaint against the Almighty is to say too much.

 

To speak imprudently about divinity is to regret it inevitably.

 

Job 40:6-7 — Man up for a whirlwind encounter with omnipotence if you dare in your ignorant arrogance to arraign the Almighty over imagined injustices. 

 

Human wind bags end up answering to a divine whirlwind, for God does not answer to any of us, but all of us answer to God.

 

Job 40:8 — It is the height of folly for unjust men to attempt to justify themselves by challenging the justice of a just God.

 

Our judgment by the Judge of all the earth can be neither appealed nor annulled. (Genesis 18:25)

 

Job 40:9 ⏤ It is the height of folly for the arm of flesh to arm wrestle with the strong arm of the Lord. 

 

It is the height of folly for mealy-mouthed men to get in a shouting match with the thunderous voice of God.

 

Job 40:10 ⏤ It is the height of folly to strut before the glorious splendor of your Divine Sovereign in the filthy rags of your own self-righteousness.

 

No one struts sanctimoniousness into God’s presence. You’ll come humbly, not haughtily, or be halted from coming at all.

 

Job 40:11-13 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) ⏤ It is the height of folly for human arrogance to attempt to arraign the Almighty who is infuriated by the proud, inters them in the dust, and imprisons them in the grave.

 

Those with their noses in the air will end up with them rubbed in the dirt by the Most High who they’ve high-hatted.

 

Job 40:14 — It is the height of folly for men to contend with God, who is their only Savior, over their insistence upon salvation at their own hand. 

 

To slap away the nail-scarred hand, which alone can save us, in order to take our salvation into our own hands, is to make our salvation unattainable and our soul unsavable.

 

Job 40:15-41:34 — Even the most formidable and fearsome of God’s creatures fear God and are fettered by His sovereignty.

 

Although behemoth is commonly believed to be a hippopotamus and leviathan a crocodile, many believe they were enigmatic creatures now extinct.

 

Job 42:1-2 (HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible) — God can do whatever He plans and His plans cannot possibly be impeded or prevented.

 

God’s plans are inevitable and man is impotent to thwart them.

 

Job 42:3 — It is the height of folly for fallible humans, in their ignorance, to question an infallible God, in His omniscience.

 

It is the height of hubris for know-nothing highbrows to question the all-knowing Most High.

 

Job 42:4 — God will answer to no man, but all men will answer to God.

 

Ultimately, it’s not us who will question God, but God who will question us. He does not answer to us, but we answer to Him!

 

Job 42:5 — A lesson about God may be rewarding, but a vision of God is revolutionary. While the former may prove enlightening, the latter will prove life-changing.

 

A divine encounter is far more life-changing than a theological education or a seminary diploma!

 

Job 42:5-6 — To find a subject for a book on repentance, God did not seek the worst sinner, but the best saint, for repentance is an impossibility, even for the best of men, until God is seen personally and our good-for-nothingness plainly. 

 

No man who is too big for his britches and who thinks too highly of himself will ever bow his head to the Most High in either repentance or reverence.

 

Job 42:7-9 — To put your mistaken words in God’s mouth, even if you have the best of intentions, is a serious offense to God, which requires a divine pardon, which may be contingent upon the prayers of those you’ve misinformed.

 

Revising and editing God’s Word is no less an offense to God than rejecting and eschewing His Word. In fact, the divinely inspired Word of God, the Bible, concludes with a warning against altering it in anyway, by adding anything to it or by taking anything from it. (Revelation 22:18-19)

 

Job 42:10-17 — The vindication of the righteous may be slow, but it is sure, and in the end, will be evident to everyone.

 

In the end, God’s people win, emerging from this world’s vale of tears both vindicated and triumphant!

 

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