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Useless trivia
A man shot his 6-month-old baby multiple times at a home northwest of Phoenix after taking the infant and their mother captive, but the mother escaped with minor injuries, and the child was expected to survive, authorities said.
They said the status of the suspect remained unknown after a fire broke out during a standoff with police.
They said the status of the suspect remained unknown after a fire broke out during a standoff with police.
Useless trivia
Boxing: Oleksandr Usyk topples Tyson Fury to become undisputed heavyweight world champion
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
There is such a thing as undeserved suffering. It all goes back to the question Eliphaz asked in his first speech: “who that was innocent ever perished?” (4:7). The answer points eventually to the cross of Christ and through him to the sufferings of the people of Christ which they share with him (Rom 8:17).
Job Speaks (23:1–24:25)
Where Eliphaz and his friends think that justice is perfectly done on earth, Job knows justice is lacking but longs for the day when it will be established on the whole earth. Job’s speech here is almost an expanded version of the cry “Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” in the Lord’s prayer. Job is reaching towards the understanding that, although God is sovereign in all he commands, not all that he commands fits yet with what he desires; in this age God commands puzzling things, in order to work out his inscrutable purposes of good, so that in the age to come he will bring to fruition all that he desires.
In chapter 23 the burden of Job’s speech is the longing that those who are righteous by faith will be vindicated. Then in chapter 24 he turns to the other side of the problem and cries out that the wicked will be judged.
23:1–12 Job voices his deep longing to come into the presence of God to make his case (Job 23:2–7). “Oh, that I knew where I might find him,” this invisible inscrutable God! He believes the day will come when he, and all believers, will be able to stand before God and God will acquit him forever (23:7). In 23:8–9 he struggles that God is invisible; he cannot see him. And yet (23:8–12), even though Job does not know the way that God takes (he is ignorant of the heavenly scenes in Job 1–2), he is confident that God “knows the way that I take” (23:10). And the way that Job takes is the way of a clear conscience, which is why he trusts that “when (God) has tried me, I shall come out as gold” (23:10). He is confident he has “held fast” to the steps of godliness (23:11) and has “not departed from the commandment of (God’s) lips” (23:12).
23:13–17 There is awe in Job’s voice. He recognizes the inscrutable sovereignty of God, who “will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind.” Job is “terrified,” and his heart is “faint”; and yet he perseveres. He knows he must stand, and will eventually stand, before Almighty God and be vindicated. We read here a foreshadowing of the awesome confidence that Jesus had, even as the darkness of God’s wrath against sinners closed in on him, that one day he would stand before the Father vindicated.
[Note about chapters 24–27: many commentators suggest that the text has been scrambled in these chapters and does not represent the original book. There is no manuscript evidence for this. This commentary will take the text as it stands.]
24:1–12 Chapter 24 begins with the key question: why does Almighty God not keep proper “times” or “days” of judgment? Why does he not judge the wicked, as we long for him to do? Job asks this because the world is full both of unpunished crimes (24:2–4, 9) and victims denied justice (24:5–8, 10–12). Job 24:2–4 catalogs crimes of rural theft and abuse of the vulnerable (the widow, the poor). As a result of these unpunished injustices the poor are “like wild donkeys in the desert,” picking food for their children from “the wasteland,” reduced to pitiful gleanings from the shining vineyard of the wicked man, lying naked in the cold night, without proper clothing or shelter (24:5–8); it is a heart-rending description, echoed all over the world. Violent people snatch children and turn them into slaves (24:9). These abused people are put to forced labor and we see them wounded and dying in their distress (24:10–12). Why does God not act in judgment?
Job Speaks (23:1–24:25)
Where Eliphaz and his friends think that justice is perfectly done on earth, Job knows justice is lacking but longs for the day when it will be established on the whole earth. Job’s speech here is almost an expanded version of the cry “Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” in the Lord’s prayer. Job is reaching towards the understanding that, although God is sovereign in all he commands, not all that he commands fits yet with what he desires; in this age God commands puzzling things, in order to work out his inscrutable purposes of good, so that in the age to come he will bring to fruition all that he desires.
In chapter 23 the burden of Job’s speech is the longing that those who are righteous by faith will be vindicated. Then in chapter 24 he turns to the other side of the problem and cries out that the wicked will be judged.
23:1–12 Job voices his deep longing to come into the presence of God to make his case (Job 23:2–7). “Oh, that I knew where I might find him,” this invisible inscrutable God! He believes the day will come when he, and all believers, will be able to stand before God and God will acquit him forever (23:7). In 23:8–9 he struggles that God is invisible; he cannot see him. And yet (23:8–12), even though Job does not know the way that God takes (he is ignorant of the heavenly scenes in Job 1–2), he is confident that God “knows the way that I take” (23:10). And the way that Job takes is the way of a clear conscience, which is why he trusts that “when (God) has tried me, I shall come out as gold” (23:10). He is confident he has “held fast” to the steps of godliness (23:11) and has “not departed from the commandment of (God’s) lips” (23:12).
23:13–17 There is awe in Job’s voice. He recognizes the inscrutable sovereignty of God, who “will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind.” Job is “terrified,” and his heart is “faint”; and yet he perseveres. He knows he must stand, and will eventually stand, before Almighty God and be vindicated. We read here a foreshadowing of the awesome confidence that Jesus had, even as the darkness of God’s wrath against sinners closed in on him, that one day he would stand before the Father vindicated.
[Note about chapters 24–27: many commentators suggest that the text has been scrambled in these chapters and does not represent the original book. There is no manuscript evidence for this. This commentary will take the text as it stands.]
24:1–12 Chapter 24 begins with the key question: why does Almighty God not keep proper “times” or “days” of judgment? Why does he not judge the wicked, as we long for him to do? Job asks this because the world is full both of unpunished crimes (24:2–4, 9) and victims denied justice (24:5–8, 10–12). Job 24:2–4 catalogs crimes of rural theft and abuse of the vulnerable (the widow, the poor). As a result of these unpunished injustices the poor are “like wild donkeys in the desert,” picking food for their children from “the wasteland,” reduced to pitiful gleanings from the shining vineyard of the wicked man, lying naked in the cold night, without proper clothing or shelter (24:5–8); it is a heart-rending description, echoed all over the world. Violent people snatch children and turn them into slaves (24:9). These abused people are put to forced labor and we see them wounded and dying in their distress (24:10–12). Why does God not act in judgment?
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
According to the moral system of Job’s comforters we should deduce that these people are not wicked. Since good things happen to them, presumably they must be good people. Not at all. In 21:14–15 Job hears from their own mouths the proof that they care nothing about God or the things of God. “Depart from us!” they say to God. They do not want to serve God and they refuse to serve him. And yet they prosper.
21:17–26 Of course Job knows that some wicked people come to early and painful ends. But he questions how often. He asks, “how often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?” (as Bildad has claimed in. His friends no doubt argue that, even if a wicked person survived alright, their family will pay the penalty; but Job asks why they get away with their wickedness. People die and are buried, whether they are wicked or righteous. It is simply not true that we can see in this life the reward of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked (21:23–26).
21:27–34 Job takes his argument a step further. His opponents point out that the wicked are now dead (21:28); but Job adduces the evidence of those who have traveled the world (21:29) who will testify that all the way to the grave the wicked prosper. And even in their funerals (21:32–33) they are praised and honored. He concludes by rebuking his friends for their evidently untrue system. For if we cannot discern from present blessing the righteousness of a man, surely we cannot conclude from present suffering the wickedness of Job (or Jesus).
Third Part-Cycle of Speeches
Eliphaz Speaks
22:1–4 Eliphaz makes his third and final speech. In it the implications of his system come right out into the open. Job 22:2–4, however, is a puzzling beginning. Eliphaz suggests that nothing Job (or any of us) does can affect God, give him pleasure, and therefore bias his judgment. Behind the rhetoric of Eliphaz lies the implication that what we receive from God is entirely consistent and depends completely on us and our behavior.
22:5–11 Eliphaz comes right out into the open and accuses Job to his face. His sufferings must prove that he is a sinner. The extensive sufferings prove he must have done “abundant” evil. In particular (22:6–9) he must have abused his great power, doing the exact opposite of what Job will later maintain he has done (see Job 29). Precisely because Job has behaved so badly, “snares are all around (him) and sudden terror overwhelms (him)” . Eliphaz has no evidence for this, except that Job’s sufferings are thought to prove it must be true.
22:12–20 Eliphaz reiterates the emphatic teaching of Bildad and Zophar that God sees and always punishes the wicked. Job has claimed that people who say to God, “Depart from us!” often prosper (21:14); but Eliphaz insists that people who say to God, “Depart from us” and “What can the Almighty do to us?” are always and inevitably punished. And this is the precise punishment that Job is currently experiencing.
22:21–30 And so Eliphaz closes with a final appeal to Job to repent. If Job will “receive instruction” from “God’s mouth and lay up his words in (his) heart”, if he will “return to the Almighty” (22:23; “return” is the word that means “repent”), then God will rebuild his life—a beautiful appeal. The Almighty God will be precious to Job again, Job will delight himself in God again (22:26), pray to him and be heard (22:27), prosper in his decisions (22:28), and all because God “saves the lowly”. What could be wrong with such a beautiful (and biblical) appeal for repentance, with its consequent promise of blessing? The answer goes to the heart of the book. For Job is already penitent; he is suffering undeserved troubles precisely because he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and turns from evil. He is not suffering because he is guilty at all.
21:17–26 Of course Job knows that some wicked people come to early and painful ends. But he questions how often. He asks, “how often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?” (as Bildad has claimed in. His friends no doubt argue that, even if a wicked person survived alright, their family will pay the penalty; but Job asks why they get away with their wickedness. People die and are buried, whether they are wicked or righteous. It is simply not true that we can see in this life the reward of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked (21:23–26).
21:27–34 Job takes his argument a step further. His opponents point out that the wicked are now dead (21:28); but Job adduces the evidence of those who have traveled the world (21:29) who will testify that all the way to the grave the wicked prosper. And even in their funerals (21:32–33) they are praised and honored. He concludes by rebuking his friends for their evidently untrue system. For if we cannot discern from present blessing the righteousness of a man, surely we cannot conclude from present suffering the wickedness of Job (or Jesus).
Third Part-Cycle of Speeches
Eliphaz Speaks
22:1–4 Eliphaz makes his third and final speech. In it the implications of his system come right out into the open. Job 22:2–4, however, is a puzzling beginning. Eliphaz suggests that nothing Job (or any of us) does can affect God, give him pleasure, and therefore bias his judgment. Behind the rhetoric of Eliphaz lies the implication that what we receive from God is entirely consistent and depends completely on us and our behavior.
22:5–11 Eliphaz comes right out into the open and accuses Job to his face. His sufferings must prove that he is a sinner. The extensive sufferings prove he must have done “abundant” evil. In particular (22:6–9) he must have abused his great power, doing the exact opposite of what Job will later maintain he has done (see Job 29). Precisely because Job has behaved so badly, “snares are all around (him) and sudden terror overwhelms (him)” . Eliphaz has no evidence for this, except that Job’s sufferings are thought to prove it must be true.
22:12–20 Eliphaz reiterates the emphatic teaching of Bildad and Zophar that God sees and always punishes the wicked. Job has claimed that people who say to God, “Depart from us!” often prosper (21:14); but Eliphaz insists that people who say to God, “Depart from us” and “What can the Almighty do to us?” are always and inevitably punished. And this is the precise punishment that Job is currently experiencing.
22:21–30 And so Eliphaz closes with a final appeal to Job to repent. If Job will “receive instruction” from “God’s mouth and lay up his words in (his) heart”, if he will “return to the Almighty” (22:23; “return” is the word that means “repent”), then God will rebuild his life—a beautiful appeal. The Almighty God will be precious to Job again, Job will delight himself in God again (22:26), pray to him and be heard (22:27), prosper in his decisions (22:28), and all because God “saves the lowly”. What could be wrong with such a beautiful (and biblical) appeal for repentance, with its consequent promise of blessing? The answer goes to the heart of the book. For Job is already penitent; he is suffering undeserved troubles precisely because he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and turns from evil. He is not suffering because he is guilty at all.
Useless trivia
A beloved pet cat in the US has been reunited with her owners after a mail mistake left her more than 1500km away from home.
Galeana went missing from her home in Utah earlier this month. Owner Carrie Clark feared a cat-astrophe had occurred.
But nearly a week later, she got a call from a vet in California
Galeana went missing from her home in Utah earlier this month. Owner Carrie Clark feared a cat-astrophe had occurred.
But nearly a week later, she got a call from a vet in California
Useless trivia
A Vermont university has bestowed the honorary degree of "doctor of litter-ature" on Max the cat, a beloved member of its community, ahead of students' graduation on Saturday.
RE: WHERE DID WE COME FROM?
Ancient texts / artifacts / ruins.
I should've included current occurances such as UFO sightings, abductions, crop circles and cattle mutilations.
There've also been Human mutilations that are Rarely reported - even in paranormal circles.
Probably because it conflicts with the new age space brothers narrative.
I should've included current occurances such as UFO sightings, abductions, crop circles and cattle mutilations.
There've also been Human mutilations that are Rarely reported - even in paranormal circles.
Probably because it conflicts with the new age space brothers narrative.
RE: WHERE DID WE COME FROM?
Summation of page 1 ...
We're Agreed that there are LOTS of ancient texts / artifacts / ruins that are inconsistent with the conventional telling of human history.
Depending upon one's Worldview...
Explanation 1: ExtraTerrestrial ancient astronauts / new age space brothers.
Explanation 2: ExtraDimensional created entities indigenous to this planet.
Review the Evidence and judge for y'all's selves.
We're Agreed that there are LOTS of ancient texts / artifacts / ruins that are inconsistent with the conventional telling of human history.
Depending upon one's Worldview...
Explanation 1: ExtraTerrestrial ancient astronauts / new age space brothers.
Explanation 2: ExtraDimensional created entities indigenous to this planet.
Review the Evidence and judge for y'all's selves.
RE: WHERE DID WE COME FROM?
We got here from ancient aliens mistaken for gods / new agey space brothers is intellectually unsatisfying as we're left wondering where They came from ...
And the whole thing becomes akin to "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"
And the whole thing becomes akin to "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"
RE: Did You Know
As you get older you have more chance of dropping dead than when your younger
RE: Did You Know
Thin people are less likely to go to all you can eat buffet's than fat people
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
The Father was the Redeemer of Jesus; he stood at Jesus’s tomb, raised him from the dead, as the proof that he will do this for every man and woman in Christ.
19:28–29 Job closes by warning his friends that “there is a judgment” for them as well as for him. When Job is vindicated, his accusers must necessarily be condemned unless they repent.
Zophar Speaks (20:1–29)
Zophar’s next (and, as it turns out, last) speech is very similar to Bildad’s in Job 18. Most of it consists of a vivid description of hell, with the implication that, since this mirrors Job’s experience, it must demonstrate that Job is a guilty sinner before God. Zophar begins by expressing his frustration; he feels personally insulted by Job’s insistence that he is blameless and yet being punished by God. Job needs to understand that the punishment of the wicked is a sure and ancient truth which will brook no contradiction.
20:5–11 Zophar’s description of the punishment of the wicked focuses on some different aspects of the misery of hell than those on which Bildad has placed his spotlight. He paints a picture of the wicked as a man who does enjoy tremendous success, but only very briefly. He does exult with joy but his exultation is “short” and his joy “but for a moment.” He may, as it were, “mount up to the heavens” with great success; but before very long it will all end, and he will simply disappear from this world of life and joy (20:7–9); even his family will suffer. He may enjoy “youthful vigor” for a while, but it will all end with “dust” Hell is the end of this life’s brief joy.
20:12–29 Then in hell is desibed as the outcome of evil that is sweet to the taste. It tastes sweet but proves to be a deadly poison. Those who crush the poor and seize houses find this to be like a delicious meal that kills. The inescapability of the wrath of God is the subject of 20:20–28. You can run away from it, but you will not escape. Zophar concludes that such misery is “the wicked man’s portion from God” (20:29). Since Job’s experience mirrors this so closely, Job must be wicked. The logic is the same as that of Bildad.
We learn from this description (as from Bildad’s in Job 18) that the judgment of God really is as bad as this; hell is a terrible destiny. But we learn also something of the undeserved sufferings of Job, and therefore the undeserved sufferings of Jesus as he endures the judgment of God for sinners. And, as those who share in some measure in the sufferings of Christ (cf. Rom 8:17), Christians learn also to expect in some degree the same sufferings in this age.
Job Speaks (21:1–34)
21:1–6 Job begins by wishing his friends would be quiet and listen to him because he is engaging ultimately, not with them but with God. He is indeed suffering the appalling judgment of God (Job 21:5–6); but why?
21:7–16 He then challenges head on a key supposition of his comforters: that bad things happen to bad people. In 21:7–33, he says that this is simply not true; in this life, and even in death, many wicked people experience a great deal of good. Good things often happen to bad people. In 21:7–16 he paints a picture of their happiness. They have a good life expectancy, they have big and successful families (21:8), their houses have good levels of security, their farms thrive , and they have joyful family playtimes and parties. They enjoy prosperity and die quietly in their sleep (21:13).
19:28–29 Job closes by warning his friends that “there is a judgment” for them as well as for him. When Job is vindicated, his accusers must necessarily be condemned unless they repent.
Zophar Speaks (20:1–29)
Zophar’s next (and, as it turns out, last) speech is very similar to Bildad’s in Job 18. Most of it consists of a vivid description of hell, with the implication that, since this mirrors Job’s experience, it must demonstrate that Job is a guilty sinner before God. Zophar begins by expressing his frustration; he feels personally insulted by Job’s insistence that he is blameless and yet being punished by God. Job needs to understand that the punishment of the wicked is a sure and ancient truth which will brook no contradiction.
20:5–11 Zophar’s description of the punishment of the wicked focuses on some different aspects of the misery of hell than those on which Bildad has placed his spotlight. He paints a picture of the wicked as a man who does enjoy tremendous success, but only very briefly. He does exult with joy but his exultation is “short” and his joy “but for a moment.” He may, as it were, “mount up to the heavens” with great success; but before very long it will all end, and he will simply disappear from this world of life and joy (20:7–9); even his family will suffer. He may enjoy “youthful vigor” for a while, but it will all end with “dust” Hell is the end of this life’s brief joy.
20:12–29 Then in hell is desibed as the outcome of evil that is sweet to the taste. It tastes sweet but proves to be a deadly poison. Those who crush the poor and seize houses find this to be like a delicious meal that kills. The inescapability of the wrath of God is the subject of 20:20–28. You can run away from it, but you will not escape. Zophar concludes that such misery is “the wicked man’s portion from God” (20:29). Since Job’s experience mirrors this so closely, Job must be wicked. The logic is the same as that of Bildad.
We learn from this description (as from Bildad’s in Job 18) that the judgment of God really is as bad as this; hell is a terrible destiny. But we learn also something of the undeserved sufferings of Job, and therefore the undeserved sufferings of Jesus as he endures the judgment of God for sinners. And, as those who share in some measure in the sufferings of Christ (cf. Rom 8:17), Christians learn also to expect in some degree the same sufferings in this age.
Job Speaks (21:1–34)
21:1–6 Job begins by wishing his friends would be quiet and listen to him because he is engaging ultimately, not with them but with God. He is indeed suffering the appalling judgment of God (Job 21:5–6); but why?
21:7–16 He then challenges head on a key supposition of his comforters: that bad things happen to bad people. In 21:7–33, he says that this is simply not true; in this life, and even in death, many wicked people experience a great deal of good. Good things often happen to bad people. In 21:7–16 he paints a picture of their happiness. They have a good life expectancy, they have big and successful families (21:8), their houses have good levels of security, their farms thrive , and they have joyful family playtimes and parties. They enjoy prosperity and die quietly in their sleep (21:13).
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Song of Moses update...vs. o8 ...
( .. this is how it should read if accuracy becomes
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( .. this is how it should read if accuracy becomes
.. relevant..) ..
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.. apportioned the nations, when he divided human kind, he fixed the boundaries of the people
.. according to the number of the gods..[ .!
Isis & Osiris. ) Ayreon
Nimrod. ) green day.
A vulgar display of power. ) Pantera
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What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
Bildad suggests that Job is asking for the whole moral foundation of the world to be cracked or adjusted so that an exception can be made for him. The idea is unthinkable: bad things happen only to bad people and good things to good people, and there is no changing that.
18:5–21 Bildad continues with a terrifying description of God’s righteous judgment on the wicked. This section contains a remarkable, and accurate, poetic description of the terrors of hell. The concept of the proper place for the wicked runs through the speech (Job 18:4, 21, “place”; “tent”; 18:15, “habitation”; 18:17, street”). The place where the wicked are sent is a frightening habitation. Hell is characterized by darkness , which is just what Job is experiencing Hell is a hunter’s snare or trap from which there is no escape Job feels God has been to him like a hunter.,who has hedged him in Hell is also a place of terror (18:11–14) in which “terrors frighten him” and “he . . . is brought to the king of terrors.” There is something demonic about this; but terror is what Job is experiencing. Hell is a place where personhood dissolves and of the most awful separation from the world of life and hope This, concludes Bildad (18:21), is where “the unrighteous” live.
The point of Bildad’s description is that it matches so closely the experience of Job. Bildad invites Job to draw the only possible conclusion: that he himself, Job, who has claimed to be blameless, is in fact a man “who knows not God” (18:21). Job badly needs to repent of the secret sins he has not as yet confessed. This is the terrible and terribly wrong message of Bildad.
Job Speaks (19:1–29)
19:1–12 Job understands that suffering and death is God’s righteous punishment for sinners. In that he agrees with Bildad and his friends. He understands their argument that his sufferings must reveal hidden sin in his life. They make his “disgrace an argument against (him)” (19:5). But he cannot agree. They need to understand “that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me”. God has been to him like a mugger; as Job is mugged (by God!) he cries out, “Violence!” but nobody hears and there is no justice. The description of God’s treatment of Job continues through to its climax in, with its vivid description of the overkill of all God’s armies coming on, wave after wave, to “encamp around my tent.” God is treating Job like a sinner.
19:13–20 Job shifts his focus from his sufferings to his isolation. People who used to be his friends are now alienated from him, including even his wife—a heart-rending picture of the loneliness of hell.
19:21–22 Job is in no doubt that “the hand of God has touched me” , and he pleads with his friends for sympathy. We remember that back in chapters 1 and 2, the LORD actually says to Satan that Job is in his (Satan’s) hand (1:11, 12; 2:5–6). Although Job’s sufferings come from the LORD, the immediate agent of them (the “hand”) is actually that of the cruel Satan.
In 19:23–24 Job voices a longing for some permanent memorial of his righteousness; he longs to be vindicated, to be justified. And then, in the famous words of 19:25–27, in a remarkable moment of clear faith, he trusts that there is a Redeemer (the mediator he longed for in 9:33, the witness of 16:19) who will testify for him against his accusers, who will give him final vindication.
This Redeemer can be no less than God himself. This thought that, in the heart of God himself, there is a Redeemer for him, fills his heart with awe. We know that Job’s hope is sure because centuries later Jesus Christ, the one whom Job foreshadowed, died with this same hope. The Father was the Redeemer of Jesus; he stood at Jesus’s tomb, raised him from the dead, as the proof that he will do this for every man.
18:5–21 Bildad continues with a terrifying description of God’s righteous judgment on the wicked. This section contains a remarkable, and accurate, poetic description of the terrors of hell. The concept of the proper place for the wicked runs through the speech (Job 18:4, 21, “place”; “tent”; 18:15, “habitation”; 18:17, street”). The place where the wicked are sent is a frightening habitation. Hell is characterized by darkness , which is just what Job is experiencing Hell is a hunter’s snare or trap from which there is no escape Job feels God has been to him like a hunter.,who has hedged him in Hell is also a place of terror (18:11–14) in which “terrors frighten him” and “he . . . is brought to the king of terrors.” There is something demonic about this; but terror is what Job is experiencing. Hell is a place where personhood dissolves and of the most awful separation from the world of life and hope This, concludes Bildad (18:21), is where “the unrighteous” live.
The point of Bildad’s description is that it matches so closely the experience of Job. Bildad invites Job to draw the only possible conclusion: that he himself, Job, who has claimed to be blameless, is in fact a man “who knows not God” (18:21). Job badly needs to repent of the secret sins he has not as yet confessed. This is the terrible and terribly wrong message of Bildad.
Job Speaks (19:1–29)
19:1–12 Job understands that suffering and death is God’s righteous punishment for sinners. In that he agrees with Bildad and his friends. He understands their argument that his sufferings must reveal hidden sin in his life. They make his “disgrace an argument against (him)” (19:5). But he cannot agree. They need to understand “that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me”. God has been to him like a mugger; as Job is mugged (by God!) he cries out, “Violence!” but nobody hears and there is no justice. The description of God’s treatment of Job continues through to its climax in, with its vivid description of the overkill of all God’s armies coming on, wave after wave, to “encamp around my tent.” God is treating Job like a sinner.
19:13–20 Job shifts his focus from his sufferings to his isolation. People who used to be his friends are now alienated from him, including even his wife—a heart-rending picture of the loneliness of hell.
19:21–22 Job is in no doubt that “the hand of God has touched me” , and he pleads with his friends for sympathy. We remember that back in chapters 1 and 2, the LORD actually says to Satan that Job is in his (Satan’s) hand (1:11, 12; 2:5–6). Although Job’s sufferings come from the LORD, the immediate agent of them (the “hand”) is actually that of the cruel Satan.
In 19:23–24 Job voices a longing for some permanent memorial of his righteousness; he longs to be vindicated, to be justified. And then, in the famous words of 19:25–27, in a remarkable moment of clear faith, he trusts that there is a Redeemer (the mediator he longed for in 9:33, the witness of 16:19) who will testify for him against his accusers, who will give him final vindication.
This Redeemer can be no less than God himself. This thought that, in the heart of God himself, there is a Redeemer for him, fills his heart with awe. We know that Job’s hope is sure because centuries later Jesus Christ, the one whom Job foreshadowed, died with this same hope. The Father was the Redeemer of Jesus; he stood at Jesus’s tomb, raised him from the dead, as the proof that he will do this for every man.
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
16:7–14 Job describes with a terrible intensity his experience of the wrath of God. What makes his sufferings so desperate is not—surprisingly—their content (the bankruptcy, the bereavements, the sickness) but their source. What hurts most is that God has done it, for relationship with God matters more to Job than anything else in life. God has worn out Job and brought desolation into his social world and family (Job 16:7 “my company”). Job’s protection has been so punctured that he is now just a “shriveled” up wretch (16:8). As we read this description, meditate on how we see this chaos fulfilled in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. God’s attack on Job is violent and personal (16:9), a tearing and gnashing of the teeth. In 16:10–11 we see that this leaves Job desperately alone; people strike him on the cheek, collect themselves to attack him; he is taken into the hands of wicked men. Again, all this is so deeply fulfilled in Jesus Christ. There is a terrifying relentlessness in 16:12–14; the wrath of God is like an army running against Job again and again. The imagery is desperate and vivid.
16:15–21 In all of this, Job’s conscience is clear; he prays in his misery from a pure heart. And so, in 16:18–21, in one of the most extraordinary passages in the book, Job cries out to the God who is attacking him. Just as the blood of Abel cried out from the ground for justice (Gen 4:10), so the blood (the sufferings) of Job cry out to heaven for vindication: “O earth, cover not my blood.” Somehow Job believes that there is a “witness” for him in the presence of God, who will testify for him that he is a true believer (Job 16:19). Who is this witness? It must be God himself. Somehow in God there is a witness who speaks for the believer against the wrath of God. Such a longing finds its fulfilment at the cross of Christ.
16:22–17:5 The rest of Job’s speech is dominated by the shadow of death. Even as he cries to God for an intercessor, he faces the prospect of dying soon, and of going “the way from which I shall not return” (16:22). Surrounded by mockers, all that awaits him is the “graveyard”. Nevertheless, in 17:3 he appears again to call on God to “lay down a pledge for” him. This probably means he is appealing to God to give security in Job’s place, to provide a substitute to die in Job’s stead.
17:6–16 But Job’s plight is desperately serious. He is a proverb or “byword” for one under the wrath of God; people spit at him (17:6). His “eye” (which expresses desire and the love of life) is now very dim; all his bones and muscles, the whole of his bodily frame is “like a shadow” (17:7). He challenges his friends to keep attacking him, confident that they have no wisdom (17:10). He has nothing now to lose. He has no more plans, no more desires in his heart. All he can “hope” for, in a paradoxical reversal of true hope, is “Sheol . . . the pit.” There is nothing left for Job but to die.
In all this we read a haunting anticipation of the sufferings of Jesus Christ as he goes through hell for us.
Bildad Speaks (18:1–21)
18:1–4 Like Eliphaz and Zophar, Bildad expresses his frustration with Job. But he says something both puzzling and revealing in 18:4; he asks if “the earth” will be “forsaken for you or the rock be removed out of its place.”
The solid rock or earth is an image in scripture for the order and stability of the creation; the inhabited world is a stable place, not like the chaotic waters (e.g., Ps 24:1, 2), built on “pillars” or “foundations” that speak of moral order as much as physical order 1Sam 2:8b in context). For the rock or earth to be shifted is for the moral order of the world to be shaken.
16:15–21 In all of this, Job’s conscience is clear; he prays in his misery from a pure heart. And so, in 16:18–21, in one of the most extraordinary passages in the book, Job cries out to the God who is attacking him. Just as the blood of Abel cried out from the ground for justice (Gen 4:10), so the blood (the sufferings) of Job cry out to heaven for vindication: “O earth, cover not my blood.” Somehow Job believes that there is a “witness” for him in the presence of God, who will testify for him that he is a true believer (Job 16:19). Who is this witness? It must be God himself. Somehow in God there is a witness who speaks for the believer against the wrath of God. Such a longing finds its fulfilment at the cross of Christ.
16:22–17:5 The rest of Job’s speech is dominated by the shadow of death. Even as he cries to God for an intercessor, he faces the prospect of dying soon, and of going “the way from which I shall not return” (16:22). Surrounded by mockers, all that awaits him is the “graveyard”. Nevertheless, in 17:3 he appears again to call on God to “lay down a pledge for” him. This probably means he is appealing to God to give security in Job’s place, to provide a substitute to die in Job’s stead.
17:6–16 But Job’s plight is desperately serious. He is a proverb or “byword” for one under the wrath of God; people spit at him (17:6). His “eye” (which expresses desire and the love of life) is now very dim; all his bones and muscles, the whole of his bodily frame is “like a shadow” (17:7). He challenges his friends to keep attacking him, confident that they have no wisdom (17:10). He has nothing now to lose. He has no more plans, no more desires in his heart. All he can “hope” for, in a paradoxical reversal of true hope, is “Sheol . . . the pit.” There is nothing left for Job but to die.
In all this we read a haunting anticipation of the sufferings of Jesus Christ as he goes through hell for us.
Bildad Speaks (18:1–21)
18:1–4 Like Eliphaz and Zophar, Bildad expresses his frustration with Job. But he says something both puzzling and revealing in 18:4; he asks if “the earth” will be “forsaken for you or the rock be removed out of its place.”
The solid rock or earth is an image in scripture for the order and stability of the creation; the inhabited world is a stable place, not like the chaotic waters (e.g., Ps 24:1, 2), built on “pillars” or “foundations” that speak of moral order as much as physical order 1Sam 2:8b in context). For the rock or earth to be shifted is for the moral order of the world to be shaken.
RE: Would you ever date a (...) ?
i pay for everything in cash, but i am seeing there are place that will not take it. i would not use an app either just so they can sell my data. the most social media i could handle was putting 2 of my comedy vids on youtube .
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
15:1–6 Eliphaz begins the second cycle of speeches, as he had begun the first (Job 4, 5). But whereas in chapters 4 and 5 there was a gentleness to his tone, that softness has disappeared. In 15:1–16 he complains to Job that his challenge is disgraceful. The challenge is disgraceful, first, because the challenge is empty, just wind or empty words. (Bildad, and Zophar,, have said something similar.) Further, the challenge is not only empty; the challenge is dangerous: if we remove the links between virtue and blessing, sin and punishment, then we undermine “the fear of God,” that is, genuine reverence. Your ideas, Job, will do away with all true religion and serious morality. There is an echo of this objection in Romans 3:8 “Why not do evil, that good may come?” What is more, says Eliphaz, Job’s arguments are motivated by crafty iniquity (Job 15:5–6); you are only saying what you say because you want to justify your sinful life.
15:7–16 Eliphaz again claims the privileges of seniority (as Bildad did in 8:8–10). Job is an arrogant upstart to challenge what wise men older than him have taught. It is as if Job claims to have access to “the council of God” (an irony in the light of the heavenly scenes in Job 1–2, to which Eliphaz also had no access!). Eliphaz feels hurt that Job has not listened to kind counsel (15:11–13) and that Job is utterly unrealistic about what is possible for human beings (15:14–16).
15:17–35 From 15:17 to the end of the speech Eliphaz gives Job a picture portrait of the wicked with their troubles. As we read it, we need to pick up that this wicked man looks and feels very like Job himself looks and feels. The implication is clear: if this is what happens to the wicked man, then Job cannot avoid the conclusion that he himself is a wicked man. He speaks vividly of the terrible fears experienced by the wicked (15:20–24), frightening experiences echoed in Job’s own life. And then he expounds with poetic forcefulness the fate that will come to the wicked (15:25–35). Much of this has already begun to be Job’s own experience. So, both the objective troubles of the wicked and the subjective terrors of the wicked fit closely with the experience of Job. If the simple moral system is true—and Eliphaz is sure that it is—then obviously Job himself must be a wicked man.
Distortion of the meaning of blessing and suffering occurs when religion is followed without the grace of the gospel. For only in the gospel is there both undeserved blessing and undeserved suffering. For Christ there is undeserved suffering. For the followers of Christ there is, paradoxically, both undeserved suffering (cf. Rom 8:17) and undeserved blessing.
Job Speaks (16:1–17:16)
Eliphaz and his friends think Job speaks empty words. But the feeling is mutual, for Job finds their words to be “windy” (16:3). Eliphaz claims to offer Job “the comforts of God” (15:11), but Job finds no comfort from his friends. In the ultimate oxymoron he calls them “miserable comforters” (16:2). Job knows their system well; he could speak as they do—and probably has done so in the past (16:4). But—and this is revealing—what Job longs for is not simply that his friends will comfort him but also that he might be able to comfort them. This is the surprise—the strange but deep truth—of 16:5, namely that only those who have experienced the comforts of God can truly bring those comforts to others (cf. 2Cor 1:4), as Job longs to do. His longing is a mark of his generosity of spirit that he would want to comfort his friends.
15:7–16 Eliphaz again claims the privileges of seniority (as Bildad did in 8:8–10). Job is an arrogant upstart to challenge what wise men older than him have taught. It is as if Job claims to have access to “the council of God” (an irony in the light of the heavenly scenes in Job 1–2, to which Eliphaz also had no access!). Eliphaz feels hurt that Job has not listened to kind counsel (15:11–13) and that Job is utterly unrealistic about what is possible for human beings (15:14–16).
15:17–35 From 15:17 to the end of the speech Eliphaz gives Job a picture portrait of the wicked with their troubles. As we read it, we need to pick up that this wicked man looks and feels very like Job himself looks and feels. The implication is clear: if this is what happens to the wicked man, then Job cannot avoid the conclusion that he himself is a wicked man. He speaks vividly of the terrible fears experienced by the wicked (15:20–24), frightening experiences echoed in Job’s own life. And then he expounds with poetic forcefulness the fate that will come to the wicked (15:25–35). Much of this has already begun to be Job’s own experience. So, both the objective troubles of the wicked and the subjective terrors of the wicked fit closely with the experience of Job. If the simple moral system is true—and Eliphaz is sure that it is—then obviously Job himself must be a wicked man.
Distortion of the meaning of blessing and suffering occurs when religion is followed without the grace of the gospel. For only in the gospel is there both undeserved blessing and undeserved suffering. For Christ there is undeserved suffering. For the followers of Christ there is, paradoxically, both undeserved suffering (cf. Rom 8:17) and undeserved blessing.
Job Speaks (16:1–17:16)
Eliphaz and his friends think Job speaks empty words. But the feeling is mutual, for Job finds their words to be “windy” (16:3). Eliphaz claims to offer Job “the comforts of God” (15:11), but Job finds no comfort from his friends. In the ultimate oxymoron he calls them “miserable comforters” (16:2). Job knows their system well; he could speak as they do—and probably has done so in the past (16:4). But—and this is revealing—what Job longs for is not simply that his friends will comfort him but also that he might be able to comfort them. This is the surprise—the strange but deep truth—of 16:5, namely that only those who have experienced the comforts of God can truly bring those comforts to others (cf. 2Cor 1:4), as Job longs to do. His longing is a mark of his generosity of spirit that he would want to comfort his friends.
RE: Useless trivia
The mother and stepfather of deceased Hesquiat boy Dontay Lucas were both sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for manslaughter in the disturbing killing of the six-year-old in 2018.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen delivered the decision to a packed and emotional courtroom filled with the Lucas family, friends and supporters wearing stickers reading "Dontay Patrick Lucas, 2012-2018, gone but not forgotten."
Accused Rykel Frank (née Charleson) and Mitchell Frank sat silently in leg shackles: Charleson in the prisoner's box wearing a white T-shirt and black sweatpants; Frank, in an orange sweatshirt and orange pants, sitting just outside the prisoner's box.
After the sentence was delivered, family members came to the front of the courtroom to address the accused in a gesture of forgiveness.
"We, your family, forgive you," said Judy Campbell. "In order to let our little man rest, we forgive you."
Outside the courthouse, Dontay's biological father expressed relief.
"A lot of weight has been lifted off my shoulders," said Patrick Lucas. "Our healers gave us a beautiful message that my boy is set free now. He can rest in peace."
This little cute boy was starved, tortured, why?
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen delivered the decision to a packed and emotional courtroom filled with the Lucas family, friends and supporters wearing stickers reading "Dontay Patrick Lucas, 2012-2018, gone but not forgotten."
Accused Rykel Frank (née Charleson) and Mitchell Frank sat silently in leg shackles: Charleson in the prisoner's box wearing a white T-shirt and black sweatpants; Frank, in an orange sweatshirt and orange pants, sitting just outside the prisoner's box.
After the sentence was delivered, family members came to the front of the courtroom to address the accused in a gesture of forgiveness.
"We, your family, forgive you," said Judy Campbell. "In order to let our little man rest, we forgive you."
Outside the courthouse, Dontay's biological father expressed relief.
"A lot of weight has been lifted off my shoulders," said Patrick Lucas. "Our healers gave us a beautiful message that my boy is set free now. He can rest in peace."
This little cute boy was starved, tortured, why?
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
And this instability characterizes nations as well. Job is not solving any problems; but he is demonstrating that the simple moral and religious system of his friends can never be a solution. Bad things happen to good people and good things to bad people. Simple human religion cannot account for this.
13:1–12 Now Job goes on the offensive; he accuses his friends of deceitfulness. He knows all the facts that they know and is familiar with their system (for it used to be his. He longs to speak, no longer to them, but directly to the Almighty a longing that will find fulfilment later in the book. But as for his friends they speak lies about God they are useless doctors they speak falsely for God in due course they will be rebuked and They have all these simple “maxims” (their system of morality), but they are useless
13:13–19 Next, Job tells them that the living God is the one to whom he must turn. He knows the prospect is dangerous; he realizes that God is not safe.
But, in those famous words, he says, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face” here he hopes for “salvation” as he prepares to bring his case to God .
13:20–22 Now, from to the end of the speech, Job does what he said he would do he speaks to God. What he says to God is very profound and shows that Job is a real believer. He begins by pleading for an interval in his sufferings sufficient to collect his words together and for the Almighty to summon Job to speak, giving him an audience before God. He knows he cannot speak until God calls him.
13:23–27 He knows, what is more, that sin is the great problem between people and God. Although Job is penitent—he habitually fears God and turns from evil—nevertheless he is deeply conscious of sin (13:23). He is experiencing the wrath of God against sinners, so that God hides his face, counts him as his enemy, blows him away like a dry leaf or chaff after harvest, punishes him continually. Job knows this. And Job is right. His sufferings foreshadow (and are, in a manner of speaking, the overflow of) the sufferings of Christ as he bears the sins of many.
13:28–14:6 What is more, Job knows that his mortality is the result of sin. He laments that his life, human life, is like a rotting fruit or a moth-eaten piece of clothing Life is short and “full of trouble” (14:1). It is sobering, but right, to remember that our life on earth is like a passing shadow that will fade away. Job is deeply aware of this.
14:7–12 Naturally, he now moves from mortality to death itself. He contrasts a cut down tree that may sprout again with a dead man who “rises not again” and “will not awake.” There is something terribly final about death, the full stop at the end of mortal life under sin.
14:13–22 And yet, for Job, death cannot—must not—be the end of the story. And so, he cries, in effect, for bodily resurrection, for that “renewal” that will bring him back into the favored presence of God ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven. For if there is no resurrection, there can be no hope. There is an astonishingly personal faith expressed in, a faith only possible for a true believer. In the midst of his darkness, Job clings to the hope that will later be brought to light in the gospel.
The first cycle of speeches now comes to an end. But the speaking is not finished yet, not nearly finished.
13:1–12 Now Job goes on the offensive; he accuses his friends of deceitfulness. He knows all the facts that they know and is familiar with their system (for it used to be his. He longs to speak, no longer to them, but directly to the Almighty a longing that will find fulfilment later in the book. But as for his friends they speak lies about God they are useless doctors they speak falsely for God in due course they will be rebuked and They have all these simple “maxims” (their system of morality), but they are useless
13:13–19 Next, Job tells them that the living God is the one to whom he must turn. He knows the prospect is dangerous; he realizes that God is not safe.
But, in those famous words, he says, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face” here he hopes for “salvation” as he prepares to bring his case to God .
13:20–22 Now, from to the end of the speech, Job does what he said he would do he speaks to God. What he says to God is very profound and shows that Job is a real believer. He begins by pleading for an interval in his sufferings sufficient to collect his words together and for the Almighty to summon Job to speak, giving him an audience before God. He knows he cannot speak until God calls him.
13:23–27 He knows, what is more, that sin is the great problem between people and God. Although Job is penitent—he habitually fears God and turns from evil—nevertheless he is deeply conscious of sin (13:23). He is experiencing the wrath of God against sinners, so that God hides his face, counts him as his enemy, blows him away like a dry leaf or chaff after harvest, punishes him continually. Job knows this. And Job is right. His sufferings foreshadow (and are, in a manner of speaking, the overflow of) the sufferings of Christ as he bears the sins of many.
13:28–14:6 What is more, Job knows that his mortality is the result of sin. He laments that his life, human life, is like a rotting fruit or a moth-eaten piece of clothing Life is short and “full of trouble” (14:1). It is sobering, but right, to remember that our life on earth is like a passing shadow that will fade away. Job is deeply aware of this.
14:7–12 Naturally, he now moves from mortality to death itself. He contrasts a cut down tree that may sprout again with a dead man who “rises not again” and “will not awake.” There is something terribly final about death, the full stop at the end of mortal life under sin.
14:13–22 And yet, for Job, death cannot—must not—be the end of the story. And so, he cries, in effect, for bodily resurrection, for that “renewal” that will bring him back into the favored presence of God ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven. For if there is no resurrection, there can be no hope. There is an astonishingly personal faith expressed in, a faith only possible for a true believer. In the midst of his darkness, Job clings to the hope that will later be brought to light in the gospel.
The first cycle of speeches now comes to an end. But the speaking is not finished yet, not nearly finished.
RE: Apollo 11: One giant LIE for mankind...
@ mic.... treaties & pie Crust doctrine...see Lenin
...the same Lenin who said circa 1920...
" The road to victory goes thru Mexico."
..he has early warning. He got Ju - jew eyeball - Lennon.
Marquee moon ) Television
Man on the moon. ) .r e m.
Space oddity* ) Bowie
* Paradox alert; Kodachrome film non worky
.in environment saturated w/ gamma. X ray. Infrared
etc. .. radiation.....and in case you haven't noticed yet,
The quantity of photos..EXCEEDED THE TIME AVAILABLE FOR THE UM, MISSION! !
...the same Lenin who said circa 1920...
" The road to victory goes thru Mexico."
..he has early warning. He got Ju - jew eyeball - Lennon.
Marquee moon ) Television
Man on the moon. ) .r e m.
Space oddity* ) Bowie
* Paradox alert; Kodachrome film non worky
.in environment saturated w/ gamma. X ray. Infrared
etc. .. radiation.....and in case you haven't noticed yet,
The quantity of photos..EXCEEDED THE TIME AVAILABLE FOR THE UM, MISSION! !
WHERE DID WE COME FROM?
People with intelligence and the ability to think and not have a blinkered view on life are the ones that eventually discover where we came from and our purpose on this planet. Thank goodness there are some of us who have this quest for the truth and those who uncover a true history of this civilization by looking at the evidence left by ancient people who left us their writings and objects to try to tell of their experiences. Throughout the world there are similar stories and archaeology finds. Any intelligent deity would expect us to use use our brains and interpret the information left us so that eventually we would reach a level of understanding for those superior technological beings to accept us into their world. Those who do not show the ability to think will be doomed to a planet to suit their ignorance.
Your choice.
Your choice.
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
11:5–6 Zophar wishes that God, in his wisdom (or what Zophar supposes to be his wisdom), will show Job that his sufferings are actually less than he deserves! Not only must Job be guilty of some secret and unrepented sin, but this sin must be so terrible that the loss of his riches, his children, and his health is not nearly as much as he deserves. The cruelty of the simple moral system of human religion is here exposed.
11:7–12 Zophar begins with an eloquent and persuasive description of the grandeur and limitless scope of God’s attributes. On its own, this description could hardly be contradicted by someone who believes the Bible. The problem comes—subtly Zophar speaks of God detaining someone, putting them in the dock, and trying them because he knows he is “worthless” and full of “iniquity,” “a stupid man.” Given how Zophar has spoken to Job in Zophar clearly supposes this stupid man to be Job! Not only does Zophar implicitly accuse Job of being worthless, but he also implies that he, Zophar, actually does have insight into the deep things of God; the irony is that both these suppositions are false.
11:13–20 Nevertheless, Zophar goes on. Because (he supposes) he knows the mind of God, he makes Job an offer on God’s behalf. If Job seeks God with repentance (11:13–14) then God will forgive him and bless him (11:15–19); but if he does not, there is no “way of escape” for him (11:20).
The cruelty of religion without a gospel of undeserved suffering is here vividly exposed. If there can be no undeserved suffering, there can be no atoning death of Christ; and if there is no atonement, then there cannot be undeserved blessing for anybody.
Job Replies (12:1–14:22)
In Job’s first speech we noticed that he spoke both to his friends (Job 6) and to God (Job 7); he does the same here. In he speaks to his friends; then in 13:20–14:22 he speaks to the Almighty.
12:2–6 Job rebukes his friends for their cruelty. (Although formally he replies to Zophar, in practice all his speeches are addressed to all three friends; each friend speaks for them all. These conversations are not between four individuals, but between one individual—Job—and one coherent group.) There is bitter irony in 12:2: you think you are the people who matter, the people of wisdom! Job laments that he, who was in right relationship with God, is laughed at by his supposed friends (12:4). His friends have the simple task; they are “at ease” and can look contemptuously on the sufferer (12:5).
12:7–12 There is reason to think that Job is here parodying the sort of thing that Job’s friends are saying to him. They are telling him that even the animals, birds, plants and fish could teach him the truth. They are the senior people, and Job ought to listen to them. By this parody Job shows up the shallowness of the moral system of his friends. If the situation is so obvious that even animals can grasp it, maybe, just maybe, it does not do justice to the complexities of the world!
For the world that Job sees is a wild world. Here, Job speaks of the wild sovereignty of God. There is something uncontainable, something that cannot be simply systematized, about God’s government of the world. Job hints at what we call natural disasters, times when God tears down humankind, when he brings drought or floods. How does the simple system of Job’s friends account for that? In 12:16–21 the focus shifts from the natural order to human affairs. Far from being a world in which the wise (counsellors), the senior (judges, elders), the powerful (kings, the mighty), and the religious (priests) are secure in their positions, we live in a world in which any one of these can be unseated at any time; and often they are. Why is this?
11:7–12 Zophar begins with an eloquent and persuasive description of the grandeur and limitless scope of God’s attributes. On its own, this description could hardly be contradicted by someone who believes the Bible. The problem comes—subtly Zophar speaks of God detaining someone, putting them in the dock, and trying them because he knows he is “worthless” and full of “iniquity,” “a stupid man.” Given how Zophar has spoken to Job in Zophar clearly supposes this stupid man to be Job! Not only does Zophar implicitly accuse Job of being worthless, but he also implies that he, Zophar, actually does have insight into the deep things of God; the irony is that both these suppositions are false.
11:13–20 Nevertheless, Zophar goes on. Because (he supposes) he knows the mind of God, he makes Job an offer on God’s behalf. If Job seeks God with repentance (11:13–14) then God will forgive him and bless him (11:15–19); but if he does not, there is no “way of escape” for him (11:20).
The cruelty of religion without a gospel of undeserved suffering is here vividly exposed. If there can be no undeserved suffering, there can be no atoning death of Christ; and if there is no atonement, then there cannot be undeserved blessing for anybody.
Job Replies (12:1–14:22)
In Job’s first speech we noticed that he spoke both to his friends (Job 6) and to God (Job 7); he does the same here. In he speaks to his friends; then in 13:20–14:22 he speaks to the Almighty.
12:2–6 Job rebukes his friends for their cruelty. (Although formally he replies to Zophar, in practice all his speeches are addressed to all three friends; each friend speaks for them all. These conversations are not between four individuals, but between one individual—Job—and one coherent group.) There is bitter irony in 12:2: you think you are the people who matter, the people of wisdom! Job laments that he, who was in right relationship with God, is laughed at by his supposed friends (12:4). His friends have the simple task; they are “at ease” and can look contemptuously on the sufferer (12:5).
12:7–12 There is reason to think that Job is here parodying the sort of thing that Job’s friends are saying to him. They are telling him that even the animals, birds, plants and fish could teach him the truth. They are the senior people, and Job ought to listen to them. By this parody Job shows up the shallowness of the moral system of his friends. If the situation is so obvious that even animals can grasp it, maybe, just maybe, it does not do justice to the complexities of the world!
For the world that Job sees is a wild world. Here, Job speaks of the wild sovereignty of God. There is something uncontainable, something that cannot be simply systematized, about God’s government of the world. Job hints at what we call natural disasters, times when God tears down humankind, when he brings drought or floods. How does the simple system of Job’s friends account for that? In 12:16–21 the focus shifts from the natural order to human affairs. Far from being a world in which the wise (counsellors), the senior (judges, elders), the powerful (kings, the mighty), and the religious (priests) are secure in their positions, we live in a world in which any one of these can be unseated at any time; and often they are. Why is this?
RE: WHERE DID WE COME FROM?
Our planet is God's testing station.
Care more about where you are going after this short time living here.
Eternity is a very looooooooog time!
Your choice where you spent it.............................jenny
Care more about where you are going after this short time living here.
Eternity is a very looooooooog time!
Your choice where you spent it.............................jenny
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What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
In 9:11–13 Job laments that he cannot see God, let alone dissuade him from working such chaos. “Rahab” (9:13), like Leviathan, is a storybook monster of supernatural evil.
Then in 9:14–20 Job laments that, even if God were wrong, he is simply too strong for Job to challenge. But—and this is the climax of chapter 9—in 9:21–24 Job accuses God of injustice. He is not simply worried about himself (“I regard not myself” 9:21). But all over the world God “destroys both the blameless and the wicked” (9:22); God actively causes injustice (9:24).
This is really shocking, but it is how the world appears to be when Job looks at it. Job does not know what to do. But, in a remarkable moment, in 9:33 he begins to yearn for “an arbiter.” Job 9:33 may mean “There is no arbiter” or possibly (see ESV footnote) “Would that there were an arbiter.” He knows he must deal with God, and yet he longs for a mediator who can bring him together with God.
10:1–3 In chapter 10 Job continues and asks four terrible questions. First, he asks God why he is against him (“let me know why you contend against me”). Why, oh why, is God pleased to despise Job, whom he made, while he favors “the designs of the wicked”? Why? The question is a terrible one, for it calls into question the very idea that God is just.
10:4–7 Second, he asks God about his “eyes.” Job knows that we humans make all sorts of mistake with our eyes (“eyes of flesh . . . as man sees” but he is horrified to think that God’s sight might be similarly flawed, that God might be on the same level as us mortals The problem is that God seems determined to find unforgiven sin in Job and to keep punishing him, although God knows that Job is not guilty (that is, his sin is forgiven). A moral universe assumes that God can truly see into human hearts, to determine with accuracy both guilt and innocence. But what is happening to Job calls this into question.
10:8–17 Third, Job writes most movingly of God’s creation of him. God has “fashioned and made” him with “hands” of love, shaped him “like clay,” as milk is turned carefully into cheese (10:10), clothed him with skin, knit him together (cf. Ps 139), given him life (Job 10:8–12). And yet God is busy destroying this creature he has so carefully and lovingly made. God is like a relentless enemy, bringing up wave after wave of troops against Job (10:17). And so Job asks God, in effect, what was the point of making me in the first place if you are only going to destroy me?
10:18–22 Finally, he asks God, why he does not just end his life. As in chapter 3, he wishes he had died in the womb or been stillborn, “carried from the womb to the grave” (in a picture of that most poignant and terrible of funerals, with the tiny casket). Back to “the land of darkness and deep shadow, the land of gloom . . . deep shadow” to the place “without any order,” this is where Job is headed.
This speech does not get us very far. But the reader must strive to hear Job as he grapples so earnestly with the strange invisible sovereignty of God and the apparent injustice of God. For his grapplings will bear fruit later.
Zophar Replies
11:1–4 Zophar is very angry with Job, so angry that he blurts out a cruel allegation. He accuses Job of speaking many words, but they are empty words; Job needs someone to make him ashamed of all the words he is speaking. Job claims that he is “clean in God’s eyes” (11:4) and Zophar thinks this is outrageous. We are naturally inclined to agree with Zophar, or we would be if we forgot the threefold insistent statements with which the book began, that Job truly is a blameless, upright, God-fearing and penitent man (1:1, 8; 2:3). So, not because he is self-righteous but because he is righteous by faith, he truly is clean in God’s eyes. Zophar is wrong.
Then in 9:14–20 Job laments that, even if God were wrong, he is simply too strong for Job to challenge. But—and this is the climax of chapter 9—in 9:21–24 Job accuses God of injustice. He is not simply worried about himself (“I regard not myself” 9:21). But all over the world God “destroys both the blameless and the wicked” (9:22); God actively causes injustice (9:24).
This is really shocking, but it is how the world appears to be when Job looks at it. Job does not know what to do. But, in a remarkable moment, in 9:33 he begins to yearn for “an arbiter.” Job 9:33 may mean “There is no arbiter” or possibly (see ESV footnote) “Would that there were an arbiter.” He knows he must deal with God, and yet he longs for a mediator who can bring him together with God.
10:1–3 In chapter 10 Job continues and asks four terrible questions. First, he asks God why he is against him (“let me know why you contend against me”). Why, oh why, is God pleased to despise Job, whom he made, while he favors “the designs of the wicked”? Why? The question is a terrible one, for it calls into question the very idea that God is just.
10:4–7 Second, he asks God about his “eyes.” Job knows that we humans make all sorts of mistake with our eyes (“eyes of flesh . . . as man sees” but he is horrified to think that God’s sight might be similarly flawed, that God might be on the same level as us mortals The problem is that God seems determined to find unforgiven sin in Job and to keep punishing him, although God knows that Job is not guilty (that is, his sin is forgiven). A moral universe assumes that God can truly see into human hearts, to determine with accuracy both guilt and innocence. But what is happening to Job calls this into question.
10:8–17 Third, Job writes most movingly of God’s creation of him. God has “fashioned and made” him with “hands” of love, shaped him “like clay,” as milk is turned carefully into cheese (10:10), clothed him with skin, knit him together (cf. Ps 139), given him life (Job 10:8–12). And yet God is busy destroying this creature he has so carefully and lovingly made. God is like a relentless enemy, bringing up wave after wave of troops against Job (10:17). And so Job asks God, in effect, what was the point of making me in the first place if you are only going to destroy me?
10:18–22 Finally, he asks God, why he does not just end his life. As in chapter 3, he wishes he had died in the womb or been stillborn, “carried from the womb to the grave” (in a picture of that most poignant and terrible of funerals, with the tiny casket). Back to “the land of darkness and deep shadow, the land of gloom . . . deep shadow” to the place “without any order,” this is where Job is headed.
This speech does not get us very far. But the reader must strive to hear Job as he grapples so earnestly with the strange invisible sovereignty of God and the apparent injustice of God. For his grapplings will bear fruit later.
Zophar Replies
11:1–4 Zophar is very angry with Job, so angry that he blurts out a cruel allegation. He accuses Job of speaking many words, but they are empty words; Job needs someone to make him ashamed of all the words he is speaking. Job claims that he is “clean in God’s eyes” (11:4) and Zophar thinks this is outrageous. We are naturally inclined to agree with Zophar, or we would be if we forgot the threefold insistent statements with which the book began, that Job truly is a blameless, upright, God-fearing and penitent man (1:1, 8; 2:3). So, not because he is self-righteous but because he is righteous by faith, he truly is clean in God’s eyes. Zophar is wrong.
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
8:8–15 Eliphaz asserted the system on the basis that he and his friends had researched it and are sure of it (5:27). Bildad develops this at greater length from 8:8 to 8:19. In he challenges Job to ask “bygone ages” what they have discovered. Do not just consult contemporary thinkers (8:9); ask for the universal verdict of human religion of every age; that is the way to get at truth (8:10). What will Job find? Answer: simple cause and effect. Bildad starts with a negative illustration. Think about papyrus reeds. If there is water they grow; if there is no water, they die. Simple. Obvious. But now apply that to human affairs. Those who “forget God” and are “godless” (8:13) are like plants with no water; they may be people with some kind of faith, but their faith is no stronger than a spider’s web (8:14); their houses (family, life, enterprises) will not endure (8:15). That is how it has always been, Job: bad things will happen to bad people.
8:16–22 Then he gives a positive illustration Imagine now “a lush plant” spreading all over a garden—and this is a picture of a good person—nothing can stop him succeeding. That is how it has always been, Job: good things happen to good people. And so Bildad sums up in 8:20–22. If you are “blameless” God will not reject you; but if you are an evildoer, God will not go with you. So repent, Job, and do it quickly. Then there may be hope.
Bildad is simple and blunt (and he will be blunter later). The moral system cannot be changed, Job. If you experience bad things, it must mean you deserve them, just as your children must have deserved their deaths. There is no place in Bildad’s thinking, as there was not in Eliphaz’s, for innocent suffering. And therefore, there is no place for the cross of Christ and no hope of any gospel.
Job Replies (9:1–10:22)
“Truly I know that it is so: But . . . ” begins Job (9:2). Remember that Job begins with the same moral understanding as his friends. He is a wise man, a morally serious religious man, a man who believes that God is sovereign and just. So, at one level, he agrees with all that Bildad has said. “But . . . ” there’s a problem. When we listen to Job’s speeches, we hear the honest faith-filled grappling of a believer as he finds that the God he thought he knew is not the God he seemed.
What matters to Job—and it this with which he is struggling—is to be “in the right before God” (9:2). The problem, which Job develops in 9:2–23, is that God’s undoubted sovereignty seems to be exercised in an arbitrary and unjust way. God is very strong and (presumably) wise (9:3–4). But when I consider the simple moral cosmic order that I thought characterized the world, I find that this “God” is messing with it. This is the burden of 9:5–10. He “removes mountains,” those stable symbols of creation order; he “shakes the earth . . . and its pillars tremble” (9:5–6). I thought the world was a safe, predictable, moral place; I am finding it is more like an earthquake zone. The God who made it is shaking it; this is what has happened in Job’s own life: bad things have happened to a good person. Why?
9:11–35 Job laments that he cannot see God, let alone dissuade him from working such chaos. “Rahab” (9:13), like Leviathan, is a storybook monster of supernatural evil. Then in 9:14–20 Job laments that, even if God were wrong, he is simply too strong for Job to challenge. But—and this is the climax of chapter 9—in 9:21–24 Job accuses God of injustice. He is not simply worried about himself (“I regard not myself” 9:21). But all over the world God “destroys both the blameless and the wicked” (9:22); God actively causes injustice (9:24). This is really shocking, but it is how the world appears to be when Job looks at it. Job does not know what to do. But, in a remarkable moment, in 9:33 he begins to yearn for “an arbiter.” Job 9:33 may mean “There is no arbiter”
8:16–22 Then he gives a positive illustration Imagine now “a lush plant” spreading all over a garden—and this is a picture of a good person—nothing can stop him succeeding. That is how it has always been, Job: good things happen to good people. And so Bildad sums up in 8:20–22. If you are “blameless” God will not reject you; but if you are an evildoer, God will not go with you. So repent, Job, and do it quickly. Then there may be hope.
Bildad is simple and blunt (and he will be blunter later). The moral system cannot be changed, Job. If you experience bad things, it must mean you deserve them, just as your children must have deserved their deaths. There is no place in Bildad’s thinking, as there was not in Eliphaz’s, for innocent suffering. And therefore, there is no place for the cross of Christ and no hope of any gospel.
Job Replies (9:1–10:22)
“Truly I know that it is so: But . . . ” begins Job (9:2). Remember that Job begins with the same moral understanding as his friends. He is a wise man, a morally serious religious man, a man who believes that God is sovereign and just. So, at one level, he agrees with all that Bildad has said. “But . . . ” there’s a problem. When we listen to Job’s speeches, we hear the honest faith-filled grappling of a believer as he finds that the God he thought he knew is not the God he seemed.
What matters to Job—and it this with which he is struggling—is to be “in the right before God” (9:2). The problem, which Job develops in 9:2–23, is that God’s undoubted sovereignty seems to be exercised in an arbitrary and unjust way. God is very strong and (presumably) wise (9:3–4). But when I consider the simple moral cosmic order that I thought characterized the world, I find that this “God” is messing with it. This is the burden of 9:5–10. He “removes mountains,” those stable symbols of creation order; he “shakes the earth . . . and its pillars tremble” (9:5–6). I thought the world was a safe, predictable, moral place; I am finding it is more like an earthquake zone. The God who made it is shaking it; this is what has happened in Job’s own life: bad things have happened to a good person. Why?
9:11–35 Job laments that he cannot see God, let alone dissuade him from working such chaos. “Rahab” (9:13), like Leviathan, is a storybook monster of supernatural evil. Then in 9:14–20 Job laments that, even if God were wrong, he is simply too strong for Job to challenge. But—and this is the climax of chapter 9—in 9:21–24 Job accuses God of injustice. He is not simply worried about himself (“I regard not myself” 9:21). But all over the world God “destroys both the blameless and the wicked” (9:22); God actively causes injustice (9:24). This is really shocking, but it is how the world appears to be when Job looks at it. Job does not know what to do. But, in a remarkable moment, in 9:33 he begins to yearn for “an arbiter.” Job 9:33 may mean “There is no arbiter”
WHERE DID WE COME FROM?
Miclee
Thanks for posting the video. It summarises the UFO situation over history and the connection with ancient gods, or humanoids, and the misrepresentation by ancient civilisations. It also highlights the government cover ups to this day. The Roswell incident to name just one. The Mexico incident of 1991, and the Washington DC. sightings.
Interesting that the Mexico sightings by many people, plus photos, was not reported in western news.
It is also worthy of noting NASA'S early attitude of not to report any UFO encounters.
Thanks for posting the video. It summarises the UFO situation over history and the connection with ancient gods, or humanoids, and the misrepresentation by ancient civilisations. It also highlights the government cover ups to this day. The Roswell incident to name just one. The Mexico incident of 1991, and the Washington DC. sightings.
Interesting that the Mexico sightings by many people, plus photos, was not reported in western news.
It is also worthy of noting NASA'S early attitude of not to report any UFO encounters.
Useless trivia
A woman who allowed her mother to starve to death, leaving her half-naked in bed on a tarpaulin with broken bones and weighing only 29kg, has been freed from prison.
Useless trivia
Man gets 30 years in prison for attacking ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
6:14–30 Job moves to rebuke his friends for being such comfortless comforters. He begins with a headline statement (6:14): a true “friend” has the obligation to show “kindness” (the Hebrew word chesed, covenant love); those who do not—and Job implies that his three friends fail here—break faithfulness with the reverent fear of God. So that they, and we, feel how terrible and disappointing this is, in 6:15–21 Job gives an extended illustration: the picture is of a caravan of travelers crossing the desert, turning to where they hope there will be a water-filled wadi up in the hills; but when they get there, they find it empty. Job’s friends are like that. He has turned to them for words that will be like life-giving water in the desert of his life; and they have nothing.
There is a profound truth here. Job’s friends offer him the straightforward morality of human religion: good things happen to good people, bad things to bad people. Such teaching offers no hope to the suffering believer. There is no gospel here. Job has not asked them for gifts from their wealth (6:22) or for military aid (6:23); all he has asked is for them to speak words of gospel and life (6:24 “Teach me . . . ”), “upright words” (6:25). But they have none.
7:1–21 But then, probably at the start of chapter 7, Job speaks to the God who, he supposes, has poured the poisoned but undeserved arrows of his wrath into Job. Speaking especially but not exclusively of himself he laments that his life seems to have no value or purpose (7:1–10), seeing it as “hard service” (a phrase used of slave labor in 1Kgs 5:13, 14). His life is so empty and miserable; the nights seem to go on and on as he tosses to and fro in pain (Job 7:4); a new day dawns but just comes and goes, like a weaver’s shuttle, “without hope” (7:6). Before long he will be dead, buried, and forgotten; just like a fading cloud, he will go down to the place of the dead; his life will have counted for nothing (7:7–10). Finally, in a darkly paradoxical section, Job says to God that if, when God keeps an eye on him, things are so terrible, perhaps it would be better if God simply went away (7:11–21). Job complains that he is not “the sea or a sea monster,” (7:12) that is, a representative of the forces of supernatural evil hostile to God (cf. Leviathan, Job 41). God has no need to keep guard over him, to “scare” and “terrify” him (7:14), to make him “loathe” his life (7:16). And so, he finally utters that terrible cry to God, “Leave me alone” (7:16). Is there a more terrible place to be than to wish oneself God-forsaken? Job 7:17 sounds rather like Psalm 8, but with very different import. Where Psalm 8 asks in wonder, “What is man?” amazed that God should give to man such dignity, Job asks, “What is man that you will not look away, but insist on watching me, intent on punishing me?”
If Job 6 brings home to us the uselessness of human religion to bring comfort in pain, Job 7 helps us to begin—just begin—to feel the misery of bearing the burden of the wrath of God. For there is a profound sense in which Job does bear that burden, in anticipation of One who is greater than Job who will bear that burden for his people many centuries later.
Bildad Replies (8:1–22)
8:1–2 Now Bildad’s turn arrives. Where Eliphaz was generally kind, if misguided, Bildad is already annoyed. He wants Job to stop talking because his words are like “a great wind”; he is just a windbag!
8:1–7 Job 8:3 goes straight to the heart of the comforters’ system: God never perverts justice. He never has, never can, never will—an undeniable axiom. And so Bildad makes two deductions from this, with ruthless logic. First (8:4), your dead children must have sinned; that is why they died; there is no other possible explanation. And then (8:5–7) there is just a chance, Job, if you repent quickly, that you will be in time to get a blessing for yourself.
There is a profound truth here. Job’s friends offer him the straightforward morality of human religion: good things happen to good people, bad things to bad people. Such teaching offers no hope to the suffering believer. There is no gospel here. Job has not asked them for gifts from their wealth (6:22) or for military aid (6:23); all he has asked is for them to speak words of gospel and life (6:24 “Teach me . . . ”), “upright words” (6:25). But they have none.
7:1–21 But then, probably at the start of chapter 7, Job speaks to the God who, he supposes, has poured the poisoned but undeserved arrows of his wrath into Job. Speaking especially but not exclusively of himself he laments that his life seems to have no value or purpose (7:1–10), seeing it as “hard service” (a phrase used of slave labor in 1Kgs 5:13, 14). His life is so empty and miserable; the nights seem to go on and on as he tosses to and fro in pain (Job 7:4); a new day dawns but just comes and goes, like a weaver’s shuttle, “without hope” (7:6). Before long he will be dead, buried, and forgotten; just like a fading cloud, he will go down to the place of the dead; his life will have counted for nothing (7:7–10). Finally, in a darkly paradoxical section, Job says to God that if, when God keeps an eye on him, things are so terrible, perhaps it would be better if God simply went away (7:11–21). Job complains that he is not “the sea or a sea monster,” (7:12) that is, a representative of the forces of supernatural evil hostile to God (cf. Leviathan, Job 41). God has no need to keep guard over him, to “scare” and “terrify” him (7:14), to make him “loathe” his life (7:16). And so, he finally utters that terrible cry to God, “Leave me alone” (7:16). Is there a more terrible place to be than to wish oneself God-forsaken? Job 7:17 sounds rather like Psalm 8, but with very different import. Where Psalm 8 asks in wonder, “What is man?” amazed that God should give to man such dignity, Job asks, “What is man that you will not look away, but insist on watching me, intent on punishing me?”
If Job 6 brings home to us the uselessness of human religion to bring comfort in pain, Job 7 helps us to begin—just begin—to feel the misery of bearing the burden of the wrath of God. For there is a profound sense in which Job does bear that burden, in anticipation of One who is greater than Job who will bear that burden for his people many centuries later.
Bildad Replies (8:1–22)
8:1–2 Now Bildad’s turn arrives. Where Eliphaz was generally kind, if misguided, Bildad is already annoyed. He wants Job to stop talking because his words are like “a great wind”; he is just a windbag!
8:1–7 Job 8:3 goes straight to the heart of the comforters’ system: God never perverts justice. He never has, never can, never will—an undeniable axiom. And so Bildad makes two deductions from this, with ruthless logic. First (8:4), your dead children must have sinned; that is why they died; there is no other possible explanation. And then (8:5–7) there is just a chance, Job, if you repent quickly, that you will be in time to get a blessing for yourself.
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
Eliphaz begins (Job 4:2–6) by gently rebuking Job for being so “impatient” (4:2, 5); Job has counselled others with the wisdom of this moral framework, and now he ought to take his own medicine. In 4:7–11 Eliphaz reminds Job of this framework. Job 4:7 is key: “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished?” It is simply not possible, says Eliphaz, that an innocent man should suffer or die, because (4:8) we reap what we sow; those who “sow trouble” (4:8) and behave like aggressive lions (4:10, 11) will be “consumed” (4:9). So, Eliphaz implies, your suffering must be the result of your sin. In 4:12–21 Eliphaz claims the authority of some mystical experience to assert that we cannot be pure in God’s sight and must therefore expect to suffer for our sins. Again, in 5:1–7 he rebukes Job for being vexatious (5:2); this is the behavior of a fool who will deserve the trouble he gets. Then, in 5:8–26, Eliphaz exhorts Job to repent, to seek God (5:8), not to try to be too clever (5:13) but to accept his sufferings as God’s discipline (5:17) trusting that God will deliver him from them and give him “peace” (5:24). Finally (5:27) Eliphaz signs-off with a confident assertion that what he has said represents solid truth, “searched out” by himself and his wise friends; Job needs to listen to it “and know it for your good.”
Much is good and true in what Eliphaz says. He is motivated by the desire to help Job. If Job will repent and seek God (which Eliphaz thinks he must not have been doing), then God will restore and bless him. But there are at least two problems. The first is that he is saying this to the wrong man; for Job is already “blameless and upright, he fears God and turns from evil”; we have been told this three times (1:1, 8; 2:3). But the second problem is more fundamental: Eliphaz has no place in his worldview for innocent suffering. He cannot imagine that someone might suffer without deserving their suffering (cf. 4:7). The supreme proof that Eliphaz is wrong comes at the cross of Christ. Here is God’s answer to the question, “who that was innocent ever perished?” Because of the cross of Christ, no suffering of a believer (before or after Christ) can ever be a punishment for sins, since the sins of all believers have been paid for by the death of Jesus. There is a deep sense, therefore, in which the innocent sufferings of Christ overflow into the undeserved sufferings of his people in every age (cf. Col 1:24).
Job Replies (6:1–7:21)
Although we cannot be quite certain in detail, it seems that in chapter 6 Job speaks to his three friends before (in Job 7) speaking directly to God.
6:1–13 Eliphaz has chided Job for becoming so agitated about his troubles and what they mean. But in 6:1–7 Job defends himself. He wants his friends to understand that the pain he is experiencing is far worse than the obvious sufferings of bankruptcy, bereavement and loss of health. The reason his words have been—as his friends think—“rash” (6:3) is that his suffering is far heavier than they think (6:2, 3). It consists—as 6:4 so vividly expresses it—in “the arrows of the Almighty” with their “terrors” and “poison.” His diet—in the illustration of 6:5–7—is truly “loathsome”; this may refer to what his friends are saying, or possibly to his sufferings from God. For it is not just the sufferings that trouble Job; it is that they come from the God he trusted. In 6:8–13 he expresses the depth of his desperation with a longing “that it would please God to crush me . . . cut me off” (6:9) before he denies God.
Much is good and true in what Eliphaz says. He is motivated by the desire to help Job. If Job will repent and seek God (which Eliphaz thinks he must not have been doing), then God will restore and bless him. But there are at least two problems. The first is that he is saying this to the wrong man; for Job is already “blameless and upright, he fears God and turns from evil”; we have been told this three times (1:1, 8; 2:3). But the second problem is more fundamental: Eliphaz has no place in his worldview for innocent suffering. He cannot imagine that someone might suffer without deserving their suffering (cf. 4:7). The supreme proof that Eliphaz is wrong comes at the cross of Christ. Here is God’s answer to the question, “who that was innocent ever perished?” Because of the cross of Christ, no suffering of a believer (before or after Christ) can ever be a punishment for sins, since the sins of all believers have been paid for by the death of Jesus. There is a deep sense, therefore, in which the innocent sufferings of Christ overflow into the undeserved sufferings of his people in every age (cf. Col 1:24).
Job Replies (6:1–7:21)
Although we cannot be quite certain in detail, it seems that in chapter 6 Job speaks to his three friends before (in Job 7) speaking directly to God.
6:1–13 Eliphaz has chided Job for becoming so agitated about his troubles and what they mean. But in 6:1–7 Job defends himself. He wants his friends to understand that the pain he is experiencing is far worse than the obvious sufferings of bankruptcy, bereavement and loss of health. The reason his words have been—as his friends think—“rash” (6:3) is that his suffering is far heavier than they think (6:2, 3). It consists—as 6:4 so vividly expresses it—in “the arrows of the Almighty” with their “terrors” and “poison.” His diet—in the illustration of 6:5–7—is truly “loathsome”; this may refer to what his friends are saying, or possibly to his sufferings from God. For it is not just the sufferings that trouble Job; it is that they come from the God he trusted. In 6:8–13 he expresses the depth of his desperation with a longing “that it would please God to crush me . . . cut me off” (6:9) before he denies God.
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
There are three features to note in this terrible lament. First, for Job the future is a blank; he can only look back. Every word looks to the past with regret. Hope is darkened and empty. Second, he cannot rest. His life is full of “trouble” (3:10), devoid of “quiet” and of “rest” (3:13), a place where the wicked cause endless trouble (3:17), where there is no “ease” (3:18), full of “groanings” (3:24); his lament ends on this note—“not at ease . . . nor . . . quiet . . . no rest, but trouble comes” (3:26). Third, Job is not alone, for this hopeless restlessness is shared by others.
In a strange way, there is hope in Job’s restlessness. For his restlessness forces him to begin the journey of struggling honest faith that fills the remainder of the book.
First Cycle of Speeches (4:1–14:22)
Between Job’s lament or soliloquy (Job 3) and Job’s closing speeches (Job 27–31) there are nearly three stylized cycles of alternating speeches in which Job and his comforters take turns to speak. Eliphaz speaks, and Job replies; then Bildad speaks, and Job replies; finally, Zophar speaks, and Job replies. This happens twice in full (Job 4–21). In the third cycle, Eliphaz speaks (Job 22), Job replies (Job 23, 24), and then Bildad speaks very briefly (Job 25) before Job replies for the last time (Job 26); but Zophar does not get to speak the third time. The cycles peter out, the words draining into the ground having failed to resolve the mystery of Job and his sufferings.
These speeches are the hardest part of the book to understand. When reading Job’s words, we need to remember two truths in tension. On the one hand, the LORD’s overall verdict on Job is that he has spoken rightly about God (42:7); on the other hand, the LORD also challenges Job for being “a faultfinder,” one who “argues with God” (40:2), and Job admits that he is the man who has hidden counsel (that is, disguised truth) by speaking “without knowledge. . . . what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me” (42:3). Job is a believer (1:1, 8; 2:3); he speaks from a heart of honest faith. And yet he will sometimes say things about God that are not true.
When reading the speeches of Job’s comforters, we must remember that, at the end, the LORD rebukes them for not speaking rightly of him (42:7). So, the headline verdict over them reads “untrue.” Nevertheless, many statements they make are true in isolation; for example, one of the very few explicit quotations of Job in the New Testament comes when Paul quotes with approval a statement of Eliphaz (5:13 quoted in 1Cor 3:19). We need to think carefully about what is wrong overall, in the context of many individual statements that may be true.
Bear in mind one of the main themes of Job’s comforters: a simple framework of morality, what we might call crime and punishment, or virtue and rewards. The elements of this framework are as follows. (1) God is all-powerful; (2) God is just; therefore (3) God always rewards virtue and punishes sin, usually pretty quickly and certainly in this life; it follows (4) that if someone experiences blessing, it must be a reward for their goodness and, conversely, if they experience suffering, it must be a punishment for their sin. This is the moral framework of all serious and religious people; Job himself begins his journey assuming these things are true.
Eliphaz Speaks First (4:1–5:27)
What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
Job and His Three Friends (2:11–31:40)
Introduction of the Friends (2:11–13)
In the brief introduction of Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (traditionally known as Job’s comforters) we see first a reference to where they come from, “each from his own place.” We do not know for certain where Naamah or Shuah were, but Teman was an important town of Edom (e.g., Jer 49:20) a place that was renowned for wisdom (Obad 8). This is at least a hint that in these three men we see the wisdom of the world, natural wisdom, gathered to try to solve the puzzle of Job.
Next, we learn of their motives. They are Job’s “friends” (2:11), a strong word indicative of covenant loyalty (cf. 2Sam 16:16, 17). They take the trouble to come “together” in order to enter into Job’s grief and offer words of comfort. Here is the wisdom of the world at its very best.
And yet they cannot help. This is the tragedy. They do not “recognize” Job; although they weep and sit on the ground with Job, they cannot reach him. He is deeply estranged from them and desperate in his loneliness. They sit without speaking to him for seven days, the period of mourning for a dead person (e.g., 1Sam 31:13). It is as though Job is already dead. Their silence begins with sympathy, but it ends with them having nothing helpful to say. In his loneliness Job foreshadows a later and greater believer who suffered and died alone (e.g., Mark 14:32–42), whose disciples could not support him in his sufferings, and yet whose sufferings mean that now we need never be so terribly alone as was Job.
Job’s Lament (3:1–26)
The loneliness of Job is heightened in this, the darkest chapter of the whole book. For here, Job does not speak to his friends. He does not even speak to God. He simply speaks as the agony of his soul bursts out of him. In chapters 1 and 2 we read a description from the outside, as it were, of what happens to Job. Now in chapter 3, Job opens for us a window into his heart and soul, and we begin to grasp that when his friends “saw that his suffering was very great” (2:13) they were not exaggerating.
3:1–10 Job does not curse God (as Satan said he would, 1:11; 2:5); but he curses (literally) “his day” (ESV, “the day of his birth”). The curse extends from 3:3 to 3:10. It begins with a curse on the day of his birth (3:3–5) and then reaches further back to the night of his conception (3:6–10). The theme that runs through these verses is the opposite of the words “let there be light!” of Genesis 1; Job wishes darkness instead of light, a kind of undoing of his conception and birth, as if it were possible to negate his existence. “Leviathan” (Job 3:8) is a storybook monster, a great opponent of God; we shall meet him again in chapter 41, where he seems to be a vivid picture of Satan himself.
3:11–19 Job’s curse becomes a sad lament, dominated by the question “Why?” (3:11, 16). First (3:11–15) he asks why, if he had to be born, he must stay alive; he wishes he were dead, “at rest” (3:13) with other powerful men of history. Then (3:16–19) he voices the terrible wish that he might have been stillborn; one can hardly think of a darker or more poignant cry. What lies behind the cry is that this life, Job’s life, has no rest; he imagines that the place of the dead will be a place of rest.
3:20–26 Finally, Job broadens his lament to ask, not only why he was conceived and born, but why other miserable people had to be born. The phrase “the bitter in soul” (3:20) is plural.
Introduction of the Friends (2:11–13)
In the brief introduction of Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (traditionally known as Job’s comforters) we see first a reference to where they come from, “each from his own place.” We do not know for certain where Naamah or Shuah were, but Teman was an important town of Edom (e.g., Jer 49:20) a place that was renowned for wisdom (Obad 8). This is at least a hint that in these three men we see the wisdom of the world, natural wisdom, gathered to try to solve the puzzle of Job.
Next, we learn of their motives. They are Job’s “friends” (2:11), a strong word indicative of covenant loyalty (cf. 2Sam 16:16, 17). They take the trouble to come “together” in order to enter into Job’s grief and offer words of comfort. Here is the wisdom of the world at its very best.
And yet they cannot help. This is the tragedy. They do not “recognize” Job; although they weep and sit on the ground with Job, they cannot reach him. He is deeply estranged from them and desperate in his loneliness. They sit without speaking to him for seven days, the period of mourning for a dead person (e.g., 1Sam 31:13). It is as though Job is already dead. Their silence begins with sympathy, but it ends with them having nothing helpful to say. In his loneliness Job foreshadows a later and greater believer who suffered and died alone (e.g., Mark 14:32–42), whose disciples could not support him in his sufferings, and yet whose sufferings mean that now we need never be so terribly alone as was Job.
Job’s Lament (3:1–26)
The loneliness of Job is heightened in this, the darkest chapter of the whole book. For here, Job does not speak to his friends. He does not even speak to God. He simply speaks as the agony of his soul bursts out of him. In chapters 1 and 2 we read a description from the outside, as it were, of what happens to Job. Now in chapter 3, Job opens for us a window into his heart and soul, and we begin to grasp that when his friends “saw that his suffering was very great” (2:13) they were not exaggerating.
3:1–10 Job does not curse God (as Satan said he would, 1:11; 2:5); but he curses (literally) “his day” (ESV, “the day of his birth”). The curse extends from 3:3 to 3:10. It begins with a curse on the day of his birth (3:3–5) and then reaches further back to the night of his conception (3:6–10). The theme that runs through these verses is the opposite of the words “let there be light!” of Genesis 1; Job wishes darkness instead of light, a kind of undoing of his conception and birth, as if it were possible to negate his existence. “Leviathan” (Job 3:8) is a storybook monster, a great opponent of God; we shall meet him again in chapter 41, where he seems to be a vivid picture of Satan himself.
3:11–19 Job’s curse becomes a sad lament, dominated by the question “Why?” (3:11, 16). First (3:11–15) he asks why, if he had to be born, he must stay alive; he wishes he were dead, “at rest” (3:13) with other powerful men of history. Then (3:16–19) he voices the terrible wish that he might have been stillborn; one can hardly think of a darker or more poignant cry. What lies behind the cry is that this life, Job’s life, has no rest; he imagines that the place of the dead will be a place of rest.
3:20–26 Finally, Job broadens his lament to ask, not only why he was conceived and born, but why other miserable people had to be born. The phrase “the bitter in soul” (3:20) is plural.
RE: A real story of a place where water of a river turn red during a mensuration of goddess durga
sounds more like a soap opera
what a weird religion if these are their gods
what a weird religion if these are their gods
Would you ever date a (...) ?
Well, I had my first smartphone last year- does that almost do it?
I wanted to buy a cup of coffy, I showed my card, the man said no sorry only VIPPS
(app) - I walked on .. not extraordinarily amazed no,
can't say I was.
I wanted to buy a cup of coffy, I showed my card, the man said no sorry only VIPPS
(app) - I walked on .. not extraordinarily amazed no,
can't say I was.
RE: Would you ever date a (...) ?
maybe todays best advertising would be , " i do not own a cellphone "
Would you ever date a (...) ?
Well, I would give it my best shot Lady.
They man might know how to put the right price
on an experienced mountain lion-
considering some of the sad alternative of todays,
ref the first vid uppest high.
They man might know how to put the right price
on an experienced mountain lion-
considering some of the sad alternative of todays,
ref the first vid uppest high.