Today Elihu reminds Job of God’s greatness. “Behold, God is exalted by His power;”, “Behold, God is great and we don’t know Him;”, “God thunders marvelously with His voice;”, and so forth. During suffering it is easy to keep your eyes on yourself and your pain. Elihu is trying to get Job to raise his sights! God’s greatness and goodness is bigger than any amount of suffering we will ever endure on this side of heaven. Plus, in the end we will be in the presence of His greatness for eternity with every tear wiped away by our Great God! (Rev 21:4) Rest in that today. Tomorrow God shows up in a whirlwind. Keep reading!

(Job 35:1-37:24)

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Today Job’s young friend, Elihu, comes forward proving that age does not always equal wisdom. Elihu is angry at Job for justifying “himself rather than God” and he is angry at the three friends bc “they had found no answer and yet had condemned Job”. Elihu confronts Job when he says that he heard Job say “I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me”. Elihu then states, “Look, in this you are not righteous”. Elihu is correct! 1 John 1:8 says “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth’s not in us”. There is only one person that ever walked the earth that was without sin and that is Jesus! Job is a sinner just like the rest of us. What makes Job righteous is his faith in the Lord! Tomorrow we will hear some more insight from Elihu about the greatness of God and then the next day the Lord speaks! Keep reading…we are in the home stretch on the book of Job!

(Job 32:1-34:37)

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Yesterday’s reading ended with Job talking about how he used to be well respected by the community. He said he “…sat as chief; So I dwelt as a king in the army. As one who comforts mourners.” In today’s reading Job contrasts how he is now being treated by the community. “And now I am their taunting song; Yes, I am their by word. They abhor me, they keep far from me. They do not hesitate to spit in my face.” So the people around Job loved him when he was prosperous and are now disgusted with him bc he has nothing and is suffering greatly. But does Job have nothing? He actually has something pretty great. He has the Lord! Also, remember how God can change people’s circumstances just like that?! I’m thinking of Joseph…and yes, He can do the same for Job. It’s always too soon to make a call about a person so keep reading to see how Job’s story ends.

(Job 30:1-31:40)

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Job is still clinging to his righteousness. “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go.” Job refuses to cave into his friends’ false teachings about the Lord and suffering. However, Job is confused about the source of his righteousness. When put on the defense by his friends, Job starts justifying himself based on his own merit. The Lord did declare Job blameless in the beginning of this story but that wasn’t based on Job’s standard of living. His righteousness is based on his faith in the Lord. So yes, a godly, righteous man is enduring extreme suffering for God’s purposes. Jesus Christ will have to do the same. Jesus, the only perfect man to ever live, will have to die a horrific death so that you and I can be righteous and have an intimate relationship with God. Romans 5:18-19 says “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” These verses explain that Adam’s disobedience in the beginning of this Story kicked in God’s redemption plan to send Jesus to make us righteous. Job’s story points to Christ as do all these small stories within the beautiful Big Story so keep reading! Jesus is coming!

(Job 26:1-29:25)

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Eliphaz is still keeping with the theme that Job’s severe suffering is bc of Job’s severe sin. Then Eliphaz kindly makes a list for Job of all the potential bad stuff Job could have done.😒 When Bildad steps in with his comments he actually asks a good question. 👏“How then can man be righteous before God?” In Genesis 15:6 God says about Abram that “he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness”. So Abram was called righteous solely based on his faith in the Lord. Hebrews 11:6 says “But without faith it is impossible to please Him…” So what pleases God? Faith. Job’s righteousness has nothing to do with his actions or prosperity but everything to do with his faith in God that we saw exhibited in the beginning of this story when he built an altar to the Lord. Job was placing his faith in the promise of the Savior to come. The promise God made back in the garden when he killed an innocent animal to cover the guilty, Adam and Eve. Romans 5:8-9 (NLT) says ”But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation”. Our righteousness is found under the blood of Christ. Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice, comes later in the Story. For now, more animals will be killed pointing to the One to come so keep reading.

(Job 22:1-25:6)

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Today Job says “How long will you torment my soul, and break me in pieces with words? These ten times you have reproached me.” Job’s friends think that if they just keep using their words to explain Job’s suffering to him, Job will finally get it. The friends’ further attempts at explaining things only adds more pain to the already suffering Job. Praying for Job probably would have been a lot more helpful instead of all the chatter. The friends are quick to give input instead of going to the One who could actually make a difference. James 5:13,16 (ESV) says “(13) Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. (16) Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” At the end of the story one of these guys does pray for the others and it isn’t Job’s knucklehead friends. But before we get there…keep reading bc tomorrow someone asks a really important question! 🧐

(Job 19:1-21:34)

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Job is suffering greatly and is surrounded by people who keep beating him down due to their total lack of understanding. Job tells his friends “miserable comforters are you all!” Job would really appreciate comforting words from his friends but that is not going to happen from these three. The constant berating leads Job to say “My eyes pour out tears to God”. Although Job’s friends don’t understand his suffering and are terrible comforters, God always understands and always provides comfort. The hard part is waiting on Him to act on your behalf (Isaiah 64:4). We have seen that God doesn’t always act quickly but His timing is always perfect! Keep reading bc we will get to see the Lord act on Jobs behalf but in the meantime we have to wait it out with Job.

(Job 15:1-18:21)

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After Job responds to Zophar’s unhelpful input he cries out “You are all worthless physicians. Oh, that you would be silent.” Job understands who the great physician is and that is God. Job then continues to cry out to the Lord knowing that He is the only place of refuge. Although Job is suffering greatly he still says “Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him”. Job is putting his trust in the Lord even without knowing what is going on behind the scenes in the spiritual world. This is what it is to walk by faith and it isn’t easy BUT it will so be worth it in the end! Keep reading… unfortunately the friends did not listen to Job’s request to keep silent so we gotta endure it a little longer w Job. 😏

(Job 12:1-14:22)

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Bildad is the next friend to try to cheer up Job. He tells Job to repent of all of his wrong doings and then the Lord will restore his prosperous state. Bildad falsely believes that living a good life is directly related to material wealth. Well, Bildad’s advice puts Job on the defense AGAIN which leads Job to cry out to the Lord AGAIN. Next up is buddy #3, Zophar. He tells Job that he deserves worse than what has already happened to him. Wow! This is really an encouraging bunch. Maybe they should have continued sitting in silence with Job while he mourned as they were doing in Job 2:13. That was probably a bit more beneficial than their words. We have a few more days of listening to the discouragement from Job’s friends before someone steps forward with some wise insight and then we will hear truth from the Lord! The friends, who think they have all the right answers, are about to learn a thing or two about our mighty God! Keep reading.

(Job 8:1-11:20)

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Today Eliphaz continues with all of his words of encouragement to Job. 🙄 Eliphaz wrongly believes that Job’s suffering is directly related to his sin. He tries hard to explain this to Job by saying, “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.” Well, I’m sure this cheered ol’ suffering Job right up! Oh wait…no, no, that didn’t help. Job is now put on the defense which ultimately leads him to cry out to the Lord. Friends will fail you, God will not. It’s just hard to see God’s good plans and purposes for us in the midst of our suffering, but it doesn’t mean that He is not working for our good and His glory. He always is! Job has to hear from a few more unhelpful buddies before the Lord steps in and clears it all up. Keep reading.

(Job 5:1-7:21)

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