Looking for Job

[JLG]

184) Looking for Job

Job 21


Look! I know exactly what you are thinking

And the schemes you devise to wrong me.

For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prominent man,

And where is the tent in which the wicked one lived?’

Have you not questioned travelers?

Do you not carefully study their observations,

That an evil person is spared on the day of disaster

And rescued on the day of fury?

Who will confront him about his way,

And who will repay him for what he has done?

When he is carried to the graveyard,

A vigil will be kept over his tomb.

The clods of earth of the valley will be sweet to him,

And all mankind follows after him

Like the countless number before him.

So why offer me meaningless comfort?

There is nothing but deceit in your answers!”


- According to Job’s experience, the wicked one thrives !


- Thus the men who are speaking to him are wrong !


- They are not helpful at all !


- Thus they should keep silent !


- But sometimes someone’s presence is better than words !


- Dogs don’t speak but their presence can do a lot !


- But empty words don’t bring comfort !

 

[JLG]

185) Looking for Job

Job 23

Job said in reply:

“Even today I will complain stubbornly;

My strength is exhausted because of my sighing.

If only I knew where to find God!

I would go to his place of dwelling.

I would present my case before him

And fill my mouth with arguments;

I would learn how he would answer me

And take note of what he says to me.


- complain stubbornly : Job can only complain !


- It means to keep being alive !


- Or feeling alive !


- He is looking for God !


- He wants to speak to God !


- And defend himself in front of him !


- But he is also ready to listen to God !


- And take into account his opinion !

 

[JLG]

186) Looking for Job

Job 23

Would he contend with me using his great power?

No, surely he would give me a hearing.

There the upright one could set matters straight with him,

And I would be acquitted once and for all by my Judge.


- Job knows his relationship to God!


- That’s why he is sure that God would listen to him!

- He knows that God won’t condemn him!


- Job has always thought that way!


- And he is not going to change !

 

[JLG]

187) Looking for Job

Job 23

But if I go east, he is not there;

And I return and I cannot find him.

When he is working on the left, I cannot look upon him;

Then he turns to the right, but I still do not see him.

But he knows the path I have taken.

After he has tested me, I will come out as pure gold.


- When you have a special relationship with someone, you get energy and strength and power from it !


- It is vital !


- You can’t live without it !


- Imagine what happens when this relationship interrupts abruptly !


- It is like a stroke !


- The devil knows perfectly what he does when he does it !


- The violence is unbelievable !


- Destructive !


- And Job knows he is tested and refined to become pure gold !

 

[JLG]

188) Looking for Job

Job 23

My feet have closely followed his footsteps;

I have kept to his way without deviating.


- His footsteps, his way!


- Closely and without deviating!


- It is probably difficult to understand what Job says here because we live in a superficial world!


- Job lives in a deep world!


- He is an upright man of integrity!


- fearing God and shunning what is bad!


- He is afraid of his children to sin against God in their heart!


- Many people probably can’t understand what it means because we live in a superficial world!


- And it is difficult to go deep inside!

- It requires hard work!


- And they will miss the trial!


- Job knows what he speaks about!

 

[JLG]

189) Looking for Job

Job 23

I have not departed from the commandment of

his lips.

I have treasured up his sayings even more

than what was required of me.

- “the commandment of his lips”!


- It tells about the kind of relationship between God and Job!


- From mouth to ear!


- Absolutely not superficial!


- but deep inside!


- And hard work!


- Something highly valuable!


- Exceptional and thus difficult to understand for human beings!


- “I have treasured up his sayings”!


- Who treasures God’s word like Job?


- The difference between superficiality and depth!


- “Even more than what was required of me”!


- A level far beyond what normal human beings can reach!

 

[JLG]

190) Looking for Job

Job 23

When he is determined, who can resist him?

When he wants to do something, he does it.

For he will carry out completely what has been

determined for me,

And he has many such things in store.


- In fact, very few faithful servants of God could prevent him from directly destroying the Israelites or acting in their favor!


- At the end they had to pay the price for their foolishness!


- Regarding Job, it is the devil!


- Regarding Job, the devil is in a rage!


- And he is ready to do anything that God tolerates him to do against Job!


- And the devil is in a rage against those who stay faithful!


- And he always wants more followers!


- He has never enough!

 

[JLG]

191) Looking for Job

Job 23

That is why I am anxious because of him;

When I think about him, my fear grows.

God has made me fainthearted,

And the Almighty has made me afraid.


- Yes, Job is anxious!


- But it is because of the devil!


- Yes, his fear grows!


- But it is because of the devil!


- Yes, he is fainthearted!


- But it is because of the devil!


- Yes, the devil has made him afraid!


- The devil has a lot of responsibility!


- And he keeps working hard!


- To help people opposing God!


- And destroying the relationship between God and Job!


- And destroying the relationship between God and us!


- And the stronger the better, like in the case of Job!

 

[JLG]

192) Looking for Job

Job 23

But I have not yet been silenced by the darkness

Nor by the gloom that has covered my face.


- But Job is still fighting!


- And he is not ready to do it!


- In fact, God knows Job!


- But the devil doesn’t know him!

- How could he know him?


- To really know someone, you need a personal relationship!


- And a deep one, not a superficial one!


- But it is hard work!


- No hard work, no deep personal relationship!

 

[JLG]

193) Looking for Job

Job 24

“Why does the Almighty not set a time?

Why do those who know him not see his day?


- The devil strikes Job again and again !


- And Job doesn’t see the end of it !


- It is really hard when you are in trouble and it seems it will never end !


- Of course, man is able to endure again and again !


- Men usually adapt to adversity !


- He is supposed to be flexible !


- But there is a limit !


- A mental and physical one !


- It is different for each individual according to his own experience !

 

[JLG]

194) Looking for Job

Job 24

People move boundary markers;

They carry off flocks for their own pasture.

They drive away the donkey of fatherless children

And seize the widow’s bull as security for a loan.

They force the poor off the road;

The helpless of the earth must hide from them.


- Job tells us about injustice on earth!


- He doesn’t see any justice at all!


- Usually people say there is a justice for the rich and another for the poor!


- The Bible is full of such examples!


- Real justice belongs to God!


- We can’t expect real justice in this world!


- It’s difficult to define man’s justice!


- It is made by men who are partial and who knows partially!


- We can only wait for God’s world and see what is real justice!

 

[JLG]

195) Looking for Job

Job 24


The poor forage for food like wild donkeys

in the wilderness;

They seek food in the desert for their children.

They must harvest in another’s field

And glean from the vineyard of the wicked.


- Job is in trouble so he can see injustice!


- When he was fine, he would do his best to help all kinds of people!


- Of course, it’s different when you can see injustice through your body and your brain!


- People are in trouble all around the world!


- It can happen to any of us at any time!


- Usually there is no alarm!


- When there is an alarm it’s another story!


- It’s like global warming and other stuff!


- We know it’s happening!


- Of course, there are always crazy people saying nothing is happening!


- And most of the time we wait when we are in trouble!


- It’s always difficult for men to react before getting into trouble!


- That’s why we need God’s world to take actions and to be told to take actions and do the right things at the right time!

 

[JLG]

196) Looking for Job

Job 24


They spend the night naked, without clothing;

They have no covering for the cold.

They are drenched by the mountain rains;

They cling to the rocks for lack of shelter.

The fatherless child is snatched away from the breast;

And the garments of the poor are taken as security for a loan,

Forcing them to go about naked, without clothing,

And hungry, as they carry the sheaves of grain.


- There is a lot of misery in the world!


- There are wars!


- Diseases!


- The list is long!


- Science was supposed to solve all the problems!


- But is it really different?


- Violence, crimes!


- We are more numerous on earth!


- And we bring more trouble!


- We are consuming all resources faster and faster!


- We poison the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat!


- Species disappear faster and faster!


- Do we want to stay alone on earth!


- We need so many things yet we destroy them!

 

[JLG]

197) Looking for Job

Job 24


They toil among the terrace walls in the heat of the day;

They tread the wine presses, yet they go thirsty.

The dying keep groaning in the city;

The fatally wounded cry for help,

But God does not regard this as improper.

There are those who rebel against light;

They do not recognize its ways,

And they do not follow its paths.

The murderer rises at daybreak;

He slays the helpless and the poor,

While at night he engages in theft.

The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight,

Saying, ‘No one will see me!’

And he covers his face.

In the darkness they break into houses;

By day they shut themselves in.

They are strangers to the light.

For morning is the same as deep darkness for them;

They are familiar with the terrors of deep darkness.

But they are swiftly carried away by the waters.

Their portion of the land will be cursed.

They will not return to their vineyards.

Just as drought and heat take away the melted snow,

The Grave takes away those who have sinned!

His mother will forget him; the maggot will feast on him.

He will be remembered no more.

And unrighteousness will be broken just like a tree.

He preys on the barren woman,

And mistreats the widow.

God will use his strength to do away with the powerful;

Though they may rise up, they have no assurance of life.

God lets them become confident and secure,

But his eyes are on everything they do.

They are exalted for a little while, then they are no more.

They are brought low and gathered like everyone else;

They are cut off like heads of grain.

Now who can prove me a liar

Or refute my words?”


- Thirsty / dying / fatally wounded / murderer / helpless / poor / darkness / terrors!


- Man’s world is a world of injustice!


- Who cares!


- In this old world, injustice is such a power that it absorbs everything!


- And it can strike anybody both the rich and the poor!


- And yet we know nothing!

- We are just a point in the universe!


- We are just nothing!


- Whatever we do we stay ignorant!


- The grave is for everybody!


- May God turn this old and ridiculous world into his new world!


- May we have the opportunity to work hand in hand with God!

 

[JLG]

198) Looking for Job

Job 26


Job says in reply:

“How you have helped the one with no power!

How you have saved the arm that has no strength!

What great advice you have given to the one lacking wisdom!

How freely you have revealed your practical wisdom!

To whom are you trying to speak,

And who inspired you to say such things?


- Job has spent his life helping others!


- So we can say he is an expert in the field!


- Moreover, he is old!


- So he has been doing it for quite a lot of time!


- So he can easily recognize people when they have no experience in the field!


- And the way the three individuals act shows they have no experience!


- And in the case of Job they are of no help at all!


- On the contrary!


- They oppose him!


- And above all, the last question is in fact not a question but an assertion!


- They are another tool of the devil to destroy Job!

 

[JLG]

199) Looking for Job

Job 26


Those who are powerless in death tremble;

They are even lower than the waters and their inhabitants.

The Grave is naked in front of God,

And the place of destruction lies uncovered.

He stretches out the northern sky over empty space,

Suspending the earth upon nothing;

He wraps up the waters in his clouds,

So that the clouds do not burst under their weight;

He shuts off the view of his throne,

Spreading out his cloud over it.

He marks out the horizon

on the surface of the waters;

He makes a boundary between light and darkness.

The very pillars of heaven shake ;

They are stunned by his rebuke.

He stirs up the sea with his power,

And by his understanding he breaks the sea monster to pieces.

With his breath he makes the skies clear;

His hand pierces the elusive serpent.

Look! These are just the fringes of his ways;

Only a faint whisper has been heard of him!

So who can understand his mighty thunder?”


- Yes, Job knows that God is powerful without any limits !


- Yes, Job knows that man is powerless with all limits !


- Yes, God «has suspended the earth upon nothing» !


- Think about the time the Book of Job was written !

- And think about that scientific fact !


- While everywhere on the earth they spoke nonsense !


- Yes, God «has suspended the earth upon nothing» !


- RESPECT !

 

[JLG]

200) Looking for Job

Job 27


Job continued his discourse, saying:

“As surely as God lives, who has deprived me of justice,

As the Almighty lives, who has made me bitter,

As long as my breath is within me

And spirit from God is in my nostrils,

My lips will not speak unrighteousness;

Nor will my tongue mutter deceit!


- The devil has deprived Job of justice!


- The devil has made Job bitter!


- And he knows that God’s spirit is in his nostrils!


- And Job will never speak unrighteousness!


- It is completely away from his mind and his way of life!


- He will never use deceit!


- because he has God’s spirit!


- And he is exceptional!


- As God tells him!

 

[JLG]

201) Looking for Job

Job 27


It is unthinkable for me to declare you men righteous!

Until I die, I will not renounce my integrity!

I will maintain my righteousness and never let it go

My heart will not condemn me as long as I live.

May my enemy become like the wicked, Those assaulting me like the unrighteous.


- Job knows why the three individuals are there!


- They can say whatever they want!


- They won’t succeed!

- Job will stay faithful to God!


- It is more precious than anything else!


- And he has not done anything wrong!


- He knows people are trying to destroy him!


- To destroy the relationship he has with God!

 

[JLG]

202) Looking for Job

Job 27


For what hope does the godless man have when he is destroyed,

When God takes away his life?

Will God hear his outcry

When distress comes upon him?

Or will he find delight in the Almighty?

Will he call on God at all times?


- HOPE!


- HOPE is essential to Job!


- Especially because of what he is enduring!


- And straight away he wanted to die!


- To escape his pain and suffering!


- But hoping that God will remember him and his faithfulness!


- And resurrect him!

 

[JLG]

203) Looking for Job

Job 27


I will teach you about the power of God;

I will not hide anything about the Almighty.

Look! If you have all seen visions,

Why are your speeches completely empty?


- Job knows about God!


- And God knows about Job!


- And they have a mutual respect for one another!


- And Job will keep speaking about God till his death!


- He knows that the three individuals don’t come from God!


- They may have visions!

- But it is not from God!

- Because their words and speeches are empty!


- They don’t help anybody!


- And they don’t know how to help people!


- They probably don’t know how to help themselves!