TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
Job 23:1-27:23
2 Corinthians 1:12-2:11
Psalm 41:1-13
Proverbs 22:5-6
Job 23:1 — The Third Round of the debate begins to finish. We’ll see Job’s answer to Eliphaz in Job 23 and Job 24, Bildad’s summation in Job 25, and the beginning of Job’s response in Job 26-27.
Job 23:3 — Job acknowledges that he cannot approach God, but he still wants to present his case to Him.
Job 23:12 — This seems to echo Psalm 119. Job was a devout follower of the LORD, and he esteemed the words of the LORD! Do we? How much time do we spend in His Word?
Job 24:24 — We have read a whole chapter on the nature of evil. Why doesn’t bad things happen to evil people? Because they are exalted just for “a little while.”
Job 25:4 — Bildad recognizes that God is great (Job 25:2), but he doesn’t recognize the possibility of knowing for sure that you can be justified with God. Too many people today believe in God, but they don’t believe that you can know for sure that you can have eternal life. They believe you can work and get rewarded. Or you can skip the work and get punished. God’s grace is a mysterious thing to many.
Job 26:7 — Did God set the earth on pillars (1 Samuel 2:8)? Answers in Genesis (AiG) explains:
FIRST SAMUEL 2:8 was spoken during a prayer by Hannah after she dedicated her son Samuel into the Lord’s service. Job spoke the other verse while talking with his friends about man’s weakness in light of God’s majestic power. This sort of poetic imagery (pillars, foundations, etc.) is commonly used in Scripture to describe how God upholds the world.
2 Corinthians 2:4 — Biblical discernment ministries ought to operate with tears, not sarcasm. Tears before the LORD is manly.
- 2 Kings 20:5 – Hezekiah prayed with tears
- Job 16:20 – Job prayed with tears
- Psalm 39:12 – David prayed with tears
- Jeremiah 31:16 – Jeremiah weeped with tears
- Acts 20:31 – Paul warned with tears
- 2 Timothy 1:4 – Timothy had tears
And Psalm 119:136 tells how David declared that “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.”
Psalm 41:1 — God will not deliver him that hath partiality to the rich, but to the poor (James 2:1)!
Proverbs 22:6 — I’ve been reading Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Living. Dr. Peterson grew up in the “Bible belt” of Canada and admits he turned away from Christianity, but that he later accepted the philosophy of Christianity without actually accepting the Jesus of the Bible (pray for him). Even as a skeptic, he had to admit that the Bible provides the best answers to the challenges of today. He writes an entire chapter of his book defending what God wrote in just one verse, because he says:
I see today’s parents as terrified by their children, not least because they have been deemed the proximal agents of this hypothetical social tyranny, and simultaneously denied credit for their role as benevolent and necessary agents of discipline, order and conventionality.
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