Lowest moment?

Yes, in Job chapter 3 the Book’s protagonist laments: “After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. And Job spake, and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.” Job 3:1-2

He “cursed” his day (of birth). Really the night of his conception as well!

After he lost all his possessions.

After his health disintegrated.

After his Wife urged him to curse God.

After his three so-called “friends” came and were “shocked” at Job’s miserable condition. They didn’t even recognize him, he being so grief torn!

“After (all) this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.”

That’s as close as he came to ever cursing God, the abominable act Satan predicted Job would do immediately after all his “calamities” hit him.

Yet Job did NOT curse God, no where in the Book, and at no time in his whole life!

Job here is suffering.

He actually (in chapter) 3 seems to “reverse” the days of creation, thus (somehow) eradicating the very day of his birth! Excising it from the calendar! “Let it (that day) not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.” Job 3:6

But in his reversal, he does not even mention the creation of man!

And at the end of Job’s un-creation poem … he does not find “rest” as God did … rather, “trouble,” the opposite of rest! Read it: “I was not in safety, NEITHER HAD I REST, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.” Job 3:26, the last verse in the chapter.

Job … that discouraged.

That skeptical.

That pessimistic.

That “low.”

But, wait a minute!

Jeremiah (the great prophet) felt that same way on at least one occasion. At a time of “difficulty” in his life and ministry. Listen: “Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.” Jeremiah 20:14-15

And Jonah was that way, nearly. “Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:3, followed soon by: “And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.”

And the great Elijah, too. “But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.” 1st Kings 19:4

But note, from Job to Elijah, none committed suicide!

None tried to end his own life. THAT decision rested in the hands of God, His Hands alone!

(However, Samson DID commit suicide … and is still named in the great Hebrews 11 chapter on God’s heroes of faith! Yes, Samson is in Heaven, no doubt! But let me be clear. Suicide is not a proper option for a believer, never. The giver of life, Almighty God, should also be the Taker of life.)

I’m just trying to demonstrate that Job is not that far “out of line” with other Bible “Greats” who also became so discouraged they despised their lives.

One more thought today … Job in chapter 3 (his first major speech in the Book) discussed creation … in an ironic way … but still creation. And our Lord God, in his major Jobian speeches … also discusses Creation! In the proper way, Job chapters 38-41! Thus creation orations “bracket” the whole Book of Job!

I read where the old British Preacher of last century, Joseph Parker, once said: “NO MAN IS AS BAD AS THE WORST DAY HE EVER LIVED. AND NO MAN IS AS GOOD AS THE BEST DAY HE EVER LIVED!”

JOB HAD A “BAD DAY” IN CHAPTER 3.

I ONLY KNOW OF ONE MAN (THE GOD MAN) WHO NEVER HAD A BAD DAY!

WHO NEVER LIVED BELOW HIS POTENTIAL!

AND HE WAS … IS … JESUS!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

Yes, Satan actually talks in the Book of Job!

In both chapters one and two.

And looks like he keeps other people talking for him throughout the rest of the Book, until chapter 38 anyway!

And, except for his conversations in the Book of Genesis (the Garden of Eden), these two Jobian dialogues with God are second-in-line (historically) to anything else the Devil may have said in all the Bible!

By studying his wicked strategy, both in Genesis and in Job … we can better appreciate Paul’s words in 2nd Corinthians 2:11. “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” The noun “devices” used here translates “noema,” a Greek word meaning “thoughts!” The very “mind” of Satan!

I am particularly interested in Job chapter 2 today.

There the Devil speaks for a second time, with intensity.

He doubts Job would ever stay true to God … should he lose his health! Should he be threatened with death! Satan’s words: “And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” Job 2:4

Job, the Devil is sure, will give up his God and his faith in that God … before he would ever lose his life serving that God! No man or woman would pay such a price, would love their God that much! So believed the Devil.

Yet Job had just recently lost his ten children, his seven thousand sheep, his three thousand camels, really all his livestock (oxen and donkeys too) via catastrophe … and kept loving God!

“Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.”

But that’s a lie!

Many a Christian has given his or her “all” for Jesus’ Sake!

This verse comes to mind: “They loved not their lives unto the death.” This is speaking of the many martyrs who will die for the Lord during the days ahead. Revelation 12:11, a context that includes the Devil, by the way, his final expulsion from Heaven!

Wow, God had the last word here, didn’t He?

And even Job himself, though he did not know what Satan had said about him, avowed: “Though He (the Lord God) slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” Job 13:15

There will be Christians today who will die for their faith. One Mission Agency says nearly 400 a day are giving their lives for Jesus, in 2016 I mean.

Believers who will love Jesus more than their own lives!

Yes, the Devil is wrong.

And not very observant either!

God has always been impressed, thrilled, with faith in the lives of His little children.

Genuine faith.

Long-lasting faith.

Persevering faith.

“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH, and I will give thee a crown of life.” Revelation 2:10

“Faithful unto death.”

Take that, Devil.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

The word is only used 3 times in the Old Testament, in the King James Version anyway. Twice translated “escheweth” and once “eschewed,” a verb every time.

It’s a translation of a Hebrew verb spelled “sur.” But that verb appears a lot in the Bible, around 300 times in fact! it most often means “to put away.” Or “to depart,” or at times “to remove.”

In English “to eschew” means “to deliberately avoid using” something! The root of the word has evolved from an old German word meaning “shy.” There is also a German verb, “scheuen” meaning “to shun” something. Occasionally I find the word being said to mean “to dread” something.

The point being?

Job the man of God (the Lord’s servant) eschewed evil!

In fact, every time the word is used (again, in the Old Testament) it is located in the Book of Job! Actually, concerning Job, that godly man.

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and ESCHEWETH evil.” Job 1:1

“And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and ESCHEWETH evil?” Job 1:8

And for a third time in two chapters: “And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and ESCHEWETH evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.” Job 2:8

Job was dedicated to avoiding evil (sin) in his life!

He was “afraid” of the stuff!

Simon Peter once uses the word (in English) in his First Letter. “For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him ESCHEW evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.” 1st Peter 1:10-11 (The Greek verb is “ekklino,” meaning “not bowing down” to something!)

What a challenge to us today!

To ESCHEW evil!

Paul put it this way: “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” 1st Thessalonians 5:22

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

Years ago now, Dr. George Campbell Morgan of London wrote a Book about Job. He entitled it “The Answers of Jesus to Job.” This great Preacher actually searched the whole Book of Job, gleaning various question the Patriarch asked, then allowed Jesus (in the New Testament) to answer those queries! This is an interesting little volume, to say the least.

But basically Job’s questions can be summed up into one longing. He wanted to know WHY! Why was he suffering? Why had his so-called “friends” attacked him so viciously? Why would God not respond to his pleas?

Job wrestled with this question all the way through his famous ordeal.

WHY?

WHY?

WHY?

But (wonderful news) God came to Job in the final scene of the drama, of the history.

And God spoke to the sufferer (Job) for the better part of five chapters!

But … God never answered the WHY question!

He did not even attempt to do so, looks like to me!

The Lord just revealed to Job (more than ever before in all Job’s life) … the very Might and Majesty and Wisdom and Glory of God!  

Yes, God showed Himself to Job!

And instead of answering Job’s questions, God asked Job questions, lots of them!

Wow!

Here’s what I’m saying.

God ignored the WHY questions His servant asked.

And instead emphasized the WHO aspect of Job’s experience.

As in, WHO is running the universe!

WHO created all the wildlife!

A great God WHO will (some day) conquer all rebellion, all evil!

See it?

God gently shifts Job from asking WHY … and nudges Him into asking WHO!

WHO?

WHO?

WHO?

Oh, that we could spend the rest of lives admiring the WHO of God Almighty … not becoming more and more frustrated about the WHY of God’s individual acts!

And then, the Book of Job ends.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Job as a Book of Scripture is largely composed of “speeches.”

Orations, both in the form of dialogues and soliloquies.

And I’ve noticed a general trend in them, too.

Job’s 3 “friends” (who in reality become his “enemies,” his “critics”) each participate in the speeches. And Job responds passionately to each set of “their charges.”

They appear in the Book in the following frequency, the speeches:

Job

Eliphaz

Job

Bildad

Job

Zophar

Job

Eliphaz again

Job

Bildad again

Job

Zophar again

Job

Eliphaz for a third and final time

Job

Bildad for a third and final time

Job

No Zophar this time, silence!

Job

Then ultimately, God Himself!

(I do not include Elihu’s long rant, his “venting” is not specifically mentioned by God later in the Book. As far as I am concerned Elihu is a young little “smart-aleck.”)

Now here’s the pattern, seems to me.

The three so-called friends’ speeches get shorter and shorter (overall).

In fact their three “cycles” of speeches break down at the end. Remember there is no Bildad when his third turn comes! As if those three “know-it-alls” have become frustrated.

And Job’s “speeches” get longer and longer!

The point?

The lesson?

JOB WINS!

His “logic” at its very heart, prevails!

God rebukes Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar!

And God commends Job!

Here’s what I mean. “And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.” Job 42:7-8

Wow!

“My servant Job!”

What glorious words to hear!

Comparable to: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Matthew 25:21

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

By the way, Job’s first lament (speech) back in chapter 3 is much shorter than his final speech (nearly autobiography) in chapters 26-31. He definitely says more and more as the Book develops!