I think I say this a lot, but today’s chapter is one of my favorites! Job 28, with its 28 verses, easy to remember. In some ways it is very “unlike” the rest of the Book which houses it.

Job 28 is still dialogue, as are all the chapters between 3 and 37. In fact, when God speaks in chapters 38-42, we still have dialogue. And it is still poetic too. But many current Jobian scholars wonder if Job really wrote this piece. If it is “authentic” to the Book as a whole? It is so “different.” (My answer, it is genuine, Holy Spirit inspired and directly from the pen of the wise Job!)

The entire chapter is about WISDOM.

It’s one of the greatest chapters in the whole Bible on the subject, in fact. Every bit as good as the Old Testament Book of Proverb’s little “jewels” on the subject!

The chapter divides itself into four little sections, of unequal length I might add. It’s is a search for true wisdom.

Verses 1-11 picture man as a “miner,” digging out the depths of the earth, searching for (and finding) precious metals. (In Scripture “wisdom” is often compared to precious stones and minerals. “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of SILVER, and the gain thereof than fine GOLD. She is more precious than RUBIES: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand RICHES and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” Proverbs 3:13-17) I think the idea of verses 1-11 is this: Mankind works and searches and takes great risks trying to find gold and silver and such. But mankind does NOT put that much effort into finding real Wisdom (much more valuable than gold), God’s Wisdom, thinking it less valuable!

Wouldn’t it be great if we Christians searched the Scriptures for God’s Wisdom, like the worldlings scour the earth for their diamonds?

Then Job 28:12 interprets (encapsulates) the first paragraph for us, with two questions. “But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?”

Whereupon Job 28:15-19 immediately answers: “It (real wisdom) cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: FOR THE PRICE OF WISDOM IS ABOVE RUBIES. The TOPAZ of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure GOLD.”

The stock market, the gold exchange, the bank vault … none of these can offer enough cash to buy this commodity called “God’s Wisdom!” Here money is truly “filthy lucre.” A man can be a billionaire and not possess an ounce of holy wisdom. Can be spiritually bankrupt! Materially wealthy, but morally impoverished!

Then comes Job 28:20-28, with an ending verse that’s dynamite! But first, verse 20 begins with parallel questions to verse 12. “Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.“

This last paragraph merely continues our Wisdom search. Finally to conclude that only ALMIGHTY GOD possesses the kind of Wisdom essential for life, real life, meaningful life!

Let’s continue with our chapter …

“Destruction and death now say, We have heard the fame (of Wisdom) thereof with our ears. (Only) God understandeth the way (of Wisdom) thereof, and He knoweth the place (where Wisdom dwells)thereof.” Quoting verses 22-23 of Job 28.

And now here’s the “apex” of the whole chapter! “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”

Job, with Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar (and by now Elihu as well) listening, defines Wisdom as only such a godly sage could have done. Again: “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”

Wow!

But, wait a second!

The fear of the Lord?

Departing from evil?

Qualifications for God’s wisdom, in fact definitions of it?

YES!

And those are the very traits God says Job possessed way back in Job chapter 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)

Job, says His Creator, fears the Lord!

And “escheweth” evil, meaning he departs from every form of evil he spots!

Folks, we’ve just been told that Job has the Wisdom of God in his life, and has possessed it since this storm-tossed Book began!

Job the wise one, such understanding being a gift of God, of course.

This is amazing!

This is ironic!

This is beautiful!

And Job is quite the writer!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

I (again) stand amazed.

The Bible, what a miraculous Book!

 

 

Job would NOT admit to being a hypocrite! Because … he wasn’t! 

Yet Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar have accused him of harboring hidden sin! In fact they have accused him of such over and over again!

So Job issues one of the strongest affirmations of faith I’ve ever read! (Although some commentators says it’s an outburst of pride! An assertion to which I will never agree!)

Here are his words, Job’s …

“As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; all the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.” Job 27:1-4

That is … Job feels God has “turned against” him. That God has brought much “bitterness” into his life! What else could Job have thought?

Then Job avows that (as long as he lives, breathes) he will speak no wickedness! Nor tell any lies! His tongue will be faithful to the Lord! (Especially notice that he will not in any way CURSE God … Who ultimately is the One in control of everything!)

Job’s mindset: I’m going to keep on living for God. No matter what!

Then he turns to his so-called “friends” and says: “God forbid that I should justify you (Eliphaz and crew): till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.” Job 27:5, you “boys” are not right. I’ll never agree to your false charges against me! UNTIL I DIE (JOB SAYS) I WILL NOT DENY MY INTEGRITY. I HAVE BEEN HONEST BEFORE GOD! I AM NOT HIDING ANY KNOWN SIN IN MY LIFE!)

And in case we didn’t “get” it, our Hero continues … “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.” Job 27:1-6, saying all this with a clear conscience! (His heart does not condemn him one iota!)

Wow!

I’m so glad Job didn’t “roll over and die!”

That he fought for who he was, what his heart was really like!

He would not agree to a bunch of untruth, a pack of inaccurate insinuations!

He has now lived for God many years. And he is not turning back!

Resolved!

Is this self-defense?

Yes, but Paul did the very same thing. “I am become a fool in glorying (bragging): ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you (Corinthians): for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.” 2nd Corinthians 12:11

Integrity, what a word! A quality sorely missing in a day when “Truth,” its very existence, is questioned by many. Thank God for Job, what an example of faith!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

“Tenacious” faith at that!

 

I love Job chapter 26!

It’s our “Text” this morning.

Job is there responding to Bildad’s last remarks, which were uttered in Job chapter 25 (of course). Yesterday’s Lesson discuses that matter. There Bildad virtually asks Job, “Why do keep making yourself so just in God’s Eyes? Everyone knows you are a hypocrite!”

And the great Patriarch (justly so) gets a little bit “sarcastic” in his response, too! (“Sarcastic,” a word meaning literally “to tear some flesh!” It has a Latin background.)

Like this, Job to Bildad: “How hast thou (Bildad) helped him (Job) that is without power? How savest thou the arm that hath no strength (still Job)? How hast thou (Bildad) counselled him that hath no wisdom (Job, self deprecating)? And how hast thou (great Bildad) plentifully declared the thing as it is? To whom hast thou (Bildad) uttered (such omniscient) words? and whose spirit came from thee?” Is this in truth the Lord talking, Bildad? Or some other “spirit?” (Job 26:2-4)

Wow, pretty abrasive!

Also, as I already said, pretty deserved!

Then Job launches into one of the greatest descriptions of the Power of God (omnipotence) I’ve ever read, anywhere. Enjoy it with me, please. (In fact I have preached this awesome Text a few times during my ministry.)

“Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them. He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.” Job 26:5-13

God oversees the “underworld!” (Including “sheol,” Hell or the Grave itself!) This first line in Hebrew suggests the (wicked) dead are in Hell, in torment, this very second! A truth Jesus later confirmed beyond doubt! Plus, God can see right into Hell, into the “heart of the earth!” “Dead things are formed (from a verb meaning “to writhe in pain”) from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. Hell (the grave included) is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.”

Next we see God the mighty Creator … “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.” I love the “flow” of those words! He made “something” out of “nothing!”

Then we quickly meet God Almighty, the Meteorologist! In a description that closely depicts how rain actually forms and falls to earth! “He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.” Job just taught us that: water droplets (via evaporation) remain suspended in the clouds … until they (going up and down with various wind currents) pick up enough “dust particles” thereby getting so “heavy” … they fall through the clouds onto the earth! Wow! (God here “owns” the clouds, “His thick clouds!”)

God also does not reveal all of Himself to us. “He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it.” (Hidden, really demanding faith as a means of “seeing” Him!)

Then furthermore: “He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.” He “holds” all the Oceans in place! And “sets the clock” for night and day to come and go!

Yes, at the first display of God’s Wrath, Job notes: “The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.” And John, in Revelation 11:19, agrees! “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an EARTHQUAKE, and great hail.” Clearly a judgment setting!

Nearing the end of Job’s great Science Poem … we learn a spiritual truth: “He (God) divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.” Often in Scripture the tempestuous, untamed Ocean is a picture of the restless wicked (proud) man! (Isaiah 57:20, for example: “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.” Picturesque!) So God, Who “split” the sea (at the Exodus, when drowning Pharaoh’s whole army) judged unrighteous mankind, simultaneously humbled the proud!

Mercy!

One more great thing. “By His Spirit He (God) hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.” That “serpent” being perhaps a constellation of stars! To “garnish” means “to make beautiful!” To put all the “trimmings” of a thing into place!

Beautiful, Job. We know Whose Spirit led you to write such words! Words of worship, really!

Then, one last line! All of this Might … and we still know only “parts” of His (God’s) Ways! “Lo, these are (just) parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?” In other words: “How very little” of Him do we yet realize!

What a Poem!

What a Text!

Best of all, What a God!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Maybe even, Job, what a writer!

 

 

Job chapter 25, only 6 verses long!

Plus, it’s Bildad’s final oration, speech. (This is the third time he has “attacked” Job. Each “ambush” being shorter in length than the previous one. Specifically 35 verses then 21 verses then now 6 verses!)

He’s losing the argument! And exhausting his vocabulary as well!

His most unusual comment in the chapter is not a statement at all, rather a question!

Job has been trying (for 34 chapters now) to convince his “friends” that he has done no major wrong! That he is NOT being punished by God in Heaven for any mass of sin in his life. Job has diligently maintained his integrity! He absolutely will not admit to anything he HAS NOT done! (Yet he still does not understand WHY God has allowed such tragedy into his life.)

Well, Job’s protestations of innocence have irritated Bildad no end!

So Job, take this, you proud hypocrite (in Bildad’s opinion) …

“How then can man (like YOU, Job) be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?” Job 25:4-6, the last recorded words of Bildad.

These words (especially the first clause), being torn from their context (where really they are sharp barbs hurled against a holy servant of the Lord) … have been quoted untold thousands of times through the years. In Gospel Messages, no less!

But in God’s Eyes, Job was already “right” with the Almighty! (Our God speaking directly to Satan, Job 1:8. “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?” Wow!)

But Bildad reasons: “Job, God is so pure even His creation is tainted in His Sight! And you claim integrity for yourself?” Bildad thinks Job a fool!

Job, you’re a “worm!”

You are NOT justified, in God’s View!

Yet read with me Job’s “testimony.” From chapter 27, verse 5, Job speaking truthfully! “Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.” Then later in Job 31:6. “Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.”

And even his Wife (who knows Job better than any of his friends) says: “Dost thou still retain thine integrity?” Job 2:9, she knew!

And near the end of the Book, the Lord Himself says that Job has spoken of Him “the thing which is right.” Job 42:8, in Hebrew Job’s words have been “faithful, steady, fixed,” then “right!” The Hebrew verb here translated “to speak right” is “kun,” well “prepared!”

Bildad fades away now.

Embarrassed for eternity, I suspect.

By the way, here’s the answer to his questions. “How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?”

By knowing God through his Son Jesus Christ!

And His shed blood on the Cross of Calvary!

And Job DID know Him!

Our little “hero” one more time: “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” Job 19:25

Jesus is the Answer!

He himself claimed: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” And this I believe, John 14:6.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

Job chapter 24 … is a classic “soliloquy” from a genuine man of God. And a soliloquy is: “an act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers.” Job seems to be oblivious of any auditors as he “wonders” about his great God, a God Whom he currently does not understand!

Verse 1, King James Version: “Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?”

Here, I think, Job acknowledges that God is aware of everything that happens. Nothing is “hidden” from Him. Yet people who “know” God, who “love” God … do not always see God “work.” They never live to see God’s “days” of judgment, on the violently wicked even!

Then Job thinks of a list of sins being perpetrated every single day in the land. Remember, Job was some kind of a “judge” in his city.

Some people steal land by moving the “fences” of their neighbors, probably little by little!

Others are rustlers, stealing cattle and such, livestock. (Remember this happened to Job, twice!)

The poor are being mistreated, widows defrauded as well.

They abuse orphans, the “fatherless” as well.

They (the wicked) themselves eat food that should have been given to the hungry!

All the sins mentioned above are delineated in Job 24:1-11.

Folks, verses 1-11 were sins of the countryside (rural), while verses 12-17 now seem to primarily be focused on sins of the city (urban)!

Yet in the middle of this divide … verse 12 bemoans: “Yet God layeth not folly to them.” God seems to never deal with these vile people, in His Wrath!

… BUT God sure has “hit” Job hard. Or so Job thinks! What else could he have deduced?

Those “city” sins?

Abominations like murder, a malady with which our cities are still plagued. “The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy.” Verse 14

Adultery too! “The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face.”

Then thieves are everywhere! “In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime.” Verse 15, picking out “victims” then sneaking into their homes, looking for loot!

Oh what depravity!

Then Job (in verses 18-25) via a leap of faith (one of his gallantly “high” times, “strong” in his trust in God) tells us what will (eventually, however so slowly) will assuredly happen to these wicked people.

Like verses 19 and 20: “Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned. The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.” Yes, this is faith!

Also verse 24: “They (these wicked people) are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.”

Job has just about reversed his position, his “complaint,” stated in the chapter’s first verse!

Then, in conclusion (verse 25) comes a question. “And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?” In other words, “Who can disprove my conclusions?”

“Who can show me that I’m wrong?”

We have here today in chapter 24 seen a man’s faith begin to weaken … then after his reflecting a bit … coming back STRONG again!

I love this!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

That’s right. Job’s faith did not fail! “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: BUT I HAVE PRAYED FOR THEE, THAT THY FAITH FAIL NOT: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Luke 22:31-32

I suspect He was praying for Job, too!