Job, the Servant of the Lord, sure hit some “low points” in his ordeal. Severe suffering that (apparently) lasted around a year! But occasionally, this godly man (while living in such agony) spoke some of the greatest words in all the Bible! Sterling faith, he often had!

Such is the case in today’s Lesson.

After another verbal barrage from Bildad (who believed all Job’s children died, were “killed,” because of rebellious sin in their lives) has just landed on Job’s ears! Our innocent sufferer immediately responds: “How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? These ten times have ye reproached me: and ye are not ashamed.” Job 19:2-3 (Job directly to Bildad, or to Bildad and Eliphaz and Zophar, all three.)

Let’s allow Job to continue talking. Feel the agony in his words. He believes even God has become an Enemy! “Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. He (the Lord) hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. He (still the Lord) hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. I am an alien in their sight. I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. My breath is strange to my wife. Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. All my inward FRIENDS abhorred me: and THEY WHOM I LOVED are turned against me. My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. HAVE PITY ON ME, HAVE PITY ON ME, O YE MY FRIENDS; for the hand of God hath touched me. WHY DO YE PERSECUTE ME AS GOD?” Job 19:6-22, note his words to his “friends!”

Wow!

He’s struggling!

Pitiful!

Then comes one of those “high points” I earlier mentioned!

From Job, of course. “Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVETH, and that HE SHALL STAND AT THE LATTER DAY UPON THE EARTH. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet IN MY FLESH SHALL I SEE GOD: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” Job 19:23-27

Clearly, Job’s words now HAVE BEEN PRINTED in a Book, the Book of Books!

And he has seen God!

In his flesh!

And oh yes … HIS REDEEMER LIVES!

See how Job vaults from valleys to mountains?

All Bible characters do, all except our Lord.

All faced seasons of discouragement.

Then heights of ecstasy.

Again, all but Jesus. Isaiah 42:4 declares of Him, of God’s Son: “HE SHALL NOT FAIL … NOR BE DISCOURAGED, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.”

That’s Him!

Never a second’s discouragement.

“Failure” never entered His Mind, not even the possibility!

Hallelujah!

Still, what a great mountain Job climbed in today’s Text! Once again his words: “For I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVETH, and that HE SHALL STAND AT THE LATTER DAY UPON THE EARTH. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet IN MY FLESH SHALL I SEE GOD.”

Yes, that’s a “high point” all right.

Praise the Lord.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

In the 18th chapter of the Book of Job a man named “Bildad” speaks, for the second time in fact. (His previous speech was back in chapter 8. Where he called Job a hypocrite! Where he also implied that Job’s 10 children were killed because of sin in their lives. This man is brutal.)

And Bildad begins his “sermon” with another sarcastic question. “How long will it be ere ye make an end of words?” He is asking, in effect, “Job when will you shut up?”

Then, in 18:3, Bildad seems to have been “offended” at something Job has said. “Wherefore are we (Bildad and his 2 friends) counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?” Well, it might be due to the fact that all 3 of Job’s “friends” have acted like ferocious and roaring “lions,” attacking their innocent victim!

Job indeed did call them “miserable comforters” in his last speech! Incidentally, Bildad’s word “vile” means “defiled” or “unclean.” And yes, Job has retorted to the cruel trio: “Ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.” Back in Job 13:4.

Anyway, Bildad is MAD, clearly!

He next “jabs” at Job. “He (here meaning Job) teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?” Job 18:4, accusing Job of being “red hot” with fury! (How about “hurting” in agony, Bildad?)

Job also is full of pride, according to Bildad. As if the whole earth should “bow down” to serve his needs! As if God should stop running the universe and see about one simple man! Again … “Shall the earth be forsaken FOR THEE? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?”

Then in verse 5 (and continuing thorough the end of the chapter, Bildad’s whole oration) comes a “sermon.” A stern warning to the “wicked man!”

Here’s the beginning, the introduction: “Yea, the light of THE WICKED shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.” Job 18:5

Yes, for 16 more verses now, one hammer blow after another, falls on poor Job!

“WICKED Job?”

The Job whom God calls “My servant Job, there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil.” Job 1:8

Wow!

Listen to me, dear readers.

Bildad’s “sermon” has merit, when applied to a genuinely wicked person.

But he has misapplied it in Job’s case!

He has made himself Judge and Jury, pontificating on Job’s “many iniquities!”

And he is a hundred miles off target!

No wonder God rebuked him at the end of the book!

Actually the opposite of everything Bildad says will happen to the wicked man … ultimately happened to Job! When God “turned” the captivity of Job!

For example, this is NOT true of Job: “His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.” Job 18:17

Let’s be careful how we apply certain bible Truths “across the board.”

Indiscriminately!

We do not have all the facts, only God does!

Right words, Bildad, wrong congregation!

Job that day needed encouragement, not censure.

Yes, Proverbs 18:8 is right. “Words are like wounds, going down into the innermost part of the belly!”

And Bildad was an expert swordsman. He was not a surgeon that day with Job, but a killer!

He was mean, too.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Bildad had not real Ephesians 4:32. And might not have obeyed it anyway. But we can! “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted ….”

End of Lesson!

 

In Job chapters 16 and 17 our little “hero” answers the barbs of his acquaintance Eliphaz. One passage is especially poignant. After dozens of “insults” from the trio sitting in front of Job … he counters:

“I have heard many such things: MISERABLE COMFORTERS are ye all.” Job 16:2, in other words: “I’ve about heard enough of this sarcasm and denunciation! If you have come to comfort me … you have totally failed!”

Job is merely being honest!

Then, in an almost Christ-like way, Job “loves” the “unlovely,” in my opinion anyway. Here he puts himself in their shoes, so to speak! “I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you. But (instead) I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.” Job 16:4-5

Instead of “heaping up words” of scorn and “shaking his head” in disbelief … Job would have “strengthened” these men (in their times of suffering) and “asswaged” their heartaches. Job would have tried to “bear” their burdens! To lighten their load!

This speaks volumes about the Servant of the Lord we call Job!

Then again Job assesses his friends’ counsel like this: “They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me. God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.” Wow, Job 16:10-11, spoken only after “round two” of a barrage of verbal assault has begun! Yes, this is Eliphaz’s second attack on Job, a false assessment indeed. Job just called them “ungodly” and “wicked!” (By the way, these words Job just spoke sound a lot like Jesus’ mistreatment during His Trial and Death … gaped upon with dirty mouths, smitten upon the cheek, a confederacy gathered against Him, delivering Him unto wicked men!)

What Scripture we’re viewing today, so understudied, neglected, to our impoverishment!

Then … Job takes a higher view yet (in some ways) of his detractors. He speaks to God about Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar. “For thou (Lord) hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou (Lord) not exalt them.” Job 17:4, a little prophecy later fulfilled when God actually rebuked this judgmental threesome! (God to them at the end of the Book: “Ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.” Job 42:8)

Wow!

Then one more parting “shot,” Job to his “Buddy” Eliphaz, really to them all: “I cannot find one wise man among you.” Job 17:10, remember that Job is nearly always characterized a “Wisdom Book” in the Old Testament. (“You fellows aren’t so smart, after all!)

And still, within the context of all this banter, all these accusations … Job is still suffering!

He is now “filled with wrinkles,” prematurely apparently. Job 16:8

His “face is foul with weeping.” Job 16:16, by the way, the word “foul” is once translated “red” in the King James Version, Job crying incessantly.

Furthermore, Job laments: “On my eyelids is the shadow of death.” Maybe from lack of sleep too, Job 16:16

Then in Job 17:1 we read: “My breath is corrupt (offensive), my days are extinct (put out, gone), the graves (as if dying a thousands deaths) are ready for me.” Graphic!

And Job is hurting too because of his lost reputation! God has: “made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.” Once I was their “song,” now I am their “curse,” their very “joke!” Job 17:6

Job, now at one of his lowest points, nearly losing his hope! “I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?” Job 17:14-15

Do notice the “ups” and “downs” of Job throughout these two chapters. In fact, throughout the whole book! Every major Bible character had them. We are all human. “Mountains” and “valleys,” at least “hills” and “valleys!”

Yet in the midst of these two “dark” chapters, I find this “light!” Job still knows he has done no wrong, nothing major, no unconfessed sin, AND ALMIGHTY GOD KNOWS SO AS WELL!

Job hurting? Yes … “But not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.” Job 16:17

Then almost immediately: “Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.” Job 16:19, Job taking his “case” to a higher Court!

He valiantly maintains his “integrity,” his “loyalty” to Almighty God, “on high!”

Look at the next verse, Job 16:20. “My friends scorn (mock) me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.” This is a virtual Hebrews 12:2, clothed in Old Testament vernacular. (King James Version: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” Our Lord Jesus, another “innocent sufferer!”)

I close the Lesson today “amazed!”

Job, perhaps the greatest example of faith in all the Old Testament!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

I am beginning to think “Job” is the “Paul” of the Old Testament, folks!

Really!

 

 

Vicious!

That’s how I would characterize the speech (his second in the Book) of Eliphaz, hurling insult after insult toward Job, the Lord’s servant. (I really can’t decide which of “the three” are most cruel to Job, this man or Bildad or Zophar. But I think my vote is on Eliphaz, so far.)

In Job chapter 15 … listen as I give you one phrase or clause after another, heaped upon the suffering Job … all because of a theology (which is true 90% of the time) falsely applied to Job, he being one of the Bible’s first “innocent” sufferers.

Eliphaz to Job:

You “utter vain (empty) knowledge.”

Your words are like the … “east wind!”

“Unprofitable talk.”

Job, “thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity.”

“Thine own mouth condemneth thee.”  (It’s not ME, said Eliphaz in verse 6, who is accusing you of wrong!) By the way, Eliphaz just lied. He denounces Job for chapters!

“Thine own lips testify against thee.”

Then listen to Eliphaz’s pride: “What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us? With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.” Verses 9-10 of Job chapter 15.

Job, there is some sin at which “thy eyes wink.” You’re playing with some kind of iniquity, excusing or encouraging it, incognito.

“The wicked man (like you, Job), “travaileth with pain all his days.”

When he is in prosperity, “the destroyer shall come upon him.” (A direct slam at Job!)

“Trouble and anguish” have attacked you, and are winning the war, as two “kings to the battle.”

Job (verse 25), you are “against God, against the Almighty.”

Furthermore, your heritage is gone forever, his (10 dead) children being in view. The wicked man (like Job, or so believes Eliphaz) … “his branch shall not be green.”  His “offspring.”

No grapes from your vines, Job. And no olives from your trees! “He (the wicked) shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.” Even the produce from his farm will wither and die!

Job, you are among “the congregation of hypocrites.” Verse 34

You’ve even been dishonest with you money! You have lived in “tabernacles of bribery.”

You’re a man of “mischief, vanity and deceit.” Taken from the last verse of the chapter. Maybe Eliphaz will “shut up” for a few minutes now.

Wow!

And poor Job has to listen to all this.

No wonder he defended his integrity so much!

But I can think of another great Man Who was falsely accused like this, and worse!

Another Innocent Sufferer!

Yes, Jesus.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

Job has become exasperated with his 3 “interlocutors.” (Defined as: “a person who takes part in a conversation.”) Each of them (Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar) has now had a “turn” at counseling Job, or accusing him!

Here’s part of what Job says (particularly) to Zophar, but in reality to them all. “Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God. But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value. O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.” Job 13:3-5

Job is about “through” talking to them, that harsh trio of “judges!” He wants, rather, to talk to God (the Almighty) instead! “Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.” The verb “desire” means “to take pleasure in, to delight in,” spelled “chaphetzs” in Hebrew. (Implying the three “friends” are unreasonable!)

Then, bluntly, Job to them: “But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.”

The word “forger” means “to sew up, to glue, to stick!” And “lies” is the common Hebrew noun for “deception, falsehood.” Then “physicians” (in Hebrew “rapha”) means “one who cures, healer.” And really, “no value” means “good for nothing!

Wow!

Next, in so many words, Job yells “SHUT UP!” The King James Version: “O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.” Almost: “The quieter you are, even completely silent … the more wisdom you radiate!” As if Job had just read Proverbs 17:28. “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”

I suppose one can hurt so much, suffer so long … that he might lose his tact!

So … Job is human after all!

I almost have a smile on my face … saying “Way to go, Job!”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Once in 2nd Samuel 24 King David was offered 3 kinds of punishment for a sin he had committed. And David chose the one he felt was most directly from God’s Hand. His decision: “David said unto Gad (the Prophet), I am in a great strait: LET US FALL NOW INTO THE HAND OF THE LORD; FOR HIS MERCIES ARE GREAT: and let me not fall into the hand of man.”

That’s exactly what Job just said in today’s Lesson! “Surely I would speak to the ALMIGHTY, and I desire to reason with GOD. But (because) ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.”

The Bible, what an amazing book!