Daily reading

Today’s reading is: Job 19-21

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Job Chapter Nineteen

  1. Job affirms that he is the one that has been insulted—ten times through his friends’ tormenting and crushing words (Job 19:1,2).
  2. Job states that even if he is wrong, and sinful, his friends are not the ones to whom he’s accountable. God is the one who judges, and God is the one who has unfairly mistreated Job (Job 19:4-6,28,29).
  3. Job cries out: “instead of judging me, pity me!” and describes extensively how complete his personal destruction has been (Job 19:7-22).
    1. Job no longer receives answers to prayer (v.7).
    2. Job no longer receives Divine guidance (v.8).
    3. Job no longer has a reputation for integrity (v.9).
    4. Job no longer has hope for his future (v.10).
    5. Job is now God’s enemy (vv.11,12).
    6. Job is stripped of every positive human relationship (vv.13-19).
    7. Job suffers physically on the verge of death (v.20).
  4. Job laments that his suffering will not be preserved for history (Job 19:23,24).
  5. Job comforts himself in the foundation of his faith, and his positive anticipation of eternal life (Job 19:25-27). In the depths of our anguish, sometimes that’s the only thing we have to cling to (Lam. 3:21-26; 1st Cor. 2:2).
  6. Job warns his friends that if they continue in their unjust condemnation of him, they will come into judgment themselves (Job 19:28,29; 42:7-9).

Job Chapter Twenty

  1. Zophar makes a second and final attempt to correct Job, and jumps into the “insulting” fray (Job 20:1-3).
  2. Zophar urges Job to learn from the history of the ancient world—the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless momentary (Job 20:4,5).
  3. Zophar picks up on Bildad’s supposition that maybe Job isn’t even saved (Job 18:21), and describes the hopeless plight of the unbeliever (Job 20:6-29).
    1. The unbeliever’s “loftiness” ascends to the heavens, yet he will perish and decay like his dung (v.6).
      1. שִׂיא siy’ #7863: loftiness of pride. Used only here in the OT. From נָשָׂא nāsā’ #5375: to lift, bear up, carry, take (used over 600x).
      2. עָלָה ‘ālāh #5927: to go up, ascend (used nearly 900x).
      3. אָבַד ’ābad #6: to perish, destroy (used nearly 200x).
    2. This matches the fate of the Devil, who desired to ascend (Isa. 14:13), but will ultimately be thrust down (Isa. 14:15).
    3. The unbeliever swallows the evil he loves (Job 20:12,13), but the Lord transforms it to poison (v.14), and when it hits his stomach, he vomits it up (v.15).
    4. This metaphor represents the dissatisfaction that all unbelievers face when confounded by the passing pleasures of sin (Heb. 11:25).

Job Chapter Twenty-One

  1. Job expresses his total frustration that his friends aren’t even listening to his logic before they proceed with their mocking (Job 21:1-3).
  2. Job refutes the principle of wisdom that the wicked “always” suffer, by pointing out that the fallen world has pleasures for fallen man (Job 21:7-16). Sometimes the wicked prosper, and sometimes they suffer (Job 21:23-26).
    1. The wicked may actually enjoy temporal life prosperity right up to the day they die (v.13).
    2. Their judgment may wait until eternity (vv.14,15,22).
  3. Job urges his critics to not assume he’s guilty by reason of his external circumstances (Job 21:27-34).