Job chapter 27:1-6 comments: unteachable

1 ¶  Moreover Job continued his parable, and said, 2  As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; 3  All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; 4  My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. 5  God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. 6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Here is something to consider. Your life is a parable, a story that teaches something. What does your life teach? What is God saying through you and is anyone listening?

Job accuses God of having taken away his reasoning ability and oppressing him, one definition of vex.

Exodus 22:21  Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Judges 2:18  And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.

Job declares himself so righteous he has the spirit of God, lowercase s, the understanding and wisdom of God, in him and Job’s greatest weakness and most egregious sin, his self-righteousness, is apparent.

Job promises that he will speak no wickedness nor will his tongue be used to utter deceit. But, he has no intention of admitting that his friends are right in their assessment of him. His argument remains, that he is a righteous person and he will not criticize himself.

I know people who are unteachable. Whatever bad things happen to them they are incapable of doing anything but blaming someone or something else for their trouble. We know Job did nothing in particular to merit the suffering he has endured but we also know that Job’s weakness is that he is self-righteous in the extreme. At no time will he consider that there is something he can learn from all of this other than that God has picked on him unfairly.

There are people in your life whose only ability to admit wrong on their part is that they were wrong for letting someone else do something to them, or for trusting the wrong person. They are always innocent, always the victim of circumstance, and they cannot accept their own culpability in any matter. Even when they are truly innocent of any specific wrong they are unable to learn any valuable lessons from what happens to them. It’s always going to be someone or something else’s fault, whether a bad, stupid person or just the wind, that causes them to fail. And don’t think you are going to change them.

There are Christians in churches just as self-righteous as Job and unteachable as the example I gave.

Job, chapter 26, comments: the earth in space

1 ¶  But Job answered and said, 2  How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength? 3  How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is? 4  To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?

Job is going to finish his argument in these next few chapters. He first retorts to Bildad with a rhetorical question asking him how he has helped someone who is powerless. The implication is that he and his friends haven’t helped at all. They’ve offered nothing to Job, who has been reduced to nothing, and given him, whom they insist is bereft of wisdom, no counsel. He casts doubt on the truthfulness of their arguments against him. Job questions whose spirit came from them, with the implication that it wasn’t God’s Spirit speaking through them.

When Caleb and Joshua insisted that the Hebrews could take Canaan if they attacked immediately God spoke of Caleb having another spirit in them than the spirit that the other spies, who were fearful, had in them.

Numbers 14:24  But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

Paul, in the context of talking about the possibility of the Corinthian Christians being deceived by Satan, as Eve had been, says,

2Corinthians 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

    5 ¶  Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. 6  Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. 7  He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. 8  He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them. 9  He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it. 10  He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. 11  The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. 12  He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. 13  By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. 14  Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?

Verse 5 of Chapter 26 is one of the most intriguing verses in the Bible. In the context it is reasonable to assume that this is a reference to Hell, the holding place, the jail, if you will, in which the wicked are assigned before their final incarceration in the horrible prison of the Lake of Fire for eternity.

You are aware of your suffering in Hell. Your soul, which maintains the shape of your body and its basic functions, has eyes, hands, a tongue, etc.

Luke 16:23  And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24  And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

To say people are living in Hell is perhaps to stretch the meaning of the word living. But the vast majority of human beings who came of age in history, particularly those who rejected God’s revelation of Himself and His plan for mankind’s redemption, certainly inhabit it.

Another take on that verse can be inspired by the reference to dead things being formed under the waters. For instance, these are things, not human beings, and when they are formed they are already dead in our sense and understanding of dead. They have no life. They inhabit this place of reference under the waters.

We have a limited understanding that there is a large amount of water in space. The European Space Agency theorizes from their observations that there may be enough water vapor created in the Orion Nebula to fill the earth’s oceans sixty times over each day. (31)

Genesis 1:6 ¶  And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7  And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8  And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day… 14 ¶  And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15  And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18  And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

There are some other things to consider about this. First, we understand from the Bible that there are three heavens.

2Corinthian 12:2  I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

The heavens include the first heaven where birds fly and clouds move, the second heaven would be the firmament of outer space with stars, nebula, and galaxies, and the third heaven would be the abode of God and the blessed dead.

We also know that Satan is called the prince of the power of the air in Ephesians 2:2. There are verses that tell us that the rulers of the spiritual darkness of this world, not flesh and blood, have their existence above us.

Ephesians 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

So, there is some great evil in outer space, some network or empire of wickedness that is physically between us and God. The things that are formed there under the waters at the far reaches of our universe are dead things and spiritual beings with which we must contend, even in our ignorance.

We cannot go through them to God so He came for us and will again.

Nothing is hidden from God. Not even Hell itself.

Psalm 139:8  If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

Verse 7 reveals that in spite of any belief which may have been held to the contrary the earth is not on the shoulders of a giant or on the back of a turtle. It hangs in space without visible supports, another scientific prediction made by the Bible that has been observed by people in space. The Cern Courier: International Journal of High-Energy Physics reported of a giant void or empty spot, devoid of galaxies a thousand million light years across. (32)

Verse 8 brings to my mind the nebulae or vast interstellar clouds supposedly consisting of dust and gas such as the Magellanic Clouds and the Orion Nebula. Of course most would just consider this a reference to storm clouds threatening rain. Still, the context makes one pause.

The reference to God’s throne in the heavens in verse 9 implies we are not talking about an earthly occurrence. Verses 11 and 13 also seem to indicate that the reference to the sea in 12 is not on this earth. God says that we are like fish in a sea.

Habakkuk 1:14  And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

And Christ calls His apostles, fishers of men.

Mark 1:17  And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

God, by His spirit, being the lowercase s not being the Holy Spirit but indicating an attitude or wisdom, has placed the crooked serpent there, in the heavens.

Isaiah 27:1  In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

Revelation 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

And Job says that these are just a part of God’s ways. How little we know. Modern man’s viewpoint that all knowledge can be revealed by science and that anything that science is unable to reveal, call into being, or experiment on cannot exist is not only arrogant but foolish in the extreme.

(31) European Space Agency, “Galactic Water in the Orion Nebula,” ESA Science and Technology, last modified August 24, 2005, http://sci.esa.int/iso/31372-galactic/.

(32) Marc Turler, “WMAP's cold spot shows giant void in space,” Cern Courier: International Journal of High-Energy Physics,” (September 19, 2007), http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/31185 (accessed November 11, 2014).

Job, chapter 25, comments: Bildad interrupts Job to defend God's sovereignty

1 ¶  Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, 2  Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places. 3  Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise? 4  How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? 5  Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. 6  How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?

Bildad interrupts Job to defend God whom he apparently feels is having His sovereignty attacked by Job. He uplifts God’s sovereignty or dominion. Here is an example of parallel thought in a verse that defines dominion for us.

Genesis 37:8a  And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?....

Bildad reinforces the fear of God and His control over the world of nature and the spiritual world. Notice the reference to high places. People often talk about whether or not there is life elsewhere in outer space than on earth.

Ephesians 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

He is sovereign over all spiritual entities and over the physical universe. He is in control. This is fundamental for Christians to understand as it is an unpleasant truth for the carnal and rebellious at heart who believes, like Job, that he or she deserves something really nice for being on God’s side and doing things that justify themselves in their own minds while saying it is for God.

In verse 3 Bildad speaks of God’s limitless power and how there is nowhere to hide from Him. He does not argue against what Job is saying about the seeming success of wicked men but interjects a point about how God is all-powerful, perhaps thinking that Job is questioning that power.

In verse 4 he brings up the oft-repeated question that goes something like this, how can a man, a seemingly insignificant and weak mortal, being be justified with God? That is a great question of theology for all religions and at all times in history. The answer is in God coming to earth and living as a man, dying for the sins of the whole world, and then rising from the dead, with man being justified by his belief and faith in that act.

Who can be justified with God? How can a man born through the normal process of life, born of a woman, be clean?

Proverbs 20:9  Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?

The answer is that a person, man or woman, must be born of those natural processes, born of water or born of the flesh, as it is put in parallel thoughts in the following, and, in addition, must be born a second time by the Spirit of God.

John 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

In verse 5 Bildad makes a very scientific statement. The moon does not give off light of its own. It is not a generator of light but reflects the light of the sun. This knowledge, dating to the early second millennium before Christ, predated the Greek philosopher, Anaxagoras, who in the late 400’s BC, determined that the sun and the moon were giant rocks with the moon reflecting the light from the sun, called a, “red-hot stone.” (30) This presents us with a very valuable metaphor in that the Christian has no light of his or her own but must reflect the light of Christ. If the Christian claims his own light he is none of Christ’s. How can we justify ourselves when the only good in us is that which God has implanted there?

The stars are not pure in God’s sight. Theologically we would say that all creation is marred by man’s sin.

Romans 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Everything in the physical universe will eventually face a process of decay. In fact, it can be said that when we are born we start the process of dying.

Genesis 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

This is the most significant barrier that mankind has ever faced.

Hebrews 2:14 ¶  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15  And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

It is not solved by anything scientific that man can come up with but the problem of death is solved only by Christ.

Romans 10:9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Verse 6 also has a very clear double-meaning, with Bildad’s comment first in its literal sense as its meaning between him and Job and then its significance as a reference to what Christ became.

2Corinthians 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Jesus directed us to this Psalm from the Cross itself by quoting its first verse.

Psalm 22:6  But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

 (30) J.J. O’Connor and E.F. Robertson, “Anaxagoras of Clazomenae,” University of St. Andrews (February 1999), http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Anaxagoras.html, (accessed November 8, 2014).

Job, chapter 24 comments: the wicked seem to get away with it

1 ¶  Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days? 2  Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. 3  They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. 4  They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together. 5  Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children. 6  They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked. 7  They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold. 8  They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter. 9  They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor. 10  They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry; 11  Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst. 12  Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.

Job expands on his former argument that the wicked are not always punished in this life and we often don’t see what happens to them. It is incorrect to say that good always wins and bad is always punished. People are aware of God’s standards and judgment and still continue to do great evil.

Job lists some things that were issues in a world of herds and flocks and land.

Deuteronomy 19:14 ¶  Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour’s landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.

Proverbs 23:10 ¶  Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

Taking something that was put up as a guarantee against a loan from a poor person, if it was his or her livelihood or needed for their survival, was wrong by God’s standard.

Deuteronomy 24:6  No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man’s life to pledge…12  And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge: 13  In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the LORD thy God.

The point is of this passage in Job that wicked men do all of these wicked things and often get away with it, or seem to, as, “God layeth not folly to them.” It is naïve and foolish to have a old-fashioned Saturday morning children’s television show view of the world in thinking that the good always win and the bad are always punished in this world.

    13 ¶  They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. 14  The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. 15  The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face. 16  In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light. 17  For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

No further explanation is needed of this passage from a literal standpoint. Many verses throughout the Bible speak of how the wicked lay in wait for the poor. The wicked person often makes his fortune by deceiving and manipulating the poor. Sometimes he just commits outright murder. One characteristic of both the murderer and the adulterer is believing that under the cover of darkness no one sees them.

Psalm 10 is a plea for judgment against these people.

  1 ¶  Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? 2  The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. 3  For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. 4  The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. 5  His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. 6  He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity. 7  His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity. 8  He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor. 9  He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. 10  He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. 11  He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.

    18 ¶  He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards. 19  Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned. 20  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. 21  He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow. 22  He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life. 23  Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways. 24  They 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. 25  And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?

Like a flood the wicked descend on their prey. They hold in contempt the honest labor of the vineyard. They do no one any good. Even the mighty are drawn into his influence and no one’s life is certain or safe when he is about. Here, Job remembers the eventual demise of the wicked who profit for a short time but then descend into the grave. Job knows the things that his friends have been telling him and does not deny that even though the wicked seem to prosper for a time they will all come to the same fate. If Job is not speaking truth he dares his friends to argue with him.

We have, in these verses, many interesting things to note about the mark of a wicked man. He cares nothing for honest labor and is always seeking an advantage over others which is something forbidden to the Christian. He does no good to those who are lacking as the Christian is called to do good. No one is safe in his presence which is the opposite of how people should feel around a Christian. The Christian does not care to influence the powerful but by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It has been said that life on earth is about power. We are fascinated by the boxer with the most knockouts, the baseball player with the most home runs, who is the wealthiest, the most influential, the power-broker in politics, the nation with the mightiest army. In our personal relationships there often appears to be a struggle for who gets the most attention, who gets what they want, who is in charge.

Wicked people want to control others. They want to be in charge. They have a pathological need, a lust, to tell others what to do and how to do it. They can disguise their wickedness by saying that it is for a good cause, even for Christ. They will exploit and manipulate those around them. The Christian does not seek to control others. He seeks to be an example, a testimony of faith, and submission to God’s will. He leads by example and draws others to Christ. He does not drive them like a slave overseer with a whip.

Here, Job is expressing what we all know, that wicked people do great harm with seeming impunity, and go to their graves without fear. Often, their wickedness is forgotten after them and we remember them as being good, even as philanthropists or Godly men and women.

History is replete with great men who were incredibly evil men who abused the weak and the poor, which God repeatedly says He hates, and yet are called into public memory as great political leaders, generous philanthropists, brilliant generals, captains of industry, captivating thinkers, and men of renown. These individuals are burning in a sinner’s Hell now for their rejection of Christ and worship of Self but we remember them as great ones. They exist at every level of humanity, on every layer of success, and in every government office building, every school, every church, and in every family. And they seem to get away with their wickedness.

A famous quote made about leadership in history was; “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.” (29)

(29) John Dalberg-Acton, “Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, April 5, 1887” published in Historical Essays and Studies, edited by J. N. Figgis and R. V. Laurence (London: Macmillan, 1907).

Job will go on, after he is interrupted, to lift up his own righteousness and to proclaim that he is not one of the wicked but a just man, sorely treated.

Job 23:13-17 comments: cut off before the darkness

13 ¶  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. 14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him. 15  Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him. 16  For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me: 17  Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.

In the context of God providing giving the believer righteousness as opposed to the believer’s own sin James said;

James 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

In the context of guarding sound doctrine Paul said;

Hebrews 13:8  Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

God spoke through Isaiah in expressing the very words that Job has put forward as He spoke against worshipping man-made gods.

Isaiah 46:9  Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10  Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: 11  Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

There are many other verses in the Bible that speak of God’s steadfastness of purpose and of His unchangeable will in regard to eternal decrees, things set in stone. We have to remember always that Satan can do nothing to us without God’s permission.

Job acknowledges that there is a level of determinism in his fate, that God has appointed him to certain things. Something being appointed by God is mentioned elsewhere. In a comparison with Christ’s one sacrifice for all sins Paul made this statement;

Hebrews 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28  So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

In reference to the appointment of those who disobey God to stumble at His word Peter said;

1Peter 2:7  Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, 8  And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.

And those who believe and trust in Christ are appointed not to experience the Great Tribulation;

1Thessalonians 5:9  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10  Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

In reading verse 15 it is easy to be reminded of this verse in a psalm of Asaph.

Psalm 77:3  I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

Job is in awe of God and in fear of Him. God did not take Job from the living before giving him a vision of the darkness in the misery he suffered.

Verse 16 made me think of this verse in a psalm.

Psalm 88:16  Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

As for verse 17 there were others in the Bible who were spared the darkness that awaited those who came after. In the following verse, Huldah the prophetess, the wife of a man named Shallum, who (Huldah) resided at the college of prophets in Jerusalem, preached this as part of a message to representatives sent to her from King Josiah. In this passage she is speaking for God to the king.

2Kings 22:19  Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD. 20  Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.

Also in Isaiah, speaking on God’s behalf, he says;

Isaiah 57:1 ¶  The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.

Those of us who have seen their own children die before them would wish that they themselves had died before that happened. Job was not spared the misery of losing all his children, all his wealth, and his health. He was not given that blessing, up to this point, of going to the grave before experiencing his nightmares in the flesh.

Some of you have been spared his grief by God’s singular mercy. You have even seen your children snatched from the jaws of death. Rejoice and be glad that you have been spared the agony of seeing your child buried in the ground in front of your eyes, of seeing them lying dead on a hospital gurney, of knowing you will not hear them laugh again in this life, have children, or call your name again here on earth. To have a huge rip in your soul that brings tears to your eyes whenever you are reminded of what could have been or even what was is a vision of darkness.

Job was not spared and yet he, unlike most of us who have lost children, livelihood, and health had done nothing wrong, had left nothing he knew to do out, and sacrificed and, it is assumed, prayed often for his children.

And yet, all of this came on him. Some of you will think you’ve been spared because you are so good, so righteous, so faithful and obedient. But think about Job. Would you not have everything in common with him except the grief and agony?

Job 23: 8-12 comments: Job argues his case

8 ¶  Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: 9  On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: 10  But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. 11  My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. 12  Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

Job does not see God. We don't see God in the flesh. We have His Book, the Bible, which, for all practical purposes is God in written form.

God, like human beings and the higher animals, is composed of three parts. He is not three persons with independent wills and agendas, or even three persons in agreement. He is one God with three distinct parts, as man is shown to have here;

1Thessalonians 5:23  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God’s body, soul, and spirit are expressed in the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

2Corinthians 13:14  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

1John 5:7  For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the physical manifestation of God.

Colossians 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

Hebrews 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

An angel is an appearance of something or someone.

Isaiah 63:9  In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

Acts 12:13  And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. 14  And when she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. 15  And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel.

The angel of the Lord or the angel of God is an appearance of God in almost every case, the visible image of God, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Note the use of the word, even, here, as elsewhere in the Bible linking two words which are the same thing.

Genesis 6:17  And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

Now, note this verse.

Galatians 4:14  And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

And what Paul says, linking it with Judges 13:21,22 below.

Acts 27:23  For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,

We don’t see God physically in the Church Age after the last apostle died. He doesn’t walk with us and talk with us in any garden physically. Adam had a relationship like that with Christ, the visible image of the invisible God, long before He walked on earth in Palestine.

Genesis 3:8  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

Jacob encountered Christ physically.

Genesis 32:24 ¶  And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 25  And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. 26  And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 27  And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. 28  And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. 29  And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. 30  And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

Moses physically saw Christ.

Deuteronomy 34:10  And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,

As did Gideon.

Judges 6:22  And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.

As did Samson’s parents.

Judges 13:20  For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. 21  But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD. 22  And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

And for a short time in human history God walked on the earth daily with those who followed Him.

John 14:9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

Job, however, has not physically seen God, nor has he seen the appearance or angel of God, which is the pre-incarnate Christ. When God does intervene here He speaks from out of a whirlwind.

Job continues to insist upon his own righteousness as justifying himself before God, as many Christians reading this will do. With a smug self-superior attitude they think of themselves as highly as Job thinks of himself. Their faith is quenched when a time of devastation comes in their life because their thoughts tend to, “if there was a God He would not allow such a terrible thing to happen to someone as faithful and perfect as I am.”

Clearly, from verse 12 and from Eliphaz’s statement in 22:22, Job and the people of His time had a record of God either from prophets of God or in writing that God did not see fit to preserve for us today. Remember that Job wishes in 19:23 that his own words were written in a book.

Job chapter 23: 1-7 comments: your self-righteousness - fail

1 ¶  Then Job answered and said, 2  Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning. 3  Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! 4  I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. 5  I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me. 6  Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me. 7  There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.

In spite of all of these accusations by his friends, Job’s pain and anguish of body and spirit are far worse than his complaining about it. He ponders as to where he might find God, even to appear before His throne.

Hebrews 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

The Spirit of God dwells in each believer today.

John 14:23  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Romans 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

On a side note we have an advantage over the Gentiles before Abraham, as in Job, or the Hebrews under the Law given to Moses, in that we are always in the presence of God who dwells within us. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us not to bring anything in our bodies or unite our bodies with anything that common sense or good doctrine would show that God would not want in His presence.

1Corinthians 3:16 ¶  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1Corinthians 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

But, Job doesn’t want to speak to God in prayer only. He wants to see Him face to face. He believes his argument is so good that he thinks he could make a good case for himself. Job, in his troubles, is steering further and further into self-righteousness trying to justify himself. He says that the righteous do have an argument before God and that he is so right that even God’s great power would not make it null and void.

Romans 3:19  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

We know that we are sinners before a holy God and that has come down to us through our first ancestor, Adam. We are not compared to other people as in a hierarchy of good to bad people. That’s a purely human invention in all faith traditions. You will think you are more righteous than a drug-addicted prostitute laying in a back alley of a building strung out on something he bought from a dealer on the corner. But, God isn’t comparing you to that poor wretch. He’s comparing you to Himself in the physical form of Jesus Christ. You cannot stand up to that comparison.

When you stand before Christ your self-righteousness will fail you. You will not be able to present a defense of any kind no matter how often you went to church or how many people you badgered into saying 1-2-3-repeat-after-me or how many rock concerts for Christ you attended as a part of your church’s youth group. Job is wrong. His righteousness will not give him the strength to justify himself. And today, the only justification you have is Christ’s righteousness. If you aren’t counting on Christ’s righteousness to get Heaven or have eternal life you won’t possess either one. You will have eternal life or not based solely on Christ’s righteousness and your trusting in it. You have none, compared to Him, and that is the only comparison that matters to God.