Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. We're in the book of Job for nine more days. We're already 25% of the way through it. This book can be challenging for some people. Maybe it tries their patience or just feels like a real downer.
Interestingly, though, a lot of people say Job is their favorite book of the Bible, but most of them don't feel that way until they've read it all the way through. So if I may, let me offer you a challenge. Don't quit in Job. You can quit before Job or you can quit after Job, but don't quit in Job. Obviously, it's too late for you to quit before Job, so you're stuck with us.
The good news is, this book ends with praise and triumph, so be sure to stick around for the party. We're getting closer to it every day. We've already heard from Eliphaz and Bildad, who gave their reasons they thought were responsible for Job's life falling apart. Today, we meet Job's third friend, Zophar.
The hard part about listening to these guys is that sometimes they do say things that are true. It's not like it's all wrong. For example, when Zophar is talking about God in 11.6, he says, "...he exacts less of you than your guilt deserves."
First of all, this is generally true of all of us, not just Job. We talked about this yesterday. God is merciful. We all deserve death, yet He lets us live. That's His mercy. And the fact that we get to live on God's earth and breathe God's air and eat God's food, that's so much more than we deserve. That's His grace. He does exact less of us than our guilt deserves.
Zophar says a lot of true things about God. It's when he starts drawing conclusions about Job that things take a left turn. And we got to hear Job's reply, where he started getting sarcastic with his friends. Did you catch that? In 12.2, he said, No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.
In 12.5, Job has some words of wisdom for those of us who want to comfort grieving friends. He says, Job is pointing out that those who aren't struggling don't seem to understand those who are. In fact, they often have contempt for them, not compassion. It seems like Job is beginning to sense his friends' contempt for him. Maybe some of this was rooted in their jealousy. I know
I know it sounds crazy to be jealous of Job at this point, but this is a man who had everything, who is honorable and respected, and this might be the first time in their lives that they've had a chance to feel superior to him. Maybe they jumped at the chance to try to identify his sins because of their own insecurities. In 12.9, Job acknowledges that God is the author of everything, even when he isn't the active agent in it.
God didn't commit these actions against Job, but if God could have stopped it and didn't, doesn't it still kind of terminate on him? This is a really mysterious aspect of God's character. Don't try to overlook it, but don't try to understand it fully just yet. God's not the agent of evil, but it's a necessary part of the story he's writing. We'll
We'll continue to talk more and more about this as we move through scripture, so don't get hung up on it. Don't let it turn you off from reading. Resist the urge to reach conclusions about God based on what you think at this point. And especially resist the urge to reach conclusions about God based on what you think humans deserve. Unless you're primarily recalling that we deserve nothing but hell and death.
I'll be honest, most, if not all, of my frustrations about God's actions are rooted in the lie that I deserve something. Deserve is my least favorite word. It's disgusting to me. It's entitled. You will see it in advertising everywhere. Companies will appeal to your entitlement, try to get you to feed on your self-centeredness. It's disgusting to me, especially because I know how gullible I am when it comes to appealing to my comfort and pleasure.
So what did you see about God's character today in your reading? It might be different than what I saw, and it probably is. Here's my God shot for today. I saw that God is our hope. In 1315, Job says these incredible words, "'Though he slay me, I will hope in him.'"
Job knows the only place his hope is found. After all he'd been through, even as a righteous man who was being wrongly called to account by his friends, he knows that the mercy of God is his only salvation, not even the understanding of his friends. If you're in a dark place, dig deep into the story of Job. He gets it.
And his words have been turned into a beautiful song called Though You Slay Me. And I've linked to it in the show notes. I think it'll be a real comfort to you. Not only is God our hope in the darkest night, but ultimately, he's where the joy is. ♪
Here at TBR, we love helping the kids in your life get an early start so they can read, understand, and love God's Word too. We've got two books for kids that follow our 365 plan. The Bible Recap Kids Devotional is an activity book for ages 6 to 8, and the Bible Recap for Kids is a short daily recap for ages 8 to 12. To see sample pages or to get copies for your kids, check out thebiblerecap.com forward slash kids or click the link in the show notes.
And by the way, we found that most kids ages 13 and up prefer to do the regular recap so they can do it alongside you or on their own. We've partnered with the Dwell Audio Bible app to bring my daily recaps right into their app. Not only can you listen to each day's reading, but you can also hear my recaps right inside the app. Look for it in the App Store or Google Play and get a free seven-day trial or click the link in the show notes.