Day 015 (Job 40-42) - Year 7
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today, we wrapped up the story of Job. For several chapters, we've been reading about how Job wants to have a conversation with God, and yesterday, God gave Job a lengthy response.

Today we get to see Job's very brief reply, where he basically just says, "'I think I'm gonna keep my mouth shut.'" So Job is humbled and doesn't wanna speak. But God has asked Job to answer him, and he didn't. So God pushes a little more. In chapter 40, verse eight, God says, "'Will you even put me in the wrong? "'Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?'

How often do we get so frustrated by our circumstances that we carry a subtle undercurrent of belief that God is cruel for letting that thing happen to us? If we really boil it down, that's the same thing as calling God a bad, unjust God. It's basically the belief that I would make a better God, because if I were God, I would never have done that, and He's wrong and unjust for choosing to do things that way.

God points out Job's heart attitude that only became evident through his suffering. In 41:11, God also points out Job's entitlement. Job glorifies God, he makes sacrifices, he honors God with his life and his actions. But it seems like maybe he values his own righteous acts just a little too highly, perhaps believing that they put God in his debt.

The sins of pride and entitlement are disgusting even when they are attached to our so-called good deeds, and God is kind to purge those things from His kids.

In chapter 42, Job repents. Your version of the Bible may have shown him saying, I despise myself. The Hebrew word used for despise here, which I won't try to pronounce because it actually sounds like a curse word, is used elsewhere to mean to withdraw or to reject. Like, I withdraw from myself. The tone it carries is more about humility than shame. There's a huge difference between

Shame feels like an accusation about who you are as a person, someone who's undeserving of love. Whereas humility is rightly viewing who you are as a person who is loved despite being undeserving. Humility is the narrow zone where you're not building yourself up or beating yourself up because you realize it's not about you. It's immediately clear that Job is humbled by reflecting on all the things God points out to him.

After Job repents, God finally addresses Job's friends. In fact, he rebukes them. So we finally get an official confirmation on how wrong these guys are. We already knew it from what God said in the first chapter, but it's good to hear God say it to them. I really wish Elihu had been here for this part of the conversation, but most of the commentaries I read suggest he wasn't there, which could potentially be why God only rebuked the original three friends.

We can only hope God had a word with him one-on-one at some point. In 42 verse 8, God says that those three friends haven't spoken of him what is right. We've been talking all along about how a lot of what they say about God is true, but not all of it, obviously. Do you remember how they kept saying they were delivering the very words of God to Job, and how they were visited by a spirit that told them these things?

It takes me all the way back to the first chapter of this book, where God is addressing the sons of God. Remember how we learned that term, sons of God, on day two? Remember that it's often a way to refer to angels, and in this specific instance, fallen angels who are enemies of God? If Job's friends are telling the truth about being visited by spirits who spoke these things, doesn't it seem to make sense that those spirits would be evil spirits? Fallen angels masquerading as angels of light?

Whether Job's friends are lying intentionally or whether they are deceived by these spirits and are just passing those deceptions along to Job, their statements aren't from God. And what they miss the mark on primarily here is God's heart. Because if they imagine those are God's words they're speaking, it's clear they view his heart wrongly. In the midst of all the true things they're saying about God, their speech is peppered with lies about him.

That's one reason why it's important for us to look for the full view of God, like we're doing in our daily reading here, instead of just plucking one or two attributes that we want to home in on to the exclusion of the others. That's how we end up painting a two-dimensional picture of God, where we don't even put him in a box, we put him in a square. In 4210, God tells Job's friends to apologize, and then God tells Job to pray for them.

Maybe this is the final test for Job. Has he really been humbled? Has his heart really changed? And while the text doesn't tell us Job forgave them, it's somewhat implied. It's hard to humbly pray for someone if you haven't at least moved toward forgiving them. And forgiveness doesn't come from a heart that holds on to bitterness and entitlement.

So this act of repentance on their part and prayer on Job's part is one way that we see that Job and his friends have grown here. We see God's work to purify and humble them all. And we see God working to restore not just relationships, but everything in Job's life. Job gets it all back in a double portion.

Now, regardless of your gender, I hope you didn't gloss over the numbers and genealogies at the end of this book. Because women, we have a moment here. Men, there are lots of moments for you in the whole rest of the Bible. But for women, this is a rare moment where the females are named in the lineage, but not the males. That is the exact opposite of what most ancient genealogies did. So enjoy it, women. There will be plenty of moments where the ancient cultures ignore you. So hold on to this when you feel like scripture overlooks you.

And not only do the women get named instead of the males, but they also get an inheritance along with the males, which is relatively unheard of in those days. This is a gesture of extreme generosity on Job's part, which also reveals a lot of humility. What was your God shot for the day? Where did you see God's character on display? I saw his heart for restoration.

He not only restores Job's fortunes and his family, but he also restores Job's relationship with his friends, and most importantly, God restores Job's view of God and himself. He sets things right.

If you've ever felt distant or alienated from God, you know how disorienting it is, how paralyzing it can be. And here's the God who draws near to the very people who view him wrongly, misunderstand him, tell lies about him, and accuse him of being cruel, and he restores them in relationship with each other and himself. I think Job probably valued that a lot more than 6,000 camels, because I think Job finally figured out that he's where the joy is.

Tomorrow, we'll be starting the second half of Genesis. We're linking to a short video overview in the show notes or in the devotional tab on the Bible app. So check that out if you have eight minutes to spare.

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