40:1 And the LORD said to Job:
2 “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?
He who argues with God, let him answer it.”Job Promises Silence
3 Then Job answered the LORD and said:
4 “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
5 I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
twice, but I will proceed no further.”The Lord Challenges Job
6 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
7 “Dress for action1 like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.
8 Will you even put me in the wrong?
Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?
9 Have you an arm like God,
and can you thunder with a voice like his?
10 “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity;
clothe yourself with glory and splendor.
11 Pour out the overflowings of your anger,
and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.
12 Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low
and tread down the wicked where they stand.
13 Hide them all in the dust together;
bind their faces in the world below.2
14 Then will I also acknowledge to you
that your own right hand can save you.
15 “Behold, Behemoth,3
which I made as I made you;
he eats grass like an ox.
16 Behold, his strength in his loins,
and his power in the muscles of his belly.
17 He makes his tail stiff like a cedar;
the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
18 His bones are tubes of bronze,
his limbs like bars of iron.
19 “He is the first of the works4 of God;
let him who made him bring near his sword!
20 For the mountains yield food for him
where all the wild beasts play.
21 Under the lotus plants he lies,
in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh.
22 For his shade the lotus trees cover him;
the willows of the brook surround him.
23 Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened;
he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.
24 Can one take him by his eyes,5
or pierce his nose with a snare?Footnotes
[1] 40:7
Hebrew Gird up your loins
[2] 40:13Hebrew in the hidden place
[3] 40:15A large animal, exact identity unknown
[4] 40:19Hebrew ways
[5] 40:24Or in his sight (ESV)
Category: Scripture
Job Laments His Birth
3:1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 And Job said:
3 “Let the day perish on which I was born,
and the night that said,
‘A man is conceived.’
4 Let that day be darkness!
May God above not seek it,
nor light shine upon it.
5 Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
Let clouds dwell upon it;
let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 That night—let thick darkness seize it!
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Behold, let that night be barren;
let no joyful cry enter it.
8 Let those curse it who curse the day,
who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
let it hope for light, but have none,
nor see the eyelids of the morning,
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor hide trouble from my eyes.
11 “Why did I not die at birth,
come out from the womb and expire?
12 Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth
who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child,
as infants who never see the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;
they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there,
and the slave is free from his master.
20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
and life to the bitter in soul,
21 who long for death, but it comes not,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22 who rejoice exceedingly
and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?
24 For my sighing comes instead of1 my bread,
and my groanings are poured out like water.
25 For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
and what I dread befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, but trouble comes.”Footnotes
[1] 3:24
Or like; Hebrew before (ESV)
Satan Attacks Job’s Health
2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 3 And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” 4 Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” 6 And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.
9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”1 In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Job’s Three Friends
11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. 12 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. 13 And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.
Footnotes
[1] 2:10
Or disaster; also verse 11 (ESV)
Job’s Character and Wealth
1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. 4 His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed1 God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.
Satan Allowed to Test Job
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan2 also came among them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
Satan Takes Job’s Property and Children
13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants3 with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Footnotes
[1] 1:5
The Hebrew word bless is used euphemistically for curse in 1:5, 11; 2:5, 9
[2] 1:6Hebrew the Accuser or the Adversary; so throughout chapters 1–2
[3] 1:15Hebrew the young men; also verses 16, 17 (ESV)
Categories
Going Deeper
Esther 5.18.24
Grab your Bibles and let’s go deeper into the life and testimony of Esther.
Esther, the Jewish queen of Persia, rose from humble beginnings to become the deliverer of her people from certain death during the reign of King Ahasuerus. To save the Jews living in Persia while many of the children of Jacob were still living outside the Promised Land even after the exile, she had to overcome her fear of what might happen to her own life. But, to overcome her fear, she had to be convinced to trust in the Lord’s invisible hand of providence and the truth that His people are always under His watchful eye even when they must risk everything for Him (consider Matthew 10:29–31).
We read the story of Esther in the book that bears her name.
Esther 1 gives us the story of a grand banquet that the king of Persia held. In the midst of the celebration, the king decided to call forth his beautiful queen, Vashti, to come and dance before his friends at the feast. When Vashti refused, King Ahasuerus banished her from the court.
In Esther 2, we learn that after Vashti was sent away, the king embarked on a search for a new queen. After searching high and low in his realm, the King’s advisors found a Jewess named Hadassah, who was being raised under the name Esther by her cousin, Mordecai. After many months of preparation, Esther won the king’s favor and became queen.
Esther 3 describes the plot of Haman, one of the king’s important advisors, to annihilate the Jews in Persia because of Mordecai’s refusal to bow to Haman. He bribed the king with a huge gift of money to be given permission to send the summons to have the Jews wiped out. The king took him up on his offer and the order was sent out. Truly, this was a key turning point in the history of redemption. If Haman had succeeded, the Jews would have been wiped out, and there would have been no Messiah and no salvation for the world. So, what happened next was critical for the Jewish people.
Mordecai, and the Jews in the area, went into great mourning that led to Mordecai’s plea to Esther to intervene on her people’s behalf. Fearing for her own life, Esther initially refused. But Mordecai warned her that if she did not involve herself, the Jews would be rescued by the hand of another. However, Esther herself would not escape death if she thought she could preserve her own life by doing nothing. Upon hearing this, Esther vowed to go before the king, even upon threat of death. Her courage was even more remarkable when we consider that the name of God is not mentioned even one time in the book of Esther. Surely, God’s hand of providence is working in ways that are not always immediately discernible to us. Esther trusted this providence even when she had no idea how things would turn out for her.
This is often true for us as well. God’s hand of providence remains hidden from us, and we do not know how things will turn out before they actually occur. Still, we must trust the Lord and do what honors Him even if it will cost us greatly. Why? Because we trust in God and we obey His commands. We need to do this, especially when what is ahead of us is out of sight for us. To do it our own way is to deny the sovereign hand and wisdom of God and to be so arrogant as to pursue our own wise ways even though the future is unknown to us. It is during these times that we must remember that God is ever working for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28); we must trust Him and lean not on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6).
The Lord Accomplishes His Will Despite His People’s Sin
Yahweh never covenanted to destroy His people Israel completely, even if they were unfaithful. Esther expands on this, showing us that He may freely use even the questionable motives of His people to save them. Esther and Mordecai were compromising figures, and yet God made use of the positions they obtained by dubious means to rescue His people in Persia. Sin is never praiseworthy, but our transgression cannot bind the Lord’s hand.
King Ahasuerus’ reign was viewed as lavish and extensive, but, ironically, this king who was sovereign over the most powerful world empire in his day could not even get his own wife Vashti to follow his wishes. He was the ruler of the known world, but he could not even rule his own house!
The Pride of Man’s Flesh is His Demise
Thinking Ahasuerus wanted to honor him, Haman suggested a fitting way to exalt himself. Yet Haman ended up honoring the one he detested. Our plans are so inferior to God’s. While we may think we have it all together we must realize who truly rules all things.
Throughout the history of mankind, human rulers and governments have often considered themselves infallible, sovereign, and omnipotent, and, therefore, worthy of undue honor. The book of Esther is a display of the faultiness of this delusion.
Esther 8:2 The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
Clearly, the author of Esther wants us to understand that God is invisibly, but sovereignly, present in the events he recorded in his citation of the ancestry of Haman and Mordecai. Haman was an Agagite, a descendant of Agag, the ruler of the Amalekites during Saul’s reign. The Amalekites were the first to attack Israel after the exodus, and God pledged to destroy Amalek and his offspring because of their evil. In his day, God commanded Saul to finish wiping out the Amalekites, but he disobeyed the Lord and preserved Agag alive for a time. Thus, God rejected him as king over Israel.
Like Saul, Mordecai was a Benjaminite with an ancestor named Kish. When reading Esther, the exiled Jew would have readily recalled God’s promise to destroy the Amalekite enemies of His people and Saul’s failure to be the instrument of destruction. Recall that Esther, Mordecai, and the other Israelites lived in Persia because they failed to keep the Mosaic covenant. Since the Lord’s chosen people did not obey God, they naturally wondered if He would keep His pledge to destroy their enemies.
The book of Esther shows, again, that God keeps His word even when His people do not. Even in the exile, our Father sovereignly orchestrated history to give His people a second chance to destroy their foes. Saul failed, but another Benjaminite named Mordecai, with the help of his cousin Esther, accomplished God’s purpose against Agag and the Amalekites.
God was in the details of all of these events working His ultimate will. When we look back over our lives, we often find that the Lord was at work in those times when we thought He was absent. During the times when we suffer from doubts about God’s love and faithfulness, we should not focus on whether or not we “feel” His presence. The Lord may not be revealing Himself, but He is there.
In Esther 7, Haman is hanged on the gallows he intended for Mordecai, and in chapter 8, Esther is given the house of Haman.
Esther 8-10
Esther 8:2 And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
What an amazing turn of events!
In Esther 8:3-8, the order to wipe out the Jews was reversed.
In Esther 8:16-17, it says, “The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor. And in every province and in every city, wherever the king’s command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them.”
Esther 9:16 Now the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also gathered to defend their lives, and got relief from their enemies and killed 75,000 of those who hated them, but they laid no hands on the plunder.
Esther 10 King Ahasuerus imposed tax on the land and on the coastlands of the sea. And all the acts of his power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brothers, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people.
By His grace and for His glory
Joshua “Shepherd” Kirstine
Soldiers For Jesus MC
Chaplain Council
SFJbible.com