Destitute

Job 20:19-23 – For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build. “Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure. Nothing is left for him to devour; his prosperity will not endure. In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him; the full force of misery will come upon him. When he has filled his belly, God will vent his burning anger against him and rain down his blows on him.

Deuteronomy 15:11 – There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.

Zephaniah 1:18 – Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath.” In the fire of his jealousy the whole earth will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live on the earth.

Numbers 11:19-20 – You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

Application:

• ·         Even in the best of societies under the most enlightened laws, the uncertainties of life and the variations among citizens result in some people becoming poor.
• ·         In the day of God’s judgment, material wealth cannot buy deliverance from punishment.
• ·         The Israelites failed to demonstrate proper gratitude to the Lord, who was in their midst and who was their constant source of good.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Linger In His Mouth

Job 20:11-18 – The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust. “Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue, though he cannot bear to let it go and lets it linger in his mouth, yet his food will turn sour in his stomach; it will become the venom of serpents within him. He will spit out the riches he swallowed; God will make his stomach vomit them up. He will suck the poison of serpents; the fangs of an adder will kill him. He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream. What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.

Numbers 11:19-20 – You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

Psalm 36:8 – They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.

Application:

• ·         The principal issue was not meat at all, but a failure to demonstrate proper gratitude to the Lord, who was in their midst and who was their constant source of good.
• ·         The vivid imagery of Psalm 36:8, depicting God’s control over, and gift of, the waters from heaven, which feed the rivers and streams of earth to give life and health wherever they flow, is the source of the symbol of “the river of the water of life” that flows from the temple of God.
• ·         “What he toiled for…he will not enjoy” was a common theme in wisdom literature.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Give Back His Wealth

Job 20:3-10,18 – I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, and my understanding inspires me to reply. “Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since mankind was placed on the earth, that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment. Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night. The eye that saw him will not see him again; his place will look on him no more. His children must make amends to the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth…What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.

Amos 2:7-8 – They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name. They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines.

Application:

• ·         “What he toiled for…he will not enjoy” was a common theme in wisdom literature.
• ·         To care for the “poor…oppressed” and to protect them from injustice were clearly commanded by Israel’s law; also, throughout the ancient Near East, kings were supposed to defend such people.
• ·         Israelites who broke the laws protecting the powerless brazenly used their wrongly gotten gains even in places supposed to be holy.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Greatly Disturbed

Job 20:1-2 – Then Zophar the Naamathite replied: “My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed.

Job 15:35 – They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb fashions deceit.”

Job 18:21 – Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man; such is the place of one who does not know God.”

Psalm 42:5 – Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Application:

• ·         Once initiated, sinful thoughts develop quickly into evil acts.
• ·         Having no intimate knowledge of God is synonymous with being wicked.
• ·         “Praise Him” for His saving help.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Judgment

Job 19:29 – “If you say, ‘How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,’ you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment.”

Psalm 1:5 – Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

Psalm 58:11 – Then people will say, “Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.”

Ecclesiastes 3:17 – I said to myself, “God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.”

Ecclesiastes 11:9 – You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

Application:

• ·         “Will not stand in the judgment” means will not be able to withstand God’s wrath when He judges.
• ·         When God has judged the unjust “gods”, all people will see that right ultimately triumphs under God’s just rule.
• ·         God’s true judgments are the answer to cynicism about human injustices. “The past” is not meaningless, and God will override the perverse judgments of people. No one will escape divine judgment.
• ·         The prospect of divine praise or blame makes every detail of life significant rather than meaningless.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Hound

Job 19:25-29 – I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! “If you say, ‘How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,’ you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment.”

Psalm 63:1 – You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

Application:

• ·         “Dry and parched land” was a metaphor for his situation of need, in which he does not taste “the richest of foods” supplied by the “river whose streams make glad the city of God”
• ·         The Hebrew for “hound” is translated “pursue”.
• ·         Job senses that the ravages of his disease will eventually bring about his death.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

I Will See God

Job 19:25-27 – I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

1 Corinthians 13:12 – For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Job 42:5 – My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.

Application:

• ·         Job is absolutely certain that death is not the end of existence and that someday he will stand in the presence of his divine “redeemer” and see Him with his own eyes.
• ·         The Christian will know the Lord to the fullest extent possible for a finite being, similar to the way the Lord knows the Christian—fully and infinitely. This will not be true until the Lord returns or the believer sees Him “face to face” at death.
• ·         In other contexts Job desires a “vindicator” as an advocate in heaven who would plead with God on his behalf, but here the “redeemer” seems to be none other than God Himself. Job expresses confidence that ultimately God will vindicate His faithful servants in the face of all false accusations.
• ·         Job—and his three friends and Elihu—had only heard about God, but now Job has seen God with the eyes of faith and spiritual understanding. He can therefore accept God’s ways with him—which include suffering.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Job 19:5-6,22-25 – If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me, then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me…Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh? “Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!  I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.

Psalm 40:7 – Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll.

Exodus 6:6 – “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

Proverbs 23:10-11 – Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you.

Isaiah 41:14 – Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, little Israel, do not fear, for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 59:20 – “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the Lord.

Job 9:33-34 – If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more.

Job 5:1 – “Call if you will, but who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

Ruth 2:20 – “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.”

Job 42:10 – After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.

Application:

• ·         The wicked may get themselves into trouble, as Bildad had pointed out, but Job here attributes his suffering to God.
• ·         Some take “it is written about me in in the scroll” to be a reference to a prophecy. The context, however, strongly suggests that the “scroll” refers to the personal copy of the law that the king is to “write for himself” at the time of his enthronement to serve as the covenant charter of his administration.
• ·         Job expresses confidence that ultimately God will vindicate His faithful servants in the face of all false accusations.
• ·         The verbs “bring…free…redeem” stress the true significance of the name Yahweh—“the Lord”—who is the Redeemer of His people.
• ·         “Defender” means guardian-redeemer or protector, someone who helped close relatives regain land or who avenged their death.
• ·         “Redeemer” was Deliverer from Babylonian exile. As Guardian-Redeemer, He redeems His people’s property, guarantees their freedom, avenges them against their tormentors and secures their posterity for the future. The title “Holy One of Israel” occurs with “Redeemer”.
• ·         The Redeemer will “Come to Zion” in the return from exile, but more fully in the person of Christ.
• ·         God is so immense that Job feels he needs someone who can help him, someone who can argue his case in court.
• ·         The idea of a mediator, someone to arbitrate between God and Job, is an important motif in the book.
• ·         The guardian-redeemer was responsible for protecting the interests of needy members of the extended family—e.g., to provide an heir for a brother who had died, to redeem land that a poor relative had sold outside the family, to redeem a relative who had been sold into slavery and to avenge the killing of a relative.
• ·         Job’s prayer for those who had abused him is a touching Old Testament illustration of the high Christian virtue our Lord taught.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Little Boys Scorn Me

Job 19:6,17-21 – If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me, then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me…My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own family. Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me. All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me. I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. “Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

Exodus 20:12 – “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Job 10:3 – Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the plans of the wicked?

Application:

• ·         Honoring those in authority is essential for social stability.
• ·         The sickroom is not the place to argue theology; in times of severe suffering, people may say things that require a response of love and understanding.
• ·         The wicked may get themselves into trouble, as Bildad had pointed out, but Job here attributes his suffering to God.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

I Cry, Violence!

Job 19:7-16 – “Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice. He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness. He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head. He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree. His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies. His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent. “He has alienated my family from me; my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have gone away; my closest friends have forgotten me. My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner; they look on me as on a stranger. I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth.

Habakkuk 1:2 – How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?

Psalm 15:2-5 – The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others; who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord; who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind; who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken.

Application:

• ·         Habakkuk describes the social corruption and spiritual apostasy of Judah in the late seventh century BC.
• ·         “Those who fear the Lord” are those who honor God and order their lives in accordance with His will because of their reverence for Him.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Wronged

Job 19:1-6 – Then Job replied: “How long will you torment me and crush me with words? Ten times now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me. If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone. If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me, then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me.

Job 10:3 – Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the plans of the wicked?

Job 2:3 – Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”

Job 1:12 – The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Application:

• ·         Job, struggling with the enigma of his suffering, can only conclude that God is his enemy, though in fact He is his friend who delights in him. Job’s true enemy, of course, is Satan, the accuser.
• ·         Job imagines that God is angry with him, an innocent man, and that he takes delight in the wicked.
• ·         God cannot be stirred up to do things against His will.
• ·         In all the evil he effects among human beings or in nature, Satan is under God’s power.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Evil Man…Does Not Know God

Job 18:19-21 – He has no offspring or descendants among his people, no survivor where once he lived. People of the west are appalled at his fate; those of the east are seized with horror. Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man; such is the place of one who does not know God.”

Jeremiah 22:30 – This is what the Lord says: “Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.”

Isaiah 52:14-15 – Just as there were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness—so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-6 – It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before.

Hosea 4:1-2,5-6 – Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed…You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother—my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.

Application:

• ·         “As if childless” was not in the sense of Jehoiachin’s having no children at all, but of having none to sit on the throne of David in Judah.
• ·         “Appalled at Him” when they saw Christ’s suffering on the cross.
• ·         Having no intimate knowledge of God is synonymous with being wicked.
• ·         The Christian is to be different (from the pagans).
• ·         “Faithfulness” was loyalty to the covenant and right dealing with others.
• ·         Where God is not acknowledged, moral uprightness disappears.
• ·         “Destroyed from lack of knowledge” was partly because the priests had failed to teach God’s word to the people.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Snare

Job 18:9-18 – A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare holds him fast. A noose is hidden for him on the ground; a trap lies in his path. Terrors startle him on every side and dog his every step. Calamity is hungry for him; disaster is ready for him when he falls. It eats away parts of his skin; death’s firstborn devours his limbs. He is torn from the security of his tent and marched off to the king of terrors. Fire resides in his tent; burning sulfur is scattered over his dwelling. His roots dry up below and his branches wither above. The memory of him perishes from the earth; he has no name in the land. He is driven from light into the realm of darkness and is banished from the world.

Jeremiah 48:44 – “Whoever flees from the terror will fall into a pit, whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare; for I will bring on Moab the year of her punishment,” declares the Lord.

Proverbs 2:21-22 – For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

Application:

• ·         Divine judgment, once determined, is unavoidable.
• ·         God warned that if the people refuse to obey Him, they “will be uprooted from the land”.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Snuffed Out

Job 18:1-8 – Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: “When will you end these speeches? Be sensible, and then we can talk. Why are we regarded as cattle and considered stupid in your sight? You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger, is the earth to be abandoned for your sake? Or must the rocks be moved from their place? “The lamp of a wicked man is snuffed out; the flame of his fire stops burning. The light in his tent becomes dark; the lamp beside him goes out. The vigor of his step is weakened; his own schemes throw him down. His feet thrust him into a net; he wanders into its mesh.

John 8:12 – When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Job 15:35 – They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb fashions deceit.”

Job 19:5-6 – If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me, then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me.

Application:

• ·         “Darkness” is both the darkness of this world and that of Satan.
• ·         Once initiated, sinful thoughts develop quickly into evil acts.
• ·         Job, struggling with the enigma of his suffering, can only conclude that God is his enemy, though in fact He is his friend who delights in him.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

The Righteous

Job 17:7-16 – My eyes have grown dim with grief; my whole frame is but a shadow. The upright are appalled at this; the innocent are aroused against the ungodly. Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger. “But come on, all of you, try again! I will not find a wise man among you. My days have passed, my plans are shattered. Yet the desires of my heart turn night into day; in the face of the darkness light is near. If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness, if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’ where then is my hope—who can see any hope for me? Will it go down to the gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?”

Proverbs 4:18 – The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.

Isaiah 38:17 – Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.

Genesis 2:7 – Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Application:

• ·         The godly have all the guidance and protection they need and are able to lead others to righteousness.
• ·         God not only puts our sins out of sight; He also puts them out of reach, out of mind and out of existence.
• ·         People are made “in the image of God” and have an absolutely unique relation both to God as His servants and to the other creatures as God’s stewards over them.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV