Wicked

Job 9:22-24 – It is all the same; that is why I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’ When a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent. When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, he blindfolds its judges. If it is not he, then who is it?

Ecclesiastes 9:2 – All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good, so with the sinful; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them.

Job 38:2 – “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?

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 27:2-4 – “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life bitter, as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies.

Ecclesiastes 8:11 – When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong.

Jeremiah 12:1 – You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

Application:

• ·         The God of the Bible is not morally indifferent.
• ·         God states that Job’s complaining and raging against Him are unjustified and proceed from limited understanding.
• ·         Job imagines that God is angry with him, an innocent man, and that he takes delight in the wicked.
• ·         Job’s faith in God continued despite his personal perception of denied justice.
• ·         Delayed punishment tends to induce more wrongdoing.
• ·         Because God is righteous, He is a dependable arbiter and judge.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

I Despise My Own Life

Job 9:18-21,33-34 – He would not let me catch my breath but would overwhelm me with misery. If it is a matter of strength, he is mighty! And if it is a matter of justice, who can challenge him? Even if I were innocent, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would pronounce me guilty. “Although I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life…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 10:1 – “I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.

Job 42:6 – Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

Application:

• ·         Because Job is so bitter, his mind has conjured up a false picture of God.
• ·         God is so immense that Job feels he needs someone who can help him, someone who can argue his case in court.
• ·         To his humility Job adds repentance for the presumptuous words he had spoken to God.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Storm

Job 9:16-17 – Even if I summoned him and he responded, I do not believe he would give me a hearing. He would crush me with a storm and multiply my wounds for no reason.

Jonah 1:4 – Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.

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.”

Application:

• ·         Job does not know that God has allowed Satan to crush him for a high purpose.
• ·         God’s sovereign working in Jonah’s mission is evident at several other points also: the fish, the release of Jonah, the leafy plant, the worm and the “scorching east wind”.
• ·         Though it is not always clear how, everything that happens is part of His divine purpose.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Judge

Job 9:7-15 – He speaks to the sun and it does not shine; he seals off the light of the stars. He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. When he passes me, I cannot see him; when he goes by, I cannot perceive him. If he snatches away, who can stop him? Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ God does not restrain his anger; even the cohorts of Rahab cowered at his feet. “How then can I dispute with him? How can I find words to argue with him? Though I were innocent, I could not answer him; I could only plead with my Judge for mercy.

Mark 6:48 – He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Isaiah 6:5 – “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Genesis 18:25 – Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Psalm 96:13 – Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Application:

• ·         “Walking on the lake” was a special display of the majestic presence and power of the transcendent Lord, who rules over the sea.
• ·         Isaiah was dismayed because anyone who saw God expected to die immediately.
• ·         Abraham based his plea on the justice and authority of God, confident that God would do what was right.
• ·         Because God reigns over all things and is the Lord of history, Israel lived in hope of the coming of God—His future acts by which He would decisively deal with all wickedness and establish His righteousness in the earth.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Tremble

Job 9:3-6 – Though they wished to dispute with him, they could not answer him one time out of a thousand. His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed? He moves mountains without their knowing it and overturns them in his anger. He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble.

Psalm 51:6 – Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Isaiah 63:1 – Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson? Who is this, robed in splendor, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? “It is I, proclaiming victory, mighty to save.”

Job 26:14 – And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”

Psalm 75:3 – When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm.

Application:

• ·         Job argues his innocence, but he feels that because God is so great there is no use in contending with Him. Job’s innocence does him no good.
• ·         Those who give themselves over to sin are fools; those who have God’s law in their hearts are wise.
• ·         If it is difficult for us to comprehend the little that we know about God, how much more impossible it would be to understand the full extent of His might!
• ·         When, because of the upsurge of evil powers, the whole moral order of the world seems to have crumbled, God still guarantees its stability.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Prove Their Innocence

Job 9:1-2,17,33-34 – Then Job replied: “Indeed, I know that this is true. But how can mere mortals prove their innocence before God?...He would crush me with a storm and multiply my wounds for no reason…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 1:1 – In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

Job 10:1,3 – “I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul…Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the plans of the wicked?

Application:

• ·         “Blameless and upright” means spiritually and morally upright.
• ·         Job does not know that God has allowed Satan to crush him for a high purpose.
• ·         God is so immense that Job feels he needs someone who can help him, someone who can argue his case in court.
• ·         Because Job is so bitter, his mind has conjured up a false picture of God.
• ·         Job himself will eventually repent, and God will forgive.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

No More

Job 8:14-22 – What they trust in is fragile; what they rely on is a spider’s web. They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold. They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden; it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones. But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’ Surely its life withers away, and from the soil other plants grow. “Surely God does not reject one who is blameless or strengthen the hands of evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”

Job 1:1 – In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

Genesis 18:25 – Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

1 Samuel 8:3 – But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

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

Application:

• ·         “Blameless and upright” means spiritually and morally upright.
• ·         Abraham based his plea on the justice and authority of God, confident that God would do what was right.
• ·         Perversion of justice through bribery was explicitly forbidden in Pentateuchal law.
• ·         Having no intimate knowledge of God is synonymous with being wicked.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV