October 13, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Job? Here’s today’s reading:
Job 24 (NIV)
1“Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment?
Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?
2 There are those who move boundary stones;
they pasture flocks they have stolen.
3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey
and take the widow’s ox in pledge.…..Continue Reading
Job mostly talks about the wicked in this chapter but starts out with how God Almighty sees everything and they may be exalted for a little while but in the end they are brought low and are gone. Pretty much what Job is describing is men that love darkness rather than light. John 3;19b–20. [ And men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.] May we walk in the light which is Jesus. 1 John 1;5c, 7. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.]
Book of Job, has become difficult to sit down and read due to the long winded complaining and lecturing, however, once I begin reading, I find it hard to put down, not sure why, probably because I relate to Job situation, all of us go through difficult times, life is hard, it either makes us bitter or better
Amen Steve!
I think job struggles with something in this chapter that many of us struggle with from time to time when considering the wicked done by others. Injustice is something that frustrates all of us and Job’s words here describe how we want to see things properly punished immediately and before our eyes. Unfortunately many of the wicked won’t receive that punishment until after death. Hard to watch the evil prosper and see sin go unpunished and sometimes even prosper here on earth but our mindset must be an eternal one knowing anything happening in our life here on earth is just like “the foam on the surface of the water” and trust that God is in control of it all and no one is “getting away” with anything in the bigger picture.
Great cross reference Dennis! I love how clear John makes things in his letter.
Key verse for me from this chapter: “There are those who rebel against the light,
who do not know its ways or stay in its paths.”
This really hits me because I lived a lot of my life rebelling against the light on the inside, but on the outside, you would have thought I was walking with Christ. Ultimately, as Job has already contemplated, and does again in this chapter, no one can hide from God. However, we can often deceive ourselves. This is evil of sin in our lives…it corrupts, it lies, it steals. It will keep us from fellowship with our Father, our Savior, and His Spirit who dwells within us. Because of our new life given by the Spirit through the work of the Son and the grace of the Father, we must attack sin and put it to death! There is no place for hidden secret sins in our lives…the will steal our joy, robs us of peace, and prevent us from being lights in a world that desperately needs the light of Christ!
I also really like Dennis’s cross reference to 1 John here though, because we know we cannot be perfectly sinless. In fact John says if anyone says they are without sin, the “truth is not in him.” So the church then, is to be a body of Christ that is constantly in examination and confession of our sin, so that we might be “cleansed from all unrighteousness.” A.W. Tozer has a good thought on this:
“This is not to preach sinless perfection. This is to say that every known sin is to be named, identified, and repudiated, and that we must trust God for deliverance from it, so that there is no conscious, deliberate sin anywhere in our lives.”
That is a high calling…but it is a calling that God has made for us. But in that calling, He has equipped us. He does not demand something for which He does not equip us. Through our anointing by His Spirit, we are convicted of sin in our lives, and through prayer and reflection, we are able to discern any sinful way in us. Then, either directly to our Father in heaven, or through our community, our body, we are able to confess our “sins to one another, so that we might be healed.” And we know that Jesus is our advocate before the throne of grace, and that in his perfect atonement, we are made clean. God, in His perfect grace, has provided us with all we need!!
Job 24; 1 Samuel 2-7
Job 24
Job 22
Job reflects on the evil and mistreatment that occur often in the world and wonders what God is doing about that…ultimately saying that God could time (and maybe reveal) His judgment better. It is sad how consistently throughout history the powerful and rich have taken advantage of the weak and poor. How evil to take advantage of someone else’s vulnerability. But for the influence of God, Jesus, His word and the Spirit how much more evil there would be in the world. God would have us avoid perpetuating such injustice ourselves as well as correct and address it to the extent that we can. God certainly does work His ways on the earth as Job indicates at the end of the chapter, but how and when He does it is in His hands. We are called to be still and know that He is God.
It is a good point that the wicked prosper, so it doesn’t follow Job’s friends’ logic that he is suffering because of his sin.
But God drags away the mighty by his power;
though they become established, they have no assurance of life.
He may let them rest in a feeling of security,
but his eyes are on their ways.
For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone;
they are brought low and gathered up like all others;
they are cut off like heads of grain.
We can rest assured that this will happen in God’s perfect timing. Romans 12:19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.