Tomorrow's reading: Job8-10/Matt9:1-17
Job for me was a hard book to read 1st time thru – almost all 42! Chapters are repetitious and somewhat pound on the same points from Job and/or friends over and over – but some ‘inward teachings’, perhaps, is patience to maintain focuses on the details… and more importantly the point that God is revealing in this book. There are so many 'meanings', that may take a few reads to catch them all:
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Continuation of Eliphaz/Job’s one-on-one:
Try to keep in perspective when reading that Eliphaz continues to drive home the fact that Job's suffering must be a result of his sinful actions and takes stabs at him direclty and indirectly –v2, for example ‘Resentment kills a fool and envy slays the simple’ and v5; ‘.. man born to trouble’ (we’re all sinners, right?)
My notes outline vv8-16 as a hymn – now I don’t know if this is a hymn Eliphaz is quoting or his language is ‘hymnal’ in nature?
Vv17-26, to me, Eliphaz gets it right (or his predictions are actually right for Job later on) and seems to be speaking words of encouragement - NIV notes do say that Eliphaz believes in his heart that discipline is temporary, followed by healing. Not sure I disagree with that. Thoughts? NIV notes continue to point out that with Job’s wealth, etc. gone, this seems cruel. Gotta tell you, not sure why just yet.
Job6
Job now speaks – ‘woe is me’ – gives you insight to Jobs mental condition; v11 ‘… should I still have hope’ with his condition being so bad (… just nasty, if you think about it – cat on the ground, scraping his soars (boils)/scabs that cover his entire body, disfigurement/revolting appearance, excessive thinness, fever, nightmares, sleeplessness – yikes). V14-15 with my first read, I’m not sure I picked up on this point; Job is saying he needs spiritual help, and his friends just aren’t providing that. Hmmm.. why not? Eliphaz continues to speak of Gods grace (5:18 “.. He wounds but He binds up”, 5:20 “… in famine he will ransom you from death..”, etc.. ). At this point, it’s not clear to me why Eliphaz is such a bad dude. Seems he’s trying to witness and be a typical ‘orthodox Jew’.. maybe that’s the problem, Job has a heightened vision of God’s purpose – dunno.
Job7
V7 – ‘… life is but a breath’; Job is feels there is no hope and in v11, ‘.. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul’. Ahah, Job is a little hacked off.
Just a little inspiration:
--> … have you ever felt the world is crashing down on you and all of the world’s four-corner forces are focused on you? Did you loose hope, loose grasp of who was in control and the ‘why me’ syndrome? I have/did/do/am... At some point, you gotta ‘lay it down’ brother. Give it up and praise God that you know He is in control and the time/sufferings are for a higher cause. In my prayers during ‘these time’ (yeah.. I’m going thru this right now - just to lay a little 'personal' on my brotha's and sista's), just have to acknowledge Him, accept it, and try to recognize His intentions/callings/glory. It’s tough, but the whole point of Job, I think, is to relate his (Job's) seemingly unjust circumstances to our own lives and ‘keep the faith', right?
Matt 8:18-34
V19 “… teacher of the law” – these were the ‘scholars of the day’; they were professionally trained in all aspects of the old testament. Said he’d drop everything and head follow Jesus. This to me seems a little ‘unorthodox’ – typically we find these folks have a motive for their actions – here, I’m not seeing that. Did this guy get it? Jesus’ replay of ‘.. but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head’ – I’m not sure if exact meaning here – thoughts? I know Jesus was much a 'man without a home'. God could have come to earth (Jesus is God on Earth, by the way.. but you knew that) and been a 'lower case' king, but instead, was quite the humble man (understatement of the day).
The "no place to lay his head" comment I believe to speak to the fact that this guy had it pretty good - he didn't realize all he would be giving up - kind of like the guy who promised to sacrifice the first person who came out the door and it was his daughter - Jesus knew this guy hadn't really thought through what he was committing to.
I would love to have been a fly on the wall when the people keeping the pigs saw them all run into the ravine - no wonder they asked him to leave. They of course didn't understand His teachings, and now they had lost their charges - in their perspective I'm sure it was very upsetting.
When I was reading the Matthew passage, verse 34 really stuck out to me. I thought that it sounded as if the people were scared of Jesus because they were scared of the Truth.
What is so ironic about this, is that it still continues today. Even for Christians. How many of us watch a television program that we should not, or spend crazy amounts of money on things that are wants and not needs. Then we complain when we have to "make our payment" to the church. I am certainly not implicating any one person, but we all have pigs in our lives that we don't want to get rid of. It's easier to keep the pig than to have to face the truth.
An old movie line says it best, "You can't handle the truth." or maybe we don't want to handle the Truth. With the Truth comes great responsibility.
The commentary I use said, "This is certainly ironical, is it not? These people would rather have thier pigs than Jesus. Believe me, friends, this is not peculiar to the Gadarenes. There are a great many people today who prefer pigs to the Lord Jesus Christ." - J. Vernon McGee
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