JOB - UNDERSTANDING THE BOOK #5

 UNDERSTANDING  THE  BOOK  OF  JOB  #5

40

Then the Lord said to Job, 

2"Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God's critic, but do you have the answers?"

Job Responds to the Lord 

3Then Job replied to the Lord, 

4"I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will put my hand over my mouth in silence. 5 I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say."

The Lord Challenges Job Again

6 Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:

7 "Brace yourself, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. 8Are you going to discredit my justice and condemn me so you can say you are right? 9Are you as strong as God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? 10A11 right then, put on your robes of state, your majesty and splendor.11 Give vent to your anger. Let it overflow against the proud. 12 Humiliate the proud with a glance; walk on the wicked where they stand. 13Bury them in the dust. Imprison them in the world of the dead. 14Then even I would praise you, for your own strength would save you.

The great BEHEMOTH

15"Take a look at the mighty hippopotamus. *[Hebrew - behemoth] I made it, just as I made you. It eats grass like an ox. 16See its powerful loins and the muscles of its belly. 17 Its tail is as straight as a cedar. The sinews of its thighs are tightly knit together. 18 Its bones are tubes of bronze. Its limbs are bars of iron. 19 It is a prime example of God's amazing handiwork. Only its Creator can threaten it. 20The mountains offer it their best food, where all the wild animals play. 21 It lies down under the lotus plants, hidden by the reeds. 22The lotus plants give it shade among the willows beside the stream. 23 It is not disturbed by raging rivers, not even when the swelling Jordan rushes down upon it. 24No one can catch it off guard or put a ring in its nose and lead it away.

The Lord's Challenge Continues 

41

The great LEVIATHAN

"Can you catch a crocodile * [Hebrew - Leviathan]with a hook or put a noose around its jaw? 2Can you tie it with a rope through the nose or pierce its jaw with a spike? 3Will it beg you for mercy or implore you for pity? 4Will it agree to work for you? Can you make it be your slave for life? 5Can you make it a pet like a bird, or give it to your little girls to play with? 6Will merchants try to buy it? Will they sell it in their shops? 7Will its hide be hurt by darts, or its head by a harpoon? 8If you lay a hand on it, you will never forget the battle that follows, and you will never try it again!

9"No, it is useless to try to capture it. The hunter who attempts it will be thrown down. 10And since no one dares to disturb the it, who would dare to stand up to me?11Who will confront me and remain safe? Everything under heaven is mine.

(11)Hebrew reads …confront me that I must pay.

12"I want to emphasize the tremendous strength in the Leviathan limbs and throughout its enormous frame. 13Who can strip off its hide, and who can penetrate its double layer of armor? 14Who could pry open its jaws? For its teeth are terrible! 15The overlapping scales on its back make a shield. 16They are close together so no air can get between them. 17They lock together so nothing can penetrate them. 18 When it sneezes, it flashes light! Its eyes are like the red of dawn. 19Fire and sparks leap from its mouth. 20smoke streams from its nostrils like steam from a boiling pot on a fire of dry rushes. 21Yes, its breath would kindle coals, for flames shoot from its mouth.

22"The tremendous strength in its neck strikes terror wherever it goes. 23 Its flesh is hard and firm, not soft and fat. 24 Its heart is as hard as rock, as hard as a millstone. 25When it rises, the mighty are afraid, gripped by terror. 26No sword can stop it, nor spear nor dart nor pointed shaft. 27To the Leviathan, iron is nothing but straw, and bronze is rotten wood. 28Arrows cannot make it flee. Stones shot from a sling are as ineffective as straw. 29Clubs do no good, and it laughs at the swish of the javelins. 30 Its belly is covered with scales as sharp as glass. They tear up the ground as it drags through the mud.

31"The Leviathan makes the water boil with its commotion. It churns the depths. 32The water glistens in its wake. One would think the sea had turned white. 33There is nothing else so fearless anywhere on earth. 34Of all the creatures, it is the proudest. It is the king of beasts."

[THIS  IS  TRULY  WHERE  WE  GOT  THE  LEGENDS  OF  THE  FIERY DRAGON  -  NOTHING  ON  EARTH  IS  ANYWHERE  CLOSE  TO  THIS  CREATURE  -  THEY  HAVE  NOW  DISAPPEARED  FROM  OFF  THE  EARTH  -  A  DINOSAUR  TYPE  ANIMAL  CREATED  IN  THE  AGE  OF  MAN  -  Keith Hunt]

Job Responds to the Lord 

42

Then Job replied to the LORD:

2 “I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. 3You ask, 'Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?' It is I. And I was talking about things I did not understand, things far too wonderful for me. 4You said, 'Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.'

5 I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. 6 I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance."

[JOB  FINALLY  REALIZED  HE  HAD  BEEN  ARROGANT,  PROUD,  SELF-RIGHTEOUS  TO  THE  HIGHEST  DEGREE;  YES  HE  WAS  INNOCENT  OF  SINS  PER  SE;  YES  HE  IS  CLASSIFIED  BY  THE  LORD  AS  ONE  OF  THE  3  MOST  RIGHTEOUS  MEN  WHO  EVER  LIVED  -  NOAH  -  DANIEL  -  JOB.  SO  IN-TUNE  WITH  GOD’S  COMMANDMENTS  HE  COULD  NOT  SEE  HIS  BIG-HEADED  SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS  WAS  JUST  FILTHY  RAGS  NEXT  TO  THE  ETERNAL  GOD.  HE  KNEW  GOD  IN  A  CERTAIN  WAY  BUT  HAD  NEVER  REALLY  PUT  HIMSELF  NEXT  TO  THE  MOST  HOLY  ONE.  AFTER  THE  LORD  GOT  THROUGH  WITH  HIM,  JOB  REALIZED  HE  WAS  AS  NOTHING  IN  COMPARISON  -  HE  REPENTED  IN  DUST  AND  ASHES] 

Conclusion: 

The Lord Blesses Job 

After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: "I am angry with you and with your two friends, for you have not been right in what you said about me, as my servant Job was. 8Now take seven young bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf. I will not treat you as you deserve, for you have not been right in what you said about me, as my servant Job was."

[THERE  WAS  NO  CAUSE  THAT  GOD  HAD  TO  INFLICT  SUCH  PAIN  AND  DESTRUCTION  ON  JOB;  HE  WAS  NOT  BEING  PUNISHED  FOR  CERTAIN  SINS;  IT  WAS  ALLOWED  BY  GOD  THAT  SATAN  DO  SUCH  THINGS  ON  JOB,  IT  WAS  A  TEST;  AND  IN  SO  DOING  GOD  WAS  ABLE  TO  TURN  IT  AROUND  TO  DEEPLY  CLEANSE  AND  PURIFY  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  JOB  IN  HEART  AND  MIND  -  Keith Hunt]

9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did as the Lord commanded them, and the Lord accepted Job's prayer.

10When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before! 11Then all his brothers, sisters, and former friends came and feasted with him in his home. And they consoled him and comforted him because of all the trials the Lord had brought against him. And each of them brought him a gift of money* and a gold ring.

12So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning. For now he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand teams of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. 13He also gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters. 

14He named his first daughter Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 15In all the land there were no other women as lovely as the daughters of Job. And their father put them into his will along with their brothers.

[I  THINK  “LOVELY”  HERE  WAS  MORE  THAN  JUST  PHYSICAL  BEAUTY;  IT  WAS  LOVELY  IN  HEART  AND  MIND  -  Keith Hunt]

16 Job lived 140 years after that, living to see four generations of his children and grandchildren. 17Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, good life.

……….

42:11 Hebrew a kesitah; the value or weight of the kesitah is no longer known.

THE  TOTAL  NUMBER  OF  YEARS  THAT  JOB  LIVED  WE  ARE  NOT  TOLD,  BUT  INDEED  IT  WAS  A  LONG  GOOD  LIFE.

WE  SHOULD  REMEMBER  GOD  DOES  NOT  WORK  THIS  KIND  OF  WORK  BUT  ONLY  NOW  AND  AGAIN.  JOB  WAS  AN  EXCEPTION  AND  WAS  THE  APOSTLE  PAUL,  WHOM  THE  LORD  SAID  HE  WOULD  HAVE  TO  ENDURE  MANY  HARDSHIPS  FOR  THE  GOSPEL.

YES  IT  IS  TRUE,  SOME  DOWN  THROUGH  THE  CENTURIES  HAVE  HAD  TO  GIVE  UP  THEIR  LIVES  IN  DEATH  FOR  THE  WORK  OF  THE  LORD.  BUT  VERY  VERY  FEW  WERE  EVER  ALLOWED  TO  BE  TESTED  THE  WAY  JOB  WAS.

BUT  LET  THE  LIFE  OF  JOB  BE  AN  INSPIRATION  TO  YOU,  AND  REMEMBER  IT  IS  WRITTEN  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT,  GOD  WILL  NOT  LET  YOU  BE  TESTED  ABOVE  WHAT  YOU  ARE  ABLE  TO  BEAR.

Keith Hunt