Sabbath: Curse the Day
Read for This Week’s Study: Job 3:1–10, John 11:11–14, Job 6:1–3, Job 7:1–11, James 4:14, Job 7:17–21, Ps. 8:4–6.
Memory Text: “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11, NKJV).
Job Talking to God
As we read the story of Job, we have two distinct advantages: first, knowing how it ends, and second, knowing the background, the cosmic conflict operating behind the scenes.
Job knew none of this. All he knew was that he was going along in his life just fine when suddenly one calamity after another, one tragedy after another, swooped down upon him. And next, this man, “the greatest of all the people of the East” (Job 1:3, NKJV), was reduced to mourning and grieving on a pile of ashes.
As we continue to study Job, let’s try to put ourselves in Job’s position, for this will help us better understand the confusion, the anger, the sorrow that he was going through. And in one sense this shouldn’t be very hard for us, should it? Not that we have experienced what Job did, but that who among us, born of human flesh in a fallen world, doesn’t know something of the perplexity that tragedy and suffering brings, especially when we seek to serve the Lord faithfully and do what is right in His sight?
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 29.
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"....the cosmic conflict operating behind the scenes.
Job knew none of this."
So, do you think that Noah or any his offspring shared no details of Adam & Eve and how the fall occurred? Job had to learn something to be like the righteous person that he was.
Jim, I'd like to ask the question whether or not we know "details of Adam & Eve and how the fall occurred"?
If we know the details of Adam and Even and how the fall occurred, do we also know of the intervention of spiritual forces in our lives?
I believe the author's point was that Job didn't know what we know now - that God, indeed, judged Job as righteous, but nevertheless allowed Satan access to Job because He trusted Job to remain faithful. How that would have encouraged Job if he had only known!
Since God talked to Job directly and since the world hadn't yet sunk to its present sinful, spiritually darkened and delusional state (2 Thessalonians 2:11), I think it's reasonable to assume that God shared with Job the details of His plan for salvation and the Great Controvery and that we are significantly more "in the dark" than Job ever was.
At issue here is not how well Job knew God or the details of the controversy between Christ and Satan. It seems clear that Job was well acquainted with God and trusted Him implicitly.
What Job didn't know what's the exchange between God and Satan regarding his character. God said that Job was a just and righteous man, but He didn't say this to Job himself. Thus Job was left in the dark regarding this particular controversy between God and Satan. In His time of tral, Job had to cling to God by naked faith alone - the faith he had developed in his previous experience with God. To all Job's pleading, God was silent - until the very ebbs of the story.
The time may soon come to many oF us when God will appear to be silent to our pleading. May we then take courage from the story of Job.
Some reading this have already experienced the silence of God.
If you are experiencing the silence of God right now, may you be assured that God is tenderly watching over you even during His apparent silence.
People of the world, they are hasten for doing bad, because they don't know the power of God.
It's comforting to know that just like in Job's case, the Lord only allows such temptation to befall us that He knows we are able through His grace and power to overcome. It is God Himself that gives us power to overcome. Secondly, in Christ's last prayer do his disciples, who we are a part of also, was not that we be removed from this wicked world But that we may may be able to overcome all evil.
In my experience Its comforting to learn after the struggle that 1 Corinthians 10:13 said "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." (NIV)
Brother/sister Chatim, you are so right in your statement.I often wonder, why others are so quick to do wickedness, sometimes premeditated.This shows that humans try to hide the truth about God by their wicked ways.God is then portrayed as a God who do not care because bad things happen to people, just like Job. Such people have a "go at Christians"& Chritianity.Job's suffering represents us all in our sufferings.
''I believe the author's point was
that Job didn't know what we know
now''
I appreciate this (above) response. No wonder he (Job) thought he was being tempted by God based on his comment, ''though He slay me yet will i trust in Him''.
But yet this is unclear to me- Job's cursing the day he was born and the womb that concieved him. Who ordained that? Isn't that a(n) direct/indirct accusation?
Job cursing the day was not being defiant to God but it was more a sigh from the pain and discomfort he felt. He may have said God why do you allow all this to happen to me, it was better I didn't been born
Job 2:10'..In all this did not Job sin with his lips'. This means Job was not accusing God yet the depth of his agony he equaled worse than death itself, in stead of cursing God he cursed the day he was born
There are moments in one's life when cares of this life press upon the soul such that you wish death is better than life.
Job did not sin, he was lamenting from his heart burned with agony, perplexity,discouragement, name them. through all this trying moment Jobs's trust in God never wavered.
If I might offer a different perspective on the three discourses of Job. He was a friend of God like Moses and Abraham. Like them he talked with God as one would to another close friend. Like them he was able to state clearly to God how he felt and what he wished for. When God was silent Job felt acutely the lose of intimacy and the joy of discourse. His God could handle Job's comments because they were the honest thoughts of his heart.
If life was now going to be lose of this relationship then he would prefer not being born, would wish to die and wanted his Friend to explain what was happening to him. All the losses he suffered were real and very painful and yet, I propose, his greatest loss was this daily communication with His closest Friend. Like all of us there is a capacity to suffer "better or easier" if we know the why. Job wanted to know why his Friend was silent and what was he missing from God's perspective.