Daniel 2:1-23 - Dealing with unreasonable bosses

People considered it normal to receive instruction through dreams, and there are several instances of this happening in the Bible, and of God's people interpreting the dreams of pagan rulers. Pharaoh is another example. God also spoke to his people in dreams and visions. At the same time this was not a daily occurrence. So God may speak to us in a dream, but the vast majority of dreams are just dreams.
The fact that this dream was different from the run of the mill dreams was that Nebuchadnezzar called together all his astrologers and magicians and others to try and work out the meaning.
There are times when people or organisation we work for will act in a totally irrational manner. Nebuchadnezzar was about to do that. He insisted that his magicians interpret the dream without him telling them what the dream was. Having made this totally unreasonable request, he then threatens them with terrible consequences if they don't manage to fulfil the request.
Not surprisingly his magicians are not impressed with this request and plead with him to act more sensibly. The king then flew into a rage and ordered the execution of all the wise men in the kingdom.
Note that he has a deep mistrust of the wise men. Paranoia is a common trait among powerful men. Hitler and Stalin are prime examples. More normal leaders (presidents and prime ministers) suffer from it if they have been in power for a time. In fact the longer someone has been in power the more they seem to be prone to this.
The decree would have included Daniel and his friends. Daniel acted with wisdom and tact. "Keep Calm and Carry On"! Daniel went to see the king and said he would interpret the dream under the king's conditions. If we act with calmness and trust in the Lord we can overcome all sorts of situations.
Daniel asked his friends to plead with God for mercy. Daniel knew who was the course of all things, and sure enough the mystery was revealed to Daniel. Daniel then praises the Lord.
So we see that even when the world around us is acting in the more irrational and unreasonable manner, we should still look to the Lord.

Daniel 1:17-21 - Promoted in the world

God gave them the ability to know and understand all kinds of literature and learning. Now remember that this was in Babylon, so some of this would be decidedly ungodly, probably including astrology. Yet God enabled them to understand it. God can give us understanding in the world. He also gave Daniel the ability to understand dreams and visions. Note that not all of them received this gift, just Daniel. Our gifts and abilities come from the Lord.

After the training time was over they were all presented to Nebuchadnezzar and he was mightily impressed with them, they were the best. God can exalt us in the world if it fits His purpose.

So the four of them entered the king's service and outshone all the overs. God demonstrates His glory to the world through us.

Daniel 1:8-16 - Handling Conflict

The reason that Daniel was concerned about defiling himself with the food is that it is very possible that it had been offered to idols. It is for similar reasons that whether or not one should eat food that was offered to idols was an issue in the New Testament. 

Now the way Daniel handles this, and the way future disputes were handled, is a lesson for us today. First of all what did Daniel not do? He did not act in a rebellious way. We may sometimes feel very self-righteous about something and convince ourselves that we are rebelling for the Lord. This will usually not be the case. When we rebel we are acting out of the flesh, and out of the flesh will inevitably come the product of our sinful nature. Yet he did not compromise either. So what are the key points:

1. Daniel did not act out of a spirit of rebellion
2. He sought to maintain godly standards and did not compromise.
3. The Lord had caused the official to show Daniel favour
4. Daniel acted in a reasonable manner.

The third point is very important. God does all sorts of things "behind the scenes" without telling us. He takes care of more things than we imagine. So we act rebelliously when we don't need to, we worry when we don't need to.

So Daniel said they would eat vegetables for ten days and the official could see what they looked like. At the end of the period they looked better and healthier than all the others. So Daniel and his friends maintained a clear conscience, and were able to serve the Lord in Babylon.

Daniel 1:1-7 - Off to Babylon

Daniel starts in 605 BC. We read in Jeremiah how God had used Babylon as an instrument of judgement. Jehoiakim was carried off to Babylon, along with many others of the people and articles from temple. See how the book states clearly that it was God who sent Judah into exile. The Bible is God's book, not Israel's book. There were three deportations, 605 BC, which included Daniel; 597 BC and the final one in 586 BC after the destruction of the city and temple.

Babylon was quite a sophisticated society, and Nebuchadnezzar has Ashpenaz choose some of the brighter and good looking men to be trained so they could serve in the palace. They were to be given good food and good training, lasting three years. Then they would be ready to serve.

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were among those chosen.  Daniel means "God is my judge", Hananiah means "the Lord shows grace", Mishael means "who is what God is?", and Azariah means "the Lord helps". The four were given new names, and these were names associated with the idols of Babylon. 

So we see the four being assimilated into Babylonian society. Next we will see how they responded and the battles they went through. And we will see how God worked in and through their lives.

Thanks to my NIV study Bible for the historical information contained in this post.

Daniel - Introduction

Four books to go. Coincidentally I seem to have saved most of the apocalyptic books till last. I always knew I was going to do Revelation last, but Zechariah, 2 Thessalonians and Daniel have all come near the end of my plan as well. By the way, I already have plans for what comes next after completing this particular project, which started six years ago.

Daniel is a great book, but of course you can say that about all the other sixty five books as well. Daniel is also a mixture of two distinct types. The first part is largely narrative, giving the story of Daniel and his friends in Babylon. Then the latter part is apocalyptic prophecy. As an aside, there are those who when arguing about how to interpret the first few chapters of Genesis say that since most of Genesis is clearly historical narrative, then the first three chapters must also be straightforward historical narrative. This argument is not valid, books in the Bible can have two types of literature in them.

Anyway, this mixing of the narrative and apocalyptic together is quite deliberate on God's part. There is a great danger (particularly among charismatics and,dare I say it, Americans) to treat apocalyptic passages as entertainment, treating it as though it was a film script (and of course films have been made!). We probably won't admit to this, but there is a tendency to do this nevertheless. The early part of Daniel is a clear reminder of what is required of us, of the devotion to God, the wisdom required, how to submit to authorities in godless nations (something we very much need today) which are opposed to the Lord, the willingness to pay a price, and how God's power works in these situations.

Many scholars argue that Daniel must have been written in about the second century BC, they say this because the prophecies have at least a partial fulfilment in events significantly after the Babylonian kingdom. 

However, I take the book as historically reliable and that Daniel received the visions in the time of the Babylonians. God is quite capable of making long term prophecies since He knows the end from beginning, and He is quite capable of making revelation to man.

Linguistic evidence supports an early date for Daniel.

Sermon on Zechariah 1-4

A sermon on Zechariah Chapters 1-4, describing God's plan of restoration in our lives.

Job 40:6-42 - More humbling, then resotration

We now get God's second speech, with the same introduction as before. This time God answers Job's complaints about justice.

First He asks Job if he can cover himself with glory and splendour and if he is able to humble the proud. We are very limited in our ability to execute judgement.

Then God draws attention to Behemoth. Even the greatest creatures are under God's control, but we cannot control them. So what is the point of all this? It is simply that only God can execute judgement, and He knows exactly what He is doing. We are limited in knowledge, limited in understanding, limited in power. God is not. 

In all this God never gives Job an explanation of why all this happened. Instead, Job humbled himself before the Lord. For us, when we go through trials, we will question God, but the solution will come when we humble ourselves before Him.

Job responds by doing this. Now he has a much deeper knowledge of God (42:5).

Then God turns to the friends and rebukes them, and honours Job. This is so important. God honoured Job at the outset, He honoured him at the end. He did humble Job, but God always loved him. We can feel that God is against us, that He has forgotten us, but He has not.

Then at the end we see grace. Job prays for the forgiveness of his friends, and God will answer that prayer. Forgiveness is a powerful thing. 

Then God blessed Job, and see how the emphasis is put on the daughters. Realise how counter-cultural this was. Ignorant people sometimes say the Bible is misogynist. This is simply not true.

Job 38-40:5 - God's first speech.

Job has been demanding to be able to present his case to God, now he gets his chance, but things are not quite as he envisaged.

Job had been demanding that God answers him, but it is Job who will have to answer God's questions. There are two very important points here. Job had been totally honest with God. He had not cloaked his feelings in religious language, but had laid bare his soul. So the first point is that we should not pretend with God. The second point is that it is us, not God, who needs to repent. In the midst of trouble we forget the awesomeness of God (in fact we never really appreciate it fully), our vision becomes clouded. Whatever we are feeling right now, God is not wrong.

God asks Job where he was at the creation of the world and what part he played in it. Of course, the answer is none. We are created beings, and we do need to remember that. 

We did not bring anything into being. And now that things are here we have pitifully little control over most things. The converse of all this is that God did bring everything into being, and He does have control over all things.

David often meditated on the wonder of creation and its creator in the Psalms. We do well to do likewise.

Job realises his smallness and takes the wise course of saying nothing (40:2).

Job 36,37 - Elihu(4)

We now come to the final of Elihu's speeches.

Elihu is full of confidence in what he speaks. 

Verse 5-12 is straightforward simple prosperity teaching. God looks after the righteous, if we obey Him we will prosper, if we aren't then it must be because we have sinned. Now we need to think about this carefully. At one level this is absolutely right and Biblical. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 state this clearly, but all this overlooks one simple fact. We have all sinned and we live in a sinful world. The Law can never be a way of life for it is a curse that stands against us (Col 2:14). If we are going to judge things purely by the Law then I am destined for hell and so are you. So was Job and so was Elihu. 

We live in a sinful world, but also in one where God has intervened through the Lord Jesus Christ to bring salvation through faith and through grace into the world. We live in a time when that grace is working on our lives to clean up the mess within us. And neither Elihu nor Job's friends give an inkling of realising that this is the case.

The rest of chapter 36 and the start of 37 is good stuff about the greatness of God, but without the realisation of how grace works it just adds further to the torment.

Elihu closes by calling on Job to remember how much greater than he the Lord is. This is essentially what God says to Job in the final chapters. 

Job 35 - Elihu (3)

This is the third of Elihu's speeches and is addressed directly to Job.

To Job it seemed that there was no advantage in obeying God and that God is not treating him properly.

Elihu starts by getting Job to consider life, the universe and everything. Now he is right in saying we need to be less self-centred and to consider the enormity of life. So often our thinking is so shallow and so self-centred. However, he is wrong in saying that our obedience or sin does not affect God. 

Verse 9-12 is true of so many atheists. We humans are fundamentally different from the rest of creation. That uniqueness is that we were created in the image of God, and we are the ones with whom He communicates directly and intimately, if only we will listen.

Then Elihu seems to be implying that Job cannot expect God to answer.

With Elihu, as with Job's friends, there is a mixture of true insight and a complete lack of understanding of God, and of what Job is going through. When we are in the midst of trials and God seems nowhere to be found, we should push our roots deeper and deeper into Christ, we should hold onto Him ever more tightly, we should open our hearts to Him, we should study His word all the more intently. This may be painful, at times it may seem pointless, as it did to Job, but in the end we will find greater treasure than we ever imagined, again as Job did.

Job 34 - Elihu (2)

Elihu now gives his second speech. This time he seems to start by addressing Job's friends and considering how they should respond to what Job has said.

Elihu seems to share exactly the same opinion of Job as did his friends. "He keeps the company of evildoers ...". This is manifestly untrue. In physical terms he did not keep the company of the wicked. It seems that Elihu means that when Job questions God he is acting like the wicked.

Elihu then states, as indeed have the friends and Job himself, that God will not do evil. He is still failing to get to the heart of the matter.

Job 32,33 - Elihu (1)

We now get Elihu adding his tuppence worth. There is little indication of who Elihu was, and neither is there any mention of him in the subsequent meeting of Job with God.

Elihu makes four speeches, each one preceded by a short introduction.

The three friends have given up "because Job was righteous in his own eyes". Now Job was to a large extent right. At the beginning we know that God spoke well of Job. We also know from the end that Job had much to learn. We need to appreciate this distinction. Anyway, Job's friends were getting nowhere an so gave up.

Elihu is angry with Job because Job was seeking to justify himself, rather than proving that God is right. Now when we are under pressure our initial reaction is often to seek to justify ourselves because we feel attacked and accused. Job's friends only added to this inclination. Elihu thinks that Job should have been seeking to prove God right. We are given no indication in the book of whether or not Elihu was right in what he said.

Elihu had been patient, having respect for his elders, but when they were getting nowhere he felt bound to intervene.

It is the "breath of the Almighty" that gives us understanding. We are only wise to the extent to which we honour God. 

None of the friends had managed to prove Job wrong. Elihu claims to be taking a different approach. Elihu has the zeal of youth. I imagine most of us who are no longer young look back with a little embarrassment at some of the things we said when we were young. As we get older we tend to have a more balanced view and a more forgiving attitude. However, this most definitely does not mean that there are not times when the raw enthusiasm of youth can cut through the fog.

Elihu claims to be speaking with spiritual wisdom, and urges Job to listen to him.

The essence of Elihu's first message seems to be that God uses all sorts of ways to speak to a man, and instead of insisting on proving his righteousness, Job should be focusing on what God is trying to tell teach him. This is indeed the lesson that Job did eventually learn.

Job 29-31 - Job's defence

Job now presents his final defence, indeed this is somewhat like a court of law. 

Not so long ago everything had seemed fine. God was obviously watching over Job and he and his family were prospering. Things were going well. When trouble hits it is natural to think back to the times before  trouble arrived.

Moreover, Job was highly respected, and deservedly so. He acted righteously and cared for the needy.

He thought this state of affairs would last forever, and people listened to him as someone who spoke wisely.

But now everything has changed. Instead of being respected he is mocked, even by people whom he was considered to be wasters.

Form being a man of honour he has become a byword, and God seems intent only on throwing him into the mud. He calls out to God but gets no answer. All this is made worse for in the past Job had cried out for those in need. Now he was in need himself there seemed to be no answer.

He had vowed to act righteously, not even looking at girls lustfully (Matt 5:28).

If he had lived unrighteously Job could understand what was happening. If he had fallen into sin he could have made sense of his plight. But none of this had happened.

Although he was wealthy he had not put his trust in wealth. He had not gloated over his enemies misfortune. 

Job could find no help and no explanation for what was happening.

Job 28 - True Wisdom

Men put tremendous effort into finding precious and useful metals. We go into darkest places to find them, then all sorts of processes are applied to get the metals out in pure form. And these are things that no animal or bird does. A fundamental truth is that we are different from the animals, we are more than a supercharged chimpanzee. And the evidence all around us shows this to be true.

Yet wisdom is not valued as it should be. Moreover, money definitely cannot buy wisdom. 

Wisdom comes from God alone, the fear of the Lord is wisdom. This is reminiscent of what we read in Proverbs.

See that even though Job is in utter turmoil and torment, he still knows that God is God. There is such a difference between someone having no regard for God, and someone else who does love God but just cannot understand what is going on or what God is doing. It is only in the Lord that we will find wisdom.

Job 26,27 - Knowing our ignorance

Job is being very sarcastic in his words to his friends. 

Then Job embarks on a declaration of the greatness of God and His creative power. 

Even so, Job feels as though God has treated him badly and denied him justice. Even so he seeks to maintain his integrity. 

Job knows that God is God, and that his friends have failed to grasp what is going on. Job doesn't know either, but at least he knows he doesn't know. His friends think they understand!

A key to wisdom is knowing the limits of our knowledge and understanding.

Job 24,25 - Judgement and timing

God's timing is rarely our timing, He either seems to be way too slow, and sometimes far too quick. Job knows that God will judge the wicked, but wonders why He doesn't just get on and do it. 

The wicked cause all sorts of problems for people, inducing terrible suffering. I am writing this (10 Aug 14) at the time that ISIS are causing untold misery and inflicting horrendous violence on people in Iraq. The words of the first twelve verses here are all too true, indeed an understatement.

When people abandon God violence, sexual immorality and theft abound. 

Job knows that judgement will come from God. The problem is not that justice will never be done, the problem is the timing of it all.

Bildad comes back with a short reposte, but it really adds little to the debate. There is no way man can stand before God on his own merits.

Job 23 - Fear and boldness

This time Job doesn't even bother to respond directly to his friends, instead he seeks God directly. He is getting closer to where God wants him to be, though there is still a long way to go.

Job wants to meet with God. Then he believes that he will be shown to be innocent, that God will put things right.

Yet wherever he looks he cannot find God. At the same time Job knows that God can see him. Whatever we are going through just now, however far away God seems, we can be sure that God is fully aware of what is happening to us. Job is also confident that after testing he will be pure gold.

Job has a confidence in his own righteousness and feels that God is against him. So what are we to learn from this? Through our faith in Christ we are indeed righteous before God. We need to be confident in this. There is both a fear of God and a boldness in Job.

One final thought. If you were making up a book about God you would not create the book of Job. This book can only have had its origins in the mind of God Himself.

Job 22 - Paining pictures - bad ones

Eliphaz re-enters the fray. Again the theology is good as far as it goes. God is completely independent of man. Verse 3 is, however, wrong. The Lord does derive pleasure from a man being righteous. The whole problem in the Bible is that man is not righteous (Psalm 14:3; Rom 3:10). God has sent Jesus so that we can be righteous, and when He has completed His work in us He will be pleased. Moreover, we see examples of God being pleased with men and women when they show faith in Him. In fact, right at the beginning of Job we see that God is pleased with Job. We need to be God focused, but we also need to realise how man-focused God is.

Eliphaz then launches into a diatribe against Job. From what we know of Job it is likely that, while of course he was not sinless, most of this is complete rubbish. Then in the final part Eliphaz urges Job to return to God, to learn from Him.

So what are we to make of all this? First we need to be aware of the human tendency to blame people. No answer was being found to Job's problems, so Eliphaz strays into a totally unwarranted attack on him. We can easily paint totally unjustified pictures in our minds of people. We paint a picture which can then, in our minds, easily explain all that is happening, usually what is happening to someone else. This may satisfy us, but it is usually wrong. We need to realise that we do not fully understand any man and we certainly do not fully understand God (1 Cor 2:11; Prov 20:5).

So Eliphaz needs to be more careful. But Job can also learn. Despite the tosh in v4-11 there is good advice in the latter part of the chapter. When we are suffering we need to realise that others will not understand what we are going through, nor what God is doing. Our natural reaction is then to be angry or hurt when they display this lack of understanding. This is natural because we are indeed hurt. However, we should try and get over that, for there can still be nuggets of gold in what people say, there can still be things that God can use to help us.

Job 21 - Do the wicked prosper?

Job calls on them to listen to him, then they can continue to  mock if they so wish.

Job's complaint is not with men it is with God. 

All their talk of the wicked being punished is fine, but in practice we see that often the wicked do seem to prosper, they do seem to live at ease.

So what are we to make of all this? Job is speaking part of the truth, but not all of it. In the present age we do see the wicked fall, sometimes. We also see many evil people just seeming to get away with it. We need to face up to both. Why has Mugabe been allowed to live for so long? Why hasn't God judged him yet?

There are two partial answers to this (the general question, not the particular one about Mugabe). The first part is that God has delegated a significant amount of administering of justice to men. Our courts and legal systems have a duty to administer justice (and mercy). They need to remember that they actually act on God's behalf. Now because we are sinful men this is always done imperfectly. Some systems are fairly good, some are utterly corrupt.

The second part of the answer is hell and the final judgement. There will be judgement on the last day when there will be no more hiding, no more bribing. Hell is actually good news!

Job 20 - Zophar - useless advice

Next it is Zophar back in to the fray. He replies because he feels dishonoured and because he thinks he knows something (v3). We should be wary of speaking when our motivation is that we feel offended and want to show how clever we are. There are times when silence is by far the wisest course of action.

He starts off on the same old track that the wicked, though they prosper for a while, will in the end come to nothing. This is true but is of no relevance to the present situation. Moreover, applying this to his own situation the only conclusion Job could reach is that his previous prosperity was just temporary and now he is suffering the just deserts of the wicked. This was not the case.

Zophar pressed on in this vein (v12-29) on how sin may seem sweet for a time, but will ultimately turn sour.

What is the point of all this? How is it going to help Job?

Job 19 - Turn to God at all times

Job is getting somewhat fed-up with all this, to say the least. Their words about God's justice and goodness are just tormenting him, along with their implicit, and sometimes explicit, message that all this is happening because Job has sinned. When we are in the midst of a trial the promises of God can seem to mock us, and it is very human to think that if we are suffering we must have done something wrong to deserve it. 

But see in verse 7 that Job turns his attention to God. He knows that God is his "problem". Now Job's understanding of the situation was mistaken, but the fact that he keeps turning to God, even if it is in anger, is one of the most vital messages of the book of Job. We need to be a people who, like Jacob, wrestle with God when we are in a battle.

Everyone seemed to be against him. His wife, his other relatives his servants, his neighbours, people in the street. When we are suffering we will find we have fewer friends!

I wonder if Job knew that his words would indeed be recorded (v23,24).

Then see again the hope and faith. "I know that my redeemer lives" (v25), "I will see Him with my own eyes" (v27).

Job is a true man of faith.

Job 18 - Bildad again

The friends seem to be playing tag-comforting, so it is Bildad's turn again. 

Bildad rebukes Job, seeming to be offended at some of the stuff that Job has been saying. Job has been tearing himself apart (literally) as well. 

Bildad then continues to miss the point entirely and embarks on another eloquent exposition of how the wicked will always get their just deserts. We need to beware of telling people things that are theologically correct, but are not relevant in a given situation. Now this is not to say we should not teach the truth, and definitely not that we should teach falsehood. But doctrine on its own is not enough.

So Bildad declares that the wicked will suffer. Now this is of no use to Job. He is not wicked, and yet he is suffering beyond measure.

Job 17 - the torment of faith

Job continues. His words are a mixture of faith and torment. Remember in all this Job did not know what had gone on in heaven, as reported in the first two chapters. 

It seems that everyone and everything is against him. He has already had a go at God, his friends are no better. When we go through stuff, especially stuff that we just do not understand, our friends will not understand it either. If we do find a friend who has a deep spiritual insight into what is happening we should be eternally grateful, but most of them will not have this insight, and we should not blame them for this.

I do get concerned and annoyed at times when we seem to say, "you should be able to understand my impossible situation", or hold people guilty for not being able to deal with the impossible.

Verses 10-16 are interesting. At one level he is overwhelmed by the hopelessness of it all, and sees the grave as the only solution, the only relief. Then we get v11,12, the desires of my heart turn night into day, in the face of darkness light is near. The desires of our heart are important. Psalm 37 says that God will grant the desires of the heart to those who are devoted to Him. We need to guard our heart, cultivate our heart so it is dedicated towards God. Then the desires of our heart will be a source of strength and hope in the midst of the darkness. For Godly desires are desires that will be satisfied.

Job 16 - Deep faith

Job again responds to his "friends", he does not consider them to be particularly helpful friends! If the situation was reversed, then Job could quite easily give similar advice as his friends were giving. We need to appreciate the difference between being in the situation and looking in from the outside. Now an outside observer can sometimes give useful advice, but there are things he will never appreciate. 

However, Job does not say they should say nothing. Instead, he says they should offer words of encouragement and comfort (v5). We should consider whether we are seeking to actually help someone or just sound clever.

As an aside, consider what a privilege we have in Jesus. He came into our world, He is the high priest who can truly sympathise with us.

Job then turns back to his own troubles. It doesn't matter whether he keeps silent or whether he speaks, there is no relief. God seems to be utterly against him, he holds God fully responsible for what is happening.

Yet even in the midst of this (v18-21) he knows he has an intercessor in heaven. It is in the darkest days that our faith becomes deepest. When we have nothing left to do but to hold on to God we become more aware of the treasures in the gospel.

Note that Job does not seek to absolve God of responsibility. Of course Job's rantings are at best part of the truth, but he is right in saying that ultimately God has decreed it. 

Job 15 - Irrelevant wisdom

Eliphaz comes back for a second time, accusing Job of spouting empty words. According to Eliphaz Job is saying the devotion to God is of no value. Now we need to look at this. What Job is saying is that in circumstances like these standard religious piety simply does not cut it, it does not address the real issues, the real difficulties we encounter. All branches of the church can be guilty of this, from the most traditional or reformed church to the most charismatic one.

Eliphaz wants to know if Job has greater wisdom than others. The answer to this is actually yes, he does, and definitely will do after God has revealed Himself to Job. Now we need to be careful here. Just because you go through the most difficult circumstances and trials does not automatically make you wise. Some people go through hell and are utterly defeated by it. You need to have faith, but it is not a religious faith, but a faith in the living God. We need to cling ever more tightly to God.

Eliphaz closes with an eloquent, though in the present context utterly irrelevant, declaration that the wicked will be judged.

Job 14 - Hints of immortality

Verse 1 is commonly quoted, though I doubt most people know its Biblical origins. It is also true. We do have a short life span, just compare it to the life of the universe, or to eternity! And all of us do experience trouble at various points in our life, some to a terrible degree.

Verse 4 summarises the great human problem. Who can bring pure from impure? The fundamental problem is our sinfulness, so no manner of rules, no amount of education or training, will ever produce a pure human being. 

Job knows that God is in control of everything, so he calls on God to just look away, stop bothering us.

Then he compares man to a tree. A tree can suffer terrible damage, yet when conditions return to normal it will revive. Not so with a man.

Verses 13-17 seem to be hinting at the salvation that is in Christ. Job has some inkling that there is life after death, and that the key to it is our sins being covered over.

Yet he is then overcome with despair again.

To fully understand life, to be able to cope, we need the eternal. If this life is all there is, then ultimately everything is pointless. The writer of Ecclesiastes and Paul in 1 Cor 15:19.

Job 13 - taking your case to God

Job continues his response. He has just been declaring the greatness of God, but now he comes to the crux of the matter. He knows all this truth, he is not disagreeing with the basic theology of his friends. Yet circumstances do not seem to match these truths. So Job wants to speak directly with God, and to present his case. Now this is at the same time an act of faith and incredibly presumptuous. The Bible does not present a nice religious picture of what a person of faith is like. It does not fit any of our religious views of a man of faith, at the same time it does not fit any of our modern laid-back views either! 

Job then seems to turn his anger on his friends, basically asking who do they think they are? Job just wants to speak and will then take the consequences. 

The man of doubt turns away from God when he cannot understand, when he is frustrated or perplexed by life. The man of faith wrestles with God, as Jacob did. Job is looking to God and only Him. Even if his meeting with God would mean him being slain, he would still rather meet God than rely on anything else. Note that David did the same when he was judged for holding a census, he chose to entrust himself to God (2 Sam 24:14).

Job then turns directly to God, wanting to know what he has done that is so wrong that he deserves all this. Now remember that Job is not being punished for his sin. He is a sinner, as are all men, but this is not the reason all this is happening. Yet it is often our reaction when things go wrong, we think that God is judging us.

Job 12 - Seeking to understand

Sound theology as it might be from his friends, Job is not the least bit impressed.

Verse 5 contains an important truth. When we are at ease we can easily have contempt for those who are struggling. Sometimes this will be expressed in an overt way, but more often than not it will be a simple failure to appreciate what the person is going through. We never fully understand what someone else is going through. The reason this is so is that we do not have the same weaknesses and failings that they have. You see, the difficulty of a trial is not simply a consequence of the stuff we are having to endure, but the interplay between what we are having to endure and our own personality, with all its failings and weaknesses.

Verse 7-12 seem to imply that Job knew that God was in control and that God had decreed all that was happening. Yet he cannot work out why on earth God should think what is happening is a good plan.

Then we get a series of declarations of the greatness of the Lord.

Job 11 - Missing the point

Next up for the fray is Zopha the Naamathite. 

Now at one level Job has been babbling, talking a load of nonsense, so Zophar seeks to address the errors in Job's logic. But he is missing the point, and this is something we can so easily do as well. Job is suffering emotionally, his words are not nice carefully thought out logical statements, they are the expression of a tormented heart. So if we seek to treat them as a logical argument we will completely miss the real issues. 

So Zophar addresses the theological failings in Job's utterings. Then he makes some suggestions, which are essentially to say Job should commit himself totally to the Lord, then everything will be alright. Now we all give similar advice, and there is a large grain of truth to it. But the blunt fact is, and one recognised by the Bible, that there are times when what we see and what we experience seem to make no sense at all, and we cannot square it at all with a loving and righteous God. And if we are suffering personally, or someone we love dearly is, then we will feel this all the more acutely.

Job 10 - The Job model of prayer

Job continues his response to Bildad.

Things are so bad that Job loathes his life. He feels he has nothing to lose, so he gives free rein to his complaint against God. He is speaking out of the bitterness of his soul.

Note that these complaints are directed directly to God. There are those who complain to men about God, and there are those who complain directly to God. Generally the Bible condemns the former, but commends the latter. God gave us a the book of Job not as a warning about what not to do, but as a demonstration of how we can interact with him. Now if you read a book on prayer it will have something like the ACTS model, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication (asking). It will not recommend something like we get here. Yet God chose to put the book of Job in the Bible. Now this is not the way we should pray most of the time, the ACTS approach is far better (or the Lord's prayer!). But, we do not realise how deep sin runs, and how deep its effects run, and there are times in life when the Job approach is what is needed, and God can handle us in these times.

Job thinks that God is angry with him, he can understand  why God is doing all this stuff to him. Now we know from the introduction to Job that God is not angry with Job, quite the opposite.

What is the difference between the complaints of an unbeliever and those of a believer? The believer's complaints are based on a right understanding of God, but a failing to see how the present circumstances can possibly be consistent with the God he knows. Job knows that God created him. For a long time God had been good to Job, but all the time He knew that the present day would come. And Job thinks the present troubles are the end of the matter, his destiny. So he cannot see the point to anything. The truth of course is that the present troubles were a stepping stone along the way.

Job 9 - the justice and unfairness of God

Job responds to Bildad. It may well be true that God is just, but this, on its own, is of no benefit to us. For there is no man who can prove his innocence before God, all of us are guilty.

Then Job starts declaring the greatness of God, His awesome power. It is interesting that later on when Job finally gets to meet God, God reminds him of the same sort of things. God is infinitely greater than us. This is something all of us do well to remember, both those of use who are believers, and those who are atheists. For so often we treat God as if He is on the same level as us. This is simply not true.

So Job knows that he would stand no chance, so instead he relies on God's mercy.

In verse 20 he recognises that even if his actions were innocent, his mouth would condemn him, his mouth would express the attitudes of his heart, where sin still lurked (see the Sermon on the Mount, and what Jesus says about our thoughts).

Yet despite knowing all this Job seems to still hold God guilty (v21-24). He does not believe that God is totally good. 

Job is totally weighed down by his suffering. He feels that God is treating him totally unfairly.

Job 8 - Bildad's turn

We now get the second of Job's comforters, Bildad the Shuhite.

Bildad didn't reckon much to Job's utterings, describing them as blustering wind. The essence of Bildad's words are that God is just in all that he does. With reference to the demise of Job's children, he says that they were receiving fair judgement for their sin. Now there could be an element of truth in this. We often talk about how Job's fortunes were restored to a better position than he started with, and indeed the book itself says this. However, his children who died clearly were not better off! Now what it says in Job 1:5 indicates that they may well have sinned.

Whatever the case, Bildad urges Job to be upright and everything will work out fine in the end. Now most of us have given similar advice to people!

Bildad then continues, saying how the wicked will always come to a sticky end eventually. Conversely, surely God will not forget the righteous.

Now all this is sound stuff, who can argue with it? Well Job is about to do so!