Day 3 Job 21-30

Todays reading is Job 21-30.

'Then Job answered and said:

“How you have helped him who has no power!

How you have saved the arm that has no strength!

How you have counseled him who has no wisdom,

and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

With whose help have you uttered words,

and whose breath has come out from you?'

(Job 26:1-4, Job 3^rd cycle after Bildad)

I will quote alot of passages today, I have included extra information in the quotations such as 'Job 3^rd cycle' signifying the speaker of the words as well as in which of the three main cycles of the dialogues between Job and his friends this occurs. There are three main cycles of speech between Job and his three freinds, each of Job's three friends speaking once in each cycle with Job replying to each one in turn, except for the 3^rd cycle where the second friend gives a very short speech and the third friend does not speak at all. A fourth friend comes along later but there is only one cycle of his speaking and so if I quote from him the cycle information isn't needed for him.

Above I quoted the words which Job uses in reply to Bildads short 5 verse speech in Job 25. To be honest, I just love this intensely sarcastic rhetoric. The speech of Bildad to which this is a reply to is this:

Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

“Dominion and fear are with God;
he makes peace in his high heaven.
Is there any number to his armies?
Upon whom does his light not arise?
How then can man be in the right before God?
How can he who is born of woman be pure?
Behold, even the moon is not bright,
and the stars are not pure in his eyes;
how much less man, who is a maggot,
and the son of man, who is a worm!”
(Job 25:1-6, Bildad 3^rd cycle)



The final three verses of this however(italicized above) are a recurring theme in Job. Note the other occurences of this theme, Eliphaz says:

‘Can mortal man be in the right before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
Even in his servants he puts no trust,
and his angels he charges with error;
how much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like the moth.

(Job 4:17-19, Eliphaz 1^st cycle)


Again Eliphaz later says:

What is man, that he can be pure?
Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones,
and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
a man who drinks injustice like water!

(Job 15:14-16, Eliphaz 2^nd cycle)


Job too says something similar:

“Truly I know that it is so:
But how can a man be in the right before God?
If one wished to contend with him,
one could not answer him once in a thousand times.

(Job 9:2-3 Job 1^st cycle after Bildad)



These quotes together seem to be emphasising the distance between God and mankind, and also mans inability of doing anything that is pleasing to God. However there is another motif that comes up, that is Gods care/or lack of it despite the reality of this distance between God and mankind.

What is man, that you make so much of him,
and that you set your heart on him,
visit him every morning
and test him every moment?
How long will you not look away from me,
nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?
Why have you made me your mark?
Why have I become a burden to you?

What is man, that you make so much of him,
and that you set your heart on him,
visit him every morning
and test him every moment?
How long will you not look away from me,
nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?
Why have you made me your mark?
Why have I become a burden to you?

(Job 7:17-20, Job 1^st cycle after Eliphaz)

Here Job seems to be saying that despite this separation between man and God, God is interested in Job, but this interest that Job believes God to have is one of harmful intention.

Eliphaz says something different:

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
“Can a man be profitable to God?
Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right,
or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?

(Job 22:1-3, Eliphaz 3^rd Cycle)

Eliphaz seems to be saying that God is not affected if a person acts well or badly, because it does not affect God at all.

We have seen Eliphaz' perspective, and we have seen Job's perspective. Now I would like to give what I consider to be a biblical perspective on this issue. King David, who lived maybe around 1000 years later than Job, seems to be very familiar with this book of Job. He says:

what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
(Psalm 8:4)


This comes from the full Psalm 8:

1 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings[b]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

(Psalm 8, David)

So what is Davids perspective? David looks at the heavens(8:3), and from this wonders why God cares for man in general(8:4). David says that God has given man a very privileged position(8:5-8), as a consequence he praises the Lord(8:9). Why would Gods giving man a priveliged position be an occasion for praising the Lord? Verse 4 tells us, because man is small. God lifts up man, who is small, and by bestowing his love on little people who don't deserve it, the depth of his love and concern for man appears.

So how does this help us through suffering?

The book of Hebrews chapter 2 goes further than the Psalm of David, as it gives a new shade of meaning to this passage and presents Jesus coming to Earth, and becoming a man to endure suffering and death, to become our Redeemer, and also to sympathize with us. It is often said that the most helpful thing for suffering people is not Theology, but friendship and support. I do believe that Jesus became the best friend, and brother, and support as anyone could ever be when he suffered in our place the cruel death that we deserved. I do believe that this is Theology worth keeping.

As I said in a previous post, we are in a more priveliged position in history because we are able to read about this demonstration of the love of God, as John said “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”(John 1:17). I think that studying this truth will give us strength to persevere. Hebrews chapter 2 is a good place to start.

Actually, i have crossed approximately 4000 years of history in describing Job, then David, then Jesus, and then applying it to us. The truth is that much helpful content could have been given just by sticking to Job, or David, or Jesus, but it can also be helpful to tie things together sometimes, and the Bible is both diverse and unified in it's message in a beautifully elegant way.