Gary Gleans

Job continues his speech and simply opens his heart and says exactly what he is feeling and thinking to the Lord.  His misery has become so great that he can no longer contain his thoughts.  It is easy to pick apart Job’s words and to examine his theology as well as his anthropology and find fault.  However, my children are all living and I enjoy very good health.  I am not saying that difficult circumstances exempt us from error, what I am saying is that I don’t think I am qualified to be critical of Job in these circumstances.  What we must all realize is that we are all very susceptible to these same wrong beliefs.  Our hearts are made of the same stuff and we are very likely to allow these same errors to creep into our thinking in the face of suffering.  We would do well to guard our hearts from these thoughts. WE MUST PROTECT OUR HEARTS FROM HOPELESSNESS: Job has become hopeless because of the intense suffering he has faced.  We must remember that Job did not benefit from the

Job longs for answers from God.  He wants to hear from God about his plight and he wants his friends to be silent.  There are many times in our lives when we think that we know what we need and what we want.  We are often convinced that we know what is best for us and we do not understand what God is doing.  Job wants either vindication or communication but he is only getting suffering and silence from God.  We must remember that God does not owe us explanations; but that we owe Him faithfulness not matter what circumstances we may face.  However, we can learn much from Job’s openness before the Lord.  He does not feel the need to hide his thoughts or pretend that everything is fine.  His heart is open before the Lord and he pleads with God for understanding and clarity.  God is pleased when we call out to Him and He is honored by our honesty.  Job’s heart longs for two things from the Lord. JOB WANTS REASONS: He has been hearing reasons from his friends but their explanations do

Job responds once again to his friend’s accusations by proclaiming what he knows to be true about God as well.  I find it interesting that Job does not get into the game of revenge or striking out against these guys personally.  He uses a little sarcasm when he assures them that all the wisdom of the world would die with them, but he makes it clear that he too has an understanding about God and His dealings with men.  I think Job’s main point in this chapter is to simply point out that God is ultimately responsible for what happened.  Job points to God’s sovereign control over the universe and simply points out that God has the power to do whatever He wants with whomever He wants independently of what that person has done or the office that person occupies.  In essence Job is pointing out that God controls the affairs of man and not the other way around.  Man is not able to manipulate God and should not attempt to do so.  Job uses two basic arguments to prove his point. GOD IS SOV

Zophar now takes the floor to share his perspective on Job’s situation.  He scolds Job for claiming to be righteous and for complaining about his circumstance.  In his opening statement he claims that Job deserves worse suffering than he already has.  I have a hard time imagining how Job’s suffering could grow worse, but Zophar was convinced that Job deserved all that he was suffering and more.  The reality is that Zophar is absolutely correct.  Job did deserve much worse than he was suffering because he was a sinner just like every single one of us.  Job deserved to spend an eternity separated from God and suffering in hell.  That is what each of us deserves.  However, we serve a God who does not deal with us based on what we deserve but based on His mercy and grace.  Zophar was not theologically wrong, but he certainly said the wrong thing at the wrong time.  What he fails to mention was that he was in the same boat as Job and that he too was deserving of suffering worse than Job’s.

“Why?” is always one of the first and biggest questions that we have when we face suffering or hardship in our lives.  Job is no different.  He has examined his life and been very contentious about his walk with God and service before God.  He had been extremely blessed and then; all of the sudden, without reason, Job has been destroyed.  He cannot see anything that would merit this judgment in his life so he simply begs to know why all of this has happened to him.  The reality of Job’s situation and ours is that we will very rarely ever know why we will face the suffering and the circumstances of life that we do not enjoy or appreciate.  God does not owe us explanations.  We must simply believe that He is truly in control and that He is leading us through the circumstances that surround our lives in such a way that it will ultimately bring the most glory to His holy name.  Job is in the depths of despair; his mind is filled with doubt, his body is writhing with pain and his heat is f

Dear Readers, I am sorry that I have not been able to post on the blog this last week.  I have been traveling on the Amazon and have been without access to the internet.  I meant to let you know this ahead of time but ran out of time before my flight.  You know how these things are.  You will find Job 8 and 9 underneath this note and I will post Job 10 and 11 tomorrow.  However next week I will, once again, be speaking at a retreat for missionaries serving on the Amazon so will not have connection with the internet until Friday of next week when I will post what I write during the week.  Thanks for reading and for your patience with my schedule.  God bless! Gary

Job answers Bildad by agreeing with the majority of what he said but taking issue with the accusation of his personal guilt.  Job’s language is deep and beautiful but it is full of pain and sorrow.  He describes himself and God in accurate terms but his attitude in light of what he says about God is not consistent.  Job recognizes that there is a great chasm between himself and God and that God does not owe him an explanation.  Job would love to be able to have a justification for his pain from God but he recognizes that he has no right or ability to expect such treatment from God.  Job is hopeless because he feels that he has no ability to gain an understanding of his circumstance from God and because he has no expectation that his circumstance will somehow get better apart from death.  Job is focusing on only one aspect of God and has forgotten that God is also love, grace and mercy.  Job’s argument here has two basic themes that keep repeating themselves. JOB DEFENDS HIS FAULTL

It is dangerous for us to presume that we know the heart and motives of God and the reasons for His dealings with men.  Bildad, the second of Job’s friends to speak, presumes that he knows exactly what God is doing and even why he is doing it.  He considers what he knows about God and then observes the circumstances of Job and then presumes that Job and his family must have sinned against God in order to bring about this calamity.  Once again, much of what Bildad says is excellent theology and great anthropology.  The only problem with his speech is that he presumes Job’s guilt based on results and not on actual observed sinful practice.  We must learn to stop assuming that present circumstances are a result of either condemnation or approval of God.  There are many who suffer but have God’s approval.  There are many who prosper that stand condemned before God.  God is just and He will justly judge all of mankind and He will then dispense the just retribution or reward.  However, His

Job continues his speech only he changes his attention from defending himself before the accusation from Eliphaz to questioning God directly.  Job has lost hope and cannot understand why he has been singled out for this excruciating pain on every level of his life.  His focus is on himself and his own insignificance.  He is not attacking God or accusing God of being unjust but is simply longing for his life to come to an end so that he can stop suffering.  He cannot justify his own suffering in his mind.  He is not aware of sin in his heart that would warrant this type of suffering.  He knows God to be a forgiving God and so this pain without relief does not make sense to him and he wants to find relief.  We always need to remember that God and His ways will not always make sense to us.  He is over us and His ways are not readily discernible to us. JOB SEEKS FOR RELIEF FROM SUFFERING THROUGH DEATH: Job’s hope has long been spent and he has reached the end of his ability to cope wi

Job now takes the stage to defend himself against the accusations of Eliphaz.  He has been accused of being a sinner and not trusting the Lord without any specific accusation of sin in his life.  He has been presumed to be guilty of sin simply based on the circumstances of his life.  Job is not ready to take this accusation sitting down so he sets out to defend himself.  His words are harsh and dripping with pain, but are so eloquently spoken.  The poetry of this book is astounding and is a literary gem.  The content is disturbing and can be confusing but it is rich in vocabulary and imagery.  Perhaps one of the greatest lessons that we can take away from this book is simply to recognize that we do not always need to defend ourselves.  I think that Job would have been much better off had he just heard his friends out without feeling need to make personal defense of his actions.  His friends could have obviously learned to speak less as well and I think that all involved would have bee

Eliphaz continues his speech to Job in an effort to convince Job to recognize and confess his sin and see the error of his way.  There is much that he says that is very true and is sound teaching that all of us should know and understand.  The problem with what Eliphaz is saying is that he is implying through his speech that Job is in some way not doing or believing these truths.  His statements are true; but they are being misapplied to the life of Job in these circumstances.  He has made presumptions about Job based, not on observation of sin in Job’s life, but based on the circumstances that Job is facing.  We are a results oriented people and so it is easy for us to presume the unfavorable results are due to poor character and that favorable results are due to poor character.  We must stop judging one another based on circumstance or results but on the character that we observe in one another’s lives. ELIPHAZ ACCUSES JOB OF IDOLATRY: Eliphaz is very correct in asserting that t

Our observations of life and the events that happen on the earth have a tendency to shape our thinking and our theology.  Sometimes that theology born out of our own experience and observation is not very good theology.  Job broke the silence to express his wish that he had never been born because his current pain is so exceedingly great.  Eliphaz is the first one of his friends to speak up in response to Job.  However, his words are not word of comfort to Job; rather they are words that reflect a theology based on experience and observation. ELIPHAZ CRITICIZES JOB’S ATTITUDE: Job has been used of God to teach many men about the ways of God.  He has been a stellar illustration of God’s character and a faithful communicator of God’s Word to the people around him.  However, now that he is in such pain he wishes he were dead.  Eliphaz is accusing Job of lacking patience and being a hypocrite for not practicing what he has preached for so many years.  Job has obviously lost hope in hi

I think all of us have many questions that we would love to be able to ask God.  Having answers to some of those questions will be one of the delights of heaven.  Job certainly has a ton of questions that He would love to have answered.  Having questions for God is much different than questioning the attributes of God.  Job is not doubting God as he opens this dialogue with his friends; he is simply questioning God about his own personal plight.  Job is clearly at the breaking point and beyond.  There are times when we hurt and cannot understand the plight of our lives because we cannot see it from God’s perspective.  During these times I think that we should feel free to do as Job did and pour out our hearts before the Lord.  He is big enough to handle our questions and I believe He prefers our honest despair over our phony faith. JOB DESPISES THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH: Job is in such great pain on every level of his life that he wishes that he had never been born.  He curses the day

Adversity is a test of our character and demonstrates who and what we are before the Lord.  Job and his wife have suffered great loss within their family and face an adversity that few others have even come close to experiencing.  As readers, we are given insight as to what is truly going on behind the scene in the throne room of heaven.  We understand that all of this adversity is being permitted by God in order to demonstrate His glory and the faithfulness of Job, his follower.  Job and his wife do not have this information.  Even so, Job remains steadfast in his commitment to the Lord and continues to worship Him.  We must not allow our worship of God to become conditional upon the blessings of God.  We worship Him because of who He is; not because of what He has done for us.  God calls us to be thankful for His blessings but not to base our worship on the blessings He grants. JOB IS CONFRONTED WITH MORE PAIN: Once again Satan comes before God and God brags about Job’s faithful

I think that it is fitting that Esther and Job stand side by side in our Bibles.  Esther was a story of God’s sovereignty in protecting His people and promoting Esther and Mordecai within the kingdom of Persia.  Job is a story of God’s sovereignty in permitting Job to be plundered of all His possessions and his children to perish.  These are very opposite circumstances but the one thread that they have in common is the sovereignty of God and the responsibility that believers have of glorifying God independently of their circumstances.  We must learn that the Lord is in charge of this universe and He has a purpose in all that He does and allows in our lives.  He may allow great loss and difficulty to fall upon His children because He knows that this will bring the most glory to Him.  We cannot see what He can see and we do not know what He knows so we must trust Him and know that whatever He allows is just, right and is for His glory. JOB IS BLESSED BY GOD: Job was a very wealthy m

Mordecai was not only given Haman’s property but also his authority and position in the kingdom.  He became a very powerful man who used his position to serve his people and to protect them from harm.  He had been faithful to the king and to the Lord and now he was reaping the rewards of this faithfulness.  We must always remember that God is a great rewarder and be motivated by that to be faithful before the Lord.

The Lord used Esther and Mordecai in the lives of the Jews who were under the authority of Persia to turn the fear into feasting.  There were three general communications sent out to the people of Persia: the first one was a letter of death, the second one was a letter of life and the third one was a letter of celebration.  The Lord had granted deliverance to the nation of Israel and they were authorized to defend themselves from those who would attack them.  However, they still had to gather together and fight against those who came out against them; but they were not fighting on their own because the Lord was with them and gave them victory all over the nation.  God is able to give us victory over those who would persecute the church today.  We can be assured that the Lord is still capable of turning fear into feasts. THE JEWS DEFEATED THEIR ENEMIES THROUGH THE POWER OF GOD: On the day that Haman had cast lots to determine the day that the Jews were to be destroyed; many people

God is a specialist and changing lives and reversing fortunes.  He truly is in control of our lives and the events in the world.  Haman was on top and had every reason to believe that he was “set” for life.  Mordecai was the object of Haman’s wrath and had gallows built with his name on it.  In the period of a day all of that was completely changed.  Haman hung from Mordecai’s gallows and Mordecai was living in Haman’s house and had been given Haman’s job.  Truly nothing is impossible with God.  We must not allow worry and fears over our current circumstances dominate our lives or our thinking, we must recognize that God is truly in control and that we can trust Him.  He may not always react in such dramatic ways but He certainly can if that is what is best for His glory and our eternal good. MORDECAI IS GIVEN A PLACE OF RESIDENCE: It appears that Mordecai was living on the streets most of the time.  More than likely he had a small place in which to live where he raised Esther; ho