1 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2 “My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer
because I am greatly disturbed.
3 I hear a rebuke that dishonors me,
and my understanding inspires me to reply.
4 “Surely you know how it has been from of old,
ever since mankind was placed on the earth,
5 that the mirth of the wicked is brief,
the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
6 Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens
and his head touches the clouds,
7 he will perish forever, like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
8 Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found,
banished like a vision of the night.
9 The eye that saw him will not see him again;
his place will look on him no more.
10 His children must make amends to the poor;
his own hands must give back his wealth.
11 The youthful vigor that fills his bones
will lie with him in the dust.
12 “Though evil is sweet in his mouth
and he hides it under his tongue,
13 though he cannot bear to let it go
and lets it linger in his mouth,
14 yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;
it will become the venom of serpents within him.
15 He will spit out the riches he swallowed;
God will make his stomach vomit them up.
16 He will suck the poison of serpents;
the fangs of an adder will kill him.
17 He will not enjoy the streams,
the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
18 What he toiled for he must give back uneaten;
he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
19 For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute;
he has seized houses he did not build.
20 “Surely he will have no respite from his craving;
he cannot save himself by his treasure.
21 Nothing is left for him to devour;
his prosperity will not endure.
22 In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him;
the full force of misery will come upon him.
23 When he has filled his belly,
God will vent his burning anger against him
and rain down his blows on him.
24 Though he flees from an iron weapon,
a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
25 He pulls it out of his back,
the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors will come over him;
26 total darkness lies in wait for his treasures.
A fire unfanned will consume him
and devour what is left in his tent.
27 The heavens will expose his guilt;
the earth will rise up against him.
28 A flood will carry off his house,
rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.
29 Such is the fate God allots the wicked,
the heritage appointed for them by God.”
Job 42:1-6
Job Speaks
1 Then Job replied to the LORD:
2 “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.”
John 14:27
Jesus Gives a Peace, But Not as This World Give
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Some scholars have thought and wrote that Job maybe the oldest book in the Bible...Some think it was written around 1500 b.c...And it is about a book on why good people suffer...So suffering has been going on a long. long time...And people were writing about it many, many centuries ago, trying to understand, the why of suffering...The Book of Job is as relevant today as it was thousand of years ago...
Zophar, a friend of Job, says his troubled thoughts must make him speak and give an answer to his suffering friend...Zophar says the joy of the wicked and godless are so ever brief...But Zophar does not address the suffering of Job and other good men and women...What about Job?...Why is he suffering?...God says he is blameless, so why isn't Job's suffering, just as brief as the wicked man's joy that his friend is talking about?...Zophar seems to tell us that God has the last word and the accounts of people's actions in life and their non-actions will be settled in God's time...These are the types of points we still have today, when our minds are troubled...And just as Zophar and Job and the other friends seek to figure out or interpret God's thinking and lack of His action for Job's suffering, we continue to do this today...Troubled thoughts (and this is important to remember) bring God into mind...
But it also brings to us a point on why isn't more visible to us?...Why isn't He more noticeable to us?...Why doesn't He want to contact us more often than He does?...Why doesn't He want to quickly heal the suffering?...These are questions I see evidence of in the Book of Job, and still these questions remain today...
The sufferer, who is a good man, in the Book of Job suffers greatly...He has more questions than Zophar and his other friends...Job questions God heavily...His troubles bring on many questions for God...And Job is persistent in his questioning of the LORD...Then God comes out of a cloud and instead of answering Job's questions, God questions Job...God asks Job many things about creation that only the Creator has the answers to...Not included in God's questions is the question Job has been trying to get from his Redeemer -which is "Why I am suffering?"..."Why are You making me suffer?"..."Why do good people suffer?"...These questions could be in the questions that our LORD asks, because these are only questions that He can answer...
And for some reason, the suffering Job is definitely satisfied with God's questions and His questions to him...And Job only uses six verses to God about his closure on his suffering...He has never in his life heard or seen such a Tremendous Thing or Tremendous One...God's Presence helps bring Job closure about his pains and sufferings...
Before God came out of the clouds, like all of us, Job had only heard about God...But now Job got to feel the Presence of God...Job, seems to me, is now less focused on his own personal suffering...There is nothing like God's Presence in the entire universe...Definitively knowing there is a Father in heaven and now Job gets to meet Him was all that Job ever needed in his suffering and in life...Jesus knew (knows) this feeling, and it must feel good, very-very good...A type of peace that is only imaginable...It must be the feeling of heaven...