The Family Bible Journey Podcast

If Job gets twice the blessing he had before he was afflicted, why does he only get seven sons and three daughters, the same as before? Herein lies hidden a wonderful testimony of the resurrection! Redemption, a mighty theme of Job, is reinforced in these closing verses.

Is it a dragon, a Pleasaur or Mesosaur? Whatever it is, this terrible, firebreathing monster, that reduces all of man's strength to fear and ashes, is nothing more than a playful pet from God's perspective. Once again, God's imagination, wisdom and strength are beyond our understanding.

Now that Paul is traveling on his own, we see God bringing many new friends into his circle. Timothy and Luke emerge as his new travel companions, in the wake of Barnabas's departure. It's good that God grants him faithful friends, because his missionary work is getting harder, not easier, as he continues his preaching.

Job is humbled when his request to make his case before his Maker is granted. He repents of his sin of judging God and of speaking ill of God. We too must be quiet when confronted with God's greatness, or fall in danger of sinning presumptuously against God.

After using the depths to demonstrate his wisdom, God makes an appeal using the heights. Some of the most reclusive and elusive creatures, ibex, hawks, and eagles, demonstrate the surpassing intimacy God enjoys with His creation. Here again, we are limited, but God is unlimited in His knowledge of all things.

The Jerusalem Council is convened to answer a most basic question of faith. Must we do something to be saved? The leaders had been divided on the necesssity of circumcision before this, but after Peter's impassioned speech, they all agree that only faith and grace are necessary for salvation. But this great moment of unity is tempered by the end of the chapter, where Paul and Barnabas part ways over a disagreement.

God's speech begins by God contrasting His wisdom to the depths of the earth, the seas, the heavens, space and even human understanding. He puts Job and his friends in place not by condemning them, but rather by sharing with them the true nature of reality.

Elihu proves a faulty friend of Job for three reasons. He is foolishly arrogant, expouses the faulty logic of Job's other friends, and finds fault with Job, insisting that Job somehow deserves his lot in life. Elihu's faulty example gives us good reason to cherish good and faithful friends as the gift of God that they are to us.

In Lystra, a mob, inspired by Paul's healing of a cripple, want to offer sacrifices to him and Barnabas as representatives of Zeus and Hermes. Paul restrains the crowd, only to have the same mob whipped into a murderous state by his opponents, stone him, and leave him for dead. Revived and undeterred, Paul and Barnabas continue their preaching, and establish leaders and churches in every community they visit.

Elihu, the young man, speaks with some degree of naiveté and runs his mouth when he should be opening his years. In his speech, he wrestles with the difficulties of reconciling God's goodness with the reality suffering and evil in the world. Here we learn the dangers of conflating related ideas in a way that corrupts our thinking.

After rebuking Job's other friends for their worldly wisdom, Elihu turns his tongue on Job. Elihu's speech will alternate accusations against Job, and defense of God. 

The church grows as a diverse assembly of saints by the Holy Spirit's leading. Leading businessmen, an African, a member of Herod's court and even the Roman Governor of Cyprus are brought to faith. This shows us that God does not discriminate between rich or poor, educated or uneducated. He welcomes all into His family.

Elihu, the thus far silent "friend," now speaks. In his speech, we see that in his silence, Elihu had defered to his elders. Eager to be heard, he promises to tell them exactly how he feels.

Job makes his final self-defense by insisting on the purity of his heart, extolling just punishments for evil, and recounting his generosity with those who had suffered. He ends his case with a final plea is to make his case before the Almighty.

The bookends of this chapter are the death of James, and the death of Herod, who had ordered James killed and Peter imprisoned. But the story of a little servant girl named Rhoda, who couldn't believe that her hero Peter had been freed from prison, stands out as a cute story of genuine faith.

We can commiserate with Job when others kick us when we are down. Job recalls the blessings of his earlier years and laments his demise. Even the poorest of the poor and the meanest of the mean are looking down on him. 

Job tells his friends that they will only find wisdom with God and where God is found. So much of their "wisdom" was earthly, not based upon God's etermal Word. Listening to Job, and learning from Him, we want to find wisdom by spending time with God in His Word and in worship.

The key to the Christian faith is that repentance leads to life. Too many people have it too good, or are too distracted to care about sin or to think they've ever done any wrong. May we never lose sight of the most important fact that in Christ, we have life, through the forgiveness of our sins.

Job declares the wonderful working of the heavens, as he begins to describe the majesty of God. He decribes natural phenomena that still amaze us today. He lays the case for God's inscrutable and unfathomable ways, as he prepares to lay out a long defensive discourse with his "friends."