Henry: Welcome To Immerse: The Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day three hundred and seventeen.
Immersed in Job.
The story of Job begins by telling us he was blameless,
a man of complete integrity.
He feared God and stayed away from evil.
Job is exactly the kind of person, the Book of Proverbs and visions when it
calls for its readers to embrace wisdom.
According to Israel's wisdom tradition, such characters should lead to
success and prosperity in life.
And when we first meet Job, he is indeed prosperous and wealthy, surrounded by a
large family and respected for his wisdom.
But a sudden series of catastrophes takes everything away, and he's left
in poverty, disfigured by disease, and disgraced in the eyes of the community.
The book then presents an extended dialogue between Job
and three of his friends who come to comfort and console him.
But as it turns out, they have come mostly to confront him with his
guilt, which they believe caused his troubles in their unbending.
Moral universe, goodness is always rewarded, and wrongdoing
is invariably punished.
So if Job has gone from prosperity to suffering, There must certainly be some
great sin or failure in his life for his part job, relentlessly protests
that he's innocent, that the Almighty has apparently made some mistake in
allowing these tragedies into job's life in the strength of his moral certainty.
Job demands to meet with God and present his case directly.
The reader learns at the start of a book that there's more to the story
than any of the players on earth know.
But the drama of Job's, arguments with his friends and his extended complaint
to God has to play itself out since the secret remains unknown to them.
The Book of Job is a daring exploration of the deepest questions regarding our
faith in God and his role in the world.
According to the Bible, wisdom is the ability to understand
the order God gave to the world.
But what happens when that ability is stretched to its limits?
What are we to do when our explanations fail?
What if the order in the world itself seems to be fractured?
The Book of Job is made up of a series of long poetic dialogues that are
bookended by brief explanatory narratives.
The poetic dialogues are marked by powerful imagery
and elegant serious tones.
There are three rounds of these speeches between Job and his three friends.
And all are contained within Job's overall protest, which
is really directed toward God.
The discussion is not merely theoretical or abstract, but rather
is set in an ongoing drama with job's, unexplained catastrophes
squarely at the center as readers.
We will see this drama worked out as the conflict continues throughout the
course of the book, but Job wearies of listening to others, speaking for God.
He wants to confront God in person.
Then it happens.
There is no more talking about God.
A theophany occurs.
God appears.
Now the questioning is reversed.
In a series of magnificent poems, God declares his creative power and
mastery over the entire creation.
God questions, job on things he knows nothing about.
And job's, protests now appear to be small and uninformed the
question, am I being treated justly?
Takes on new meaning in relation to the larger context of God's intimate
knowledge and oversight of all things.
The Book of Job teaches us that any good understanding of the mystery of our lives
begins with the knowledge that God alone is the creator and sustainer of the world.
We learn much at the end of Job's drama.
Those who claim to speak for God confidently attributing guilt to those who
suffer, are shown to be gravely mistaken.
God is always free unbound by any human formulation about what he
must do in a particular situation.
He is above and beyond us doing things We know nothing about Job's.
Suffering has not been because of his sin and his honest protests
about his innocence are shown to have been legitimate and
even in his complaints to God.
Job has been rooted in faith.
He never lost his trust, that only God could intervene to
justify him and make things right.
This profound wisdom drama concludes with God freely changing
job's, circumstances once again.
But the lesson has been learned.
We are to find no easy comfort or blame in our formulas about God.
The creator alone sees all things.
Our lives are to be lived in faith.
Trusting the God who is good to set all things right in the end.
The Book of Job
there once was a man named Job who lived in the land of us.
He was blameless, a man of complete integrity.
He feared God and stayed away from evil.
He had seven sons and three daughters.
He owned 7,000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 teams of oxen and 500 female donkeys.
He also had many servants.
He was in fact the richest person in that entire area.
Job's sons would take turns preparing feasts in their homes, and they
would also invite their three sisters to celebrate with them.
When these celebrations ended, sometimes after several days
job would purify his children.
He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering
for each of them, for job.
Said to himself, perhaps my children have sinned and have
cursed God in their hearts.
This was Job's regular practice.
One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord
and the accuser, Satan came with them.
Where have you come from?
The Lord asked Satan.
Satan answered the Lord.
I have been patrolling the earth watching everything that's going on.
Then the Lord asked Satan, have you noticed my servant job?
He is the finest man in all the earth.
He is blameless a man of complete integrity.
He fears God and stays away from evil.
Satan replied to the Lord.
Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God.
You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property.
You have made him prosper in everything he does.
Look how rich he is, but reach out and take away everything he has and
he will surely curse you to your face.
All right.
You may test him.
The Lord said to Satan, do whatever you want with everything he possesses.
But don't harm him physically.
So Satan left the Lord's presence.
One day when Job's, sons and daughters were feasting at the oldest brother's
house, A messenger arrived at job's home.
With this news y oxen were plowing with the donkeys feeding beside them.
When the Sabeans raided us, they stole all the animals and killed all the farm hands.
I am the only one who escaped to tell you.
While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news.
The fire of God has fallen from heaven and burned up your
sheep and all the shepherds.
I am the only one who escaped to tell you while he was still speaking a
third messenger arrived with this news.
Three bands of Aldean Raiders have stolen your camels and killed your servants.
I am the only one who escaped to tell you.
While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news.
Your sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother's home.
Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides.
The house collapsed and all your children are dead.
I am the only one who escaped to tell you job stood up and tore his robe in grief.
Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship.
He said, I came naked from my mother's womb and I will be naked when I leave.
The Lord gave me what I had and the Lord has taken it away.
Praise the name of the Lord.
In all of this, job did not sin by blaming God.
One day the members of the heavenly court came again to present
themselves before the Lord.
And the accuser, Satan came with them.
Where have you come from?
The Lord asked Satan.
Satan answered the Lord.
I have been patrolling the earth watching everything that's going on.
Then the Lord asked Satan, have you noticed my servant job?
He is the finest man in all the earth.
He is blameless a man of complete integrity.
He fears God and stays away from evil.
And he has maintained his integrity, even though you urged
me to harm him without cause.
Satan replied to the Lord, skin for Skin.
A man will give up everything he has to save his life, but reach out
and take away his health and he will sure surely curse you to your face.
All right.
Do with him as you please.
The Lord said to Satan, but spare his life.
So Satan left the Lord's presence and he struck job with
terrible boils from head to foot.
Job, scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery.
As he sat among the ashes, his wife said to him, are you still
trying to maintain your integrity?
Curse God and die, but Job replied, you talk like a foolish woman.
Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad.
So in all this job said nothing wrong.
When three of job's friends heard of the tragedy he had suffered, they
got together and traveled from their homes to comfort and console him.
Their names were Alfa.
The Timon night Bill, dad, the shoe height, and Zohar.
The Neite.
When they saw job from a distance, they scarcely recognized him.
Wailing loudly.
They tore their robes and threw dust into the air over their
heads to show their grief.
Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights.
No one said a word to job for.
They saw that his suffering was too great for words at last job spoke,
and he cursed the day of his birth.
He said, let the day of my birth be erased, and the night I was conceived.
Let that day be turned to darkness.
Let it be lost even to God on high and let no light shine on it.
Let the darkness and utter gloom claim that day for its own.
Let a black cloud overshadow it and let the darkness terrify it.
Let that night be blotted off the calendar never again to be counted
among the days of the year, never again to appear among the months.
Let that night be childless.
Let it have no joy.
Let those who are experts at cursing whose cursing could
rouse leviathan curse that day.
Let its morning stars, remain dark.
Let it hope for light, but in vain, may it never see the morning light
curse that day for failing to shut my mother's womb, for letting me
be born to see all this trouble.
Why wasn't I born dead?
Why didn't I die as I came from the womb?
Why was I laid on my mother's lap?
Why did she nurse me at her breasts?
Had I died at birth, I would now be at peace.
I would be asleep and at rest, I would rest with the world's
kings and prime ministers whose great buildings now lie in ruins.
I would rest with princes rich in gold, whose palaces were filled with silver.
Why wasn't I buried like a stillborn child?
Like a baby who never lives to see the light for in death?
The wicked cause no trouble and the weary are at rest.
Even captives are at ease in death with no guards to curse them.
Rich and poor are both there and the slave is free from his master.
Oh, why give light to those in misery and life to those who are bitter?
They long for death and it won't come.
They search for death more eagerly than for hidden treasure.
They're filled with joy when they finally die and rejoice when they find the grave.
Why is life given to those with no future?
Those God has surrounded with difficulties I cannot eat for sighing.
My groans pour out like water.
I.
What I always feared has happened to me.
What I dreaded has come true.
I have no peace, no quietness.
I have no rest.
Only trouble comes.
This concludes today's Immerse Reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.