WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:00.030 --> 00:00:02.880 Henry: Welcome To Immerse: The Daily Bible Reading Experience. 00:00:02.990 --> 00:00:04.240 Day three hundred and twenty one. 00:00:04.438 --> 00:00:05.788 Then job spoke again. 00:00:07.048 --> 00:00:09.118 Listen closely to what I am saying. 00:00:09.808 --> 00:00:11.968 That's one consolation you can give me. 00:00:12.808 --> 00:00:19.048 Bear with me and let me speak after I have spoken, you may resume mocking me. 00:00:20.398 --> 00:00:23.608 My complaint is with God, not with people. 00:00:24.538 --> 00:00:26.518 I have good reason to be so impatient. 00:00:27.088 --> 00:00:28.618 Look at me and be stunned. 00:00:29.038 --> 00:00:31.378 Put your hand over your mouth in shock. 00:00:32.308 --> 00:00:36.388 When I think about what I am saying, I shudder my body. 00:00:36.393 --> 00:00:37.168 Trembles. 00:00:38.608 --> 00:00:42.838 Why do the wicked prosper growing old and powerful? 00:00:43.588 --> 00:00:46.918 They live to see their children grow up and settle down, and 00:00:46.918 --> 00:00:48.388 they enjoy their grandchildren. 00:00:49.288 --> 00:00:53.548 Their homes are safe from every fear, and God does not punish them. 00:00:54.508 --> 00:00:56.488 Their bulls never fail to breed. 00:00:57.088 --> 00:00:59.848 Their cows bear calves and never miscarry. 00:01:00.628 --> 00:01:03.208 They let their children frisk about like lambs. 00:01:04.018 --> 00:01:06.568 Their little ones skip and dance. 00:01:07.408 --> 00:01:09.598 They sing with tambourine and harp. 00:01:09.808 --> 00:01:11.788 They celebrate to the sound of the flute. 00:01:12.178 --> 00:01:16.588 They spend their days in prosperity, then go down to the grave in peace, 00:01:17.638 --> 00:01:20.188 and yet they say to God, go away. 00:01:20.578 --> 00:01:22.528 We want no part of you in your ways. 00:01:23.128 --> 00:01:25.828 Who is the Almighty and why should we obey him? 00:01:26.353 --> 00:01:31.783 What good will it do us to pray they think their prosperity is of their own doing? 00:01:32.473 --> 00:01:34.843 But I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking. 00:01:36.493 --> 00:01:36.793 Yet. 00:01:37.093 --> 00:01:40.273 The light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished. 00:01:41.323 --> 00:01:42.913 Do they ever have trouble? 00:01:43.153 --> 00:01:46.723 Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger? 00:01:47.593 --> 00:01:49.963 Are they driven before the wind like straw? 00:01:50.623 --> 00:01:53.023 Are they carried away by the storm like chaff? 00:01:53.593 --> 00:01:54.463 Not at all. 00:01:55.573 --> 00:02:01.993 Well, you say at least God will punish their children, but I say he 00:02:01.993 --> 00:02:06.193 should punish the ones who sin so that they understand his judgment. 00:02:07.093 --> 00:02:09.793 Let them see their destruction with their own eyes. 00:02:10.393 --> 00:02:14.683 Let them drink deeply of the anger of the Almighty, for they 00:02:14.683 --> 00:02:17.803 will not care what happens to their family after they are dead. 00:02:19.453 --> 00:02:24.433 But who can teach a lesson to God since he judges even the most powerful? 00:02:25.273 --> 00:02:30.253 One person dies in prosperity, completely comfortable and secure the picture 00:02:30.253 --> 00:02:32.323 of good health, vigorous and fit. 00:02:33.463 --> 00:02:35.713 Another person dies in bitter poverty. 00:02:36.283 --> 00:02:40.693 Never having tasted the good life, but both are buried in the same 00:02:40.693 --> 00:02:43.723 dust, both eaten by the same maggots. 00:02:45.343 --> 00:02:47.593 Look, I know what you're thinking. 00:02:48.433 --> 00:02:50.503 I know the schemes you plot against me. 00:02:51.328 --> 00:02:54.838 You will tell me of rich and wicked people whose houses have 00:02:54.838 --> 00:02:56.548 vanished because of their sins. 00:02:57.688 --> 00:03:01.258 But ask those who have been around and they will tell you the truth. 00:03:02.488 --> 00:03:05.698 Evil people are spared in times of calamity and are 00:03:05.698 --> 00:03:07.498 allowed to escape disaster. 00:03:08.428 --> 00:03:12.418 No one criticizes them openly or pays them back for what they have done 00:03:13.348 --> 00:03:14.848 when they are carried to the grave. 00:03:14.968 --> 00:03:17.308 An honor guard keeps watch at their tomb. 00:03:18.013 --> 00:03:21.043 A great funeral procession goes to the cemetery. 00:03:21.643 --> 00:03:23.053 Many pay their respects. 00:03:23.053 --> 00:03:28.963 As the body is laid to rest and the earth gives sweet repose, how 00:03:28.963 --> 00:03:31.213 can your empty cliches comfort me? 00:03:32.083 --> 00:03:34.483 All your explanations are lies. 00:03:36.103 --> 00:03:38.233 Then pha the timon night replied. 00:03:39.163 --> 00:03:41.473 Can a person do anything to help God? 00:03:42.313 --> 00:03:44.953 Can even a wise person be helpful to him? 00:03:45.973 --> 00:03:48.283 Is it any advantage to the Almighty? 00:03:48.283 --> 00:03:49.363 If you are righteous? 00:03:50.113 --> 00:03:52.453 Would it be any gain to him if you were perfect? 00:03:53.233 --> 00:03:56.173 Is it because you're so pious that he accuses you and 00:03:56.173 --> 00:03:57.583 brings judgment against you? 00:03:58.423 --> 00:03:58.813 No. 00:03:59.533 --> 00:04:01.123 It's because of your wickedness. 00:04:01.783 --> 00:04:03.793 There's no limit to your sins. 00:04:04.073 --> 00:04:08.533 For example, you must have lent money to your friend and 00:04:08.533 --> 00:04:10.453 demanded clothing as security. 00:04:11.173 --> 00:04:11.623 Yes. 00:04:11.863 --> 00:04:13.273 You stripped him to the bone. 00:04:13.978 --> 00:04:17.518 You must have refused water for the thirsty and food for the hungry. 00:04:18.328 --> 00:04:21.748 You probably think the land belongs to the powerful and only the 00:04:21.748 --> 00:04:23.128 privileged to have a right to it. 00:04:23.728 --> 00:04:28.528 You must have sent widows away, empty handed, and crushed the hopes of orphans. 00:04:29.158 --> 00:04:34.078 That is why you are surrounded by traps and tremble from sudden fears. 00:04:34.648 --> 00:04:39.088 That is why you cannot see in the darkness and waves of water cover you. 00:04:40.303 --> 00:04:41.773 God is so great. 00:04:42.133 --> 00:04:47.083 Higher than the heavens, higher than the farthest stars, but you reply. 00:04:47.563 --> 00:04:49.693 That's why God can't see what I'm doing. 00:04:50.263 --> 00:04:54.793 How can he judge through the thick darkness for thick clouds swirl 00:04:54.793 --> 00:04:57.133 about him and he cannot see us. 00:04:57.643 --> 00:05:00.613 He is way up there walking on the vault of heaven. 00:05:01.993 --> 00:05:05.953 Will you continue on the old paths where evil people have walked? 00:05:06.883 --> 00:05:09.253 They were snatched away in the prime of life. 00:05:09.463 --> 00:05:13.093 The foundations of their lives washed away for. 00:05:13.093 --> 00:05:15.223 They said to God, leave us alone. 00:05:15.493 --> 00:05:17.443 What can the Almighty do to us? 00:05:18.283 --> 00:05:22.573 Yet he was the one who filled their homes with good things, so I will have 00:05:22.573 --> 00:05:24.403 nothing to do with that kind of thinking. 00:05:25.663 --> 00:05:29.353 The righteous will be happy to see the wicked destroyed and the 00:05:29.353 --> 00:05:31.423 innocent will laugh in contempt. 00:05:31.888 --> 00:05:35.218 They will say, see how our enemies have been destroyed? 00:05:35.488 --> 00:05:38.038 The last of them have been consumed in the fire. 00:05:39.418 --> 00:05:42.748 Submit to God and you will have peace. 00:05:43.168 --> 00:05:45.058 Then things will go well for you. 00:05:45.868 --> 00:05:48.898 Listen to his instructions and store them in your heart. 00:05:49.738 --> 00:05:53.158 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. 00:05:53.758 --> 00:05:55.198 So clean up your life. 00:05:55.948 --> 00:05:59.038 If you give up your lust for money and throw your precious 00:05:59.038 --> 00:06:02.698 gold into the river, the Almighty himself will be your treasure. 00:06:03.148 --> 00:06:05.098 He will be your precious silver. 00:06:06.238 --> 00:06:09.898 Then you will take delight in the Almighty and look up to God. 00:06:10.588 --> 00:06:15.298 You will pray to him and he will hear you and you will fulfill your vows to him. 00:06:16.078 --> 00:06:19.378 You will succeed in whatever you choose to do, and light will 00:06:19.378 --> 00:06:21.088 shine on the road ahead of you. 00:06:21.958 --> 00:06:24.778 If people are in trouble and you say, help them. 00:06:25.573 --> 00:06:26.773 God will save them. 00:06:27.463 --> 00:06:29.203 Even sinners will be rescued. 00:06:29.593 --> 00:06:33.313 They will be rescued because your hands are pure. 00:06:34.993 --> 00:06:36.373 Then Job spoke again. 00:06:37.243 --> 00:06:42.523 My complaint today is still a bitter one and I try hard not to groan aloud. 00:06:43.423 --> 00:06:47.323 If only I knew where to find God, I would go to his court. 00:06:47.803 --> 00:06:50.773 I would lay out my case and present my arguments. 00:06:51.598 --> 00:06:55.318 Then I would listen to his reply and understand what he says to me. 00:06:56.248 --> 00:06:58.978 Would he use his great power to argue with me? 00:06:59.698 --> 00:07:00.088 No. 00:07:00.598 --> 00:07:02.398 He would give me a fair hearing. 00:07:03.238 --> 00:07:05.218 Honest people can reason with him. 00:07:05.398 --> 00:07:08.308 So I would be forever acquitted by my judge. 00:07:09.418 --> 00:07:11.848 I go east, but he's not there. 00:07:12.868 --> 00:07:15.688 I go west, but I cannot find him. 00:07:16.558 --> 00:07:19.738 I do not see him in the north for he is hidden. 00:07:20.608 --> 00:07:27.478 I look to the south, but he is concealed, but he knows where I am going and when 00:07:27.478 --> 00:07:33.448 he tests me, I will come out as pure, as gold for I have stayed on God's paths. 00:07:33.718 --> 00:07:36.208 I have followed his ways and not turned aside. 00:07:36.898 --> 00:07:40.198 I have not departed from his commands, but have treasured 00:07:40.198 --> 00:07:42.208 his words more than daily food. 00:07:43.288 --> 00:07:46.978 But once he has made his decision, who can change his mind? 00:07:47.668 --> 00:07:49.918 Whatever he wants to do, he does. 00:07:50.788 --> 00:07:52.168 So he will do to me. 00:07:52.228 --> 00:07:56.008 Whatever he has planned, he controls my destiny. 00:07:56.998 --> 00:08:00.958 No wonder I'm so terrified in his presence when I think of it. 00:08:01.198 --> 00:08:02.518 Terror grips me. 00:08:03.298 --> 00:08:05.218 God has made me sick at heart. 00:08:05.223 --> 00:08:07.048 The Almighty has terrified me. 00:08:07.918 --> 00:08:09.628 Darkness is all around me. 00:08:10.108 --> 00:08:12.958 Thick, impenetrable, darkness is everywhere. 00:08:14.308 --> 00:08:17.188 Why doesn't the almighty bring the wicked to judgment? 00:08:17.878 --> 00:08:19.618 Why must the Godly wait for him? 00:08:19.618 --> 00:08:24.448 In vain, evil people steal land by moving the boundary markers. 00:08:24.988 --> 00:08:28.138 They steal livestock and put them in their own pastures. 00:08:28.738 --> 00:08:33.478 They take the orphans donkey and demand the widow's ox as security for alone 00:08:34.378 --> 00:08:36.508 the poor are pushed off the path. 00:08:37.108 --> 00:08:39.238 The needy must hide together for safety. 00:08:40.048 --> 00:08:44.668 Like wild donkeys in the wilderness, the poor must spend all their time looking 00:08:44.668 --> 00:08:50.218 for food, searching, even in the desert for food for their children, they harvest 00:08:50.218 --> 00:08:56.368 a field they do not own, and they glean in the vineyards of the wicked all night. 00:08:56.398 --> 00:09:00.238 They lie naked in the cold without clothing or covering. 00:09:00.988 --> 00:09:04.498 They are soaked by mountain showers and they huddle against 00:09:04.498 --> 00:09:06.388 the rocks for want of a home. 00:09:07.678 --> 00:09:11.998 The wicked snatch a widow's child from her breast, taking the baby a 00:09:11.998 --> 00:09:17.098 security for alone, the poor must go about naked without any clothing. 00:09:17.698 --> 00:09:21.208 They harvest food for others while they themselves are starving. 00:09:22.018 --> 00:09:26.668 They press out olive oil without being allowed to taste it, and they tread in 00:09:26.668 --> 00:09:29.248 the wine press as they suffer from thirst. 00:09:30.298 --> 00:09:34.978 The groans of the dying rise from this city and the wounded cry for help. 00:09:35.653 --> 00:09:37.243 Yet, God ignores their moaning. 00:09:38.593 --> 00:09:40.783 Wicked people rebel against the light. 00:09:41.353 --> 00:09:44.713 They refuse to acknowledge its ways or stay in its paths. 00:09:45.403 --> 00:09:50.173 The murderer rises in the early dawn to kill the poor and needy at night. 00:09:50.203 --> 00:09:51.133 He is a thief. 00:09:52.093 --> 00:09:55.723 The adulterer waits for the twilight saying no one will see me. 00:09:55.723 --> 00:09:59.413 Then he hides his face so no one will know him. 00:10:00.433 --> 00:10:04.213 Thieves break into houses at night and sleep in the daytime. 00:10:04.873 --> 00:10:06.553 They're not acquainted with the light. 00:10:07.153 --> 00:10:09.163 The black knight is their morning. 00:10:09.703 --> 00:10:13.993 They ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness, but they 00:10:13.993 --> 00:10:15.943 disappear like foamed on a river. 00:10:16.573 --> 00:10:21.583 Everything they own is cursed and they are afraid to enter their own vineyards. 00:10:22.393 --> 00:10:27.343 The grave consumes sinners just as drought and heat consume snow. 00:10:28.123 --> 00:10:29.803 Their own mothers will forget them. 00:10:30.283 --> 00:10:32.353 Maggots will find them sweet to eat. 00:10:33.193 --> 00:10:34.543 No one will remember them. 00:10:35.833 --> 00:10:38.773 Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm. 00:10:39.403 --> 00:10:42.073 They cheat the woman who has no son to help her. 00:10:42.553 --> 00:10:43.783 They refuse to help. 00:10:43.783 --> 00:10:48.253 The needy widow God in his power drags away the rich. 00:10:48.883 --> 00:10:52.183 They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life. 00:10:52.873 --> 00:10:57.913 They may be allowed to live in security, but God is always watching them and 00:10:57.913 --> 00:11:02.203 though they are great now, in a moment they will be gone like all others. 00:11:02.608 --> 00:11:04.318 Cut off like heads of grain. 00:11:05.278 --> 00:11:07.018 Can anyone claim otherwise? 00:11:07.738 --> 00:11:08.938 Who can prove me wrong? 00:11:10.588 --> 00:11:11.278 Then Bill dead. 00:11:11.278 --> 00:11:15.178 The shoe height replied, God is powerful and dreadful. 00:11:15.658 --> 00:11:17.398 He enforces peace in the heavens. 00:11:18.058 --> 00:11:20.158 Who is able to count his heavenly army? 00:11:20.788 --> 00:11:23.128 Doesn't his light shine on all the earth? 00:11:23.908 --> 00:11:26.158 How can a mortal be innocent before God? 00:11:26.758 --> 00:11:29.098 Can anyone born of a woman be pure? 00:11:29.983 --> 00:11:31.813 God is more glorious than the moon. 00:11:32.293 --> 00:11:34.303 He shines brighter than the stars. 00:11:34.903 --> 00:11:39.883 In comparison, people are maggots, we mortals or mere worms. 00:11:41.353 --> 00:11:42.703 Then Job spoke again. 00:11:43.543 --> 00:11:48.673 How you have helped the powerless, how you have saved the weak, how 00:11:48.673 --> 00:11:50.683 you have enlightened my stupidity. 00:11:51.373 --> 00:11:55.543 What wise advice you have offered, where have you gotten all these wise 00:11:55.543 --> 00:11:58.303 sayings, whose spirit speaks through you. 00:11:59.503 --> 00:12:00.613 The dead tremble. 00:12:01.063 --> 00:12:04.903 Those who live beneath the waters, the underworld is naked. 00:12:04.903 --> 00:12:08.683 In God's presence, the place of destruction is uncovered. 00:12:09.463 --> 00:12:14.503 God stretches the northern sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing. 00:12:15.163 --> 00:12:19.843 He wraps the rain in his thick clouds and the clouds don't burst with the 00:12:19.848 --> 00:12:24.733 weight he covers the face of the moon, shrouding it with his clouds. 00:12:25.333 --> 00:12:28.273 He created the horizon when he separated the waters. 00:12:28.618 --> 00:12:31.258 He set the boundary between day and night. 00:12:31.918 --> 00:12:34.168 The foundations of heaven tremble. 00:12:34.648 --> 00:12:37.678 They shudder at his rebuke by his power. 00:12:37.678 --> 00:12:40.378 The sea grew calm by his skill. 00:12:40.383 --> 00:12:42.358 He crushed the great sea monster. 00:12:43.138 --> 00:12:48.868 His spirit made the heavens beautiful and his power pierced the gliding serpent. 00:12:49.738 --> 00:12:54.238 These are just the beginning of all that he does merely a whisper of his power. 00:12:54.913 --> 00:12:58.513 Who then can comprehend the thunder of his power. 00:13:00.523 --> 00:13:03.373 This concludes today's Immer Reading experience. 00:13:03.523 --> 00:13:04.573 Thank you for joining us.