06 June

Bible In 365 Days

Job 17-20                     

Job 17

Job was in the midst of difficulties. About him were mockers, none of whom understood him. He was become "a byword of the people." There was no "wise man." And yet he struggled through the unutterable darkness toward God's vindication. If that is not to come here, then let it come somewhere.

In all the movement of this great answer it would seem as though outlines of the truth were breaking upon Job. He was conscious of the action of God in his sorrows, of an adversary who followed him relentlessly and seemed to tear him pitilessly, even as a wild beast. Somehow, this adversary was connected with the action of God, and yet in the deepest of him Job knew that God was his Witness. His present trouble was that God did not appear for him. He had cried out, but the answer had not come. If he had a hope it was not evident, it could not be seen. He would go down to the dust.

And yet he seems to have got back to his original thought about death. It was rest. There was no clear shining of light, but one can well imagine how in the after-days he would come to recognize that these strivings of the soul and these passionate desires for divine defense were gleams even in the darkness.

Job 18

Bildad now returned to the charge, and as was the case with Eliphaz it is perfectly evident from his opening rebuke that he was speaking under a sense of annoyance. He was wounded at the wrongs done to himself and his friends in that Job had treated them as "beasts," as "unclean."

He was angry, moreover, because he considered that Job's attitude threatened the moral order with violence, and he reminded Job that stable things could not be changed for his sake.

He then plunged at once into an elaborate declaration that the wicked are punished. This punishment he described in great detail, and with much force. He first declared the preliminary experience of the wicked. His light is "put out." It is a graphic description. His own spirit, "the spark of his fire," does not shine; and the light without is extinguished. Therefore, his steps are straitened, and "his own counsel" destroys him. His pathway without light to death is portrayed. Lacking the light, he falls into all kinds of snares and traps. Following his death he becomes extinct so far as earth is concerned. "His remembrance" perishes. He is "chased out of the world." He leaves behind him no children to enter into his inheritance.

Finally, Bildad declared:

"Such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, And this is the place of him that knoweth not God".

The application is evident. He had described the circumstances through which Job had been passing as to all outward appearance; and finally said that such circumstances were those of the wicked.

Job 19

To this terrible accusation Job replied first with a rebuke and a complaint. He demanded how long they would vex him, and declared that if he had erred, his sin was his own. If they would continue, let them know that all his suffering was God's doing.

He then passed into a most terrible description of his condition. He cried for help, but had no answer from on high. As he found no answer in judgment from God, so he received no answer in pity from men.

It is out of the depth of this darkness that another &ash of light breaks. Conscious that in his own day he was misjudged and misunderstood, Job expressed a longing that the story could be so written as to make its appeal to the future. In this cry there is evidence of the underlying conviction of the man, that right must ultimately triumph. This deep conviction then expressed itself in words the profoundest value of which in all likelihood Job himself did not at the moment realize. He was certain that his Vindicator lived, that somewhere in the future He would come into the midst of earthly surroundings. This led him deeper yet, and he declared his assurance that even though the flesh be destroyed, without it he should see God, and that God would be on his side, for such is the meaning of, "Whom I shall see for myself."

It is impossible for us to read this without seeing how these almost unutterable convictions and strivings were fulfilled. The Vindicator came in the process of time, and His words were written, and human consciousness pronounces for Him today.

Job 20

With evident haste, Zophar replied. His speech is introduced with an apology for his haste and a confession of his anger. He had heard the reproof, but he was not convinced; and the spirit of his understanding prompted him to reply. His reply is like that of Bildad, but is characterized by even greater force and more terrible description.

He opened with a general declaration on the brevity of wickedness. This he argued by tracing the course of an imaginary person who is godless. In a passage thrilling with passion, he described the instability of evil gains. There is a triumph, but it is short. There is a mounting up, but it is succeeded by swift vanishing. There is a sense of youth, but it becomes dust. There is a sweetness, but it becomes remorse: a swallowing down which ends in vomiting, and receiving without rejoicing.

The reason for all this he then declared. The pathway has been one of oppression until the oppressed turned on the oppressor. The final nemesis is fearfully set forth. God turns on him, pursues him with the instruments of judgment. Darkness enwraps him. His sin is set in the light of the heavens, and earth rejects him. The speech ends, as in the case of Bildad, with an application. Throughout the description Job had evidently been in mind, and he is left to make the application.

Thus, in the second cycle the proposition made by each man with varying emphasis was that it is the wicked who suffer.