Job 24-25
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Job 24
Job 24
There is a large volume of scholarly debate about this chapter and the chapters in Job to the end of the book due to the difficulty of translating the ancient Hebrew language, the apparent inconsistency of the logic and speech we have become accustomed to by Job, the texts that have been damaged and reconstructed before translating for us today, and the tendency of translators to lean translations towards their own agendas.
Does this debate cause you concern in reading and studying scripture?
I believe that Francis L. Andersen in the Tyndale Old Testament Bible Commentaries gives us our best advice: ‘Be content with accepting the text as it stands in our version, and to do the best we can to interpret it.’ In other words, use the translation that speaks to you most clearly and to do your best to study it for God’s revelations while accepting the mysteries as motivation to continue studying.
Job 24:1 “Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why do those who know him never see his days?”
Why does God not establish set days or times for judging men’s conduct by assigning rewards and punishment to men as they may be deserved? Eliphaz and Job’s friends have been stating that the wicked are punished and the righteous are rewarded in this present life. Do you think this is true? Why or why not? Consider God’s gift of freedom of choice to us, Satan’s powers granted by God in this world, the curse of God on the world (the ‘ground’ as stated in Genesis) when Adam and Eve sinned creating the natural disasters with which we are familiar, and the occurrence of chance. For a better understanding of chance reference Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and in particular verse 11. All the inhabitants (man and beast) of the world will come to a common destiny: death.
24:2-25 What does Job agree with regarding his friend’s opinions? Verse 18: life is short. Verse 20: we generally are forgotten when we are gone from this world. Verse 20: unrighteousness will be judged. Verse 24: the righteous, the wicked, and all living things in this world die. What does Job disagree with regarding his friend’s opinions? That God immediately punishes the wicked or rewards the righteous and that suffering and calamities coming upon any person should be considered as proof that a person has sinned or is wicked.
The evils are listed:
Job 24:2-8 “The wicked displace boundary markers. They steal a flock and provide pasture for it. They drive away the donkeys owned by the fatherless and take the widow’s ox as collateral. They push the needy off the road; the poor of the land are forced into hiding. Like wild donkeys in the wilderness, the poor go out to their task of foraging for food; the desert provides nourishment for their children. They gather their fodder in the field and glean the vineyards of the wicked. Without clothing, they spend the night naked, having no covering against the cold. Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks, shelterless.”
The rich and powerful drive the poor and helpless from their homes leaving them to wander like animals eating whatever food they can find and sleeping under trees and rocks.
Job 24:9-12 “The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral. Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry sheaves but go hungry. They crush olives in their presses; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty. From the city, men groan; the mortally wounded cry for help, yet God pays no attention to this crime.”
The poor are subject to being enslaved yet God seemingly ignores their cries for help.
Job 24:13-17 “The wicked are those who rebel against the light. They do not recognize its ways or stay on its paths. The murderer rises at dawn to kill the poor and needy, and by night he becomes a thief. The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight, thinking, “No eye will see me,” and he covers his face. In the dark they break into houses; by day they lock themselves in, never experiencing the light. For the morning is like darkness to them. Surely they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!”
Wicked men act under the cover of darkness seemingly escaping from being punished.
Job 24:21-24 “They prey on the childless woman who is unable to conceive, and do not deal kindly with the widow. Yet God drags away the mighty by his power; when he rises up, they have no assurance of life. He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it, but his eyes watch over their ways. They are exalted for a moment, then gone; they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else. They wither like heads of grain.”
Job observes that God allows them to go on living in comfort and security and then their deaths are no different from the deaths of others.
As children of God what command has He given to us and why? Can you find a reference to believers as ‘Children of light?’
Job 25
Job 25
Here is the last time we hear from the three. I get the impression that by this point Bildad is fed up with the conversation. He makes one last attempt at proving some kind of wickedness within Job.
Job 25:1-6 “Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: Dominion and dread belong to him, the one who establishes harmony in his heights. Can his troops be numbered? Does his light not shine on everyone? How can a human be justified before God? How can one born of woman be pure? If even the moon does not shine and the stars are not pure in his sight, how much less a human, who is a maggot, a son of man, who is a worm!”
This seems to be a very negative response from Bildad. Do you agree?
What change do you see that makes it less negative? Hint: God is not subject to human limitations. See verse 25:5 compared to Genesis 1:31. God contradicts Bildad’s statement that the stars are not pure and further says in Job 42:7 ‘that Job’s friends had not spoken of God the things that were right.’
Meredith G. Kline gives us a commentary that perhaps is sufficient to summarize this chapter: ‘Bildad avoids Job’s challenge in the last verse of [chapter 24. Bildad] repeats some of Eliphaz’ earlier remarks (Job 4:17ff and Job 15:ff). This inept repetition by Bildad indicates that Job’s philosophical friends have exhausted their resources of wisdom. Bildad’s brief and feeble effort represents their expiring breath. Zophar’s subsequent failure to speak is the silence of the vanquished.’