Devotions from Job

Passage Read: Job 1-4 Meditation Verses: 4:17-20 Eliphaz has seen a spirit, but I don't think this is an angel of God. This sounds like an accuser, possibly The Accuser, Satan himself. Where did this question about man being more righteous than God come from?…

Passage Read: Job 5-8 Meditation Verses: 7:17-21 Even Job thinks he must have sinned, but he has no idea what. So to him it seems that God is constantly watching and looking for his every mistake, for his slightest failure. He has been working so…

Passage Read: Job 9-12 Meditation Verse: 10:3 Job has worked hard to be righteous, so that he expects everything to go well for him. He has done everything he knows to do in order to satisfy God's requirements. So when this happens, he cannot understand.

Passage Read: Job 13-16 Meditation Verses: 13:23-24 Job wants to know what he's done wrong. He doesn't understand, he doesn't know what he did to provoke the Lord to bring such punishment upon him. His understanding only allowed him to believe that he has done…

Passage Read: Job 17-20 Meditation Verses: 19:21-22,25-26 In the midst of his grief, knowing that God has struck him but not understanding why, still Job knows that one day he will stand before God who will redeem him. He is very bitter in his soul,…

Passage Read: Job 21-24 Meditation Verses: 23:11-12 Eliphaz is tired of Job's complaining and claiming innocence, so now he makes wild accusations. Surely Job has done something wrong in order to incur this suffering from God! But here Job declares his innocence, and not just…

Passage Read: Job 25-28 Meditation Verses: 28:12-13 This is so true: Men do not understand the value of wisdom. It is far more precious that silver or gold or iron or bronze. Men risk their lives for such stones and trinkets, they spend all their…

Passage Read: Job 29-32 Meditation Verses: 31:13-15 Though Job owned slaves, he did not consider himself better than them. He recognized that he and they alike were human and made by God, so he treated them with dignity and respect. He considered carefully their complaints…

Passage Read: Job 33-36 Meditation Verses: 35:2-3 Elihu seems to be misrepresenting Job, twisting Job's words into something he didn't say. He is perhaps taking Job's words further than Job meant them, that the implication of Job's complaint was that he was more righteous than…

Passage Read: Job 37-40 Meditation Verse: 40:8 According to God, Job justified himself and in so doing he condemned God. When we are the focus of our attention, when we define everything by our comfort and joy, then we are setting ourselves up as rulers…

Passage Read: Job 1-4 Meditation Verses: 4:5-6 Wow! The first words in response to Job's expressed grief are, "Trouble comes to you and you are discouraged; it strikes you and you are dismayed." Does Eliphaz not understand what had happened to Job? Does he not…

Passage Read: Job 5-8 Meditation Verse: 8:4 Wow, that is brutal! To tell someone in such distress straight out that their children obviously sinned and God killed them in an instant for it, that is merciless. And where is God's mercy? Doesn't Bildad recognize the…

Passage Read: Job 9-12 Meditation Verses: 10:12-17 This is oppressive, to live under such a concept, that God is good to you until you mess up, then He pounces and pours out all kinds of trouble on you. There is a faithful discipline that He…

Passage Read: Job 13-16 Meditation Verses: 15:14-16 Wow! This is what we teach and believe today! There is no hope for man, he is utterly hopeless in his wickedness! But this isn't what Job says, these are the words of Eliphaz, who got God wrong!…

Passage Read: Job 17-20 Meditation Verses: 19:2-5 If Job's friends truly care about him, then they are driven by compassion to bring him to repentance, so that the Lord will forgive him and restore His favor to him. Surely they're not gloating over him! But…

Passage Read: Job 21-24 Meditation Verse: 24:1 Job is frustrated that wicked men seem to get along just fine and judgment doesn't come soon enough. He lists here all kinds of ways they get away with their evil, how they plot and carry out their…

Passage Read: Job 25-28 Meditation Verses: 28:3-4 Man goes through great and terrible effort to obtain precious gems and metals, but nowhere near the same effort to gain wisdom. Wisdom is not so difficult to find, but few seek it, because wisdom requires fearing the…

Passage Read: Job 29-32 Meditation Verses: 31:13-15 Job understood that though he had servants, yet he was no different from them. He understood that he too was a servant of God and would be judged by how he treated others, even his slaves. He owed…

Passage Read: Job 33-36 Meditation Verse: 36:13 Elihu is rougher on Job than any of Job's friends. He is brutal in his assessment of Job. Because of that he is far off the mark of understanding what Job is suffering and what God is doing.

Passage Read: Job 37-40 Meditation Verse: 37:13 Elihu, and then God, both indicate that God uses bad weather to discipline or bless men. So God's intent should be considered when bad weather happens. Good weather obviously is the result of His mercy and grace, since…

Passage Read: Job 41 - Psalm 2 Meditation Verse: Job 41:11 Our arrogance is that we think God owes us something, when in truth we owe Him everything. There is nothing He owes us but what He binds Himself to provide. We are His, and…

Passage Read: Job 1-4 Meditation Verses: 4:17-18 As a man who didn't stand in the presence of God, who doesn't know there Lord or see Him operate, it is understandable that Eliphaz wouldn't know if this were true or false, and so would have no…

Passage Read: Job 5-8 Meditation Verses: 8:2-6 Job's friends considered themselves very wise and knowledgeable, and they desired to help Job understand that he obviously had sinned in some major way to bring such wrath on himself. But anyone reading this knows that Job did…

Passage Read: Job 9-12 Meditation Verses: 9:19-24 Job understands that God is behind both the evil and the good. God prospers the wicked and blinds the wise. Job is in despair because he knows of no sin he has failed to atone for, and he…

Passage Read: Job 13-16 Meditation Verse: 13:12 It is easier and more comfortable to have a simple view of life and God and everything, especially if it assures me that I'm safe. But platitudes don't dig in to understand what is really going on, what…

Passage Read: Job 17-20 Meditation Verses: 19:21-22 Job's friends cannot believe he is innocent of wrongdoing. The tragedy and disaster that have befallen him can only be the hand of God and all creation set against him because of some terrible sin or many concealed…

Passage Read: Job 21-24 Meditation Verses: 21:19-21 This is what all of us desire, that the wicked are punished in this life, and that the righteous are rewarded in this life. We think like this life is all there is. We do not value or…

Passage Read: Job 25-28 Meditation Verses: 27:8-10 It is hard for a wicked man to repent at the end of his days. Though many plan to live his days in pursuit of his pleasures and submit to no one but himself, yet at the end…

Passage Read: Job 29-32 Meditation Verse: 31:23 Job's righteousness comes from his fear of God and awe at His majesty. He has a right view of God. He knows God is good, but also righteous and loving truth. He knows God is the maker of…

Passage Read: Job 33-36 Meditation Verse: 36:6 Elihu has the same simple view as everyone else, that God rescues the righteous, but the evil man perishes. God is only interested in rebuking the righteous, but if the righteous does not repent of their evil, the…

Passage Read: Job 37-40 Meditation Verse: 40:1-5 This is exactly what Job was afraid of, that God would terrify him with his greatness and he would loathe himself though originally innocent. But God is majestic and far more powerful than we understand. His compassion and…

Passage Read: Job 41 - Psalm 2 Meditation Verse: Job 42:7 Job repents in dust and ashes; he retracts his words, but then the Lord reveals that He is angry at Job's friends because they have not spoken what was right about the Lord as…