Job 19-21
Day 10: Job 19-21 Notes & Takeaways
In chapter 19 we see that Job is tired of hearing his friends crush him with words (Job 19:2) They continue to come at him shamelessly and instead of bringing him comfort they bring him more suffering. He turns around their own analogies of traps and nets that signify the sin they believed he had, to say that the Lord is the one who drew His net around Job (Job 19:6)
He is begging for them to stop the attacks on him, the violence they ensue through their words, and he tries to gain sympathy by letting them know how awful and humiliated he’s been. Verses 13-19 shows us that even his family and relatives have gone away because they find him loathsome, that friends detest him, people scorn him and that he is nothing but skin and bones. But, even then, he gains no sympathy from them.
It makes my heart happy that although he is suffering in body and spirit, he keeps his eyes on Jesus. Job 19:26-27 shows us how we should live lives that yearn to see Jesus. For one day, we will be united with him for eternity (Jude 1:20-21).
Zophar’s hurtful reply is shown in chapter 20. In Job 20:3 he says that he must reply, which reminded me of Luke 6:45, “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” We see that only judgment and anger comes from Zophar’s lips and therefore shows the character of his heart. He goes on to explain in verses 10-22 the miserable condition of the wicked man in this world, which he believes Job to be. He also continues in verse 23-29 to describe how they come to ruin. He tries to explain to Job that only the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer God’s judgment. This is the kind of thinking we should turn away from (1 Timothy 6:5).
But Job replies in chapter 21 stating that he wishes for them to listen carefully to his words before they continue to mock him. He realizes that they don’t take him seriously at all. They’ve made up their mind about Job and he can’t say anything to change it, but he continues to try anyway.
In Job 21:7-21 he tries to show his friends that the wicked don’t always suffer that sometimes, they are the ones that prosper. He says that they grow old and prosper that they and their children are established, that they are free from fear and so are their homes. Even when people try to talk to them about God they say, “Leave us alone! We have no desire to know you ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?” (Job 21:14-15) Does this sound like any unbelievers you know?
This reminds me of the psalmist David in Psalm 73:2-14. David talks about how he almost stumbled in his faith, he almost tripped when he saw how the wicked prospered, how they had no struggles, and their bodies were always strong and healthy. Which goes to show that Job, is in fact, correct. Just because someone suffers, does not mean that they are wicked, and just because we are righteous before God, doesn’t mean we will always prosper. In fact, in John 16:33 Jesus tells us that “in this world you will have trouble, but take heart for I have overcome the world.”
In Psalm 73:16-17 David stated that his heart was troubled trying to understand all of this until he entered the sanctuary of God, then he understood the wicked’s final destiny. Job concurs with David in Job 21:18, he says, “How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale? The chaff is the husk surrounding a seed, the part of the grain that is generally thrown away.
At first I didn’t understand this statement, but my father, who grew up on a farm said that when they would pull the corn and grain from the ground they’d place it in potato sack bags and that they would shake them so that all the chaff (all the worthless husk around the seed) would fall out of the bag onto the ground. It was then easily blown away by the wind and only the good remained. That is how the wicked will be. They will be separated from those that are good and swept away to live eternity without the Lord. What we must note is that David must’ve been well acquainted with Job’s book because in Psalm 1:4 he repeats the same words, “Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.”
Tomorrow we move on to chapters 22-24 in Job. We will finish Job and come back to where we left off in Genesis on January 18. I hope you’re learning a lot and enjoying it all at the same time! Make sure to follow RF on Instagram, and join our FB Group to stay up to date for our upcoming weekly zoom sessions!
