Chapter 29

Chapter title in my Bible app is "Job's Summary Defense"

Job wishes for the old days, when God was his friend, when his kids were around him, when things were going well.

Job describes the things he used to do, giving advice, helping the poor, the widows, and strangers.  He was a good man, he was very respected by even the highest ranking officials of the town, and he had previously been doing a lot of good in his community.  This too stopped when Satan was given free reign.  God didn't just give Job over, God had used Job to provide for many others, and God let all that stop also to make his point with Satan.  So it was a big deal. 

These verses are part of Job's statement:

14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. [Job 29:14 ESV]

16 I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. [Job 29:16 ESV]

21 "Men listened to me and waited and kept silence for my counsel. [Job 29:21 ESV]

It is important to note that though Job took it all personally, many others were suffering with him, though it was not his rich friends.  It was those who were dependent on him previously, who may well have been praying for his recovery.  He was not alone, though he felt as though he was.

And also, God's purposes are bigger than ours.  Sometimes we can understand, or at least there is some aspect of the situation that we can settle on that convinces us we see both the cause and the effect.  But when we cannot, God does have a purpose.  Even if that purpose is that some disease unleashed at the fall found it's way into our circle, the fall was a consequence.  Though we were not there, we are born into that consequence, and like Job, we are all far enough from sinless to deserve death.

2024 - As I see this chapter now, I think of the phrase "bearing fruit".  I think of how, though the saved, the good works of Christ continue.  What is that NT verse....10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. [Eph 2:10 ESV].  Job says that before all this happened, through him justice was injected into the world - at least into his small part of the world.  Wisdom that could never be purchased was distributed to all.  God uses His own to make the world a better place than it would otherwise be.  I have posted about it before.  How do you ever weigh the good that comes into the world through the followers of Christ?  The small little things that change the way people perceive the world around them, the things that "restore our faith in humanity", or in this country?  Where do these things come from?  Are they really sourced in some internal human way of thinking and doing?  Or are they all God working through people - sometimes even the most unlikely people - to remind us of what it SHOULD be like all the time and in every place, and of what it WILL be like for those that trust in him.