JOB 16-20 Observations

CHAPTER 16

Job Says Friends Are Sorry Comforters

· Job 16:1 - 5 (NASB) ¹Then Job answered, ² “I have heard many such things; Sorry comforters are you all.

o COMMENT: Very blunt but true.

o PRAYER: God may I have the boldness, yet graciousness, to speak truth like this.

· ³ “Is there no limit to windy words?

o COMMENT: Again, very blunt but true.

· Or what plagues you that you answer?

· ⁴ “I too could speak like you,

· If I were in your place. I could compose words against you

· And shake my head at you.

· ⁵ “I could strengthen you with my mouth, And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.

o COMMENT: Job did a better job of analyzing his counselors than they did analyzing him.

Job Says God Shattered Him

· Job 16:6 - 22 (NASB) ⁶ “If I speak, my pain is not lessened, And if I hold back, what has left me? ⁷ “But now He has exhausted me;

· You have laid waste all my company.

· ⁸ “You have shriveled me up, It has become a witness; And my leanness rises up against me, It testifies to my face.

· ⁹ “His anger has torn me and hunted me down,

· He has gnashed at me with His teeth;

o My adversary glares at me.

o ¹⁰ “They have gaped at me with their mouth,

o They have slapped me on the cheek with contempt;

o They have massed themselves against me.

· ¹¹ “God hands me over to ruffians And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.

· ¹² “I was at ease, but He shattered me,

· And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces;

· He has also set me up as His target.

· ¹³ “His arrows surround me.

· Without mercy He splits my kidneys open;

· He pours out my gall on the ground.

· ¹⁴ “He breaks through me with breach after breach;

· He runs at me like a warrior.

o ¹⁵ “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin

o And thrust my horn in the dust.

o ¹⁶ “My face is flushed from weeping,

o And deep darkness is on my eyelids,

o ¹⁷ Although there is no violence in my hands,

o And my prayer is pure.

o ¹⁸ “O earth, do not cover my blood,

o And let there be no resting place for my cry.

o ¹⁹ “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,

o And my advocate is on high.

o ²⁰ “My friends are my scoffers;

o My eye weeps to God.

o ²¹ “O that a man might plead with God

o As a man with his neighbor!

o ²² “For when a few years are past,

o I shall go the way of no return.

CHAPTER 17

Job Says He Has Become a Byword

· Job 17:1 - 16 (NASB) ¹ “My spirit is broken,

· my days are extinguished,

· The grave is ready for me.

· ² “Surely mockers are with me,

· And my eye gazes on their provocation.

o ³ “Lay down, now, a pledge for me with Yourself;

o Who is there that will be my guarantor?

o ⁴ “For You have kept their heart from understanding,

o Therefore You will not exalt them.

o ⁵ “He who informs against friends for a share of the spoil, The eyes of his children also will languish.

o ⁶ “But He has made me a byword of the people, And I am one at whom men spit.

· ⁷ “My eye has also grown dim because of grief,

· And all my members are as a shadow.

· ⁸ “The upright will be appalled at this,

· And the innocent will stir up himself against the godless.

· ⁹ “Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way,

· And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

o COMMENT: This is strong encouragement for one going through deep waters.

o QUESTION: Why did Job’s counselors not give this kind of counsel?

· ¹⁰ “But come again all of you now, For I do not find a wise man among you. ¹¹ “My days are past, my plans are torn apart, Even the wishes of my heart. ¹² “They make night into day, saying, ‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness. ¹³ “If I look for Sheol as my home, I make my bed in the darkness; ¹⁴ If I call to the pit, ‘You are my father’; To the worm, ‘my mother and my sister’; ¹⁵ Where now is my hope?

o COMMENT: Job is expressing the lack of hope he has.

o QUESTION: Why did Job’s counselors not provide him some hope…he desperately needed hope.

· And who regards my hope? ¹⁶ “Will it go down with me to Sheol? Shall we together go down into the dust?”

CHAPTER 18

Bildad Speaks of the Wicked

· Job 18:1 - 21 (NASB) ¹Then Bildad the Shuhite responded,

· ² “How long will you hunt for words?

· Show understanding and then we can talk.

o COMMENT: Bildad really shows lack of understanding…how can he make this kind of comment when Job is in the middle of what he is going through. Job needed encouragement, hope, strength…not this kind of dribble.

· Q. ³ “Why are we regarded as beasts, As stupid in your eyes?

o ⁴ “O you who tear yourself in your anger— For your sake is the earth to be abandoned, Or the rock to be moved from its place?

o ⁵ “Indeed, the light of the wicked goes out, And the flame of his fire gives no light.

o ⁶ “The light in his tent is darkened, And his lamp goes out above him.

o ⁷ “His vigorous stride is shortened, And his own scheme brings him down.

o ⁸ “For he is thrown into the net by his own feet, And he steps on the webbing.

o ⁹ “A snare seizes him by the heel, And a trap snaps shut on him.

o ¹⁰ “A noose for him is hidden in the ground, And a trap for him on the path. ¹¹ “All around terrors frighten him, And harry him at every step. ¹² “His strength is famished, And calamity is ready at his side. ¹³ “His skin is devoured by disease, The firstborn of death devours his limbs. ¹⁴ “He is torn from the security of his tent, And they march him before the king of terrors. ¹⁵ “There dwells in his tent nothing of his; Brimstone is scattered on his habitation. ¹⁶ “His roots are dried below, And his branch is cut off above. ¹⁷ “Memory of him perishes from the earth, And he has no name abroad. ¹⁸ “He is driven from light into darkness, And chased from the inhabited world. ¹⁹ “He has no offspring or posterity among his people, Nor any survivor where he sojourned. ²⁰ “Those in the west are appalled at his fate, And those in the east are seized with horror. ²¹ “Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, And this is the place of him who does not know God.”

· COMMENT: Bildad generalizes about the wicked…and by implication, puts Job in this category.

CHAPTER 19

Job Feels Insulted

· Job 19:1 - 6 (NASB) ¹Then Job responded,

· Q. ² “How long will you torment me

o COMMENT: Job pleads with them for some relief

· Q. And crush me with words?

· ³ “These ten times you have insulted me;

· You are not ashamed to wrong me.

o COMMENT: Job tells them they have insulted him and showed no shame in wronging him.

· ⁴ “Even if I have truly erred,

· My error lodges with me.

· ⁵ “If indeed you vaunt yourselves against me

o And prove my disgrace to me,

· ⁶ Know then that God has wronged me

o And has closed His net around me.

Everything Is against Him

· Job 19:7 - 22 (NASB) ⁷ “Behold,

o I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;

o I shout for help, but there is no justice.

· ⁸ “He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,

· And He has put darkness on my paths.

· ⁹ “He has stripped my honor from me

o And removed the crown from my head.

· ¹⁰ “He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;

o And He has uprooted my hope like a tree.

· ¹¹ “He has also kindled His anger against me

o And considered me as His enemy.

· ¹² “His troops come together,

o And build up their way against me

o And camp around my tent.

· ¹³ “He has removed my brothers far from me,

o And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

o ¹⁴ “My relatives have failed,

o And my intimate friends have forgotten me.

o ¹⁵ “Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am a foreigner in their sight.

o ¹⁶ “I call to my servant, but he does not answer;

o I have to implore him with my mouth.

o ¹⁷ “My breath is offensive to my wife,

§ And I am loathsome to my own brothers.

o ¹⁸ “Even young children despise me;

§ I rise up and they speak against me. ¹⁹ “All my associates abhor me, ‘

o And those I love have turned against me.

o ²⁰ “My bone clings to my skin and my flesh,

§ And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.

o ²¹ “Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,

o For the hand of God has struck me.

o Q. ²² “Why do you persecute me as God does,

§ And are not satisfied with my flesh?

Job Says, “My Redeemer Lives”

· Job 19:23 - 29 (NASB) ²³ “Oh that my words were written!

· Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

· ²⁴ “That with an iron stylus and lead

o They were engraved in the rock forever!

· ²⁵ “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,

· And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.

· ²⁶ “Even after my skin is destroyed,

o Yet from my flesh I shall see God;

· ²⁷ Whom I myself shall behold,

o And whom my eyes will see and not another.

o My heart faints within me!

· ²⁸ “If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’

o And ‘What pretext for a case against him can we find?’

· ²⁹ “Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves,

o For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

o So that you may know there is judgment.”

CHAPTER 20

Zophar Says, “The Triumph of the Wicked Is Short”

· Job 20:1 - 29 (NASB) ¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered, ² …. ³ “I listened to the reproof which insults me, And the spirit of my understanding makes me answer.

· ⁴ “Do you know this from of old, From the establishment of man on earth,

· ⁵ That the triumphing of the wicked is short, And the joy of the godless momentary? ⁶ “Though his loftiness reaches the heavens, And his head touches the clouds,

o COMMENT: Zophar clearly didn’t hear what Job was saying

· ⁷ He perishes forever like his refuse;

o COMMENT: Zophar is really telling Job he is like his refuse. Wow…what a low blow to someone going through what Job is going through!!

· Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ ⁸ “He flies away like a dream, and they cannot find him; Even like a vision of the night he is chased away. ⁹ “The eye which saw him sees him no longer, And his place no longer beholds him. ¹⁰ “His sons favor the poor, And his hands give back his wealth. ¹¹ “His bones are full of his youthful vigor, But it lies down with him in the dust. ¹² “Though evil is sweet in his mouth And he hides it under his tongue, ¹³ Though he desires it and will not let it go, But holds it in his mouth, ¹⁴ Yet his food in his stomach is changed To the venom of cobras within him. ¹⁵ “He swallows riches, But will vomit them up; God will expel them from his belly. ¹⁶ “He sucks the poison of cobras; The viper’s tongue slays him. ¹⁷ “He does not look at the streams, The rivers flowing with honey and curds. ¹⁸ “He returns what he has attained And cannot swallow it; As to the riches of his trading, He cannot even enjoy them. ¹⁹ “For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor; He has seized a house which he has not built. ²⁰ “Because he knew no quiet within him, He does not retain anything he desires. ²¹ “Nothing remains for him to devour, Therefore his prosperity does not endure.

o COMMENT: Zophar just cannot stop piling up verbal burdens on Job. This counsel is unconscionable.

· ²² “In the fullness of his plenty he will be cramped; The hand of everyone who suffers will come against him. ²³ “When he fills his belly, God will send His fierce anger on him And will rain it on him while he is eating. ²⁴ “He may flee from the iron weapon, But the bronze bow will pierce him. ²⁵ “It is drawn forth and comes out of his back, Even the glittering point from his gall. Terrors come upon him, ²⁶ Complete darkness is held in reserve for his treasures, And unfanned fire will devour him; It will consume the survivor in his tent. ²⁷ “The heavens will reveal his iniquity, And the earth will rise up against him. ²⁸ “The increase of his house will depart; His possessions will flow away in the day of His anger. ²⁹ “This is the wicked man’s portion from God, Even the heritage decreed to him by God.”

o COMMENT: Thus Zophar unloads his verbal barrage at Job. How insensitive.