August 25

Job 16:1-19:29; 1 Corinthians 16:1-24; Psalm 40:1-10; Proverbs 22:1

I thought I’d try my hand today at one of those “observation” posts that Sarah likes to do, which I think are always so interesting. Here we go!

Thoughts:

*Job says in Job 16:2, “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all,” and while I certainly can understand why he feels that way, I’ve always felt a little like Job’s friends get a bad rap. Did you notice the very first thing they do? Remember from August 21 – “They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great” (2:13). I mean, that’s pretty impressive. I don’t know that I could sit with a friend in grief for seven days and seven nights (especially without a word!). And when they do finally speak to Job, they are just speaking from what they know. At this time in history, if tragedy struck someone, it was commonly assumed there was some sin issue (we see this still at play even at the time of Christ, when his disciples ask Jesus about the man born blind, whether he sinned or his parents sinned – see John 9:2). So I feel like we can’t really blame Job’s friends – it seems like they were doing the best they could. True, they were wrong; but it doesn’t seem like they were malicious.

*This is probably obvious, but are you noticing how much of the book of Job is poetry? Because we can’t see the poetic pattern in our English translation (from Hebrew), our Bible translators help us know that it’s poetry by putting it in indented formatting. But the language speaks poetically for itself too; look at this sentence from today’s reading: “My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth” (Job 19:20). Pretty descriptive stuff!

*I love the exhortation in Paul’s writing to give generously to those in need – “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up” (1 Cor. 16:2). Paul doesn’t say “if you can;” he doesn’t say “for those of you who are wealthy;” he doesn’t say “at the end of the week if you have something left over.” No, he says on the first day and he says each of you.

*There are lots of wonderful verses in today’s psalm and I don’t need to retype them all here for you, so I’ll just chose one – “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD” (Ps. 40: 3). Beautiful!

*I like our Proverbs reading today, too. We have 3 children, with the hope of one more someday, and we have taken our naming responsibility very seriously.

That’s all for me, folks!

- Esther McCurry

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