Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

Chapter twenty-nine is the start of Job’s last argument to his good friends. Naturally, it takes him three chapters. He starts by looking back at how great his life was. How blessed he was. The great family he had. From his youth he had served God and was honoured by the people around him. He had anticipated living his life and then dying in the middle of such great blessing. He longed for those days. For a return to the comfort of God’s blessing.

Chapter 30 is an exposition on how all of it had changed. He was mocked, not honoured. Had no possessions. Had lost his children. Had a bitter wife. Had friends who didn’t believe him. How even God had turned against him. In his godly life he had expected only good to come, but it seemed to him that only bad had.

Chapter thirty-one is a return to self-righteousness. An exposition about how he had kept himself from impurity. How he had treated his servants as equals. How he hadn’t mistreated anyone. He didn’t obsess over money. He kept himself pure because he rightly feared God’s judgment (We should be AWARE of the consequences of our actions/thoughts/words, but act from our LOVE of God not FEAR of Him. Fear opens the door to the devil’s interference in our lives, but again, God declared that wasn’t the case in THIS instance.). Again Job cried out for a mediator. Someone to appeal to. Someone to set the record straight. We have this in Jesus. Job ends by placing a curse on himself if he had done these sinful things, because he knew he was innocent of these sinful things. And he felt no one – not even God – was listening to him.

Summary

Key Players: God, Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, Elihu.

Key Verse(s): Job 29:2-6; 30:20-23; 31:1-8, 35-37