Job 21-23

Day something......where ARE we???  

we've had company all weekend..... and I inherited a kid for 3 days and added a niece to the mix to go with the inherited kid!!!   My best friend from college and her family came down.....they have 2 kids....one old enough to get to stay a few days longer when mom and dad went home.  THAT's the inherited kid.  She'll go back to Tulsa on Wednesday.  I've promised a manicure and riding a horse.  Can't beat that.  Plus...the best part...she's VERY HELPFUL!!! She's great with JJ and Hannalee....she's carried her around on her hip since Saturday.  Then Kyra, a niece who lives here in Elk, get to spend the night because she and Katie were having fun.  At 12:45am, after hearing the fridge door, I went upstairs to tell them to turn the TV and lights off.  I found them this morning on the couch downstairs!! They got cold!!  They didn't put two and two together that the same vents they had to open because they were hot, would help them if they got too cold.  Funny.  I cleaned up the sheets and "bed" up there this morning......found 15 jolly rancher wrappers and a small bag of cheetos!! hahahahahaha! They had fun!!

Now to Job...who isn't having fun.   :)  Well, I just can't  back track the 2 days I've missed, so fast forward with me to chapters 21-23.  :)  

chapter 21  So Job's friends and their speeches have had one theme and one theme only:  the fate of wicked!! Some friends!!  Job didn't reply to their speeches and to their claims but pursued the theme of God's violence against him. Now however, in his final speech, Job addresses the cumulative arguments of the friends concerning the fate of the wicked.  Job's speech is a simple one.  He introduces his words  by asking, sacrastically, for a hearing granting the friends permission to mock him!!!  Job recognizes the radical nature of what he is about to say...not only will it shock his friends, but the thought of it is also enough to terrify Job himself!  

Chapter 22  from here until chapter 27 this will be the 3rd cycle of speeches.....round three! Ding!  :)  Eliphaz would rather invent sins for Job than allow that his own view might be inadequate.  He sticks to the same stubborn line of argument.  Job is in the wrong.  (now don't forget....we know that God knows what is going on.....NONE of them do!  God is allowing, in a conversation "off stage", for Satan to test and try Job).  Job ahd though to hide his sins from God.  Let him makes peace with God, put away his sin, and all will be well again.   

Chapter 23  Again Job responds to Eliphaz and there are many grammatical difficulties here:  from obscurities to wicked talk!  Job's speech has a note of bitter defiance.  He has not betrayed his community or even his God.....and he will NOT betray himself.  Job insists that he is innocent and has integrity.   Whereas Eliphaz had advised tJob to seek God through prayer, repentance, and submission, Job seeks the resolution of a trial.  Job's confidence is checked by his inability to find God......but he knows that God is his integrity.  Where is your integrity?   Place it in God and all will be well!  

tomorrow:  chapters 24-28