What I Noticed Today (Job 17-20)
Job 17
Job continues his response to his friends that began in Job 16.
There are three main sections to Job 17:
- In verses 1-5, Job’s spirit is broken, and his friends are mocking him. Using courtroom language, Job asks for someone to put up security on his behalf, but his friends have closed their minds and turned away from him.
- In verses 6-10, Job describes his grief at being made an object of scorn by God. A righteous man would be full of compassion, but his friends have rejected him.
- In verses 11-16, Job pleads for death. There is no hope; his days are past, and his plans destroyed, so he pleads for death to take him.
Job 18
Bildad opens his second speech in Job 18 with the same words he used in his first speech in Job 8.
There are two main sections to Job 18:
- In verses 1-4, irritability is building among Job’s friends and Job. His friends are frustrated that Job isn’t listening to their wisdom. Bildad says once again, the wicked do not prosper because God judges the wicked immediately. They are caught in their wickedness, the memory of them is removed from the earth, they have no progeny, and no one was surviving them to care. They are unrighteous.
- In verses 5-21, Bildad describes the wicked man whose lamp is put out. He uses three metaphors to describe a man trying to escape death; a net, a trap, and a snare. The wicked man cannot escape. He is physically spent. He has no dependents, and memory of him perishes. He is an unjust man who does not know God.
Job 19
Job responds in Job 19.
There are four sections to his response:
- Job 19:1-4. Job accuses his friends of tormenting him with insults.
- Job 19:5-12. Job also uses imagery to describe how God has come against him: closed his net around him, shouting for help but getting no justice, being fenced in surrounded by darkness.
- Job 19:13-22. Job describes the isolation he feels: his brothers are gone, those who know him are estranged from him, his relatives failed him, his friends had forgotten him, even his servants fail to answer him.
- Job 19:23-29. Job hopes that his words will be recorded because he wants people to remember the suffering he endured, for he says, he knows his redeemer lives!
Job 20
Zophar responds with his second speech to Job in Job 20. It is the same message that the wicked will suffer, so Job better repent of his sins. There are three main sections to Zophar’s speech:
- Job 20:4-11. Life is brief, says Zophar, for the wicked and godless. The wicked will perish like dung into the earth.
- Job 20:12-19. The pleasures of the wicked are fleeting. Evil is sweet but turns sour in the stomach. God casts them out of his belly. There will be no enjoyment from the fruit of the labors of the wicked.
- Job 20:20-29. Concluding, Zophar says death for the wicked will be painful. Darkness is the treasure of the wicked, the earth will rise up against him, and the possessions of his house will be carried away. This is the wicked man’s portion from God.
Some thoughts for additional consideration:
- Job’s friends keep coming at him with the same message: God punishes the wicked. If a person is enduring trials, it must mean that God is punishing them. Since God is just, any punishment, He deals out must be because the person has sin in their lives.
- Fearing God is a legitimate reason to obey God, but we must also recognize God’s grace and mercy in our lives. How fortunate that we have Jesus who washes away man’s sin so we can stand before God.
What did you notice in your study today? Feel free to visit the website and leave a question or a comment.
