Job 40:1-24
In verse 14, God seemed to contradict Himself. God had made Job realize that He had saved him by His grace, grace being wholly a gift of God which He bestows on those who repent and put their faith in Christ while still alive in the flesh. Ephesians 2:8-9. But God told Job in this verse that "thine own right hand can save thee." God seemed to be telling Job that even if He had not saved him by His grace, He would still have saved Job by the righteousness which He put into Job when He created him. The phrase "right hand" symbolized a righteousness which Job already possessed. God will save all of humanity within the regions of the dead with a lesser form of salvation by causing them to return of their own free will to faith in Christ as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14. God called Job a "perfect man" because he assiduously adhered to the righteousness that God had put into His image in him. God will resurrect all of His living images of Himself from the dead for Him to recreate to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 21:1-5.
Humans saved by grace will enjoy God's highest form of salvation which constitutes cleansing of all their sins by the blood of Jesus and the absolute righteousness of Christ given to their hearts by which God will accept them to live in heaven with Him forever. II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:14-17. The rest of humanity will enjoy a lesser form of salvation. God will raise all of His living images from the dead as recorded in Revelation 20:5 and recreate them to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 21:1-5. God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:36.
Revelation 22:11-12 records that God will effect an absolute separation of all that is holy and good from all that is filthy and evil in the end of the world. Verse 12 teaches that God will provide a positive reward for the good works of every living human whom He raises from the dead. According to Romans 2:6-11, God can only give positive rewards for the good works of every living person, never negative ones. Negative rewards, such as a cooler place in hell, cannot be rewards at all. God will resurrect and recreate all living humans from the regions of the dead and provide them with positive rewards for their good works. In other words, their "own right hand" will save them. Job 40:14.
In the rest of this chapter, God described to Job a creature He called a "behemoth." God described this creature as being so big and powerful that it can do whatever it desires. God informed Job that He made this creature to be "the chief of the ways of God." Mankind happens to be God's greatest creation, but He used the behemoth to be a symbol of His own ways; that is, that God has all power to do whatever He wants at any time. God simply gave Job a simple illustration that Job could understand. God wanted Job to know that if the behemoth can do whatever it desires, then certainly God could save Job forever by any means He desired.
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Commentary on the Book of Job part one hundred four
Job 40:1-24
In Job 40:1-2, God asked Job a question that He had designed to bring Job to the pinnacle of faith that God desired for him. God's question cornered Job. God's question caused Job to realize that he could not avoid the fact that his doubts about God's revelations and judgments to him had the effect of his having a lack of faith in an Almighty and Omniscient God. After all, God possessed the superior position and Job the inferior. God had the right to question Job, but Job had no right to question God's revelations and judgments.
Job's answer to God in verses three through five demonstrated that God's question had succeeded in bringing Job to the pinnacle of faith. Job realized that a Holy and Almighty God must be right in all of His revelations and judgments, and this knowledge caused Job to repent for being a vile sinner in God's Holy presence. All persons who become saved by God's grace will be brought by the Holy Spirit to this pinnacle of faith where they repent of their sins and put their faith in Christ alone who can cleanse them of their sins and reconcile them to the Father forever. John 16:7-11; I Corinthians 6:11. Job further realized that he could no longer doubt or question God's revelation to him that He had provided Job with a Redeemer who would save him forever, or God's judgment that He would sanctify Job and purify him like gold. Job 19:25-27; Job 23:10. Job could have confidence in God that should he doubt in the future, God would bring him to repentance again.
In Job 40:6-10, God again demanded that Job stand on his feet and look God in the eye and be proud of himself as a newfound child of God. God then asked Job questions that would make Job realize that God's judgments are absolute. No one can annul them or get around them. God had made Job His child forever, and Job must simply accept that fact.
In verse ten, God informed Job that as His child, Job now had the right to hold his head high and act like royalty. God had made Job an excellent and majestic human who could "array thyself with glory and beauty." God takes pride in His children, and He desires that His children take pride in being His children.
In Job 40:11-12, God taught Job the difference between the right kind of pride and the wrong kind. God created pride which means it can be used in a righteous way. God desires that His children be proud of their royalty but checked by their humility toward God and their fear of God. God's children must never be wrathful towards sinners because only God has the right to be wrathful. But God does give His children the right to be wrathful toward evil itself. Romans 13:1-4.
God also gives His children the right to abase the proud which means that God's children should preach to sinners that they must humble themselves to God and repent in order to be saved. Pride itself is not the problem. The problem is that sinners, like Lucifer did, often adopt a false system called "excessive pride." They come to believe that they no longer need God which causes them to refuse to repent and humble themselves to God. God can handle sin if the sinner repents. But excessive pride leads to total evil and spiritual death which Christ will cast into the lake of fire in the end of the world. Revelation 20:11-15.
In Job 40:1-2, God asked Job a question that He had designed to bring Job to the pinnacle of faith that God desired for him. God's question cornered Job. God's question caused Job to realize that he could not avoid the fact that his doubts about God's revelations and judgments to him had the effect of his having a lack of faith in an Almighty and Omniscient God. After all, God possessed the superior position and Job the inferior. God had the right to question Job, but Job had no right to question God's revelations and judgments.
Job's answer to God in verses three through five demonstrated that God's question had succeeded in bringing Job to the pinnacle of faith. Job realized that a Holy and Almighty God must be right in all of His revelations and judgments, and this knowledge caused Job to repent for being a vile sinner in God's Holy presence. All persons who become saved by God's grace will be brought by the Holy Spirit to this pinnacle of faith where they repent of their sins and put their faith in Christ alone who can cleanse them of their sins and reconcile them to the Father forever. John 16:7-11; I Corinthians 6:11. Job further realized that he could no longer doubt or question God's revelation to him that He had provided Job with a Redeemer who would save him forever, or God's judgment that He would sanctify Job and purify him like gold. Job 19:25-27; Job 23:10. Job could have confidence in God that should he doubt in the future, God would bring him to repentance again.
In Job 40:6-10, God again demanded that Job stand on his feet and look God in the eye and be proud of himself as a newfound child of God. God then asked Job questions that would make Job realize that God's judgments are absolute. No one can annul them or get around them. God had made Job His child forever, and Job must simply accept that fact.
In verse ten, God informed Job that as His child, Job now had the right to hold his head high and act like royalty. God had made Job an excellent and majestic human who could "array thyself with glory and beauty." God takes pride in His children, and He desires that His children take pride in being His children.
In Job 40:11-12, God taught Job the difference between the right kind of pride and the wrong kind. God created pride which means it can be used in a righteous way. God desires that His children be proud of their royalty but checked by their humility toward God and their fear of God. God's children must never be wrathful towards sinners because only God has the right to be wrathful. But God does give His children the right to be wrathful toward evil itself. Romans 13:1-4.
God also gives His children the right to abase the proud which means that God's children should preach to sinners that they must humble themselves to God and repent in order to be saved. Pride itself is not the problem. The problem is that sinners, like Lucifer did, often adopt a false system called "excessive pride." They come to believe that they no longer need God which causes them to refuse to repent and humble themselves to God. God can handle sin if the sinner repents. But excessive pride leads to total evil and spiritual death which Christ will cast into the lake of fire in the end of the world. Revelation 20:11-15.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Commentary on the Book of Job part one hundred three
Job 39:1-30
In this chapter, God continued to fire questions at Job, the answers of which would be obvious to Job. God meant to reassure Job that He is Almighty, that He is the creator and sustainer of all life. God wanted to bring Job to a pinnacle of faith in Him that not only did God create Job's life, but that He could sustain his life forever with Him. God seemed to feel that Job held back on coming to a state of complete trust in Him as his friend forever. God desired that Job would arrive at a state of absolute trust in Him as his forever friend and Savior.
In this chapter, God continued to fire questions at Job, the answers of which would be obvious to Job. God meant to reassure Job that He is Almighty, that He is the creator and sustainer of all life. God wanted to bring Job to a pinnacle of faith in Him that not only did God create Job's life, but that He could sustain his life forever with Him. God seemed to feel that Job held back on coming to a state of complete trust in Him as his friend forever. God desired that Job would arrive at a state of absolute trust in Him as his forever friend and Savior.
Monday, November 18, 2019
Commentary on the Book of Job part one hundred two
Job 38:1-41
In Job 38:12-13, God spoke of the "dayspring" as being a person. In the Hebrew, and in the Greek in Luke 1:78, this word means the rising of the sun. Zacharias prophesied that his son, John the Baptist, would reveal the "dayspring" who would be Jesus "the light of the world." Certainly, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God sent His Light into the world to save the world. John 1:6-10. John 1:9 teaches that this Light will provide light to every human who would ever be born. This revelation can only mean that God will provide some form of salvation for all living humans. The being of every human contains a living part created by God which He can never lose, and a evil and dead part injected into every human by the Devil. In the end of the world, God will use His consuming fire to separate and recover every living image of Himself within the regions of the dead to be recreated, and He will cast the evil and dead part of these humans into the everlasting lake of fire. Luke 20:38; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5.
In Job 38:12-13, God provided Job with a prophecy that this "dayspring," meaning the Messiah, would one day take complete control of the earth and shake all of the wicked out of it. The word "shaken" in the Hebrew, as well as in the Greek in Hebrews 12:25-27, means to agitate something, like flour in a sieve, to separate all that is good in it from all of its impurities. As verse 15 teaches, these wicked possess no light whatsoever. They can only be totally evil. Job's prophecy meant that one day in the future, the Messiah will absolutely and completely separate all the goodness that God has created, including His living images in every human, from all of the total evil within each one of their beings. Christ will one day fulfill this prophecy by raising all of His living images from the regions of the dead as recorded in Revelation 20:5, and casting all of the dead, who are totally evil, into the everlasting lake of fire as recorded in Revelation 20:11-15. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38.
In Job 38:17, God answered Job's doubts and despair that he displayed in Job 7:20-21 and in Job 10:20-22. In those moments of doubt and despair, Job thought that when he died, he would be forever separated from God and go to a place of absolute darkness and nothingness which God calls the bottomless pit. But the answers to God's questions to Job in verse 17 were obvious to Job. God made Job know that God, his Savior and friend, would never allow him to even see the bottomless pit. Job realized within himself that God had saved him by His grace forever.
By God's question to Job in verse 36, He made Job understand that God had put some wisdom into Job's living image when He created him. But God also made Job realize that his Redeemer had given him additional wisdom and understanding about God when He saved Job by His grace.
In Job 38:12-13, God spoke of the "dayspring" as being a person. In the Hebrew, and in the Greek in Luke 1:78, this word means the rising of the sun. Zacharias prophesied that his son, John the Baptist, would reveal the "dayspring" who would be Jesus "the light of the world." Certainly, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God sent His Light into the world to save the world. John 1:6-10. John 1:9 teaches that this Light will provide light to every human who would ever be born. This revelation can only mean that God will provide some form of salvation for all living humans. The being of every human contains a living part created by God which He can never lose, and a evil and dead part injected into every human by the Devil. In the end of the world, God will use His consuming fire to separate and recover every living image of Himself within the regions of the dead to be recreated, and He will cast the evil and dead part of these humans into the everlasting lake of fire. Luke 20:38; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5.
In Job 38:12-13, God provided Job with a prophecy that this "dayspring," meaning the Messiah, would one day take complete control of the earth and shake all of the wicked out of it. The word "shaken" in the Hebrew, as well as in the Greek in Hebrews 12:25-27, means to agitate something, like flour in a sieve, to separate all that is good in it from all of its impurities. As verse 15 teaches, these wicked possess no light whatsoever. They can only be totally evil. Job's prophecy meant that one day in the future, the Messiah will absolutely and completely separate all the goodness that God has created, including His living images in every human, from all of the total evil within each one of their beings. Christ will one day fulfill this prophecy by raising all of His living images from the regions of the dead as recorded in Revelation 20:5, and casting all of the dead, who are totally evil, into the everlasting lake of fire as recorded in Revelation 20:11-15. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38.
In Job 38:17, God answered Job's doubts and despair that he displayed in Job 7:20-21 and in Job 10:20-22. In those moments of doubt and despair, Job thought that when he died, he would be forever separated from God and go to a place of absolute darkness and nothingness which God calls the bottomless pit. But the answers to God's questions to Job in verse 17 were obvious to Job. God made Job know that God, his Savior and friend, would never allow him to even see the bottomless pit. Job realized within himself that God had saved him by His grace forever.
By God's question to Job in verse 36, He made Job understand that God had put some wisdom into Job's living image when He created him. But God also made Job realize that his Redeemer had given him additional wisdom and understanding about God when He saved Job by His grace.
Commentary on the Book of Job part one hundred one
Job 38:1-41
In Job 38:1, God suddenly showed up in a whirlwind, probably a tornado. God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind. The Hebrew of this verse can also mean that God also spoke for Job; that is, in defense of Job.
In Job 38:2, God rebuked Job's four false comforters for not praying and relying on God's guidance for how to comfort Job.
In Job 38:3, God rebuked Job for his despair and doubt about God's revelation to him that He had given him a Redeemer who possessed almighty power to forever save Job and bring him home to be with Him forever. When Jesus walked the earth, He often displayed great impatience, and even some anger, whenever His followers demonstrated a lack of faith in His great powers to heal and save. God wanted Job to know that he had found an everlasting friend in Him who would never forsake him. In effect, God said to Job that he should stand on his feet and look God in the eye. Job should have had greater faith in God and confidence in himself that he had found an absolutely faithful Redeemer and friend. God also demanded that Job answer a long series of questions that God would put to him in order to bolster Job's faith and confidence in His newfound friend and Savior.
In Job 38:4-41, God fired a rapid series of questions at Job which He expected Job to be able to answer for himself. God knew that as Job provided himself with the obvious answers to these questions that his faith in the absolute, eternal, and almighty power of God would grow, and Job would finally find his rest in God. Matthew 11:28-30.
In Job 38:1, God suddenly showed up in a whirlwind, probably a tornado. God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind. The Hebrew of this verse can also mean that God also spoke for Job; that is, in defense of Job.
In Job 38:2, God rebuked Job's four false comforters for not praying and relying on God's guidance for how to comfort Job.
In Job 38:3, God rebuked Job for his despair and doubt about God's revelation to him that He had given him a Redeemer who possessed almighty power to forever save Job and bring him home to be with Him forever. When Jesus walked the earth, He often displayed great impatience, and even some anger, whenever His followers demonstrated a lack of faith in His great powers to heal and save. God wanted Job to know that he had found an everlasting friend in Him who would never forsake him. In effect, God said to Job that he should stand on his feet and look God in the eye. Job should have had greater faith in God and confidence in himself that he had found an absolutely faithful Redeemer and friend. God also demanded that Job answer a long series of questions that God would put to him in order to bolster Job's faith and confidence in His newfound friend and Savior.
In Job 38:4-41, God fired a rapid series of questions at Job which He expected Job to be able to answer for himself. God knew that as Job provided himself with the obvious answers to these questions that his faith in the absolute, eternal, and almighty power of God would grow, and Job would finally find his rest in God. Matthew 11:28-30.
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Commentary on the Book of Job part one hundred
Job 37:1-24
In verse 24, Elihu admitted that men fear God's terrible judgments, but Elihu also avowed that God cares nothing about any man's search for wisdom or truth. Elihu's conclusion was right in the first half of his sentence, but he was wrong in the second half. The Apostle James assures us in James 1:5-6 that God will give wisdom to any person who asks Him for it with faith. But in order to know wisdom, each person must first find out the truth. Christ assures us in John 14:6 that He is the Truth. When any person accepts Christ as their Savior by faith, they will acquire wisdom and truth. Those saved persons will acquire the Mind of Christ and by that connection to the Infinite Love of God, they will discover God to be a personal friend who has saved them forever by His grace, but if they listen closely to God's Word, they will also discover that God will save the rest of humanity with a lesser salvation through His mercy and forgiveness. I Corinthians 2:15-16; John 15:15; Matthew 26:50; II Peter 3:9; John 5:28-29.
God has revealed in His infallible Word that He desires personal fellowship with every human like He enjoyed with Adam and Eve before they sinned. God can never fail to attain whatever He desires. God intervened in human history to restore that fellowship by the self-sacrifice of His Son on a cruel cross. By His loving self-sacrifice, Christ took away every person's sin and eternal death that had entered into their beings through Adam's sin and rebellion which means God will restore all humans to eternal life. God will save some by His grace and give them a home in heaven with Him, but God will also save His created lives in the rest of mankind within the regions of the dead by His resurrection of them in Christ's final judgment in the end of the world. God will return every one of them of their own free will to repentance and faith in Christ their Savior as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14. John 5:24; II Timothy 4:1; Luke 19:10; Luke 20:38; Revelation 20:5.
But many humans exist who, like Elihu, see God as being far away because they push Him away. They may be very religious and profess great admiration for God's powers of creation, but they do not desire to know God as a merciful friend and Savior. Their condition emerges from the rebellious part of man's being that is wholly evil and dead. God never forgives this eternal death in man because it never repents and puts its faith in Christ. This eternal death is foreign to mankind because God created man in His own image, but it causes men to sin. God will cleanse and forgive all sin because all men will eventually repent and return to faith in Christ their Savior. But God will purge all total evil from His recreated earth when He casts the dead into the lake of fire. That part of Elihu that rejected fellowship with God by faith symbolizes all of the evil dead that God will forever purge from His new creations. Matthew 12:31-32; Revelation 20:11-15.
God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14. God created His good and living image that He put into every human, and God will recover and recreate that living image in every human by causing every living human to freely choose to return to fellowship with Him through repentance and faith in Christ their Savior. God will save some by His grace while they are still alive in the flesh, and God will save the lives of the rest of humanity through a great worship service as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14. God will effect an absolute and eternal separation and recovery of all His good creations from all taint of evil, all of the quick that He created from all of the evil dead that has soiled their goodness, and all that is filthy and unjust from all that is clean and righteous in His final judgment in the end of the world. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:5; Revelation 22:11-12; I Timothy 4:1; Romans 11:36; Colossians 1:15-20; Matthew 13:47-50; Matthew 13:30.
In verse 24, Elihu admitted that men fear God's terrible judgments, but Elihu also avowed that God cares nothing about any man's search for wisdom or truth. Elihu's conclusion was right in the first half of his sentence, but he was wrong in the second half. The Apostle James assures us in James 1:5-6 that God will give wisdom to any person who asks Him for it with faith. But in order to know wisdom, each person must first find out the truth. Christ assures us in John 14:6 that He is the Truth. When any person accepts Christ as their Savior by faith, they will acquire wisdom and truth. Those saved persons will acquire the Mind of Christ and by that connection to the Infinite Love of God, they will discover God to be a personal friend who has saved them forever by His grace, but if they listen closely to God's Word, they will also discover that God will save the rest of humanity with a lesser salvation through His mercy and forgiveness. I Corinthians 2:15-16; John 15:15; Matthew 26:50; II Peter 3:9; John 5:28-29.
God has revealed in His infallible Word that He desires personal fellowship with every human like He enjoyed with Adam and Eve before they sinned. God can never fail to attain whatever He desires. God intervened in human history to restore that fellowship by the self-sacrifice of His Son on a cruel cross. By His loving self-sacrifice, Christ took away every person's sin and eternal death that had entered into their beings through Adam's sin and rebellion which means God will restore all humans to eternal life. God will save some by His grace and give them a home in heaven with Him, but God will also save His created lives in the rest of mankind within the regions of the dead by His resurrection of them in Christ's final judgment in the end of the world. God will return every one of them of their own free will to repentance and faith in Christ their Savior as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14. John 5:24; II Timothy 4:1; Luke 19:10; Luke 20:38; Revelation 20:5.
But many humans exist who, like Elihu, see God as being far away because they push Him away. They may be very religious and profess great admiration for God's powers of creation, but they do not desire to know God as a merciful friend and Savior. Their condition emerges from the rebellious part of man's being that is wholly evil and dead. God never forgives this eternal death in man because it never repents and puts its faith in Christ. This eternal death is foreign to mankind because God created man in His own image, but it causes men to sin. God will cleanse and forgive all sin because all men will eventually repent and return to faith in Christ their Savior. But God will purge all total evil from His recreated earth when He casts the dead into the lake of fire. That part of Elihu that rejected fellowship with God by faith symbolizes all of the evil dead that God will forever purge from His new creations. Matthew 12:31-32; Revelation 20:11-15.
God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14. God created His good and living image that He put into every human, and God will recover and recreate that living image in every human by causing every living human to freely choose to return to fellowship with Him through repentance and faith in Christ their Savior. God will save some by His grace while they are still alive in the flesh, and God will save the lives of the rest of humanity through a great worship service as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14. God will effect an absolute and eternal separation and recovery of all His good creations from all taint of evil, all of the quick that He created from all of the evil dead that has soiled their goodness, and all that is filthy and unjust from all that is clean and righteous in His final judgment in the end of the world. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:5; Revelation 22:11-12; I Timothy 4:1; Romans 11:36; Colossians 1:15-20; Matthew 13:47-50; Matthew 13:30.
Commentary on the Book of Job part ninety nine
Job 37:1-24
In this chapter, Elihu greatly praised God's "terrible majesty" and His Almighty power in His creations, but as he implied to Job in verse seven, men can only know God by His creative works and never know Him in any personal way.
Elihu contended in verse 13-14 that God uses His correction and His mercy only for the purpose of keeping His creations in order. God never uses His correction and His mercy to show love for any person.
In verse 19, Elihu informed Job that no man can pray directly to God because darkness comes between man and God. The Bible (KJB) often uses the word "darkness" to indicate the evil that lies hidden in the hearts of men. In verse 20, Elihu admonished Job that if he even tried to pray to God he would be "swallowed up," meaning that his sin and evil would prevent God from hearing him.
In verse 23, Elihu summed up his general message to Job. Almighty God possesses excellent creative power, but no one can "find Him out," meaning no one can know much more than that about God. God has the absolute right to do whatever He desires to Job or any other man. God possesses excellent judgment simply because He is Almighty. God can afflict Job with terrible suffering or withhold His affliction as He wills and be just in doing so, and Job will just have to accept that fact.
In this chapter, Elihu greatly praised God's "terrible majesty" and His Almighty power in His creations, but as he implied to Job in verse seven, men can only know God by His creative works and never know Him in any personal way.
Elihu contended in verse 13-14 that God uses His correction and His mercy only for the purpose of keeping His creations in order. God never uses His correction and His mercy to show love for any person.
In verse 19, Elihu informed Job that no man can pray directly to God because darkness comes between man and God. The Bible (KJB) often uses the word "darkness" to indicate the evil that lies hidden in the hearts of men. In verse 20, Elihu admonished Job that if he even tried to pray to God he would be "swallowed up," meaning that his sin and evil would prevent God from hearing him.
In verse 23, Elihu summed up his general message to Job. Almighty God possesses excellent creative power, but no one can "find Him out," meaning no one can know much more than that about God. God has the absolute right to do whatever He desires to Job or any other man. God possesses excellent judgment simply because He is Almighty. God can afflict Job with terrible suffering or withhold His affliction as He wills and be just in doing so, and Job will just have to accept that fact.
Thursday, November 7, 2019
Commentary on the Book of Job part ninety eight
Job 36:1-33
In Job 36:1-4, Elihu confirmed his supreme confidence in himself that he could speak for God and that the truth he spoke was perfect.
In verse 5, Elihu affirmed his belief that although God is Almighty, He holds no personal animosity toward any human.
In Job 36:6-24, Elihu conceded that God may reward the righteous and punish the wicked at times, but only in their worldly lives and only to protect His creations from chaos. In verses 24-25, Elihu reiterates his belief that man exists only to magnify God's greatness, and man can only see God from far away which means that God does not get close to any individual human. Elihu's beliefs were close to those of the Sadducees in that he believed in the greatness of God, but he denied life after death and any form of resurrection.
In verses 26-33, Elihu extols God for the greatness of His creations, but again he reaffirms his belief that no man can know God on a personal basis. To Elihu, God judges people only for the purpose of keeping His creations in order and not because He has any love or hatred for any individual human.
In Job 36:1-4, Elihu confirmed his supreme confidence in himself that he could speak for God and that the truth he spoke was perfect.
In verse 5, Elihu affirmed his belief that although God is Almighty, He holds no personal animosity toward any human.
In Job 36:6-24, Elihu conceded that God may reward the righteous and punish the wicked at times, but only in their worldly lives and only to protect His creations from chaos. In verses 24-25, Elihu reiterates his belief that man exists only to magnify God's greatness, and man can only see God from far away which means that God does not get close to any individual human. Elihu's beliefs were close to those of the Sadducees in that he believed in the greatness of God, but he denied life after death and any form of resurrection.
In verses 26-33, Elihu extols God for the greatness of His creations, but again he reaffirms his belief that no man can know God on a personal basis. To Elihu, God judges people only for the purpose of keeping His creations in order and not because He has any love or hatred for any individual human.
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Commentary on the Book of Job part ninety seven
Job 35:1-16
In Job 35:1-3, Elihu concluded that Job had adopted a false theory about God. Elihu could not believe that God personally cared about any human. Elihu believed in a God of righteousness and wrath, but not a God of Love and compassion. For these reasons, Elihu became very angry with Job because Job had claimed that God had given him a Redeemer who had brought him into a state of grace with a loving God. Elihu blasted what he thought to be Job's false theory, and he determined that Job must have come to believe that he was more righteous than God.
In verse three, Elihu demonstrated that he completely misunderstood Job's search for the truth about God. God had put into Job's mind the idea that he should search for a personal relationship with a loving God as Job displayed in Job 21:15. But Elihu thought that the searching questions that God had given Job were empty because Elihu thought that Job could gain no advantage by imagining himself to be cleansed of his sins by God. In Elihu's mind, God did not care about a personal relationship with any human.
In Job 35:4-14, Elihu provided Job with his own description of the nature of God. Elihu rebuked Job's claim that God had brought Job into a personal relationship with Him. Elihu contended that God cares nothing about the individual wickedness or righteousness of any individual. Although individual wickedness hurts others, and their righteousness helps others; God does not give "songs in the night" which means He does not care about fellowship with individual humans. According to verses 11-13, God has given man intelligence, but He does not care about man's pride and vanity which are common Biblical words for evil.
In verse 14, Elihu deliberately mocked Job's claim that he would see God by saying that Job claimed he would not see God. Elihu admitted that he believed God makes judgments and that Job should trust in His judgments, but Elihu wanted Job to understand that God would never pardon him.
In verse 15, Elihu described the kind of judgments he believed God makes. In Elihu's mind, God does get angry with evil, but He does not go to extremes in His judgments which means He judges in a very dispassionate way. To Elihu, God judges like a very disinterested judge who does not particularly care about the grievances of the criminal's victims or the evil within the criminal, but he sentences the criminal to prison only because he cares about the chaos that crime causes in civilization. In a similar way, Elihu believed God punished evil in order to protect His creations from chaos, not because He cared about any person.
In Job 35:1-3, Elihu concluded that Job had adopted a false theory about God. Elihu could not believe that God personally cared about any human. Elihu believed in a God of righteousness and wrath, but not a God of Love and compassion. For these reasons, Elihu became very angry with Job because Job had claimed that God had given him a Redeemer who had brought him into a state of grace with a loving God. Elihu blasted what he thought to be Job's false theory, and he determined that Job must have come to believe that he was more righteous than God.
In verse three, Elihu demonstrated that he completely misunderstood Job's search for the truth about God. God had put into Job's mind the idea that he should search for a personal relationship with a loving God as Job displayed in Job 21:15. But Elihu thought that the searching questions that God had given Job were empty because Elihu thought that Job could gain no advantage by imagining himself to be cleansed of his sins by God. In Elihu's mind, God did not care about a personal relationship with any human.
In Job 35:4-14, Elihu provided Job with his own description of the nature of God. Elihu rebuked Job's claim that God had brought Job into a personal relationship with Him. Elihu contended that God cares nothing about the individual wickedness or righteousness of any individual. Although individual wickedness hurts others, and their righteousness helps others; God does not give "songs in the night" which means He does not care about fellowship with individual humans. According to verses 11-13, God has given man intelligence, but He does not care about man's pride and vanity which are common Biblical words for evil.
In verse 14, Elihu deliberately mocked Job's claim that he would see God by saying that Job claimed he would not see God. Elihu admitted that he believed God makes judgments and that Job should trust in His judgments, but Elihu wanted Job to understand that God would never pardon him.
In verse 15, Elihu described the kind of judgments he believed God makes. In Elihu's mind, God does get angry with evil, but He does not go to extremes in His judgments which means He judges in a very dispassionate way. To Elihu, God judges like a very disinterested judge who does not particularly care about the grievances of the criminal's victims or the evil within the criminal, but he sentences the criminal to prison only because he cares about the chaos that crime causes in civilization. In a similar way, Elihu believed God punished evil in order to protect His creations from chaos, not because He cared about any person.
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