03/04/2022: Day 005 – Job 1 – 2 / Introduction / Brothers, Help! – I bombed the Job quiz.. / “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake…” Philippians 1:29
https://doortoeden.com/verse-of-the-day/
The link above is a helpful introduction to this oldest of all books. Near the bottom , you will find a ten question quiz with a check of your answers at the bottom.
Here is the question: Did Job ever sin? I thought – “no brainer” and answered “Yes!”. To my chagrin, the answer is “no”. (?) Verse 1:8 , in my NIV reads: “… There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright a man who fears God and shuns evil.” And God repeats it to Satan in 2:3. Verse 2:10 says: “in all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” So what am I missing? No man was/is without sin. When God says he is blameless, that is by the blood of Christ in the future. No?
Indeed , Job is a forerunner of Christ’s suffering, is as Joseph as well. The quiz has the word: “Fournerer”. (?) When I search that, I get responses on the french word “fournier” (baker?) Oh well. So, in addition to my title post on Plilippians 1:29, here is a non-inclusive list of other biblical verses on the call to share in the sufferings of Christ: 1 Corinthians 1: 5-7 / 1 Peter 4:16 (extensive section in Chapter four) / Philippians 3:10 / 2 Timothy 1:8 / Romans 8:18 / 1 Peter 1:6 / 2 Timothy 3:12 / Philippians 1:29. All those verses are apparently amongst the cut-outs from Joel Osteen’s bible. Joel has got one skinny bible! Maybe it is not a book but an index card.
Our fridays for the year ahead are devoted to the four “poetical” books: Job; Proverbs; Ecclesiastes; and Song of Solomon, plus Psalms. So, our Thursdays and Fridays for the entire year, are the oldest books of the Bible. An exception note is some of the Psalms fall out the “oldest” category, the non-Davidic Psalms for example.
Subject of the Book: The “Problem of Human Suffering” :
As Henry Halley noted in his introduction to this book: “I don’t know that we undertand the problem one bit better than they did in Job’s day.” But as he notes, I think those souls in Job’s day have more “excuse” . Continued prayers for Dennis Prager, a future brother in Christ. I am reminded once again of his answer to the question: What distinguishes the Christian faith from the Jewish faith in our approach to life? Dennis replied: “To Christians, suffering can be glorious as it gives glory to God. To Jews, suffering “s—ks!” I immediately thought: Did he just say that? But it is a mystery how Jewish believers could hold onto this belief, for they believed a “good” man would reap rewards, at least an absence of suffering unlike all the “bad” people. How could they hold onto that paradigm , with a constant reminder of how the rule just doesn’t hold up with any kind of life experience. And throw on top of it, excepting the Pharisees, there wasn’t a widespread belief in a full afterlife. So , we can keep this in mind for the first 21 Thursdays we are reading , reflecting and praying over the book of Job.
Soli Deo Gloria!