The Bible Recap - Day 005 (Job 6-9) - Year 4

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap. We continued to read Job's story today. He's just lost everything except his life and today he had to listen to bad advice from the second of his three friends. Yesterday we heard from Elifaz, today we heard from Bill Dad. But first we heard Job's response to Elifaz. He defends himself. He's despairing, but he doesn't curse God. He knows this pain isn't the result of sinful actions. He knows his friends were wrong. One of the questions counselors train you to ask yourself in relational difficulty is, where's my sin in this situation?

Starting point is 00:00:45 What can I own from this situation? And that's an important question to ask, especially because we're often blind to our own sin and what we've contributed to the scenario. But there are times when life is just hard, or when you've just been sinned against, and your troubles are not the result of something you contributed.

Starting point is 00:01:02 We would never tell someone who's been raped or physically abused to think about what they did to deserve that or cause that. It's not always true that our circumstances and our problems are the result of our choices. Sometimes they're the result of a fallen world. Sometimes they're the result of other people's sinful choices. Much like with Eli Faz, Bill Dad gave bad counsel. He told Joe that he needed to repent. But again, chapter 1 told us that Joe was blameless and upright and that these problems actually occurred because of his uprightness, not as the result of sin. Job's friends were attacking him in the midst of his grief.

Starting point is 00:01:41 But I believe they really thought they were on the right track. They really thought they were helping him and that if they could just convince him to repent, all his troubles would subside. Stay tuned to see how that plays out. Job replied to Bill Dad with a lot of truth about God. In 915, Job mentioned that he would appeal or mercy to his accuser. And I don't believe this is necessarily a reference to God. I think it's

Starting point is 00:02:06 a reference to Satan, because like we talked about yesterday, the word Satan means accuser, adversary. But interestingly, one of the other ways the Hebrew word that is used here can be translated is as the word judge. So he could be saying, I must appeal for mercy to my judge, and if that's what he's saying, that it seems it would be referring to God. But regardless whether Job is referring to his accuser Satan or to his judge God, this is a good place to point out something about the word mercy. We often use the words mercy and grace interchangeably, but they actually mean very different things. They're like a pair of opposites that work together. Mercy is when you don't get what you deserve. For fallen humanity, we all deserve hell. We've all sinned against a holy God, and we

Starting point is 00:02:54 try to elevate ourselves to his rank. We deserve nothing but punishment. The fact that we're breathing right now is God's mercy toward us. He has not given us the immediate death we deserve because of our rebellion, just like he showed mercy toward Adam and Eve when they sent in the garden. So mercy is when you don't get what you deserve, and grace is when you get what you don't deserve. It's everything over and above not being annihilated. It's the way food tastes delicious.

Starting point is 00:03:23 It's the way music brings us joy, and mostly it's the way we get to enter into a relationship with God despite our wickedness. Job had done nothing wrong in this situation, but he was still a sinful, fallen human like the rest of us. He knew he deserved eternal punishment, but he also knew God might still show him mercy. What was your God shot for today? Was it something about his mercy? I was tempted to hone in on that, but since I touched on it a few days ago, I thought I'd point out something new that I saw here. My God shot was, I noticed how powerful he is.

Starting point is 00:04:01 In Job 9, 1-10, Job waxes about God's power for several verses. He commands the Son, He does great things, He is wise and hard and mighty in strength. We also see how this enormous God, who so mighty, steps down to be intimate with mankind, like Job says in 717, what is man that you make so much of him and that you set your heart on him? The God of the universe is in charge of everything, but his heart isn't set on the mountains or on Orion or the Pleiades. It's set on you and me.

Starting point is 00:04:34 I'm so grateful his heart is set on me because he is where the joy is. When I first launched D-group, we met in the homes of members. A few years later, we started developing partnerships with churches, which means that some of our groups meet in churches as well. But over the years, people have come to us with an entirely different need. They're people who have unique life circumstances or schedules that make it challenging to meet in real life. Or maybe they don't know anyone else who wants to join a D-group.

Starting point is 00:05:02 So we've leaned into that need by launching online D-groups. If you want to see when and where D-groups meet near you, visit mydgroup.org-forward-slash-map. And if there's nothing there that works for you, check out mydgroup.org-forward-slash-online to see if an online group might work for you instead. Whether in-person or online, we'd love to have you join us. Mydgroup.org.

Starting point is 00:05:24 The Bible recap is brought to you by D-group, or online, we'd love to have you join us, idgroup.org. The Bible recap is brought to you by Dig Group, discipleship and Bible study groups that meet in homes and churches around the world each week.

The Bible Recap - Day 005 (Job 6-9) - Year 4

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