Chronological Reading Plan for Jan 5
Today's readings are Job 6-9. Tomorrow's are Job 10-13.
Job is a man of integrity. God pronounced him "blameless and upright" at the beginning of this book. His first friend and counselor evaluates Job by the trials he sees Job enduring, encouraging Job to receive his due punishment from God. Clearly, at least to Eliphaz, Job has done some secret wrong to bring all this calamity down upon himself.
One struggle Job has is that he is the only one who can be sure that he hasn't been acting in an ungodly way. Obviously, these men know something about the character and nature of God, long before the law is given and the first Scriptures are written. Eliphaz seems to speak knowledgeably about God and certainly sounds right in his thinking. Except, Job (and his readers) know that Eliphaz is wrong, in spite of his highly "spiritual" sensations.
Job disputes Eliphaz's assessment of him in spite of how tidy and godly his judgment of Job appears. Job wants answers as to why all this is happening to him but he will not settle for cheap, quick and easy platitudes and half truths. Job identifies with the sufferings of slaves and laborers (Job 7:1-6), even though he has never been either. He doesn't feel he deserves his treatment and we hear the first hints that he also feels he deserves an answer (Job 7:7-16). He wants to know why he is being put under the microscope (Job 7:17-21).
His second friend, Bildad responds. Bildad accuses Job's children of deserving what they got and, in a veiled manner, tells Job he will be restored "if" he is upright but points back to Job's situation as an indicator that Job is not righteous. Bildad is wrong about Job as well, making the same mistake of evaluating Job's righteousness by his circumstances.
In ch 9, we hear that God's sovereign power has become a terror to Job, who has no way of appealing his plight. What goes unsaid here is that even though Job seems to be a man of faith, he also seems to be struggling in his trust in God. He is beginning to sound a bit like he thinks he may deserve better. Job laments that there is no arbiter between God and man, uttering a profound truth that will not be resolved until the coming of Christ. in Job 9:35, Job has become so frightened, he feels he cannot speak to God.
Ironically, it seems as though Job himself is judging his relationship with God by how dire his circumstances are. Does he feel God is unfair? Does Job think God has missed how righteous Job has been? Does Job draw close to God when things are good and cower when things are not so good? Does any of this change the fact that Job was blameless and upright? We will see.
We will learn much as we watch Job process all this and hear what his friends think.
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In Job 9:13, we see "Rahab". Is this the same person as Rahab the prostitute, as seen in Joshua?
ReplyDeleteThis Rahab is a monster, similar to Leviathan, sometimes used as a metaphor for Egypt but always meant to denote chaos and disorder. It appears a number of time in the OT (Ps 87:4, 89:10-11, Job 9:13, 26:12, Isa 30:7, 51:9.)
Because the OT spans nearly 4,000 years, we have the be careful not to assume a name in one book is the same person as named in a book that may be written about events that occur centuries later. Rahab the prostitute lived around the 12th-13th century BC. That may well be about the time Job was written, perhaps not. In any event, this Rahab refers to a fairly common mythical beast that caused a lot of trouble. "The helpers of Rahab" was a commonly used phrase and the readers of Job would have immediately understood.
All this would be hard to understand to the casual reader. But a careful reading of the context will make things clear. The context of 9:13 tells us God "bowed" (subdued) Rahab's helpers. There is a distinct difference in the way the Scriptures speak favorably of Rahab the prostitute and unfavorably about Rahab the monster. For instance, Ps 89:10-11 clearly shows Rahab, the beast, and her helpers as enemies of God. Rahab the prostitute is in the lineage of Christ (Mt 1:5) and the "Hall of Faith" (Heb 11:31).