5.23 Job 18-19

Krista Moots

5.23.2020

Job 18-19

Summarize what you read in one paragraph: 

In Chapter 18, Bildad the Shuhite, Job’s friend, is telling him to stop complaining and making himself the focus of everything. He then talks about what happens to a wicked man, saying that he is weakened and that everything around him is a threat. He has no name or legacy, other than one to scare others. Chapter 19 is Job’s response to his friend, in which he asks how long he will be tormented, and he calls out his friends for attacking him multiple times, and that they are putting themselves in a place above him. He then talks about how God is against him, that he has put blocks in his path and turned everyone against him. He asks for pity from his friends, and asks them why they are coming after him. He then still praises God, despite his circumstances. At the very end, he rebukes his friends, and warns them that they should fear the sword, meaning judgement.

What is one key verse?

“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.” Job 19:25

How does what you read change your vision of God?

These chapters remind me that God has a purpose to what is going on in the world, even when it doesn’t feel like it. It can be easy, especially in times like these, to question God and ask why everything is happening. I can be very quick to become untrusting or doubtful when things don’t go how I feel they should, so Job still honoring God in hard times reminds that God always knows best.

How does what you read change your vision of yourself or others?

It is scary when you read what Bildad says and it can be reminiscent of what people, me included, do when they don’t know why something is happening. His friends jumped to conclusions and assumed that Job had committed a horrible sin and that he must be being punished by God as a punishment. It reminds me to not judge someone and the situation they are in before I know the whole story. 

How will you Go With God because of this reading? (What is an action step?)

Something that I want to grow in as a result of this Scripture is to trust God to know what He is doing, and to not judge someone because of a situation I don’t understand. These go hand in hand because when you trust in God and his plan, you are less likely to judge others, because God judges, and when we are wrathful or even judgemental of others, God will judge us too.

Where did you see Jesus in these chapters? (What made you think about Jesus?)

I see Jesus when he says to the Pharisees, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” in John 8:7. Jesus was an example of protecting people, rather than judging them. He protected a woman who was not like Job, who would always work to be righteous, but then he also pushed her to leave her life of sin.