LEVIATHAN AND BEHEMOTH are featured this week as God uses them to illustrate the difference between Him and Job. While these creatures are described as possessing almost unimaginable power, they are as pets to our Lord, who made them just as He made us.
JOB’S FRIENDS grow increasingly accusatory as we go through the book. This week, we hear the final speeches of Zophar and Eliphaz, who have gone from gently reminding Job that God punishes the wicked to accusing their miserable, suffering friend of mistreating the poor, widowed, and homeless!
JOB CONTINUES his lament this week, openly wishing that he could hide in Sheol until God’s anger was past. In response, Eliphaz the Temanite accuses Job of guilt, asserting that God only punishes the wicked, something that we know is true, but judgment doesn’t always happen when we want it.
JOB REPLIES to the rebuke of Eliphaz and brings up some interesting points for our study this week. While admitting that God is just and all-powerful, the suffering Job still maintains that his complaints are justified.
WE SEE the divine council worldview in the ongoing discourse of Eliphaz the Temanite, as he mentions the “Holy Ones,” an epithet used elsewhere in the Old Testament for the Watchers (Daniel 4:13, 17).
THE FRIENDS of Job are to be commended for giving up so much of their time to commiserate with him in his suffering. However, their understanding of the cause of his suffering was incomplete.