Devotional

God is wise and all-powerful. Who has opposed him and come out unharmed? Job 9:4 CSB

What picture comes to your mind when you read today’s verse? It’s interesting; it says God is wise and all-powerful. Sometimes it seems like those are in opposition. There is a tension that is sometimes expressed as “brains versus brawn.” It simply means that you can either think your way through a situation or you can use strength and force to make it through. How about you? Which end of the tension do you tend to lean toward? God doesn’t live in that tension. God is the perfect expression of both. There is nothing that can come His way that is beyond His ability to handle. Where do you need to tap into who He is? God’s got you covered no matter what you may be facing today.

Job 8 CSB

Bildad Speaks

8 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

2 How long will you go on saying these things?
Your words are a blast of wind.
3 Does God pervert justice?
Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
4 Since your children sinned against him,
he gave them over to their rebellion.
5 But if you earnestly seek God
and ask the Almighty for mercy,
6 if you are pure and upright,
then he will move even now on your behalf
and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.
7 Then, even if your beginnings were modest,
your final days will be full of prosperity.

8 For ask the previous generation,
and pay attention to what their ancestors discovered,
9 since we were born only yesterday and know nothing.
Our days on earth are but a shadow.
10 Will they not teach you and tell you
and speak from their understanding?
11 Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Do reeds flourish without water?
12 While still uncut shoots,
they would dry up quicker than any other plant.
13 Such is the destiny of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless will perish.

14 His source of confidence is fragile;
what he trusts in is a spider’s web.
15 He leans on his web, but it doesn’t stand firm.
He grabs it, but it does not hold up.
16 He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine;
his shoots spread out over his garden.
17 His roots are intertwined around a pile of rocks.
He looks for a home among the stones.
18 If he is uprooted from his place,
it will deny knowing him, saying, “I never saw you.”
19 Surely this is the joy of his way of life;
yet others will sprout from the dust.
20 Look, God does not reject a person of integrity,
and he will not support evildoers.

21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with a shout of joy.
22 Your enemies will be clothed with shame;
the tent of the wicked will no longer exist.

Job 9 CSB

Job’s Reply to Bildad

9 Then Job answered:

2 Yes, I know what you’ve said is true,
but how can a person be justified before God?
3 If one wanted to take him to court,
he could not answer God once in a thousand times.
4 God is wise and all-powerful.
Who has opposed him and come out unharmed?
5 He removes mountains without their knowledge,
overturning them in his anger.
6 He shakes the earth from its place
so that its pillars tremble.
7 He commands the sun not to shine
and seals off the stars.
8 He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads on the waves of the sea.
9 He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion,
the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky.
10 He does great and unsearchable things,
wonders without number.
11 If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him;
if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him.
12 If he snatches something, who can stop him?
Who can ask him, “What are you doing?”
13 God does not hold back his anger;
Rahab’s assistants cringe in fear beneath him!
14 How then can I answer him
or choose my arguments against him?
15 Even if I were in the right, I could not answer.
I could only beg my Judge for mercy.
16 If I summoned him and he answered me,
I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said.
17 He batters me with a whirlwind
and multiplies my wounds without cause.
18 He doesn’t let me catch my breath
but fills me with bitter experiences.
19 If it is a matter of strength, look, he is the powerful one!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
20 Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.
21 Though I am blameless,
I no longer care about myself;
I renounce my life.
22 It is all the same. Therefore I say,
“He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.”
23 When catastrophe brings sudden death,
he mocks the despair of the innocent.
24 The earth is handed over to the wicked;
he blindfolds its judges.
If it isn’t he, then who is it?

25 My days fly by faster than a runner;
they flee without seeing any good.
26 They sweep by like boats made of papyrus,
like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
27 If I said, “I will forget my complaint,
change my expression, and smile,”
28 I would still live in terror of all my pains.
I know you will not acquit me.
29 Since I will be found guilty,
why should I struggle in vain?
30 If I wash myself with snow,
and cleanse my hands with lye,
31 then you dip me in a pit of mud,
and my own clothes despise me!

32 For he is not a man like me, that I can answer him,
that we can take each other to court.
33 There is no mediator between us,
to lay his hand on both of us.
34 Let him take his rod away from me
so his terror will no longer frighten me.
35 Then I would speak and not fear him.
But that is not the case; I am on my own.

Job 10 CSB

10 I am disgusted with my life.
I will give vent to my complaint
and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God,
“Do not declare me guilty!
Let me know why you prosecute me.
3 Is it good for you to oppress,
to reject the work of your hands,
and favor the plans of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh,
or do you see as a human sees?
5 Are your days like those of a human,
or your years like those of a man,
6 that you look for my iniquity
and search for my sin,
7 even though you know that I am not wicked
and that there is no one who can rescue from your power?

8 “Your hands shaped me and formed me.
Will you now turn and destroy me?
9 Please remember that you formed me like clay.
Will you now return me to dust?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and wove me together with bones and tendons.
12 You gave me life and faithful love,
and your care has guarded my life.

13 “Yet you concealed these thoughts in your heart;
I know that this was your hidden plan:
14 if I sin, you would notice,
and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
15 If I am wicked, woe to me!
And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head.
I am filled with shame
and have drunk deeply of my affliction.
16 If I am proud, you hunt me like a lion
and again display your miraculous power against me.
17 You produce new witnesses against me
and multiply your anger toward me.
Hardships assault me, wave after wave.

18 “Why did you bring me out of the womb?
I should have died and never been seen.
19 I wish I had never existed
but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are my days not few? Stop it!
Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little
21 before I go to a land of darkness and gloom,
never to return.
22 It is a land of blackness like the deepest darkness,
gloomy and chaotic,
where even the light is like the darkness.”

Job 11 CSB

Zophar Speaks

11 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

2 Should this abundance of words go unanswered
and such a talker be acquitted?
3 Should your babbling put others to silence,
so that you can keep on ridiculing
with no one to humiliate you?
4 You have said, “My teaching is sound,
and I am pure in your sight.”
5 But if only God would speak
and open his lips against you!
6 He would show you the secrets of wisdom,
for true wisdom has two sides.
Know then that God has chosen to overlook some of your iniquity.

7 Can you fathom the depths of God
or discover the limits of the Almighty?
8 They are higher than the heavens—what can you do?
They are deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
9 Their measure is longer than the earth
and wider than the sea.

10 If he passes by and throws someone in prison
or convenes a court, who can stop him?
11 Surely he knows which people are worthless.
If he sees iniquity, will he not take note of it?
12 But a stupid person will gain understanding
as soon as a wild donkey is born a human!

13 As for you, if you redirect your heart
and spread out your hands to him in prayer—
14 if there is iniquity in your hand, remove it,
and don’t allow injustice to dwell in your tents—
15 then you will hold your head high, free from fault.
You will be firmly established and unafraid.
16 For you will forget your suffering,
recalling it only as water that has flowed by.
17 Your life will be brighter than noonday;
its darkness will be like the morning.
18 You will be confident, because there is hope.
You will look carefully about and lie down in safety.

19 You will lie down with no one to frighten you,
and many will seek your favor.
20 But the sight of the wicked will fail.
Their way of escape will be cut off,
and their only hope is their last breath.

Psalm 137 CSB

Lament of the Exiles

1 By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 There we hung up our lyres
on the poplar trees,
3 for our captors there asked us for songs,
and our tormentors, for rejoicing:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

4 How can we sing the Lord’s song
on foreign soil?
5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!

7 Remember, Lord, what the Edomites said
that day at Jerusalem:
“Destroy it! Destroy it
down to its foundations!”
8 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who pays you back
what you have done to us.
9 Happy is he who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rocks.

Job 8 CSB

Bildad Speaks

8 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

2 How long will you go on saying these things?
Your words are a blast of wind.
3 Does God pervert justice?
Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
4 Since your children sinned against him,
he gave them over to their rebellion.
5 But if you earnestly seek God
and ask the Almighty for mercy,
6 if you are pure and upright,
then he will move even now on your behalf
and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.
7 Then, even if your beginnings were modest,
your final days will be full of prosperity.

8 For ask the previous generation,
and pay attention to what their ancestors discovered,
9 since we were born only yesterday and know nothing.
Our days on earth are but a shadow.
10 Will they not teach you and tell you
and speak from their understanding?
11 Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Do reeds flourish without water?
12 While still uncut shoots,
they would dry up quicker than any other plant.
13 Such is the destiny of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless will perish.

14 His source of confidence is fragile;
what he trusts in is a spider’s web.
15 He leans on his web, but it doesn’t stand firm.
He grabs it, but it does not hold up.
16 He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine;
his shoots spread out over his garden.
17 His roots are intertwined around a pile of rocks.
He looks for a home among the stones.
18 If he is uprooted from his place,
it will deny knowing him, saying, “I never saw you.”
19 Surely this is the joy of his way of life;
yet others will sprout from the dust.
20 Look, God does not reject a person of integrity,
and he will not support evildoers.

21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with a shout of joy.
22 Your enemies will be clothed with shame;
the tent of the wicked will no longer exist.

----

Job 9 CSB

Job’s Reply to Bildad

9 Then Job answered:

2 Yes, I know what you’ve said is true,
but how can a person be justified before God?
3 If one wanted to take him to court,
he could not answer God once in a thousand times.
4 God is wise and all-powerful.
Who has opposed him and come out unharmed?
5 He removes mountains without their knowledge,
overturning them in his anger.
6 He shakes the earth from its place
so that its pillars tremble.
7 He commands the sun not to shine
and seals off the stars.
8 He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads on the waves of the sea.
9 He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion,
the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky.
10 He does great and unsearchable things,
wonders without number.
11 If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him;
if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him.
12 If he snatches something, who can stop him?
Who can ask him, “What are you doing?”
13 God does not hold back his anger;
Rahab’s assistants cringe in fear beneath him!
14 How then can I answer him
or choose my arguments against him?
15 Even if I were in the right, I could not answer.
I could only beg my Judge for mercy.
16 If I summoned him and he answered me,
I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said.
17 He batters me with a whirlwind
and multiplies my wounds without cause.
18 He doesn’t let me catch my breath
but fills me with bitter experiences.
19 If it is a matter of strength, look, he is the powerful one!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
20 Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.
21 Though I am blameless,
I no longer care about myself;
I renounce my life.
22 It is all the same. Therefore I say,
“He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.”
23 When catastrophe brings sudden death,
he mocks the despair of the innocent.
24 The earth is handed over to the wicked;
he blindfolds its judges.
If it isn’t he, then who is it?

25 My days fly by faster than a runner;
they flee without seeing any good.
26 They sweep by like boats made of papyrus,
like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
27 If I said, “I will forget my complaint,
change my expression, and smile,”
28 I would still live in terror of all my pains.
I know you will not acquit me.
29 Since I will be found guilty,
why should I struggle in vain?
30 If I wash myself with snow,
and cleanse my hands with lye,
31 then you dip me in a pit of mud,
and my own clothes despise me!

32 For he is not a man like me, that I can answer him,
that we can take each other to court.
33 There is no mediator between us,
to lay his hand on both of us.
34 Let him take his rod away from me
so his terror will no longer frighten me.
35 Then I would speak and not fear him.
But that is not the case; I am on my own.

----

Job 10 CSB

10 I am disgusted with my life.
I will give vent to my complaint
and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God,
“Do not declare me guilty!
Let me know why you prosecute me.
3 Is it good for you to oppress,
to reject the work of your hands,
and favor the plans of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh,
or do you see as a human sees?
5 Are your days like those of a human,
or your years like those of a man,
6 that you look for my iniquity
and search for my sin,
7 even though you know that I am not wicked
and that there is no one who can rescue from your power?

8 “Your hands shaped me and formed me.
Will you now turn and destroy me?
9 Please remember that you formed me like clay.
Will you now return me to dust?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and wove me together with bones and tendons.
12 You gave me life and faithful love,
and your care has guarded my life.

13 “Yet you concealed these thoughts in your heart;
I know that this was your hidden plan:
14 if I sin, you would notice,
and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
15 If I am wicked, woe to me!
And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head.
I am filled with shame
and have drunk deeply of my affliction.
16 If I am proud, you hunt me like a lion
and again display your miraculous power against me.
17 You produce new witnesses against me
and multiply your anger toward me.
Hardships assault me, wave after wave.

18 “Why did you bring me out of the womb?
I should have died and never been seen.
19 I wish I had never existed
but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are my days not few? Stop it!
Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little
21 before I go to a land of darkness and gloom,
never to return.
22 It is a land of blackness like the deepest darkness,
gloomy and chaotic,
where even the light is like the darkness.”

----

Job 11 CSB

Zophar Speaks

11 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

2 Should this abundance of words go unanswered
and such a talker be acquitted?
3 Should your babbling put others to silence,
so that you can keep on ridiculing
with no one to humiliate you?
4 You have said, “My teaching is sound,
and I am pure in your sight.”
5 But if only God would speak
and open his lips against you!
6 He would show you the secrets of wisdom,
for true wisdom has two sides.
Know then that God has chosen to overlook some of your iniquity.

7 Can you fathom the depths of God
or discover the limits of the Almighty?
8 They are higher than the heavens—what can you do?
They are deeper than Sheol—what can you know?
9 Their measure is longer than the earth
and wider than the sea.

10 If he passes by and throws someone in prison
or convenes a court, who can stop him?
11 Surely he knows which people are worthless.
If he sees iniquity, will he not take note of it?
12 But a stupid person will gain understanding
as soon as a wild donkey is born a human!

13 As for you, if you redirect your heart
and spread out your hands to him in prayer—
14 if there is iniquity in your hand, remove it,
and don’t allow injustice to dwell in your tents—
15 then you will hold your head high, free from fault.
You will be firmly established and unafraid.
16 For you will forget your suffering,
recalling it only as water that has flowed by.
17 Your life will be brighter than noonday;
its darkness will be like the morning.
18 You will be confident, because there is hope.
You will look carefully about and lie down in safety.

19 You will lie down with no one to frighten you,
and many will seek your favor.
20 But the sight of the wicked will fail.
Their way of escape will be cut off,
and their only hope is their last breath.

----

Psalm 137 CSB

Lament of the Exiles

1 By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 There we hung up our lyres
on the poplar trees,
3 for our captors there asked us for songs,
and our tormentors, for rejoicing:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

4 How can we sing the Lord’s song
on foreign soil?
5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!

7 Remember, Lord, what the Edomites said
that day at Jerusalem:
“Destroy it! Destroy it
down to its foundations!”
8 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who pays you back
what you have done to us.
9 Happy is he who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rocks.

DAY ONE HUNDRED-FORTY TWO

Devotional

Job 8 CSB

Job 9 CSB

Job 10 CSB

Job 11 CSB

Psalm 137 CSB

Job 8 CSB

Job 9 CSB

Job 10 CSB

Job 11 CSB

Psalm 137 CSB