Devotions
Learning from Foolish Counsel (Job 20)
The interaction between Job and his friends must have been a sight to behold. As we have made our way through their speeches, we have observed mounting frustration amongst the three counsellors. Each speech is more vociferous and blunter than the preceding one. These...
Why? (Job 19)
In his book, The Finishing Touch, Chuck Swindoll tells the story of Glenn Chambers, a young believer with a lifelong desire to pursue missionary service in Ecuador. On 15 February 1947, Chambers sat in a Miami airport awaiting the take-off that would jet him to his...
The Truth, the Partial Truth, and Something of the Truth (Job 18)
Most of us have probably seen enough courtroom dramas to know that witnesses in a criminal trial are sworn to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” As Job stood trial before his friends, they consistently spoke what they considered to be the...
Gospel-Centred Suffering (Job 16–17)
Some thirty years ago, Marshall Shelley wrote a book titled Well-Intentioned Dragons: Ministering to Problem People in the Church. The blurb on the book begins this way: “Every church has them—sincere, well-meaning Christians who leave ulcers, strained relationships,...
Conquering the System (Job 12–14)
We have observed in Job a definite distinction between Job’s approach to suffering and that of his friends. His friends shared a very neat and simple systematic theology, in which God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked. Job’s affliction was evidence that he...
Offended by Grace (Job 15)
Of Job’s three friends, Eliphaz had approached his first speech the most gently. To be sure, he had misdiagnosed the situation, but he had done so in a gentle manner. Bildad and Zophar had expressed far greater frustration and had been far blunter in their approaches....