Bible Study Chat #24

Originally Posted by eva_from_greece

In verse 23 something interesting happens. Job accuses God of hedging him in so that he can't escape the pain. Remember that Satan used the same word "hedge" to describe how God was protecting Job, and now Job was turning it around. He feels trapped and unable to get out of all that's happening.


Hedge?
Perhaps Job was one of those people who constantly allowed dark thoughts into his mind. Thoughts of "what if this or that happened", and would think of all the possible things that could go wrong. If so that would show that although Job was a righteous man since God Himself had said so, that He didn't entirely trust God with his future. If that's true, then perhaps God allowed all this to happen in order to help Job find a deeper faith and love for Him, that would free him from these terrors and dark thoughts.

Yes but it says he was rightneous, giving offers, have faith in the Lord... How can this be true?

 

A "hedge" is a row of shrubs planted close together so that they make a fence around your yard. Here the word is used to mean something that surrounds a person, usually to protect them. So first, God surrounded Job and all he had to protect him, and then later, Job says he feels surrounded like with a hedge, only now it's stopping him from getting out. See what I mean?

I think the main problem is that we're confusing the idea of him being righteous, with him not sinning. Being righteous doesn't mean that he didn't sin. We all sin, all the time whether we realize it or not. God declared Job righteous, in other words, in His mercy and grace, God made Job righteous -just the same way God saves us. It's not because of anything we do or don't do. We're every bit as bad and sinful as everyone else on the earth. But for some reason, God chose us and decided He would save us, and He did. It's the same way for Job. When the bible tells us that someone was declared righteous in the Old Testament, that's meaning the same thing as someone being saved in the New Testament. Saved people still sin all the time, which is why we need to confess our sins and get right with God again every day.

So yes, Job had faith, he loved God and believed in Him, but he also may have sinned by having these doubts at times. Maybe it was only once in awhile, but even once is a sin. It's the same thing the Lord does with us when He disciplines us. In this case though, we know that the real reason this happened was because of Satan, however God isn't limited, so He could have also used these events in Job's life to teach him that he needed to take control of his thoughts and feelings.

Note though that we don't know if that's true or not. I'm only guessing. All the bible says is that this was caused by Satan. Other then that, we're only given hints of other possible reasons. The reason I guess this is true is simply because we know that God uses everything in our lives to bring us closer to Him and to teach us to walk in His Ways. And because we also know that God brings good out of everything that happens to us.

Do you understand what I was saying now? Does it make sense to you?

 

Originally Posted by catt

Job 3
I consider myself righteous, by the blood of Jesus, by His word and by my testimony.
Yet, this morning and almost every morning I wake up in the flesh. I have to turn
my life back over to Jesus before going further. I had a negative viewpoint,
but I knew that was my flesh. God's whole point of view is too big for me to see. But he
has given me a beautiful personality description in the word. I can think of more
than once when I complained. When I saw God's hedge of protection as God's holding
me back. Please don't laugh... just this past week when things were rough painwise.
I thought to myself "I'm a pricess. A daughter of the King of kings!" It cheered me and
changed my viewpoint.
Job did seem a bit over worried about his children. Just in case sacrifices? We get insurance for our houses, our cars, and our health. Is that similar?

 

I would never laugh about that Catt! That's a beautiful thought and one I've had myself when in pain. You're right too, it helped me as well!

I suppose you could look at it as being similar. I look at it as being the same as when I ask the Lord to forgive me of "all my sin" because I know for a fact that I don't know what most of them even are. I can remember when I was first saved, I thought sin was simply breaking one of the 10 commandments. Therefore if I didn't steal, murder, covet, etc. I wasn't sinning and had nothing to confess. But when I read my bible, where it says we're all sinners and that we sin all the time, even from birth, I realized that I must be sinning even if I didn't know what they were. So I asked the Lord to show me so I could confess them. The Lord is so merciful though, He would never just say, "sure, here's a list" LOL as that would devastate us. Instead, He shows us a few at a time, or maybe one general area we can work on. When we understand about that and have it under better control, then He shows us the next and so on.

Job couldn't know what his children were doing, thinking, or feeling 24 hours a day, any more then we can know what ours are. Therefore, knowing that they must have sinned somehow, and not knowing for sure if they'd remembered to confess them, he did it for them. It's not really any different then when I pray and ask the Lord to forgive the sins of my children and grandchildren. Just a different format, as back then the proper method was through sacrifice and not just prayer. Make sense now?