Blogging Bible Study: The Heart of the Matter - Job, Part 3

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

We are about half of the way through Job on our look at 'Heart/hearts' verses in the Bible, in the midst of the argument and rebuttal between Job and his friends Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar.  In the third round,  we pick up in a harangue by Eliphaz, accusing Job of all SORTS of low-down, mean and nasty things, and he sums up by saying if Job would just repent and turn back to God everything would be fine.

"Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.   Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.  If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored;..." -- Job 22:21-23a (Heart is the familiar Strong's H 3824 -Lebab)

Job responds that he wants to plead his case before God; he recognizes that 

"...he stands alone, and who can oppose him?  He does whatever he pleases.  He carries out his decree against me, and many such plans he still has in store.  that is why I am terrified before him; when I think of all this, I fear him.  God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me."  Job 23:13-16 ('Heart' here is the other familiar word, Strong's H 3820 - Leb)

Of course, Job (and his friends) still believe that God is directly responsible for all the evil...that he caused it, rather than just allowing it, and none of them consider for a moment that there may be a purpose beyond their experience.

Bildad makes the last response to Job in chapter 25, and Job sarcastically chews him out, basically saying that he doesn't know what he's talking about.  Then Job launches into his final speech, which manages to assert his own integrity and state his longing for wisdom enough to comprehend why God acted as he did; then he reflects on how his life was before the disaster hit, and the good works that he did while he was wealthy and had influence, e.g.

"Whoever heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me commended me, because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him.  The man who was dying blessed me; I made the widow's heart sing. I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban."   -- Job 29 :11-14; (Heart is H 3820 again).  

Then he laments his current state, and concludes by relating a list of evils, saying 'If I did these things, then I deserve this.'...

"If my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled,  then may others eat what I have sown, and my my crops be uprooted.  If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door, then may my wife grind another man's grain, and may other men sleep with her."  -- Job 31:7-10 ('Heart' is H 3820 in both instances).  

Yeowch, y'all.  That's harsh. But that's raw emotion.  Job doesn't believe he has done anything to deserve what has happened to him.  He continues,

"If I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing, or a needy man without a garment, and his heart did not bless me for warming him with the fleece from my sheep...then let my arm fall from my shoulder, let it be broken off at the joint."  - Job 31:19-20,22  

This is a new one; the word the NIV renders as 'heart'  is  Strong's  H2504, Chalats - " châlâts, 'khaw-lawts'; from H2502 (in the sense of strength); only in the dual; the loins (as the seat of vigor):—loins, reins."

It's not the same word that was rendered 'reins' in the last study; I did a little perusal of other translations and found that the KJV renders it 'loins';  the latest edition of the NASB renders it 'body', and the AMP  reads 'If his loins have not thanked me (for clothing them)...'  I kinda get the idea that the thanking is not just for the quality of the garment but also for the fact that it literally covers up the individual's shame of being naked...as in, the part of the body that is covered is grateful.  I suppose the NIV used 'heart' in the term of the inner man being grateful, like the NASB's use of 'body', to  avoid the slightly crude imagery of the loins being grateful.  Either way, it doesn't really conflict with Job's point.

Moving on...

"...if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in its splendor, so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage, then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high"  -- Job 31:26-28;  'Heart' is once more H3820.

Job admired the sun and moon...God's handiwork...but he didn't worship them, as have many societies throughout the centuries.

Finally, 

"...If I have concealed my sin as men do, by hiding my guilt in my heart because I so feared the crowd and so dreaded the contempt f the clans that I kept silent and would not go outside -- ...then let briers come up instead of wheat and weeds instead of barley."  The words of Job are ended. -- Job 31:33-34, 40. 

Another interesting translation.  The word translated 'heart' here does not appear anywhere else in the Old Testament.  It is Strong's H2243, hob, apparently derived from H2245...'bosom' ,which is the word used in the Amplified. "Heart" is not a far stretch from 'bosom', but I wonder what was unique to the word 'bosom' that made it the only word that would do in that verse, since it is not used elsewhere?

We will finish Job in the next post; I want to hang here a minute and look at Job's refusal to 1) curse God  or accuse him of wrongdoing, though he was very frustrated that God didn't explain himself and 2) admit to any wrongdoing...because he really and truly had no hidden sin in his life.  His practice was regular confession and sacrifice; there really was nothing that should have brought judgment of this level against him.

But Job and his friends never even considered that the suffering wasn't some sort of judgment.  'Bad things happen to Bad People and Good things happen to Good People' was the basis of their assessment of Job's situation...and it was an error.   Terrible things can and do happen to good people...look at Jesus, for crying out loud.  But what happened to Jesus wasn't about Jesus at all... and what happened to Job really wasn't at all about Job.

Good points to keep in the back of the mind as we head into the conclusion.

What do you mean Monday is Labor Day?????

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

It's been busy in...and out of...these parts.  Work like crazy, and head out of town for the weekend.

I worked Friday the...9th? Yeah, the 9th.  Then was gone the next two weeks.  Fridays are normally not a work day, as our church offices are closed, but there is a big project going down and I went in to get a jump on it.  

Then the 16th was our 44th wedding anniversary, and we repeated a trip from ten years ago and spent the weekend at Cheaha State Park...which includes the highest point in Alabama.

Pulpit Rock, from the lodge area

Gorgeous views.  And, according to my Strava reading, we walked 5 miles on Saturday. 

My Sweet Babboo at the top of the mountain.

 May have overdone it just a bit, being 10 weeks out from hip replacement, but I survived so I'm hopeful the upcoming family trip to Famous Florida Theme Parks will not be too rough on the hip.

Called my mother to check in with her on Tuesday last week and my dad, from the background, hollered, 'We have a lot of corn going to waste up here!'  ...long story short, I got permission to take yesterday and today off from work and did a spur-of-the-moment trip up to the farm, driving up by myself on Friday.

18 quarts of corn to put in freezers, from roughly 8 dozen ears we pulled on Saturday, was a good day's work.

The folks decided they didn't want to freeze again on Monday, so I came back a day early (shhh).  Spending today doing things I had MEANT to do over the weekend, lol.

But...I want to chat a bit about Sunday.  I had contacted one of my high school buddies that I was up for the weekend and would love to catch up.  We decided to meet at Culver's in Brownsburg, IN, for lunch.    

We hadn't seen each other for 2 years;  we hadn't had a long, just-us conversation in, well, a really long time.

We sat in a corner and talked for EIGHT HOURS.  It flew by.  I did mention once or twice that I should probably go, but the conversation clearly wasn't over so I didn't push it.  And I'm so glad I didn't.  The last hour and a half to two hours was some real, heart level conversation.  If we had stopped after four or six hours, we would never have gotten to the deep part.  

So, that's my takeaway lesson to share today, lol.  Don't skimp on the conversations, and don't quit before they're done.  But more than that, be intentional about keeping in touch.  

Hopefully we will.

Blogging Bible Study: The Heart of the Matter - Job, part 2

 Posted to Beer Lahai Roi by Lisa Laree

Job is...interesting.  It kind of falls into the same category as Ecclesiastes.  The words are coming from individuals who are not necessarily speaking the heart of God.  This is a narrative, a recording of conversations about faith from folks who are speaking from assumptions that they can't really back up (sound familiar?).  People who are coming from a 'this is what makes sense to me' viewpoint...because when the events recorded in Job took place, there was no written word, no Law...just the oral traditions..  Job is considered to be the oldest book of the Bible;  Job is generally accepted to have lived during the time of the Patriarchs, before the deportation to Egypt, due to his very long life. So we can, perhaps, understand why there may have been some misunderstandings about the character and nature of God.

So what that boils down to is that the context has to be carefully considered when looking at verses from Job.  A verse considered outside of that context could be...misleading.

I have debated how to cover this, since there is so much here.  There is a pattern to the speechification, with each of the friends speaking and Job answering. Eliphaz and Bildad each speak three times and Zophar speaks twice.  So I think I will split it into rounds.  The first round is Job's original lament, then comments from each friend with a rebuttal from Job in chapters 3-14  and actually only has 2 references to heart/ hearts; the second round is chapters 15 - 21, with three references. 

It's worth noting that the discussions/ arguments all seem to agree that Job's afflictions are judgement. The difference is that  Job has no idea what he could have done to warrant such calamity and his friends are all convinced that he has some hidden, secret sin that needs to be confessed ...and press him to just open up and confess/ repent.  Hence the arguments.  Job gets ticked at this friends for the presumptions of his guilt, and gets rather sarcastic with them at times (another reason to consider the context of any particular verse).

So, with that in mind...let's see what the book of Job has to say about heart/ hearts...

The first reference is in chapter 10, and Job is speaking to God here

"But his is what you concealed in your heart, and I know this was in your mind: if I sinned, you would be watching me and would not let my offense go unpunished.  If I am guilty -- woe to me!  Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head, for I am full of shame and drowned in my affliction." -- Job 10:13 - 15;   'heart' is Strong's H3824 again...Lebab - 'inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding'.   Back in 10:2, Job asked God to tell me what charges you have against me.  He kind of portrays a common misconception of God...that God sits in the heavens and waits on us to mess up so he can smack us down.

Zophar's response to Job also contains the word heart - 

"Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him, if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear."  -- Job 11:13-15; 'heart' is Strong's H3820, Leb, the common variant of Lebab, 'inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding'.

Hammering home the opinion that Job just needs to repent of the hidden thing and he'll be fine.

In the second round of exchanges, Eliphaz asks

"Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash, so that you vent your rage against God and pour out such words from your mouth?" - Job 15:12-13   'Heart is H3820 again.  Um, the guy lost absolutely everything...from his wealth to his position in the community to his health to his children.  Job was grieving.  He didn't understand.  We know that he couldn't possibly have understood as the tragedy really wasn't about him at all...it was about the individual who was watching his life.  But I think this illustrates some unconscious expectations that folks have...that their friends who suffer loss should do their grieving in a specific way and be 'over it' at some random time.  

It doesn't work that way.  Grief is individual, and what happens in the heart of someone going through it is really not open to inspection by other people.  The loss of his children was a permanent loss.  He eventually got all his stuff and his standing in the community and even his health back, but he never got his children.  He had more, to be sure, and they were fine folks to be proud of.  But his older kids were just a memory for the rest of his life.  

To add insult to injury, Eliphaz went on to describe the consequences to folks who do evil...implying that the events that happened in Job's life fell into that litany, so therefore, he must have done evil.

It was rough.

Job responds, rather testily ('miserable comforters are you all!' - 16:1), but sums up where he is:

"My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart." -- Job 17:11; 'heart' is  H 3824 again.

Job really believed his story was at an end.

But, after Bildad reiterates the fate of the wicked, Job replies with a speech that includes a declaration that rings through the ages and is all the more poignant given his circumstances:

"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes -- I, and not another.  How my heart years within me!" -- Job 19:25-27

Wow, this is interesting...the word translated 'Heart' here is Strong's H 3627 - Kilya, which, well, means 'Kidneys' -- seat of emotion and affection, figuratively.

The KJV translates this phrase - 'though my reins be consumed within me'...reins?  Looking at the descriptions in the lexicon, I am taking it to mean that 'reins' just referred to internal organs in general.  Which would make sense in the verse....'I myself will see him with my own eyes -- I, though my internal organs are consumed within me'.  It still shows Job's absolute faith that he would see God, although one connotation is that he was anxiously awaiting that moment and the other is just a reiteration of his conviction that it didn't matter what happened to his physical body (ie, making a pairing of 'after my skin has been destroyed' and 'my internal organs are consumed within me') he knew he would stand before God as himself.

That whole declaration is a pretty amazing thought for the time.  Job called God 'my redeemer'...which clearly not only describes a personal relationship to God but foreshadows the coming of Jesus, the Redeemer. It was Job's anchor in the pain.