The Bible Recap - Day 011 (Job 29-31) - Year 6

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

SHOW NOTES: - Head to our Start Page for all you need to begin! - Join the RECAPtains - Check out the TBR Store - Show credits - Read “8 Things God Has for You in 2024” SOCIALS: The Bible Recap: Instagram | Facebook | TikTok D-Group: Instagram | Facebook TLC: Instagram | Facebook D-GROUP: D-Group is brought to you by the same team that brings you The Bible Recap. TBR is where we read the Bible, and D-Group is where we study the Bible. D-Group is an international network of Bible study groups that meet weekly in homes, churches, and online. Find or start one near you today! DISCLAIMER: The Bible Recap, Tara-Leigh Cobble, and affiliates are not a church, pastor, spiritual authority, or counseling service. Listeners and viewers consume this content on a voluntary basis and assume all responsibility for the resulting consequences and impact.

Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Today as Job continued the speech he began yesterday, he showed us how much he longed for the past, specifically starting with his relationship with God. He reflects on a time when he felt the nearness of God in a way that he described as friendship. In 29, four, he said, "'The friendship of God was upon my tent.'" Knowing about someone is different than having a friendship with them.

And it's certainly different than saying you feel like their friendship dwells in your home with you. It made me stop and reflect on how I view God. Do I just know who He is and know about Him from what others say about Him? Or do I know Him personally? Or do I feel like I have an intimate relationship with Him that is a part of my everyday life?

Job not only laments the loss of that nearness, but he also laments the loss of his reputation. People used to listen when he spoke and be in awe at his wisdom. Now they won't stop advising him and they think he's a fool. The only thing that changed was the circumstances. His wisdom didn't vanish. They were judging his wisdom and righteousness based on his life circumstances.

Previously, Job's friends had accused him of mistreating the poor, but here Job tells us about all the ways he's extended his hands to the needy and fought for justice. Now, not only are his friends not fighting for him, but they're fighting against him. And because God revealed his vantage point to us in the first chapter of this book, we know which scenario is true. We know who to believe here.

We know his friends are wrong. This is the lowest point of Job's despair. All along, he's been acknowledging that God is responsible for his circumstances, because even though he isn't the active agent, he's still sovereign over it and allowed it. So there's some truth to that. But the question of God's motives remained unknown to Job.

However, in chapter 30, we reach this point where Job seems to begin reaching his own conclusions on what his trials say about God's motives and character. In verse 21, he says, You have turned cruel to me, with the might of your hand you persecute me. After all this, Job's troubles made him question the character of God. Even though Job was righteous indeed, he had pride and entitlement in his heart. Job was innocent of the things his friends accused him of, but God used this trial to reveal other

things in his heart, things that couldn't have been revealed in any other way but through this trial. And now that these thoughts of Job's heart have surfaced, we've reached a turning point in the story. Because God loves Job and God doesn't want Job to think things about him that aren't true, God is going to deal with it. Just like Job didn't want his friends to think things about him that weren't true. Have you ever had that happen? Has anyone ever misunderstood you?

Especially if it's someone that you love, don't you want to help them see the truth about you? God wants to help Job see the truth so that Job doesn't believe lies about him anymore. God is always in the process of revealing himself to his adopted children. God will defend his name. My heart breaks for Job, truly. There were two years of my life where my journals and my prayers looked a lot like Job's. Some of my relationships even looked like Job's.

I would never say I was righteous like Job, but I relate to a lot of what he's feeling here. And because I can relate a bit to his emotions, I'm eager for us to keep reading tomorrow because things are about to shift for Job in a dramatic way. But where did you see God at work in today's reading? What was your God shot? I love seeing that Job considered God his friend. Even though Job wasn't feeling God's nearness at the time, to even know that a level of intimacy with God like that is possible, that encourages me. Friendship implies not just knowledge of a person, but trust of a person and time spent with that person.

You can only trust someone you know, and you can only know someone you spend time with. I want my knowledge of God and my trust of God to always be increasing so that my friendship with God is growing richer and deeper all the time. Because as I get to know Him better, I see all the more that He's where the joy is. We're grateful to have users listening across all kinds of devices through all kinds of podcast platforms. The only problem with that is, A, we aren't in control of all of those platforms and B,

sometimes we can barely figure out how to solve problems on our own phones. But the good news is, we've found that most problems you encounter can be solved easily. And since we don't have our own tech support division, we'll fill you in on the solutions to the two most common problems here. Problem number one. If you have an episode that feels glitchy or jumpy, make sure you've downloaded the episode. If you're just streaming it and you happen to have a slow internet connection, things

can sometimes be a bit bumpy. You can set it to automatically download, which should avoid this problem. Problem number two. If an episode doesn't appear to post in your Podcatcher, first, try refreshing the page or closing and reopening the app or even restarting your phone. This is the podcast version of unplug it and plug it back in, except 90% of the time it works. But if it doesn't work, try looking for the episodes on Podbean or YouTube.

They will always be available there. Unfortunately, we have no control over the other platforms and how or when they post, but I hope this helps. This has been Tech Support Hacks with TLC. Thank you for tuning in. Happy New Year! Maybe you've pulled out a journal to write down what you want for 2024, or maybe you've posted about your New Year's resolutions on social media. It's always wise to have a vision for the future, but we don't want to be so focused on our own plans that we fail to think about God's purposes for our lives. Thankfully, God has already revealed some of the things he has for us. To find out more, click the link in the show notes for some words from my friends at Hope Nation.