Job Chapter 27
Please read: Job 27 –
It seems that Job’s friends have no more to say. Their words have gone unheeded and so they are silent. Job takes the opportunity to speak and to expound upon the truth that he knows he is in a right relationship with God. He does not carry guilt for committing some sin. This is the mark of the unrighteous. They commit sins and then suppress their guilt so they can continue in sin rather than confess it. Job took opportunity to say, “I will teach you concerning the hand of God.”
It will seem as if Job is agreeing with his friends that God always punishes the wicked, but what he is teaching his friends is that God is just and those who turn their back on God will one day be judged for their sins. Sometimes we do see Him punish the wicked right away. Other times it seems they go unpunished, but we know that God is just and He will bring judgement. He warns his friends that their wrong judgement of him will not go unnoticed by God. Job knows he is in a right relationship with God, and he warns them that God will judge them as He does the wicked.
Let's Reflect
1. Job gives all power and authority to God. According to verse 3 what is it that keeps him alive?
2. Job tells these friends of his that he will not back down and say that they are right. He is going to hold on to his __________________ because he knows that he is in a right relationship with God.
3. He no longer calls them his friends, but instead calls them what in verse 7?
4. I believe that verse 8 is the key to understanding this chapter. In this verse Job asks a rhetorical question about godless people. What is the question?
5. Job also explains that the godless do not hold on to God when difficult times come. A unique observation we can make about human nature is that when the unbeliever goes through some traumatic experience in their life, though they don’t believe in God, they will ask for prayer. Suddenly they are desperate for help, so desperate that they would cry out to a God they don’t believe in. I think this is what Job is saying here. The godless will cry out to God in their distress, but they will not hold on to Him. They will most likely forget all about God once their trauma is over. How does Job express this? See verse 10.
6. In verses 13-16 Job expresses how the values and priorities of the godless are pointless. They work their whole lives to accumulate things, but in the end, they cannot take it with them. The godless might wake up one morning and find what? See verse 19.
7. Job is expressing that the godless have no hope. They fear the things that could happen. They are afraid of the dark. We recently lost power for a short time in our city because of the storms. Grown adults posted on social media that they were “freaking out” because they were without power. The point is that if godless or the wicked have no comfort (no spiritual reliance on God’s power) then they have no hope. Job knows that he is in a right relationship with God, therefore what does he have?
