Job 12 - You Choose

Daily Bible Study for Tuesday May 17, 2016

By: Hanny Lynn Stearns

Chapter Reading for Today: Please read in your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version, that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I will keep it with the New King James Version. One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my own writing. I am adding red to the letters when it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you. 

All scripture is taken from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

Bible Gateway Verse of the Day

                                                                   Romans 11:33

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 

    Psalm 100:4

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

and into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Song: Choose Ye This Day Whom Ye Will Serve    By: The Winans

                                                             

                  

Job 12     Job – A Man of Endurance        

You Choose!

As we can see by now Job is getting pretty ‘irked’ by his friends comments, isn’t he? He is basically telling them that they are ‘preachin’ to the choir’, right? They aren’t telling him anything he doesn’t already know. He accuses them of thinking they are the ones who are so wise and know it all. Wow, is he irritated, or what? Job goes on to say he is scorned by them – his so called friends. He feels they are mocking him as one who had called on God. Job thinks the evil doers are at peace while he, a real man of God, is made a laughing stock – a man who had had such a great relationship with the Almighty.

We can almost hear the criticism as if we were right there, can’t we? Job is quite angry and very bitter by now, and the comments of his friends are certainly no news to this man who had followed God, probably his whole life. He feels like he is being kicked while he is down. Isn’t it easy to make accusations and assumptions when our life is going so well and someone else is way down? Unfortunately, that is how mankind is most of the time. We see someone who is down and out and we assume the worst, not knowing a fraction of truth about the situation the person is in or why they got there. How sad is that?

Have you ever looked at a homeless person walking down the street and just figured that they were a ‘loser’ who didn’t have any sense? Did you ever see a family begging for food and make assumptions as to why they were in that condition? Here Job thinks his friends are making a mockery of him as if they have cornered the market on wisdom and understanding. Fiends, how little we know about another’s situation, right? We don’t know what they have been through, or why, do we? We don’t know what caused this or that to happen in another person’s life. We were not there. There are things that happened in generations past for a person that even the person may not understand which have had an effect on their life.

I can give you an example of this from my own life. Years ago, when I first got to Florida, I met a gal at church who taught about generational curses – something I knew nothing about. She had learned this from a man who has a very successful ministry in teaching people about the roots of sickness and how to get free. As I began to learn these things I was interested but at the time I did not pursue learning it like I should have. I believe the Lord was bringing it to me because He wanted me to be aware of some things in my family lines that had had an effect on my life so I could pray for healing and breakthrough. But I didn’t latch on at the time. A few years later it hit me. I wasn’t working at the time. I was spending a lot of time alone with the Lord and working on writing my first book.

The book was about my life, so I was getting into some deep stuff that I had gone through. One day I was considering how I had abandoned my children when I left my husband. I literally walked out on all of them. I thought the girls would go with me, but that would have been a disaster! So I left my husband just short of 22 years of marriage. What I discovered is that my parents had abandoned me – both of them. Both of them, I later learned, were abandoned by their parents too. And I also found out that they divorced at 22 years of marriage. Do you see the resemblance of my life to theirs? History was repeating itself. But why?

When wrong spirits get into a family, they stay in the family. Do you remember the old TV sitcom called ‘All In The Family’? Well, with spiritual things, it is all in the family. If you are not aware of these things it would do you well to study up on it. I assure you from my own experience that you will be glad you did. So how does a person get free of all that junk that may have been carried down for generations? Through prayer. God sent His Son to break the chains that bound us from the past. His blood can cleanse it and break a person free from the curse. Let’s look at some scripture…

Exodus 20:4-5

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

We can see that the iniquity of the father in a family will carry on through the generations. There were plenty of wicked kings who did exactly as their fathers had done when they stepped into the office of king and they even did worse than their fathers, completely forsaking the ways of the Lord. But the good news is that a person can repent and turn away from wickedness and embrace God. In the end each man is held accountable for their own sins because God is fair…

Ezekiel 18:1-20 NIV

The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.

It would be good for you to read the entire section about this. I encourage you to study this further on your own. Also, Dr. Henry W. Wright has a book called ‘A More Excellent Way – Be in Health’ and it can help to shed light on this entire subject. I was thrilled to know that I could stand in the gap for the sins of my parents that had come down to me and played out in my life and plead the blood of Jesus over them and be free of it! As far as I am concerned, the buck stops here – if you know what I mean.

I came from an ungodly family and a lot of the history I do not know because of adoption and divorce, etc. I decided to follow Jesus and I was not going to let the past generational issues continue to play out in my life. I don’t want to see my girls abandon their kids because of all that had happened before them. They are clueless about such things but by the grace of God we have been set free by the blood of Jesus from them.

I went through some extensive prayer sessions with my former pastor and other prayer warriors at the church to pray through to get healing and be delivered of the bondage the curses had brought to my life. I want to go forward as a woman of God and my husband and my children and grandchildren are all going to be people after God’s own heart. It all has to start somewhere – so I decided it would start with me. I have the power to make that choice and that is what I am going for, nothing less! Glory to God.

This leads me to the next section of scripture in today’s chapter. Starting in verse 7 Job is telling his friends that even the beasts of the field and the fish of the sea know that God is basically in control of everything. While He created everything (except the devil, who turned on God of his own free will) and He sustains everything each and every moment, He does not control everything. This is a large misconception among the church today. We hear it all the time – “Oh well, God is in control.” That is nonsense! And it is an excuse for people not to deal with things as they try to leave it all in God’s hands to handle.

The Lord gave man a free will. If you don’t believe it, go back to the first page in the Bible, in the book of Genesis and start reading. Adam and Eve were given a choice. You and I are given a choice. Each and every day we can choose to follow the Lord or we can choose to follow the flesh and the devil. It is all up to us, every moment that we breathe. That is the way God designed our lives and He will not go back on what He has given us. When we got up this morning, God didn’t tell us what we had to eat. He may have made a suggestion, but He didn’t force us to choose oatmeal over Rice Crispies. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s see what God said…

Deuteronomy 30:1-20

 “Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. “Also the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. and you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today. 

The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

The Choice of Life or Death

“For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it? ’Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

As we can plainly see from scripture, the Lord is telling us we have a choice and He certainly wants us to choose life. Obeying Him is a choice. We can obey and He will bless us and make us rich, joyful, and completely fulfilled in every way. But if we disobey, we will suffer the consequences. I think most of us are all too familiar with that side of the coin, unfortunately. Everything about our life is our own choice. As I have said before and will likely say again, our lives will be the direct result of our response to God’s word – period!

So Job may sound a bit like he thinks God controls everything – but did he understand everything at that point? Certainly not. And neither do we. But aren’t we thankful saints that we have the scriptures in their entirety as God had planned for our teaching and encouragement? Above all, we are so blessed to have the Holy Spirit to give us spiritual insight and wisdom we could never obtain any other way – hallelujah!

Moving on, Job mentions that with age comes wisdom and understanding. True enough. Aren’t we glad we know more at 60 years of age than we did at 10? At least we should, LOL! J

But true knowledge and wisdom comes from the Lord. His counsel is unsearchable. His knowledge beyond our comprehension. Without Him, we can know just a dot of information compared to His great understanding, knowledge and wisdom. And here is where knowledge begins for the human…

Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 2:1-13

My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness;

In verse 13 of our chapter today Job made a wise statement when he said that wisdom, strength, understanding and counsel are with God. Who of us had any of that before we started walking with the Lord? We were foolish in our understanding and our hearts were darkened by the darkness that is in the world. But thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ that we are born again in Him and we have the person of wisdom, counsel and understanding (the Holy Spirit) living in us! He is our Counselor and guides us into all truth…

John 16:5-15

 “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’  But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; ¹¹ of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

Job knew some things about God, and in the days to come, He would certainly find out more. In the remainder of the chapter today Job talks about how the Lord can tear down. The Lord can bring down those who think they are mighty in what some say “A New York minute!” That must be a quick minute because things in New York go pretty past – right? LOL! Those who think themselves wise or strong, or ‘in charge’, God can reduce to a heap of nothing if they are out of His will and plan for their lives.

The Lord never takes pleasure in tearing a person down. We must remember this as we read this today. A person outside of the will of God will not prosper, just like we read in our Deuteronomy verses above. We have seen it over and over in the Bible. Those who thought they were mighty and strong, the Lord brought low and He did it swiftly. Let’s look at some scripture that ties in so well with this chapter today…

Psalm 33:4-22

For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth.

He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.
The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men.
From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth;
He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.

No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
A horse is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy,
To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.

For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name.
Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in You.

Isn’t it awesome how God’s word flows together as we rightly divide it like a gently moving stream? Hallelujah! This Psalm lines up so beautifully with the things Job is saying, doesn’t it? No help on this planet can work for us like the Lord! The Lord brings to light the things that are hidden. In fact, nothing can hide from Him.

Matthew 10:26

Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.

There is nothing any human can hide from God. Job was quite correct when he said that in verse 22. The man did know a thing or two about the ways of God. And why shouldn’t he? After all, he had known and loved Him as best he could for what we believe to be a very long time. God had prospered Job because of his devotion to the Lord – again, just like we saw in the Deuteronomy verse above. Throughout the scriptures we have seen the Lord bring down to destruction the ways of the wicked while lifting up the heads of the humble in heart. God’s heart is humble and the only way that we can approach Him is with a humble heart…

James 4:10

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

What Job was speaking would be something he would soon learn that he himself needed to do in order to get out of the mess he was in. A humble heart will never be turned away by the Lord. Though He is not in control of everything, He definitely has a good plan for man and a set of rules to be obeyed. The choice to obey would bring countless blessings to a man’s life while the schemes of the ungodly would be brought to nothing.

Questions:

What was Job so ‘irked’ about with his friends?

What does the Bible say about God being in control of everything?

What is the best way to approach God?

Have you asked the Lord to reveal to you anything in your family lines that may be causing you trouble?  

     

Joshua 24:15

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

There are three main points to consider from today’s study…

Family history plays an important role in our lives today

God sustains all things, but He does not control everything

We have a choice to serve God or walk away from Him 

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the blessing of life in Jesus Christ Your Son my Lord and Savior. Thank You for Your goodness that calls me to follow after the right way – the way that brings tremendous blessings. Lord, I choose You this day as the One I want to serve for all eternity. If I have been off the path that You had for me I am asking you humbly to forgive me in the name of Jesus, and to strengthen me to get back on the right path of choosing You and choosing the good life that following You can bring. Thank You in advance for Your help Father in Jesus name! Amen! 

Which path will you choose? 

And God Said… You fill in the blanks.

Matthew 10:39

He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.