Day 8 – Job 17-20
Today was somewhat repetitive, maybe by design? Job is still in misery and popping off verbally about how miserable he is.
Job’s friends still insist that his suffering proves guilt. I retract my statement on Day 5 about the second friend being a keeper. Nope.
For some reason, the Train song “Drops of Jupiter” sticks in my head here.
🎵“Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken, your best friend always sticking up for you even when I know you’re wrong.”🎵
It’s like Job needs some fried chicken and a good friend who would defend him, but his friends insist they know best. They bring him a bowl of soy and gelatin and tell him to make tofu and be grateful for it. They don’t want to expend any effort. They won’t even make the tofu for him. Such empty friendships. “Naw, bruh… it’s your responsibility… but I’m here if you need me.” 📱I would be unfollowing these friends on socials and blocking their numbers on my cell. See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya. BYEEEEE. 🙋♀️🙋♀️🙋♀️🙋♀️🙋♀️🙋♀️🙋♀️🙋♀️
We are circling the drain here – complain➜condemn➜defend➜contempt➜complain➜condemn➜defend➜contempt
The one thing that breaks the cycle is that, alongside his bleating and moaning, Job continues to declare that his Redeemer lives. He has almost lost all hope, and the only hope he has left is in God. (Job 19:25 – “Yet as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last, He will take His stand on the earth.”)
Day 9 – Job 21-23
More of the same today. Job still lamenting, his friends still hammering him with “But…but….you must’ve done something!”
🔥🌟 Job is still seeking God, though, and He still believes God is the captain of his ship during this storm ⛈️🚢. The verse that stood out to me today was when Job said: “But He knows the way I take; when He has put me to the test, I will come out as gold.” (Job 23:10) This tells me that even though Job is mad and miserable, he believes God is refining him.
💪 Job is also hangin’ tough: “But I am not destroyed by darkness, nor by deep gloom which covers me.” (Job 23:17) Hey, Devil! Kick rocks, bro! You are not going to win this one! 😈👊
Tara-Leigh Cobble’s TBR roundup for Day 9 probably says it best: “Our lot in life is not a good way to determine the state of our hearts.”
Day 10 – Job 24-28
😂 Job’s friends are still exhausting.
Tara-Leigh’s “God Shot” was the same as mine today. 🙏 Wisdom is revering (fearing) God and turning away from evil.
A few verses being added to the Verse Vault:
Job 28:28 – And to mankind He said, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to turn away from evil is understanding.” 🙏
Job 28:18 – …and the acquisition of wisdom is more valuable than pearls. 💎
One I want to ask myself daily: Job 27:10 – …will he call on God at all times? (Will I? Will you? Let’s do it!)
🤔 In 26:12, Rahab here is not the Rahab from Jericho. I looked this up because I was all “how would Job know this Rahab”? So “Rahab” is a name for a “great chaos monster” or “sea monster” 🌊- like a Leviathan. The point is that the God of Israel alone rules over the things people fear most.
🤔 Abaddon is not a person. Duh, Jenny. Glad you looked this up! Abaddon is a Greek word that means 💀”destruction” or “place of destruction”. (Job 28:22)
👀⏭️Sneak peek: Abaddon appears again in Revelation as the name of an angel of the abyss, literally “Destroyer”.
Day 11 – Job 29-31
Job continues to amaze me with the number of different, unique, and creative ways he can describe his torment. Who says stuff like this? “You lift me up to the wind and make me ride it; and You dissolve me in a storm.” (Job 30:22) (I mean, clearly JOB says stuff like this… but none of my friends speak so eloquently about their pain!)
One verse really hit me today. Job is describing – kind of listing – things he has done and not done that are righteous. He said in 31:29 “Have I rejoiced at the misfortune of my enemy, or become excited when evil found him?” If I’m honest with myself, I have done that. Sometimes when I slip, I still do that. But I understand “vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord” much better now than I did in my spiritual infancy.
Jesus died for all people, even the jerks. So there are two sides to every story – the thing that person did to me, and the thing that person did to God. From my view, I’m the receiver of the wrong. From God’s perspective, the wrongdoer is the giver of it. While I see it as punishment or simply the result of living in a fallen world, the wrongdoer may finally view it as a sin and ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. So while I have rejoiced at the payback, the payment for that sin was already taken by Jesus , not the person who did me wrong. I need to keep working on this.
Part of me is done with all of Job’s complaining, but most of this book so far illustrates how a friend should respond to a grieving friend. I have been in that situation before – wondering what to say or do for my friend who is hurting. This below is typically my response to them in an effort to encourage them to keep on going. They say in racing, when there is a crash ahead of you, “drive through the smoke” because the crashed cars have bounced out of the smoke by the time you get there. Just keep driving straight. Don’t stray. And never give up.
Day 12 – Job 32-34
More of the same, but from a younger dude who says he’s going to be gentler. But he wasn’t. He just said the same things Job’s other friends said.
In Tara-Leigh Cobble’s recap video here, she repeats Elihu’s sentiments that God will allow us to struggle as long as it turns our hearts from darkness to light. I won’t put words in her mouth, so just watch it.
I agree with her for the most part as it pertains to our lives. I have certainly suffered heartache on my way to joy; however….
HOWEVER…. in this book, we know that Job was already turned toward the light. Then Satan said, “Shall we play a game?” And God let it happen. So it’s like Job went from light to dark only to come back to the light again? I don’t see how Job’s torment helped him. He was already headed in the right direction. Why derail him?
Understand – these are today’s thoughts. I know how this ends. This is not my first reading of Job; it’s my current reading. My opinions may change as we proceed, but this right here is a snapshot opinion of today’s reading.
Also understand – I am not as Bible-smart as Tara-Leigh Cobble. I am no expert. I’m just a common woman, drive a common van, and my dog ain’t got a pedigree… (“Common Man” by John Conlee… I guess you had to be there…. )
Day 13 – Job 35-37
My habit every day is to read the day’s passages in The Bible Recap study, type in some notes into a blank MS Word document as I read, then listen to Tara-Leigh’s recap on YouTube.
Today, TLC (“Tara-Leigh Cobble” for future references) mentioned “rock of ages” and poetry. The rock of ages reference came from an outside source, but I thought it was a cool coincidence that she mentioned poetry. All through today’s reading, I kept thinking about these passages being the best poetry I’ve ever read. I had other thoughts, too, though….
🎶Alriiiiight. I got somethin’ to say! Come on! Rise up, gather ’round….🎶 (Def Leppard, “Rock of Ages“)
Elihu basically calls Job “godless” in 36:13 – “…but the godless in heart harbor anger”. I questioned whether this was a blanket statement about any anger😡, just because I personally might have some (kidding…. I do… I’m working on it…it’s getting less and less as my Bible studying progresses and evolves). But in this case, I think Elihu is talking about anger at God. I might be wrong, but this is the way I’m reading it this time. I think Elihu is a jerk. 🤬🤬🤬
Then he says to Job, “Quit moaning. It’s not helping. It’s just making you seem weak. Speaking of weakness, do you think you are strong enough to battle this distress on you’re own, mere human?” Ok, that’s not what he said really. 🤣 But it is. He is basically saying human effort can’t ultimately rescue you from what God allows. There is human strength, and there is God strength. Who you think gonna win this battle? ⚔️ 🛡️
🚨🌧️Breaking News Weather Alert! Storm Advisory!🚨 ⚠️ ‼️ 📢
God controls the weather, not mankind, no matter how much silver nitrate we shoot into the air. Well, how so, Jenny? If we shoot the silver nitr—shut it! God controls the wind and the silver nitrate, too.
How many times have you felt sprinkles of water on your skin when you walk outside and think, “Man, we needed this rain.” Well…. God knew it, too. Right now in Middle Tennessee (July 15, 2026), it is raining a lot. Every single day since America 250🗽! I can hardly get the dogs out between lightning strikes, and I caught myself yesterday thinking, “We’ve had our fill, Lord!”
But what if…. hear me out…. okay, my yard is soggy and there are enough mushrooms in my front lawn to stock the Farmer’s Market for a few weeks… but what if (probably!) God knows something I don’t know? What if He is filling the water table underneath us? What if some farms 🚜downriver need the water💧, but up here, we have the space to hold the water before it flows downstream to the farms🌱? If it all fell on the farms at once, it might flood and ruin the crops🌽. I don’t know… just thinking out loud here. 🧐🧐🧐
I think there is always cause and effect, equal opposites, all that scientific stuff… but I really think the butterfly effect 🤔🦋 is in play most times. One thing here in this location causes something else in that location which causes something else which causes something else and so on. A ripple effect. We never know where we are in the ripple, but that’s where we have to put our trust in God. He knows what He is doing.
37:13 says “Whether for correction, or for His earth, or for goodness, He causes it to happen.” Weather (purposeful spelling) or not the ⚠️Storm 5 Alert system 📢 believes this is debatable…but this also might be why Storm 5 Alert is wrong so often. Because they don’t really know what they purport to “know”. ‼️‼️
Bottom line: 🎵💧💦I’m never gonna stop the rain by complainin’ … but there’s one thing I know… the blues they send to meet me won’t defeat me. It won’t be long ’til happiness steps up to greet me. 🎵💧💦
Maybe that’s true for Job, too. Hmmm…. got me thinkin’. (BJ Thomas “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head“).