The Days of My Prime

If you pay attention to sports, you will sometimes hear a commentator refer to an athlete being “in his prime.” Interestingly, the “prime” age may vary depending upon the sport. For most sports the prime falls in the late twenties and early thirties, after gaining sufficient experience but before the body has worn down too…

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Elusive Insight

Constantly developing technology, advances in medicine, and the information available on the Internet combine with pride to convince people  today that they have built a world of wonders—despite simultaneously destroying the best of that world in the name of being a more advanced civilization. However, Job lamented in Job 28:1-11 how many discoveries and advances…

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Far Be It From Me

Job had endured the loss of his children, the loss of his wealth, and the loss of his health. In society he had endured the humiliation of going from respected statesman to social outcast. But when his friends came to see him, he found it necessary to endure their reproach, their indignation, and their accusations.…

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How Can a Man Be Righteous Before God?

Job had made a powerful case, demonstrating that suffering comes upon all people regardless of the righteousness of their behavior. However, Bildad the Shuhite refused to acknowledge—at least directly—the strength of Job’s case. Instead, he turned his attention to the distance that lies between God and all men, emphasizing the exalted nature of God compared…

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No Man Is Sure of Life

In the ongoing discussion between Job and his friends, Job maintained his innocence with frustration and fervor, responding to the increasingly virulent attacks made against his life and character by his friends with precision and logic. He had yet to figure out the full impact of his circumstances and the greater lesson they implied; however,…

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When He Has Tested Me

People are quick to tell you that life is not fair. It is an axiom that comes quick to the lips just due to hearing it so often—so quickly that we often do not think about what we are saying. It is an explanation of sorts—and sometimes a justification. When trials and hardships come our…

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Empty Words

Any discussion that includes some level of disagreement requires greater communication skills than most people maintain in their arsenal. Instead, people tend to avoid disagreement in favor of the comfortable confines of self-affirming opinions offered by friends or they resort to mocking the other person and his position, usually with an assumption built on a…

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Arguing Against Rebuke

Criticism of any kind hurts to some extent. No matter how much you love and respect the person offering criticism and how much you know that person loves and respects you, criticism—no matter how constructive—comes with a great deal of pain. Sometimes this pain is rooted in the realization that the criticism is valid, and…

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My Redeemer Lives

The final words of Bildad the Shuhite in Job 18 had to have hurt: “And this is the place of him who does not know God” (Job 18:21b). While he may not have directed them specifically toward Job, the implication was strong enough. Job’s friends had assumed the worst about him, despite offering no evidence…

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Shutting Down the Argument

The rise of social media has made it possible for people to take talking down to people and talking past one another to new heights of incoherence and belligerence. (That is a fancy way of saying that people spout a lot of nonsense and provoke arguments as if it is their purpose in life.) Social…

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