March 9 Readings

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You can also check out all these Reading Plans Blogs to go through the Bible in a year from Back to the Bible Reading Lists:the Chronological Reading Plan blog; OT and NT Together blog; Historical Readings blog; Blended Readings blog and Beginning to End blog In addition, there is the Theophilus1 blog in the One Year Bible format

Blended Reading Plan from Back to the Bible
Job 8-10; 1 Corinthians 4
Job 8 with Commentaries, verse by verse
Job 9 with Commentaries, verse by verse
Job 10 with Commentaries, verse by verse

Job 8
Bildad the Shuhite started the conversation with Job by calling him a windbag. Bildad argues if Job was innocent, God is not unjust so Job and his family are suffering because of sin. God would restore to him everything that he lost. (v.6). Bildad is a traditionalist he cited the wisdom of previous generations (v. 8-19). v 20-22 Bidad emphasize restoration v. 20-22. He tells Job that he should plead for mercy, God would restore him. Again the emphasis here is that Bildad did not know the FULL picture of what was happening to Job. Let us be careful not to jump to the wrong conclusion about suffering. There are two sides to the coin. Man’s side and God’s side. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4.5 that we should not judge anything before the appointed time we should wait until the Lord comes.

Job 9 It was not only God’s wisdom, but also His power. (9.2-13). How can mere man compete with God in power? We have all this high technology, Doppler radar, supercomputer and we cannot predict the weather accurately much less control the weather! In v. 14-35 , Job envision himself being summoned into a court room. God was summoned in to answer Job charges against Him but God would not answer. Even if Job was right how would he answer God. He would be crushed and overwhelmed.. Job was not a match for God.! In said in v. 33, if there was someone to arbitrate between him and God, someone to remove God’s rod for him. This verse does not imply the mediatorship of Christ rather someone who would speak on his behalf.

Job 10 God agrees with his comforters that he must be wicked before God. (v. 1-7) He saw himself as the work of God’s hand in the three trades used in Biblical times, (v. 8-12) as the potter and the clay (v.8), the curdling of cheese, and the making of cloth. In v.13 –17, notice the three Ifs, that God was watching him if he sinned and ready to punish him. He was full of shame and drowned in his affliction even if he was innocent. God would stalk him like a lion and showed him His mighty powers. God had brought new witnesses against him, increased His anger against him. This was a different God he knew from his past experiences when God had blessed him! Job said that he wanted to die again (v. 18-22).

The book of Job has been a struggle for me to understand what Job was going through and I confess that when I read this book I feel helpless and inadequate before God.

Other Links
Dr. Thomas Constable Study Notes is a PDF file, open with Adobe Acrobatic Reader
Deffinbaugh on Job 1
Deffinbaugh on the man, Job
Malik-Intoduction to Job
Malik-Argument for Job
Piper on Job
Spurgeon on Job
Spurgeon, Edwards on Job
Stedman on Job

1Corinthians 4 with Commentaries, verse by verse

1Corinthians 4
Paul said that people should regard the apostles as servants of Christ entrusted with the SECRET THINGS of God. What are these secret things? According to the NIV Study Bible: These are things that human wisdom cannot discover but that are now revealed by God to his people. 1cor 4.5 “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God.” (NASB)

It is easy to jump to conclusion about things going on in our lives and other people lives without understanding the full picture. For example we have seen in the life of Job that Job and his friends who try to comfort him did not get the full picture of why he was suffering. They did not realize that sin was not the reason that Job was suffering.

Paul then talked to the Corinthian church about the what it cost apostles to do the ministry. He was sarcastic in verse 8 that the Corinthian church was rich but in actuality they were poor. He used several paradoxes in verse 10 This is similar to the Church in Laodicea (Rev 3.18-19). In verse 11-13, Paul spoke about the conditions they faced in Ephesus, to the present when he was writing this epistle. He then said in verse 16 ‘Therefore I urge you to imitate me’. Paul was that confident in the Lord to urge them to use him as a model in their lives, to emulate him. He was sending Timothy to teach them how to live the way how Paul live. That is a very noble ambition for us to have that people would live the way we live! Let us hope, with God’s grace, that we set good examples for them.
Paul then warned those who were arrogant, believing that Paul would come to Corinth to correct the problems at the church. We need to realize that the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. The apostle Peter was full of talk that he would not deny Jesus three times, but he did! After Pentecost, the Holy Spirit made cowardly Peter bold and articulate leading to the conversion of three thousand and made him effective in his ministry.

Other Links
Calvin on 1 Corinthians 1-9
Calvin on 1 Corinthians 10-16
Dr. Thomas Constable Study Notes is a PDF file, open with Adobe Acrobatic Reader
Deffinbaugh on 1Corinthians
Index to Sermons by McArthur, Ryle, Edwards and Spurgeon on 1Corinthians
Spurgeon on 1Corinthians
Stedman on 1 Corinthians
Pett on 1Corinthians 1-7
Pett on 1Corinthians 8-16
Piper on 1Corinthians
Wallace on 1 Corinthians

Jesus Saves
This Posting is NOT a commentary of the passages read today but it is a devotional. Please send a comment if something spoke to you today from the passages, links or thoughts that I have shared with you.