Job Chapter 8 Build-ed speaks, Job should repent. Then build-ed the shoe-height answered and said, How long will you say these things? In the words of your mouth, be a great wind. Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression. If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great. For inquire please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out. For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding? Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water? While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant. Such are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the Godless shall perish. His confidence is severed, and his trust is a spider's web. He leans against his house, but it does not stand. He lays hold of it, but it does not endure. He is a lush plant before the sun, and his shoots spread over his garden. His roots entwine the stone heap. He looks upon a house of stones. If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, I have never seen you. Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the soil others will spring. Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evil doers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouting. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more. Job 9 Job replies, there is no arbiter. Then Job answered and said, truly I know that it is so. But how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength, who has hardened himself against him and succeeded. He who removes mountains and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger, who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble, who commands the sun, and it does not rise, who seals up the stars, who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea, who made the bear and Orion, the pliades and the chambers of the south, who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number. He hold, he passes by me, and I see him not, he moves on, but I do not perceive him, behold, he snatches away, who can turn him back, who will say to him, what are you doing? God will not turn back his anger, beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab. How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him. I must appeal for mercy to my accuser, if I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice, for he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause, he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness. If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty. If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him, though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me, though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse, I am blameless, I regard not myself, I loath my life, it is all one, and therefore I say he destroys both the blameless and the wicked. When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked, he covers the faces of its judges, if it is not he, who then is it? My days are swifter than a runner, they flee away, they see no good, they go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey. If I say I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and be of good cheer, I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent, I shall be condemned, why then do I labor in vain, if I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lie, yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me. For he is not a man, as I am that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both, let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me, then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself. Job Chapter 10 Job continues, a plea to God. I loath my life, I will give free utterance to my complaint, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul, I will say to God, do not condemn me, let me know why you contend against me. Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands, and favor the designs of the wicked? Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees? Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man's years, that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin? Although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand, your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether, remember that you have made me like clay, and will you return me to the dust? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life instead fast love, and your care has preserved my spirit. But these things you hid in your heart, I know that this was your purpose. If I sin, you watch me and do not equip me of my iniquity. If I am guilty, woe to me. If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction. And where my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion, and again work wonders against me. You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your vexation toward me, you bring fresh troops against me. Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that eye had died before any eye had seen me, and whereas though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave, are not my days few, then cease, and leave me alone, but I may find a little cheer before I go, and I shall not return to the land of darkness and deep shadow, the land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order where light is as thick darkness. Matthew chapter 19 verses 16 through 30. The rich young man. And behold, a man came up to him saying, Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? And he said to him, Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments. He said to him, Which ones? And Jesus said, You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him, All these I have kept. What do I still lack? Jesus said to him, If you would be perfect, go. Sell what you possess and give to the poor. And you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, Truly, I say to you only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, Who then can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. Then Peter said in reply, See we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have? Jesus said to them, Truly, I say to you, In the new world, when the Son of man will sit on his glorious throne, You who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first. Psalm chapter 18 verses 37 through 42. I pursued my enemies and overtook them and did not turn back till they were consumed. I thrust them through so that they were not able to rise. They fell under my feet. For you equipped me with strength for the battle. You made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me. And those who hated me, I destroyed. They cried for help, but there was none to save. They cried to the Lord. But he did not answer them. I beat them fine as dust before the wind. I cast them out like the mire of the streets.
