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AUGUST 19
25 Now to Him who is able to establish you
according to my gospel and the preaching of
Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the
mystery kept secret since the world began 16:26 prophetic Scriptures made known.
26 but now made manifest, and by the prophet- God had told Israel that He would not only call
ic Scriptures made known to all nations, her to righteousness,but appoint her as a light
according to the commandment of the ever- (of the gospel) to the nations (Is. 42:6; 49:6;
27
lasting God, for obedience to the faith— to 1Pet. 1:10,11; Gen. 12:3; Ex. 19:6; Is. 49:22;
God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ 53:11; 60:3–5; Jer. 31:31,33).
forever. Amen.
DAY 18:What wise conclusion did Job come to regarding his debate with his friends?
Job said to his friends,“I will teach you about the hand of God”(27:11).Job had pinpointed the
issue between him and his friends. They disagreed on the outworking of God’s retribution. They
agreed that God was powerful, wise, and sovereign. But because Job knew there was no cherished
sin in his life that would bring upon him such intense suffering,Job was forced to conclude that the
simplistic notion that all suffering comes from sin and all righteousness is rewarded, was wrong.At
the outset, Job himself probably believed as the comforters still did, but he had seen that his
friends’limitation of God’s action was drastically in need of revision; in fact, it was nonsense.
“God understands its way, and He knows its place”(28:23).These are perhaps the most impor-
tant thoughts in the chapter for the debates. Job and his friends have probed God’s wisdom for 3
court rounds and basically have arrived nowhere near the truth. Finally, Job made the point clearly
that the divine wisdom necessary to explain his suffering was inaccessible to man. Only God knew
all about it, because He knows everything (v. 24). True wisdom belongs to the One who is the
Almighty Creator (vv. 25,26). One can only know it if He declares it to him (Deut. 29:29).
“Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom” (28:28). Job had made the connection that the
others would not.While the specific features of God’s wisdom may not be revealed to us, the alpha
and omega of wisdom is to revere God and avoid sin (Ps.111:10; Prov.1:7; 9:10; Eccl.12:13,14), leav-
ing the unanswered questions to Him in trusting submission. All we can do is trust and obey (Eccl.
12:13), and that is enough wisdom. One may never know the reasons for life’s sufferings.

AUGUST 19

29:5 When the Almighty was yet with me.
Job 29:1–30:31 Job felt abandoned by God. But God would
demonstrate to Job, by addressing his criti-
Job further continued his discourse, cisms, that God was with him all throughout
29 and said: this ordeal.
2
“Oh, that I were as in months past,
As in the days when God watched over When I took my seat in the open
me;
3 When His lamp shone upon my head, square,
8 The young men saw me and hid,
And when by His light I walked through
darkness; And the aged arose and stood;
9 The princes refrained from talking,
4 Just as I was in the days of my prime,
When the friendly counsel of God was And put their hand on their mouth;
10 The voice of nobles was hushed,
over my tent;
5 When the Almighty was yet with me, And their tongue stuck to the roof of
When my children were around me; their mouth.
11 When the ear heard, then it blessed me,
6 When my steps were bathed with
cream, And when the eye saw, then it
And the rock poured out rivers of oil approved me;
12 Because I delivered the poor who cried
for me!
out,
7 “When I went out to the gate by the The fatherless and the one who had no
city, helper.
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