October 30, 2012 – Job 33

We see the first part of the response is the God uses chastisement to keep man from the pit, from eternal doom.  Throughout Job, this view has not been laid out.  You were either righteous or you were not.  There was no redemptive value in the actions.  The respondent is really insulted by Job not giving God enough credit for the power of God.  God’s reasoning and action should never be questioned. 

And something that always puzzled me is when Job always said he had never done anything wrong.  He is called out here, because no one is perfect.  I suppose there is a difference between perfect and righteous, but you don’t get a sense of the difference. 

There is the talk of God bringing men back from the pit.  Maybe Job was righteous, but maybe he was about to fall.  Maybe everything he had was going to lead him astray.  God allows this to bring him closer to God.