Job makes effective counter-arguments. Eliphaz gets nasty. Job responds by noting that they’re not only wrong, they’re miserable comforters.

Reading the Bible is the starting-point for having the Word of Christ dwell in you richly – the joy and rejoicing of your heart.

Job notes the obvious empirical evidence disproving their theology of instant justice. But he gets caught up in the details of his innocence. He’s starting to lose perspective.

Before we can wield the Sword of the Spirit, we need to receive it, to allow the Word of God to become firmly planted in our souls, and to begin dwelling there richly.

Job’s friends “encourage” Job by arguing that God is always just, thus accusing Job of major sin. Job counters the accusation, and also notes that they’re not exactly comforting him.

The Word of God leads us into a covenant relationship with our Creator and Lord, so that, through Jesus Christ, we may realize the precious and very great promises of God as a banquet of spiritual vitality and delight.

Job is crushed by these calamities and cries out in pain. His wife and friends provide little comfort.

The Bible is a single Book, from the mind of a single Author. It tells a single story, and it does so within the framework of a single, powerful structure. That story and structure are God’s covenant.

This generation of Christians is starving for truth, and most of us don’t even recognize this is so. We are awash in the Bible and flush with opportunities for hearing and learning the Word of God. But where is the evidence that this powerful and living Word is at work within us, making all things new?

Many people consider Job to be the most troubling book in the Bible. No other book confronts the reader with God’s sovereign priorities as bluntly as Job does. There’s no explaining away what it says. That’s painful to deal with but stick with it and the rewards are great. A deep study of Job can produce profound growth.

Wisdom and counsel can be found in Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in Babylon. His instructions for them ring true for us today, as we take up our callings to the Kingdom and glory of God, to live as witnesses to Christ and ambassadors of His Kingdom.

We cannot emphasize enough the important of each believer paying careful attention to the work of nurturing their soul for stability in Christ.