For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Job 27:1-6

1 And Job continued his discourse:

2 ‘As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,
    the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,
3 as long as I have life within me,
    the breath of God in my nostrils,
4 my lips will not say anything wicked,
    and my tongue will not utter lies.
5 I will never admit you are in the right;
    till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
6 I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it;
    my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.

A. Find Out

1. How does Job describe what God has done? v.2
2. Yet what has Job left? v.3
3. What will he not do? v.4
4. What also will he not do? v.5
5. But what will he do? v.6a
6. Because of what? v.6b

B. Think:

1. Is Job’s description of what has happened accurate?
2. Of what is he convinced?
3. What assurance within himself has he of that?

C. Comment:

This is a most remarkable passage. Almost as if to emphasise that this is Job, the writer or scribe reiterates in verse 1 that this is Job continuing his explanatory answer. Job seems to make an oath when he starts, “As surely as the Lord lives.” (v.2a). Elsewhere in the Bible we find similar affirmation such as “As surely as the Lord lives…” But note how he then describes the Lord – as one who has denied him justice (v.2b). Is that right? Well, yes, this is the work of the Lord. He has made Job “taste bitterness of soul.” (v.2c). Then he adds to it, “as long as I have breath in me” (v.3) i.e. I’m just going to keep on and on saying this! 

This is Job who has reached a place of absolute certainty about his state! He determines that he will not speak anything wrong (v.4) and so he will never admit they are right when they accuse him of sin (5). The positive side of that is that he will always maintain that he is righteous (v.6a) because he has a clear conscience (v.6b).

Now if we think Job is being self-righteous it means that we have forgotten that it was the Lord Himself who had declared Job blameless (1:8, 2:3), and at the end of the book the Lord confirms that he has spoken well (42:7).  What we have just witnessed is Job coming in line with the truth and declaring it openly. Perhaps that was part of the test, and he’s just passed it!

D. Application:

1. Dare we declare ourselves righteous – because we are in Christ and we are as he leads our lives!
2. Righteousness is a gift from God. Live it.

Passage: Job 27:7-12

7 ‘May my enemy be like the wicked,
    my adversary like the unjust!
8 For what hope have the godless when they are cut off,
    when God takes away their life?
9 Does God listen to their cry
    when distress comes upon them?
10 Will they find delight in the Almighty?
    Will they call on God at all times?

11 ‘I will teach you about the power of God;
    the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.
12 You have all seen this yourselves.
    Why then this meaningless talk?

A. Find Out

1. How does Job view his enemies? v.7
2. What happens to the godless? v.8
3. What happens when he gets in trouble? v.9
4. What isn’t he like? v.10
5. What does Job say he will do? v.11
6. How does he appeal to his friends? v.12

B. Think:

1. Why are people Job’s enemies according to v.7?
2. Why is he chiding them?
3. What do you think he is implying in this passage?

C. Comment:

Job has just made that mighty assertion of the truth – that he is righteous. In that he is denying the declarations of his ‘friends’ that he has sinned. In that they have appeared as his enemies or adversaries (v.7) and he calls them wicked and unjust. If he IS referring to his friends this is a strong indictment for he goes on then to call them godless (v.8). He has hope in God and in his own righteousness but what hope would they have if they were cut off in a similar manner?

A feature of godlessness is quite obvious: an absence of relationship with the Lord, and these men never seem to call on the Lord, they appear to have no relationship with Him and so if they got into distressing circumstances would God listen to them? (v.9)  Do the godless delight in the Lord? (v.10) Of course not, that is why they are godless. In their relationship with Him do they call on Him regularly? Of course not!

Look, says Job, I have such a relationship (implied) and so I will tell you about His power and His ways (v.11). You have seen this, you know the truth, you know of my relationship with the Lord, so why are you going on like this? (v.12). Yes, there is the truth. Job’s life before all this had happened had been an open book. It was obvious that he was a righteous man, so all this talk of his implied sins and his godlessness is clearly rubbish!

D. Application:

1. Don’t despise the righteous – especially those more pious than you!
2. Don’t look to find faults. Praise God where you see righteousness.

Passage: Job 27:13-23

13 ‘Here is the fate God allots to the wicked,
    the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:
14 However many his children, their fate is the sword;
    his offspring will never have enough to eat.
15 The plague will bury those who survive him,
    and their widows will not weep for them.
16 Though he heaps up silver like dust
    and clothes like piles of clay,
17 what he lays up the righteous will wear,
    and the innocent will divide his silver.
18 The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon,
    like a hut made by a watchman.
19 He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;
    when he opens his eyes, all is gone.
20 Terrors overtake him like a flood;
    a tempest snatches him away in the night.
21 The east wind carries him off, and he is gone;
    it sweeps him out of his place.
22 It hurls itself against him without mercy
    as he flees headlong from its power.
23 It claps its hands in derision
    and hisses him out of his place.’

A. Find Out

1. Of whom and what does Job now speak? v.13
2. What will happen to their families? v.14,15
3. What happens to his riches? v.16,17
4. What happens to his home? v.18,19
5. What ultimately happens to him? v.20-23

B. Think:

1. What main point is Job making in these verses?
2. Why do you think he is making them – see before.
3. Why is it more emotion than truth?

C. Comment:

We said previously that in his defence Job was subtly implying that his friends were godless adversaries and it seems as if this passage is more an emotional warning to them than anything else. He is talking about the wicked (v.13). Why? Surely because he wants to warn them against this path, but the thing about it is that, as Job himself has said previously, it isn’t always like this.

Often the wicked do seem to get away with it this side of death. So he ploughs on with the emotional outpouring against the wicked. Their children will suffer because of them (v.14) and those who follow in the family will die of disease (v.15), presumably because of the hand of God on them. The wicked can pile up riches (v.16) and have heaps of clothes, yet they will be taken by others (v.17). His house will be a temporary structure and will not last (v.18). He may be wealthy one minute (v.19) but the next minute it is all gone. Disaster will come like a flood without warning (v.20) and his possessions and his very life will be snatched away. It will be like a strong wind coming (v.21) that will carry him away and with no mercy he will just be swept powerlessly before it (v.22) as it, with no thought or feeling, takes him (v.23).

These are strong words creating strong pictures of judgement which cannot be withstood. As we’ve noted, they don’t happen to all but they do happen to some and the ‘some’ will be the godless who do not have God’s protection, so be warned, he says.

D. Application:

1. Judgement from God does come in this world sometimes.
2. The lesson is simply to live as to avoid this if possible.