By Mike Dawson
Retired Baptist pastor
Focal Passage: Job 19:19-29
“In this corner, wearing a torn robe, with his head shaved, and covered in open sores, is … Job!”
So might a ring announcer introduce the champ in Round One of the ‘boxing match’ featuring Job the Uzzite, pitted against a tag team calling themselves ‘The Three Friends:’ Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.
It’s uncertain who’d be declared the winner of Round One, dealing with the nature of God. Job began the match by declaring that God should have taken his life after childbirth (chapter 3).
Eliphaz then pounded Job with emotional punches (chapters 6-7), then Bildad hammered away with accusations that Job was a hypocrite (chapter 8), and Job once again went on the defensive (chapters 9-10), even blaming God for not allowing him to speak for himself. [Read more…]