Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Today Job wrapped up his response to Elivaz's third speech.

In Chapter 24, Job continues to point out that good things happen to the wicked and also

adds that bad things happen to the righteous.

Surely you've seen this too.

When I first read this response from Job, it sounded more like a complaint, like he was

kind of whining about it.

But the more I looked at it, the more it sounded like he was consoling himself with these

details, reminding himself that his trials don't negate his status as a righteous man before

God, while also trying to convince his friends as well.

Job points out some really important stuff here.

We can kind of see that if you follow his friends' beliefs to its logical conclusion, you'd

be likely to conclude that all those who are healthy and wealthy are living righteous

lives and that those who are poor, sick and needy are in that situation because of their

sin.

There is no shortage of people who even subscribe to this type of theology today.

One of the dangers of this is that anytime there's a disaster, a fire or a flood or a terrorist

attack, some very public religious people will say it's God's judgment as if they know

the mind of God.

Their guilty of the same reductionism that Job's friends are.

In Job's story, we're given a glimpse into God's motives because they're recorded in

Scripture.

...