Job 15, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Dad Made the Difference

Other events of my sixth-grade year blur into fog. But that spring evening in 1967? Crystal clear. I passed on dessert. No appetite. I needed to focus on the phone-on the call I had expected before the meal. I'm staring at the phone like a dog at a bone hoping a Little League coach will tell me I've made his team. In the great scheme of things, not making a baseball team matters little. But twelve-year-olds can't see the great scheme of things.
Long after my hopes were gone, the doorbell rang. It was the coach. He made it sound as if I were a top choice. Only later did I learn I was the last pick. And save a call from my dad, I might have been left off the team. But dad called, the coach came, and I was glad to play! Dad made the difference!
From Dad Time

Job 15

Eliphaz Attacks Again
You Trivialize Religion

Eliphaz of Teman spoke a second time:

“If you were truly wise, would you sound so much like a
    windbag, belching hot air?
Would you talk nonsense in the middle of a serious argument,
    babbling baloney?
Look at you! You trivialize religion,
    turn spiritual conversation into empty gossip.
It’s your sin that taught you to talk this way.
    You chose an education in fraud.
Your own words have exposed your guilt.
    It’s nothing I’ve said—you’ve incriminated yourself!
Do you think you’re the first person to have to deal with these things?
    Have you been around as long as the hills?
Were you listening in when God planned all this?
    Do you think you’re the only one who knows anything?
What do you know that we don’t know?
    What insights do you have that we’ve missed?
Gray beards and white hair back us up—
    old folks who’ve been around a lot longer than you.
Are God’s promises not enough for you,
    spoken so gently and tenderly?
Why do you let your emotions take over,
    lashing out and spitting fire,
Pitting your whole being against God
    by letting words like this come out of your mouth?
Do you think it’s possible for any mere mortal to be sinless in God’s sight,
    for anyone born of a human mother to get it all together?
Why, God can’t even trust his holy angels.
    He sees the flaws in the very heavens themselves,
So how much less we humans, smelly and foul,
    who lap up evil like water?

Always at Odds with God
17-26 “I’ve a thing or two to tell you, so listen up!
    I’m letting you in on my views;
It’s what wise men and women have always taught,
    holding nothing back from what they were taught
By their parents, back in the days
    when they had this land all to themselves:
Those who live by their own rules, not God’s, can expect nothing but trouble,
    and the longer they live, the worse it gets.
Every little sound terrifies them.
    Just when they think they have it made, disaster strikes.
They despair of things ever getting better—
    they’re on the list of people for whom things always turn out for the worst.
They wander here and there,
    never knowing where the next meal is coming from—
    every day is doomsday!
They live in constant terror,
    always with their backs up against the wall
Because they insist on shaking their fists at God,
    defying God Almighty to his face,
Always and ever at odds with God,
    always on the defensive.

27-35 “Even if they’re the picture of health,
    trim and fit and youthful,
They’ll end up living in a ghost town
    sleeping in a hovel not fit for a dog,
    a ramshackle shack.
They’ll never get ahead,
    never amount to much of anything.
And then death—don’t think they’ll escape that!
    They’ll end up shriveled weeds,
    brought down by a puff of God’s breath.
There’s a lesson here: Whoever invests in lies,
    gets lies for interest,
Paid in full before the due date.
    Some investment!
They’ll be like fruit frost-killed before it ripens,
    like buds sheared off before they bloom.
The godless are fruitless—a barren crew;
    a life built on bribes goes up in smoke.
They have sex with sin and give birth to evil.
    Their lives are wombs for breeding deceit.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Saturday, June 12, 2021
Read: Isaiah 43:1–7
Israel’s Only Savior

But now, this is what the Lord says—
    he who created you, Jacob,
    he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
    they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
    you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
    Cush[a] and Seba in your stead.
4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
    and because I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
    nations in exchange for your life.
5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
    I will bring your children from the east
    and gather you from the west.
6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
    and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
    and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
7 everyone who is called by my name,
    whom I created for my glory,
    whom I formed and made.”

Footnotes
Isaiah 43:3 That is, the upper Nile region

INSIGHT
In Isaiah 43, we see how the identity of God’s people is totally dependent upon the identity of God Himself. We might expect an Old Testament prophecy to be filled with dire warnings of cataclysmic judgment, and Isaiah certainly contains that. However, the book also provides immense comfort throughout its sixty-six chapters. In chapter 43, God promises to bring His exiled people back home (vv. 5–6). Typically, a conquered nation would be absorbed into the culture of their victorious enemies. But God’s people are different—even when being judged. Despite their long history of rebellion against God, the exiles remained His chosen people. God can’t deny His own character, and He tells His people, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (v. 25). The identity of God’s people is wrapped up in His character.

By Patricia Raybon
He Knows Your Name

I have summoned you by name; you are mine. Isaiah 43:1

After breaking with our longtime church, my husband and I reunited with the fellowship after three long years. But how would people treat us? Would they welcome us back? Love us? Forgive us for leaving? We got our answer on a sunny Sunday morning. As we walked through the big church doors, we kept hearing our names. “Pat! Dan! It’s so great to see you!” As children’s author Kate DiCamillo wrote in one of her popular books, “Reader, nothing is sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.”

The same assurance was true for the people of Israel. We had chosen a different church for a time, but they had turned their backs on God. Yet He welcomed them back. He sent the prophet Isaiah to assure them, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1).

In this world—where we can feel unseen, unappreciated, and even unknown—be assured that God knows each of us by name. “You are precious and honored in my sight,” He promises (v. 4). “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you” (v. 2). This promise isn’t just for Israel. Jesus ransomed His life for us. He knows our names. Why? In love, we are His.

Why does God welcome His people back to Him? How has He shown that He knows you by name?

Jesus, when I stray from Your arms and Your fellowship, summon me home by name. I’m so grateful to be Yours.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, June 12, 2021
Getting There (2)

They said to Him, "Rabbi…where are You staying?" He said to them, "Come and see." —John 1:38-39

Where our self-interest sleeps and the real interest is awakened. “They…remained with Him that day….” That is about all some of us ever do. We stay with Him a short time, only to wake up to our own realities of life. Our self-interest rises up and our abiding with Him is past. Yet there is no circumstance of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus.

“You are Simon….You shall be called Cephas” (John 1:42). God writes our new name only on those places in our lives where He has erased our pride, self-sufficiency, and self-interest. Some of us have our new name written only in certain spots, like spiritual measles. And in those areas of our lives we look all right. When we are in our best spiritual mood, you would think we were the highest quality saints. But don’t dare look at us when we are not in that mood. A true disciple is one who has his new name written all over him— self-interest, pride, and self-sufficiency have been completely erased.

Pride is the sin of making “self” our god. And some of us today do this, not like the Pharisee, but like the tax collector (see Luke 18:9-14). For you to say, “Oh, I’m no saint,” is acceptable by human standards of pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. You defy God to make you a saint, as if to say, “I am too weak and hopeless and outside the reach of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.” Why aren’t you a saint? It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe that God can make you into one. You say it would be all right if God saved you and took you straight to heaven. That is exactly what He will do! And not only do we make our home with Him, but Jesus said of His Father and Himself, “…We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23). Put no conditions on your life— let Jesus be everything to you, and He will take you home with Him not only for a day, but for eternity.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end.
Not Knowing Whither

Bible in a Year: Ezra 3-5; John 20