Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
Today is 2-for-1 Friday!
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The Questions
1) What is the “day of warfare and battle?”
2) What do we learn about God from this passage?
3) What is the only proper response to these questions?
Job 38:4-13; 22-24
4 Where were you when I established the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly, you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 What supports its foundations?
Or who laid its cornerstone
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Who enclosed the sea behind doors
when it burst from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment
and total darkness its blanket,
10 when I determined its boundaries
and put its bars and doors in place,
11 when I declared: “You may come this far, but no farther;
your proud waves stop here”?
12 Have you ever in your life commanded the morning
or assigned the dawn its place,
13 so it may seize the edges of the earth
and shake the wicked out of it?
22 Have you entered the place where the snow is stored?
Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,
23 which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,
for the day of warfare and battle?
24 What road leads to the place where light is dispersed?
Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?
Original Intent
1) What is the “day of warfare and battle?”
This verse (23) could speak to a specific day of warfare and battle, or it could refer to any war or time of trouble. The Lord often used weather during battle in the Old Testament. He kept the sun standing still for a whole day and sent hail to attack Israel’s enemies (Joshua 10:1-11). He parted the waters on multiple occasions and nearly every plague of Egypt was weather-related. The main point is that God controls when to let the hail and/or snow be loosed on the earth. He alone controls nature, including weather, regardless of how many meteorological advances we discover.
2) What do we learn about God from this passage?
God used Job’s ignorance of the earth’s natural order to reveal his ignorance of God’s moral order. If Job did not understand the workings of God’s physical creation, how could he possibly understand God’s mind and character? (Life Application Study Bible note) Although human beings are made in the image of God, (Genesis 1:27) we are not little gods. We do not have the same capacity to control the universe, nor can we even slightly comprehend the number of decisions the Lord makes at every moment to keep the cosmos running.
3) What is the only proper response to these questions?
Job’s only response was to repent of his ignorance and foolish questions of God. In humility, he admitted that God can do anything (Job 42: 1-6). Imagine if Job had continued to question God even after being confronted: He likely would have been struck dead at that point. Are you kidding me? Who would be so proud and boastful to be directly questioned by the Lord of the Universe, but not fall down in worship?
Everyday Application
1) What is the “day of warfare and battle?”
Immediately what I thought of when reading this verse was the end times, but we experience hailstorms even now. Verse 23 mentions “times of trouble” as well, and the earth has known those times ever since Adam and Eve sinned in Eden (Genesis 3:17). The Lord determines when hail falls, when rain pelts, when tornados tear through, or snow drifts, not any human or any instrument that any human has created. Often the greatest worship to God occurs during a hard time; perhaps that is why He sends them. Of course, He doesn’t need our worship…but He desires a relationship with each of us, so if it takes something like hail to get our attention, He will use it!
2) What do we learn about God from this passage?
We learn that we have a lot to learn, am I right? Actually, there is no possible way that our puny little brains could ever understand even the knowledge in God’s right-hand pinky finger! What we need to learn (talking to myself here) is to bow in reverence to God and worship him rather than complaining when things don’t go my way. We need to learn humility and dependence instead of always pushing for a greater reputation as the woman who can do it all. (Ouch!)
3) What is the only proper response to these questions?
My only response is worship. When confronted face-to-face with the God of the universe, worship is the only proper thing to do. We give our respect and deference to people in positions of higher authority than ourselves, right, ladies? Well God is the highest authority around. Anywhere! But if you’re like me, you mumble under your breath about your boss at work. Or maybe about that child’s teacher, or that city leader or (insert authority figure here). Do you mumble and complain about what you see God doing? I have to admit that I do. But after hearing it from me for a while, He will eventually stop me in my tracks and make me realize that things aren’t so bad and that I couldn’t do any better if I were in charge. So, I worship. Sometimes it’s an emotional prayer, sometimes joyful singing, sometimes speechless awe. The method isn’t important…God just wants us to realize and pay proper respect to his unequaled authority. What a privilege to offer my praise to such a supreme God!
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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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