Morning Bible Study: Job 20:1-9

Zophar Speaks
20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2 This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer,
because I am upset!
3 I have heard a rebuke that insults me,
and my understanding makes me reply.
4 Don’t you know that ever since antiquity,
from the time a human was placed on earth,
5 the joy of the wicked has been brief
and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?
6 Though his arrogance reaches heaven,
and his head touches the clouds,
7 he will vanish forever like his own dung.
Those who know him will ask, “Where is he?” 
8 He will fly away like a dream and never be found;
he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
9 The eye that saw him will see him no more,
and his household will no longer see him.

Commentary
(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, 1706 -- www.christianity.com)
 
"Zophar's discourse is upon the certain misery of the wicked. The triumph of the wicked and the joy of the hypocrite are fleeting. The pleasures and gains of sin bring disease and pain; they end in remorse, anguish, and ruin."

Morning Bible Study: Job 19:23-29

23 I wish that my words were written down,
that they were recorded on a scroll
24 or were inscribed in stone forever
by an iron stylus and lead!
25 But I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the end he will stand on the dust.
26 Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet I will see God in my flesh.
27 I will see him myself;
my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger.
My heart longs within me.
28 If you say, “How will we pursue him,
since the root of the problem lies with him?” 
29 then be afraid of the sword,
because wrath brings punishment by the sword,
so that you may know there is a judgment.

Commentary
(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, 1706 -- www.christianity.com)

"The Spirit of God, at this time, seems to have powerfully wrought on the mind of Job. Here he witnessed a good confession; declared the soundness of his faith, and the assurance of his hope. Here is much of Christ and heaven; and he that said such things are these, declared plainly that he sought the better country, that is, the heavenly. 

Job was taught of God to believe in a living Redeemer; to look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come; he comforted himself with the expectation of these. Job was assured, that this Redeemer of sinners from the yoke of Satan and the condemnation of sin, was his Redeemer, and expected salvation through him; and that he was a living Redeemer, though not yet come in the flesh; and that at the last day he would appear as the Judge of the world, to raise the dead, and complete the redemption of his people."