Not to be confused with “running the gauntlet” (Swedish, gatlopp, meaning “loping the course”). To “throw down the gauntlet” is a vestige from the days of chivalry when a challenge to combat was issued by throwing one’s heavy armored glove (French, gantelet) at the feet of an opponent. So what was this challenge? Listen. “Then the Lord said […]
The devil isn’t independent. God sustains him, and, in spite of himself, he advances God’s purposes. Twice we read “there was a day” (Job 1:6, 13). The first describes a debate in heaven and the other a debacle on earth. We soon discover that the one is directly related to the other. We read, “the sons of God […]
The believing home is a hothouse for growth, a lighthouse of truth, and a storehouse of blessings. You’ve probably heard, “It takes a steady hand to hold a full cup.” Job’s cup was certainly full. “And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five […]
In searching for my lost wallet, an unexpected lesson was found. […]
Job suffers not because he’s the worst of men but because he’s the best: “there is none like him” ( Job 1:8). “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil” ( Job 1:1). And what a man […]
God doesn’t always save through the first verse quoted or respond to the first prayer prayed. But the true believer knows that there is life-giving power in one sentence from the Bible because God speaks in this way to us; and there is life-changing power released through one petition sent heavenward, because that’s how God […]
That the book of Job is superb poetry doesn’t negate the fact that it is also dramatic biography. “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job” (Job 1:1). Some suggest that the uncertainty of Job’s time and place in history, the extremity of his circumstances, and the extravagance of the […]
Job’s longing for a Mediator and confident hope in a Redeemer point us surely to the coming Christ. Before beginning such an arduous journey up towering peaks and into forbiddingly deep valleys, it would be helpful to have a look at the roadmap of the book of Job. There are three main parts: the Prologue […]
One fact Job will teach us: You won’t really know God is all you need until God is all you have. Because the Bible is arranged as a progressive revelation—“precept upon precept” (Isa 28:10)—we may miss one of Job’s most significant contributions. Although no date or chronologies are given, Job seems to be the first book […]