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"A lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease" - Job 12:5
A lamp despised. A strange verse. You never hear this, do you? I've read interpretations that this means those at ease are despised by those who are poor, but also that those at ease despise the poor as being a lamp that is dim, or going out - a sputtering flame, a candle melted down to it's base: the wick about to drown in its own wax, a lamp whose oil was run out, or, in today's world, a flickering fluorescent that then goes dim; a lamp despised.
"I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?" (Job 9:2)
Before God we cannot be just in ourselves, for we are vile wyrms, there are none that doeth good, no not one. All our righteousness is as filthy rags as it is written. We are condemned and lost without Christ, and only in Christ can we be just; that is, justified in the sight of God. Through His blood, when He sees the blood, like He saw the blood on the doorposts at the first Passover, then you are just, but only through the blood! Amen?
Speaking of the LORD Yahweh, "He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?
Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger.
Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble." (Job 9:4-6)
Here Job is referring to the recently passed flood calamities, perhaps as in the days of Peleg when the earth was divided. Mountains were removed and overturned in those days, and it took probably a few hundred years for the earth to settle. Some say the dividing of the earth in the days of Peleg means the continents division, and some say it was the division of the people spreading out. I believe it was both: that the earth COMPLETED its division so the continents set in their places we see today, and that the people of the earth were thus also spread out, as we know from the tower of Babel.
"If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?
If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.
This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked." (Job 9:19-22)
Here is humility, for God Himself had declared Job perfect in Job 1:8 and 2:3, and in Job 10:7-8 Job himself declared he is not wicked. Yet he makes this statement that if he says he is perfect, it would prove him perverse. Yet again, Jesus told us to "be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) Seek then this perfection, but don't boast that you are, or you shall be perverse, as it would be pride.
(This is the same Hebrew in all cases here "Tam" which means perfect, complete, morally innocent and pure, having integrity)
Then in Job 13:23 he declared, "How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin."
What was Job's sin, if God Himself had declared him perfect and one that eschewed, that is, shunned and hated evil? He had thought it unjust that he was being afflicted when after all, he had lived a righteous life. He comes to learn that in God's sovereignty. Psalm 34:19, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all" And now Job can say as Psalm 119:71, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes."
Now let's look at Job 12:2-10 where we find the verse about a lamp despised,
"No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?
I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.
He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.
But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind."
We see now that Job, who has been brought low, and lost many a thing is as a lamp despised. But then in a later chapter we see Job confess that HE had been at ease:
"I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark." (Job 16:12)
Here Job admits he was at ease, for even Satan said, "Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land." (1:9-10)
Indeed, Job was at ease, and by his own admission we see this is not a lying accusation of Satan, but a use of the truth to attempt to get his own way, which of course failed, though it cost Job dearly, and ultimately God's sovereign purposes are carried out, and Job is blessed.
Indeed, the Book of Job would not be in the Bible had not all these things happened, and Job himself got his desire when he said "Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!" (Job 19:23-24), which is what he says right before this next passage:
"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me." (Job 19:25-27)
Look at Job's faith here. Even though he has gone through the loss of his possessions and a large part of his family and his servants, and his friends thinking he's committed some sort of sin to be afflicted, he still hold on to the hope of the resurrection. Not only that, he is looking beyond Christs first coming to destroy the works of the devil and redeem us from our sins. Job is looking all the way forward to the second coming and the resurrection of the just. HalleluYAH! Amen.
Learn these lessons of humility, and of keeping the faith, and of knowing God's sovereignty in the affairs of men and in the arth, and in the entire universe. And above all, look ahead to that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 3:13), in which day we shall be resurrected at the resurrection of the just - For our Redeemer liveth and shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
A lamp despised. A strange verse. You never hear this, do you? I've read interpretations that this means those at ease are despised by those who are poor, but also that those at ease despise the poor as being a lamp that is dim, or going out - a sputtering flame, a candle melted down to it's base: the wick about to drown in its own wax, a lamp whose oil was run out, or, in today's world, a flickering fluorescent that then goes dim; a lamp despised.
"I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?" (Job 9:2)
Before God we cannot be just in ourselves, for we are vile wyrms, there are none that doeth good, no not one. All our righteousness is as filthy rags as it is written. We are condemned and lost without Christ, and only in Christ can we be just; that is, justified in the sight of God. Through His blood, when He sees the blood, like He saw the blood on the doorposts at the first Passover, then you are just, but only through the blood! Amen?
Speaking of the LORD Yahweh, "He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?
Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger.
Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble." (Job 9:4-6)
Here Job is referring to the recently passed flood calamities, perhaps as in the days of Peleg when the earth was divided. Mountains were removed and overturned in those days, and it took probably a few hundred years for the earth to settle. Some say the dividing of the earth in the days of Peleg means the continents division, and some say it was the division of the people spreading out. I believe it was both: that the earth COMPLETED its division so the continents set in their places we see today, and that the people of the earth were thus also spread out, as we know from the tower of Babel.
"If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?
If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.
This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked." (Job 9:19-22)
Here is humility, for God Himself had declared Job perfect in Job 1:8 and 2:3, and in Job 10:7-8 Job himself declared he is not wicked. Yet he makes this statement that if he says he is perfect, it would prove him perverse. Yet again, Jesus told us to "be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) Seek then this perfection, but don't boast that you are, or you shall be perverse, as it would be pride.
(This is the same Hebrew in all cases here "Tam" which means perfect, complete, morally innocent and pure, having integrity)
Then in Job 13:23 he declared, "How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin."
What was Job's sin, if God Himself had declared him perfect and one that eschewed, that is, shunned and hated evil? He had thought it unjust that he was being afflicted when after all, he had lived a righteous life. He comes to learn that in God's sovereignty. Psalm 34:19, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all" And now Job can say as Psalm 119:71, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes."
Now let's look at Job 12:2-10 where we find the verse about a lamp despised,
"No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?
I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.
He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.
But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind."
We see now that Job, who has been brought low, and lost many a thing is as a lamp despised. But then in a later chapter we see Job confess that HE had been at ease:
"I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark." (Job 16:12)
Here Job admits he was at ease, for even Satan said, "Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land." (1:9-10)
Indeed, Job was at ease, and by his own admission we see this is not a lying accusation of Satan, but a use of the truth to attempt to get his own way, which of course failed, though it cost Job dearly, and ultimately God's sovereign purposes are carried out, and Job is blessed.
Indeed, the Book of Job would not be in the Bible had not all these things happened, and Job himself got his desire when he said "Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!" (Job 19:23-24), which is what he says right before this next passage:
"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me." (Job 19:25-27)
Look at Job's faith here. Even though he has gone through the loss of his possessions and a large part of his family and his servants, and his friends thinking he's committed some sort of sin to be afflicted, he still hold on to the hope of the resurrection. Not only that, he is looking beyond Christs first coming to destroy the works of the devil and redeem us from our sins. Job is looking all the way forward to the second coming and the resurrection of the just. HalleluYAH! Amen.
Learn these lessons of humility, and of keeping the faith, and of knowing God's sovereignty in the affairs of men and in the arth, and in the entire universe. And above all, look ahead to that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 3:13), in which day we shall be resurrected at the resurrection of the just - For our Redeemer liveth and shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
