a beginning....

This is a beginning.

I started this blog, because I love reading and writing. I picked the name, because I've always been loud, even when I didn't want to be: loud talking, loud walking (stomping like a heard of elephants, as my mom would {did} say), loud singing. Why not loud writing?

Here is something that I read today, which I liked.
"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold that they refine [....] But where shall wisdom be found? [...] Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding" (Job 28:1, 12, 28).

This whole chapter is about wisdom. It reminds me of Proverbs 8 and many Psalms and Proverbs that talk about wisdom. In fact, when I read through Job, I am struck by how many things in Job are repeated by David in the Psalms. Job is supposedly the oldest book written, it is poetry, and it blows my mind to think that this was the Bible to the Old Testement prophets. I just think about them reading Job and the Spirit using it and answering it in other parts of the Bible.

In some of the middle chapters of Job, Job and his friends argue about what happens to the wicked man. His friends say that the wicked are punished (insinuating that Job is wicked, and actually saying it once or twice), while Job says that sometimes the wicked prosper for a time, and it is not until the end of their life that they are destroyed, or sometimes they die in prosperity, and their children reap the consequences of their parents. These portions of scripture remind me wholly of Psalm 37. It's just so interesting to me and so fun to see all the connections... how the argument is laid out by God in Job, and God answers it and summarizes it fully by David.

I am seeing the forshadowing of Christ throughout the book of Job. It's obvious, but I had never really seen it before. Many of the scriptures are messianic in nature. The parallels are clearly seen: Job is righteous in all he does, yet he is afflicted by God. His own friends reject him and consider him "smitten by God." It "pleased God to crush him." He is physically in agony and feels that God has forsaken him, yet he does not curse God. In the end, he is crowned with glory and honor.

That is just a taste of all the great nuances in the book of Job. I really am enjoying Job. I'm just reading big chunks at time, and the Holy Spirit is highlighting these sorts of things. It's easier for me to read it, this time around.