Family Devotional - Week 1

Read

  • Genesis 1:1-2
  • Psalm 19
  • Colossians 1:16

Discuss

  • What is your favorite part of God’s creation?
  • What do we learn about God from his creation?
  • Why did God create the world? Why did he create us?
  • How can we live out God’s purpose in creation this week?

Catechism

  • The beginning of the story is called: Creation
  • The creator is: God
  • God created: Everything
  • God created everything: Out of love and for his glory
  • God said that everything he created was: Very good

Job 1-3, 38-42

1 Job’s Character and Wealth

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed1 God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

Satan Allowed to Test Job

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan2 also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Satan Takes Job’s Property and Children

13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants3 with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

2 Satan Attacks Job’s Health

1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LordAnd the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”

So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”4 In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Job’s Three Friends

11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. 12 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. 13 And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

3 Job Laments His Birth

1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said:

 “Let the day perish on which I was born,

and the night that said,

‘A man is conceived.’

 Let that day be darkness!

May God above not seek it,

nor light shine upon it.

 Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.

Let clouds dwell upon it;

let the blackness of the day terrify it.

 That night—let thick darkness seize it!

Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;

let it not come into the number of the months.

 Behold, let that night be barren;

let no joyful cry enter it.

 Let those curse it who curse the day,

who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.

 Let the stars of its dawn be dark;

let it hope for light, but have none,

nor see the eyelids of the morning,

10  because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,

nor hide trouble from my eyes.

11  “Why did I not die at birth,

come out from the womb and expire?

12  Why did the knees receive me?

Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?

13  For then I would have lain down and been quiet;

I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,

14  with kings and counselors of the earth

who rebuilt ruins for themselves,

15  or with princes who had gold,

who filled their houses with silver.

16  Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child,

as infants who never see the light?

17  There the wicked cease from troubling,

and there the weary are at rest.

18  There the prisoners are at ease together;

they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

19  The small and the great are there,

and the slave is free from his master.

20  “Why is light given to him who is in misery,

and life to the bitter in soul,

21  who long for death, but it comes not,

and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

22  who rejoice exceedingly

and are glad when they find the grave?

23  Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,

whom God has hedged in?

24  For my sighing comes instead of5 my bread,

and my groanings are poured out like water.

25  For the thing that I fear comes upon me,

and what I dread befalls me.

26  I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;

I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

38 The Lord Answers Job

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

 Dress for action1 like a man;

I will question you, and you make it known to me.

 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

 On what were its bases sunk,

or who laid its cornerstone,

 when the morning stars sang together

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

 “Or who shut in the sea with doors

when it burst out from the womb,

 when I made clouds its garment

and thick darkness its swaddling band,

10  and prescribed limits for it

and set bars and doors,

11  and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,

and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?

12  “Have you commanded the morning since your days began,

and caused the dawn to know its place,

13  that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,

and the wicked be shaken out of it?

14  It is changed like clay under the seal,

and its features stand out like a garment.

15  From the wicked their light is withheld,

and their uplifted arm is broken.

16  “Have you entered into the springs of the sea,

or walked in the recesses of the deep?

17  Have the gates of death been revealed to you,

or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

18  Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?

Declare, if you know all this.

19  “Where is the way to the dwelling of light,

and where is the place of darkness,

20  that you may take it to its territory

and that you may discern the paths to its home?

21  You know, for you were born then,

and the number of your days is great!

22  “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,

or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

23  which I have reserved for the time of trouble,

for the day of battle and war?

24  What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,

or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

25  “Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain

and a way for the thunderbolt,

26  to bring rain on a land where no man is,

on the desert in which there is no man,

27  to satisfy the waste and desolate land,

and to make the ground sprout with grass?

28  “Has the rain a father,

or who has begotten the drops of dew?

29  From whose womb did the ice come forth,

and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?

30  The waters become hard like stone,

and the face of the deep is frozen.

31  “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades

or loose the cords of Orion?

32  Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth2 in their season,

or can you guide the Bear with its children?

33  Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?

Can you establish their rule on the earth?

34  “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

that a flood of waters may cover you?

35  Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go

and say to you, ‘Here we are’?

36  Who has put wisdom in the inward parts3

or given understanding to the mind?4

37  Who can number the clouds by wisdom?

Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,

38  when the dust runs into a mass

and the clods stick fast together?

39  “Can you hunt the prey for the lion,

or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

40  when they crouch in their dens

or lie in wait in their thicket?

41  Who provides for the raven its prey,

when its young ones cry to God for help,

and wander about for lack of food?

39  “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?

Do you observe the calving of the does?

 Can you number the months that they fulfill,

and do you know the time when they give birth,

 when they crouch, bring forth their offspring,

and are delivered of their young?

 Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open;

they go out and do not return to them.

 “Who has let the wild donkey go free?

Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,

 to whom I have given the arid plain for his home

and the salt land for his dwelling place?

 He scorns the tumult of the city;

he hears not the shouts of the driver.

 He ranges the mountains as his pasture,

and he searches after every green thing.

 “Is the wild ox willing to serve you?

Will he spend the night at your manger?

10  Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes,

or will he harrow the valleys after you?

11  Will you depend on him because his strength is great,

and will you leave to him your labor?

12  Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain

and gather it to your threshing floor?

13  “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,

but are they the pinions and plumage of love?5

14  For she leaves her eggs to the earth

and lets them be warmed on the ground,

15  forgetting that a foot may crush them

and that the wild beast may trample them.

16  She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers;

though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear,

17  because God has made her forget wisdom

and given her no share in understanding.

18  When she rouses herself to flee,6

she laughs at the horse and his rider.

19  “Do you give the horse his might?

Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

20  Do you make him leap like the locust?

His majestic snorting is terrifying.

21  He paws7 in the valley and exults in his strength;

he goes out to meet the weapons.

22  He laughs at fear and is not dismayed;

he does not turn back from the sword.

23  Upon him rattle the quiver,

the flashing spear, and the javelin.

24  With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground;

he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

25  When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’

He smells the battle from afar,

the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

26  “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars

and spreads his wings toward the south?

27  Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up

and makes his nest on high?

28  On the rock he dwells and makes his home,

on the rocky crag and stronghold.

29  From there he spies out the prey;

his eyes behold it from far away.

30  His young ones suck up blood,

and where the slain are, there is he.”

40 And the Lord said to Job:

 “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?

He who argues with God, let him answer it.”

Job Promises Silence

Then Job answered the Lord and said:

 “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?

I lay my hand on my mouth.

 I have spoken once, and I will not answer;

twice, but I will proceed no further.”

The Lord Challenges Job

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

 “Dress for action8 like a man;

I will question you, and you make it known to me.

 Will you even put me in the wrong?

Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?

 Have you an arm like God,

and can you thunder with a voice like his?

10  “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity;

clothe yourself with glory and splendor.

11  Pour out the overflowings of your anger,

and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.

12  Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low

and tread down the wicked where they stand.

13  Hide them all in the dust together;

bind their faces in the world below.9

14  Then will I also acknowledge to you

that your own right hand can save you.

15  “Behold, Behemoth,10

which I made as I made you;

he eats grass like an ox.

16  Behold, his strength in his loins,

and his power in the muscles of his belly.

17  He makes his tail stiff like a cedar;

the sinews of his thighs are knit together.

18  His bones are tubes of bronze,

his limbs like bars of iron.

19  “He is the first of the works11 of God;

let him who made him bring near his sword!

20  For the mountains yield food for him

where all the wild beasts play.

21  Under the lotus plants he lies,

in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh.

22  For his shade the lotus trees cover him;

the willows of the brook surround him.

23  Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened;

he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.

24  Can one take him by his eyes,12

or pierce his nose with a snare?

41  13 “Can you draw out Leviathan14 with a fishhook

or press down his tongue with a cord?

 Can you put a rope in his nose

or pierce his jaw with a hook?

 Will he make many pleas to you?

Will he speak to you soft words?

 Will he make a covenant with you

to take him for your servant forever?

 Will you play with him as with a bird,

or will you put him on a leash for your girls?

 Will traders bargain over him?

Will they divide him up among the merchants?

 Can you fill his skin with harpoons

or his head with fishing spears?

 Lay your hands on him;

remember the battle—you will not do it again!

 15 Behold, the hope of a man is false;

he is laid low even at the sight of him.

10  No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.

Who then is he who can stand before me?

11  Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?

Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

12  “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,

or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.

13  Who can strip off his outer garment?

Who would come near him with a bridle?

14  Who can open the doors of his face?

Around his teeth is terror.

15  His back is made of16 rows of shields,

shut up closely as with a seal.

16  One is so near to another

that no air can come between them.

17  They are joined one to another;

they clasp each other and cannot be separated.

18  His sneezings flash forth light,

and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.

19  Out of his mouth go flaming torches;

sparks of fire leap forth.

20  Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke,

as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

21  His breath kindles coals,

and a flame comes forth from his mouth.

22  In his neck abides strength,

and terror dances before him.

23  The folds of his flesh stick together,

firmly cast on him and immovable.

24  His heart is hard as a stone,

hard as the lower millstone.

25  When he raises himself up, the mighty17 are afraid;

at the crashing they are beside themselves.

26  Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail,

nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

27  He counts iron as straw,

and bronze as rotten wood.

28  The arrow cannot make him flee;

for him, sling stones are turned to stubble.

29  Clubs are counted as stubble;

he laughs at the rattle of javelins.

30  His underparts are like sharp potsherds;

he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.

31  He makes the deep boil like a pot;

he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

32  Behind him he leaves a shining wake;

one would think the deep to be white-haired.

33  On earth there is not his like,

a creature without fear.

34  He sees everything that is high;

he is king over all the sons of pride.”

Job’s Confession and Repentance

42 Then Job answered the Lord and said:

 “I know that you can do all things,

and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,

things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

 ‘Hear, and I will speak;

I will question you, and you make it known to me.’

 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

but now my eye sees you;

 therefore I despise myself,

and repent18 in dust and ashes.”

The Lord Rebukes Job’s Friends

After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

The Lord Restores Job’s Fortunes

10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil19 that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money20 and a ring of gold.

12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.