Who can bear the thought?
This is the LifeSpring One-Year Bible Rewind,
and coming to you from Riverside, California,
podcasting since 2004,
I'm Steve Webb, your OG Godcaster.
This is the podcast that comes to you every day,
and we're reading the entire Bible together in a year.
I'm so glad you're here.
It's good to see you.
Welcome.
The website is lifespringmedia.com.
It's National Bubble Bath Day.
Beloved, remember, rest is biblical.
Bubbles are optional.
When I was a kid, my mom bought Mr. Bubble for me. How about you? Today, I'm mostly a shower guy,
but as an old man with creaky bones, sometimes I need a hot soak in the tub. But instead of Mr.
Bubble, more often than not, I just use Epsom salts. Today is Poetry Thursday. We'll read Job
23 and 24, and we'll have an on this date in church history. Let's begin. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you so much for our time together. We thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord,
for what we learn from it. And today I pray that you would touch our hearts and teach us.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Job chapter 23. Job answered, Today my complaint is again bitter. My strength is weighed down
because of my groaning. Oh, that I could know how to find him, come to his dwelling place.
I would lay out my case before him, fill my mouth with arguments, know the words with which he would
answer, understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me through brute force? No, he
would surely listen to me. There, those who do the right thing can argue with him. I could escape
from my judge forever. Look, I go east, he's not there. West, and I don't discover him. North in
his activity, and I don't grasp him. He turns south, and I don't see. Surely he knows my way.
When he tests me, I will emerge as gold.
My feet have stayed right in his tracks.
I have kept his way and not left it,
kept the commandments from his lips and not departed,
valued the words from his mouth more than my food.
He is of one mind, who can reverse it?
What he desires, he does.
He carries out what is decreed for me and can do many similar things with me.
Therefore, I am scared by his presence.
I think and become afraid of him.
God has weakened my mind.
The Almighty has frightened me.
Still I am not annihilated by darkness.
He has hidden deep darkness from me.
Job chapter 24
Why are times not appointed by the Almighty?
Why do those who know him not see his days?
Men move boundary stones.
They seize the flock and pasture them.
They drive away the orphan's donkey.
They take the widow's ox as a pledge.
They turn the needy from the pathway, and the poor of the land hide themselves together.
Like wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their labor, seeking diligently for food.
The wasteland provides food for them and for their children.
They reap fodder in the field and glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
They spend the night naked because they lack clothing.
They have no covering against the cold.
They are soaked by mountain rains and huddle in the rocks because they lack shelter.
The fatherless child is snatched from the breast.
The infant of the poor is taken as a pledge.
They go about naked without clothing and go hungry while they carry the sheaves.
They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees.
They tread the wine presses while they are thirsty.
From the city the dying groan and the wounded cry out for help.
but God charges no one with wrongdoing. There are those who rebel against the light.
They do not know its ways, and they do not stay on its paths. Before daybreak, the murderer rises up.
He kills the poor and the needy. In the night, he is like a thief. And the eye of the adulterer
watches for the twilight, thinking, No eye can see me, and covers his face with a mask.
In the dark the robber breaks into houses, but by day they shut themselves in.
They do not know the light.
For all of them the morning is to them like deep darkness.
They are friends with the terrors of darkness.
You say, He is foam on the face of the waters.
Their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one goes to their vineyard.
The drought as well as the heat carry away the melted snow.
So the grave takes away those who have sinned.
The womb forgets him.
The worm feasts on him.
No longer will he be remembered.
Like a tree, wickedness will be broken down.
He prays on the barren and the childless woman, and does not treat the widow well.
But God drags off the mighty by his power.
When God rises up against him, he has no faith in his life.
God may let him rest in a feeling of security, but he is constantly watching all their ways.
They are exalted for a little while, and then they are gone.
They are brought low like all others, and gathered in, and like a head of grain, they are cut off.
If this is not so, who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?
Well, today we had two short chapters in which our brother Job continues to answer his friends,
or should I say accusers. Let's look for a moment at chapter 23, shall we?
Job says that he'd like to make his case in God's presence. He says,
Would he argue with me from his position of power? No, I know that he would listen to me.
So even though Job feels that God has brought his sorrows on him unjustly,
he still trusts that God would listen and give him a fair audience.
And then he says that surely God knows that he's been a good man and that the trials that he's been
through are refining him as gold. But even though he trusts God, he's afraid of him because of who
God is. I believe this is a healthy fear. I think sometimes, beloved, we take God for granted.
We've gotten so used to his grace that we forget about his awesome, infinite power. It's good to
be reminded that God is not to be trifled with. The commentator Adam Clark had this to say,
Nothing can humble a pious mind so much as scriptural apprehensions of the majesty of God.
It is easy to contemplate His goodness, lovingkindness, and mercy. In all these we have
an interest, and from them we expect the greatest good. But to consider His holiness and justice,
the infinite righteousness of His nature, under the conviction that we have sinned and broken the
laws prescribed by His sovereign majesty, and to feel ourselves brought as into the presence of
His judgment seat, who can bear the thought? If cherubim and seraphim veil their faces before
His throne, and the holiest soul exclaims, I loathe myself when I see God, and into nothing fall,
What must a sinner feel whose conscience is not yet purged from dead works and who feels the wrath of God abiding on him?
And how, without such a mediator and sacrifice as Jesus Christ is, can any human spirit come into the presence of its judge?
Those who can approach Him without terror know little about His justice and nothing of their sin.
When we approach Him in prayer or in any ordinance, should we not feel more reverence than we generally do?
That's something to think about.
I'd love to hear what you think.
You can comment on the show notes page at lifespringmedia.com slash s12e80.
Or you can email me at steve at lifespringmedia.com or go to comment.lifespringmedia.com and leave a comment there.
Tomorrow, we're going to complete the book of Isaiah with the reading of chapters 62 through 66.
Our verse of the day today is Job 23.10.
Surely he knows my way.
When he tests me, I will emerge as gold.
Job 23.10.
On this date in church history, January 8th.
In 1642, Galileo Galilei died near Florence. He's best known as a pioneering astronomer whose
observations helped reshape how people understood the universe and whose life later became part of
a much larger conversation about faith, authority, and science. Galileo was a believing Christian who
saw his scientific work as a way of exploring God's creation. What he discovered through his
telescope challenged long-held assumptions, and the controversy that followed revealed how difficult
it can be to respond wisely when long-held beliefs are challenged. Today, Galileo's story is often
remembered not as a battle between faith and science, but as a reminder of the need for humility,
for careful interpretation, and patience when truth unfolds over time. It reminds us that honest
inquiry and sincere faith need not be enemies. All truth belongs to God, and wisdom calls for
us to seek it with humility, courage, and grace. If you enjoy the show, tell someone.
Beloved, remember that even when we don't understand God's ways and feel the weight of
His majesty, we can rest in His promise from Job 23.10, that the God who tests us, knows us,
listens to us, and is refining us like gold. Until tomorrow, may God bless you richly.
Thanks for being here. I'm Steve Webb. Bye.
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Thank you.
The Lifespring One Year Bible Rewind is a Lifespring Media production
hosted by Steve Webb, the OG Godcaster, since 2004.