Today's Readings and Stuff -- Sunday, 25 August 2019

Quiet today.  Perhaps we are due such a day.  It is supposed to be a day of rest, after all.

Tomorrow is another matter. There are some things that we, meaning I, need to be doing.  Just sitting simply is not my "thing",  but that's been pretty much the pattern for the recent past.  Time to change that pattern.


===================

Job 31

1I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

2For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

3Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

4Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?

5If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;

6Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.

7If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;

8Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

9If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;

10Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.

11For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

12For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

13If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;

14What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

15Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?

16If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

17Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

18(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)

19If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;

20If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

21If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:

22Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.

23For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.

24If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

25If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;

26If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;

27And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:

28This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

29If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

30Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.

31If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

32The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.

33If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:

34Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

35Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.

36Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.

37I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.

38If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;

39If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:the owners…: Heb. the soul of the owners thereof to expire, or, breathe out

40Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.

Job 32

1So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

2Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God.

3Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.

4Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he.

5When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled.

6And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion.

7I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.

8But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

9Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.

10Therefore I said, Hearken to me; I also will shew mine opinion.

11Behold, I waited for your words; I gave ear to your reasons, whilst ye searched out what to say.

12Yea, I attended unto you, and, behold, there was none of you that convinced Job, or that answered his words:

13Lest ye should say, We have found out wisdom: God thrusteth him down, not man.

14Now he hath not directed his words against me: neither will I answer him with your speeches.

15They were amazed, they answered no more: they left off speaking.

16When I had waited, (for they spake not, but stood still, and answered no more;)

17I said, I will answer also my part, I also will shew mine opinion.

18For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me.

19Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles.

20I will speak, that I may be refreshed: I will open my lips and answer.

21Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's person, neither let me give flattering titles unto man.

22For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my maker would soon take me away.

Today's Readings and Stuff -- Saturday, 24 August 2019

Next-to-last Saturday in August.  Lord willing, a week hence will be the last day in August, with September to follow.  NOT my favorite time of the year in these parts.  Never ever has been.  BUT ... I was just made aware of very heavy storms in a few of our former locations.  Flash flood hit Fort Smith, Arkansas, and a woman delivering papers was swept away by the raging waters and drowned.  Flash floods in and around Montgomery, Alabama, with considerable damage although no (as of yet) loss of life.  So I can stand seeing an ugly date name on the calendar.
There are clearly people who are dealing with worse issues today than are we.

And I had to make yet another run Across The Line to the pharmacy to get a prescription refill for Dear Wife. That is five consecutive days going into Pennsyltucky, which does not and never has improved my outlook on life and the world.  But I managed the there&back without too much trouble (other than PENNDOT's manifest idiocies).  We had been invited to go along, free, to brother-in-law's company picnic, but Wife just was not up to it, so we stayed in.  Probably just as well.



==================================

Job 29

1Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,

2Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

3When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;

4As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;

5When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;

6When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;

7When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!

8The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.

9The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.

10The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

11When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:

12Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

13The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

14I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

15I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.

16I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

17And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

18Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

19My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.

20My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.

21Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.

22After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.

23And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

24If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.

25I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.

Job 30

1But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.

2Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?

3For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.

4Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.

5They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)

6To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.

7Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.

8They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

9And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.

10They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.

11Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.

12Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.

13They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.

14They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.

15Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.

16And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

17My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.

18By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

19He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.

20I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.

21Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.

22Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.

23For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

24Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.

25Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?

26When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

27My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.

28I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.

29I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.

30My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.

31My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.