Study of Job 12:10
In whose hand is every living soul?
The spirit of everyone made of flesh?
It is Saturday, I just finished all the wrangling on buying a new hot tub. It will only cost about what we paid for our current one 15 years ago. Seems like a win, but man is it a lot of money. It will be good to have a working one again. In a recent Bible study, we talked about luxury being evil, so I am glad this purchase will be therapeutic. I just hope it helps my knees last longer.
In many sources, it was the life of every living soul that was in whose hands. In several sources it was not a question, but a statement that God controls the soul of every living thing. I do not dispute that God controls every living thing, but I dispute that Job is trying to teach us about the souls of anything other than people. I do not dispute that our lives are in God’s control, but the soul is so much more important that surely life is a given if He controls the soul? The context definitely lends to the question form.
All except one source had breath in place of spirit. Everyone made of flesh was also every human being, all mankind, all human flesh, and all humankind. I just felt my phrase better represented the repeating of the intent of the first stitch.
I look back at verse 9 and the effort I put into understanding how I got what I did and compare it to how simple todays very was to write about, but clearly form my notes, I wrestled with how to make this work when I originally wrote it. God puts big things in front of us that seem easy and little things that caused much angst. The two guiding principles that I wish to follow in all decisions are how does this honor God and am I actually giving God that honor. The hot tub we have has been broken for what seems like years. I obviously have the opportunity to replace it only through God’s blessing. But it has taken me this long to make sure that it replacement somehow gives me the ability to honor God in doing so. Looking back, it is obvious, but along the way, I could not see it clearly enough to pull the trigger.
Everything we do is provided by God as an opportunity to worship Him. Sometimes He allows us to miss the opportunity, but He is always able to protect us from evil and deliver us from temptation.
Written 9/30/23, Posted 10/9/23, Job 263