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Eliphaz, the first of Job's friends to speak, rebukes Job for claiming that he is righteous and does not deserve the woe that has befallen him. Job answers that his friend's comfort is no comfort at all and the he is indeed righteous.

The prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and that He would deliver His people from that nations that had oppressed them. Also in this session, God tells His people what He requires of them.

The month of Elul leading up to the fall feasts is a time for spiritual preparation as we get ready to meet the King. Forgiveness is an integral part of that preparation. Y'shua says that your ability to forgive sets the tone for how you will be judged. Forgiveness is hard. How does one get started?

In this introduction, God challenges Satan with Job's righteousness. Satan's response, that Job is fundamentally physical and not spiritual, sets up the rest of the book. Satan takes everything away from Job in the belief that he will eventually lose his faith and curse God.

In the latter days, the nations will flock to the Mountain of the Lord to learn Torah. During that time peace and plenty will reign. Also during that time the Lord will regather and heal the dispersed of Israel and reform them into a mighty nation.

The Biblical Feasts lay out God's plan for the creation. They are also integral to the earthly life and ministry of Messiah. When viewed in the context of the Transfiguration in Mark, we can see His plan for the work of the church and for His second coming.

In concluding the letter, Paul speaks of a messenger of Satan, a thorn in the flesh. Preachers have used this passage to teach that God is sometimes not willing to heal His servants. That is not at all what the passage implies.

The elites of Israel - rulers, prophets, seers, etc. - had become corrupt. They used their offices to enrich themselves at the expense of the people they were supposed to lead and minister to. Because the corruption at the top had trickled down to the people, the whole nation was going to be plowed under and sent into exile.

Between Deuteronomy 11 and 30 Moses gives a great many detailed laws. They might seem disjointed except that he also gives their context. Each commandment or law is an aspect of what God knows is necessary for human society to thrive. When a nation neglects those laws, it gradually falls into corruption, decay and death.

In defending his ministry, Paul's wish is that the Corinthian church's faith would become secure so that they might become a base from which he could project the Gospel to other lands. In other parts of the letter, he uses the Macedonian church in this way.

The prophet speaks of the corrupt power structure in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. There the wicked people in the government have no real fear of being stopped and so spend their time devising schemes to use their positions for personal enrichment.

In Mark, Y'shua is preparing His disciples to operate in a new spiritual regime. After His resurrection, they will have the Holy Spirit and His power available to them. Boats are a significant part of this preparation. In Mark 6 and 8, the disciples do not understand what's going on as they crossed the sea because they had hard hearts. What was it that they were unable to understand? How does that correlate with what Moses was doing in Deuteronomy?

During the Council of Jerusalem, the other apostles told Paul that he should remember the poor in Israel - a thing that he wanted to do. In this section of the letter, Paul urges the Corinthian church to dig deep and follow the example of the Macedonian church.

If God expects us to understand what is true and to follow that truth, it must be possible for us to figure that out using the minds He has given to us. This short study has explored Jeremiah's answer to that problem.

In Deuteronomy 6, the Shema is followed by v'ahavta saying that God is one and we should love Him. This is a radical departure from the prevailing polytheism in the rest of the world. Other 'gods' are transactional. If you need rain make a sacrifice to the rain god; otherwise you don't care about it and it does not care about you. Our God, on the other hand, desires to have an ongoing relationship. That relationship is based on mutual love and affection.

Continuing to defend his apostleship, Paul writes of the ministry of reconciliation that was entrusted to him by God. In this his goal is to reconcile the world, Jew and gentile, to God and His kingdom.

Jeremiah asks the classic question, "Why do the wicked prosper?"

On Tisha B'Av we remember the calamities that have befallen the Hebrew people over the past three millennia. Most prominent of these was the destruction of the first Temple by the Babylonians and the second by the Romans. In both cases the reason was the same. Judah was treating the Temple as a sanctuary to shelter them from their evil deeds. They had no intention of repenting, they just wanted God's protection. Y'shua uses the same words - a den of robbers - when He drives the merchants out of the Temple. Israel did not repent then either and God had that Temple destroyed as well.

The time and afflictions of this Earth are a prelude to the glory of the world to come. So, while this life is important to the realization of God's purposes, it is not permanent. Trials and afflictions should be viewed in that context.

Society in Israel was coming apart. The nation knew the Word of God and had access to the remedy for their plight; yet they refused to apply that knowledge and heal their society. The elites believed that they were secure and exempt from the consequences of their wickedness, and so were surprised when death entered their city like a thief. This should sound eerily familiar to us.