Job 30:20 “I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You turn Your attention against me.” Observation: There are two elements to Job’s lament in chapter 30. First is a comparison of his present devastation with his former life. In the...

Job 29:2 “Oh that I were as in months gone by.” Observation: Job 29 is a walk with Job back in time to the days before his afflictions began. He recalled what it was like to have been in the prime of life knowing that God’s friendship spilled over and blessed every...

 Mark 15:5 “Pilate was amazed.” Observation: Jesus found Himself in the belly of legal and religious systems run amok. Religious leaders clamored for His crucifixion while Pilate, the political leader, knew what a premium Rome put on keeping the peace at all costs....

Job 23:3 “O that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His seat!” Observation: In this reading, Job declared his great longing for God. The security, comfort, and health he had once known had been stripped away, and the counsel of his friends, while well...

Mark 9:7 “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” Observation: Peter, James, and John had gone with Jesus to a high mountain where Jesus was transfigured into a heavenly being whose garments radiated such whiteness as to be otherworldly. Elijah and Moses then appeared...

Job 21:7 “Why do the wicked still live, continue on, also become very powerful?” Observation: Job was responding to the angry arguments of his friend Zophar. Zophar had made the claim that a wicked man’s prosperity is brief: “The triumphing of the wicked is short, and...

Mark 3:2 “And they were watching Him to see if He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.” Observation: Mark here related a time when Christ entered the synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand. To this, the leaders responded by leaving the...

Job 19:21–22 “Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me. Why do you persecute me as God does?” Observation: Job’s friends repeatedly sought to convince him that his painful circumstances were due to some failure or sin on Job’s part. Seeing...

Acts 27:13 “When a moderate south wind came up, supposing that they had attained their purpose, they weighed anchor and began sailing.” Observation: Paul was prisoner on a ship sailing for Rome under difficult circumstances. Never one to ignore an audience, Paul,...

Acts 25:25–27 “‘I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death; and since he himself appealed to the Emperor, I decided to send him. Yet I have nothing definite about him to write to my lord. Therefore I have brought him before you all and especially before...