I decided to start a new Bible reading challenge. I selected the 'God Is Bigger' challenge. The description provided is: "You need the reminder that God is bigger? Use this Bible reading plan to confirm his promises in your heart!" It seems to be a 31-day reading plan - one bible verse for each day.
The first verse is: Job 26:1-6 (Book from the Holy Bible: Job, Chapter: 26, Verse: 1 through 6).
Looking into the first verse (Day 1).....
I searched for Job 26 online at BibleGateway.com:
Then Job replied:
2
“How you have helped the powerless!
How you have saved the arm that is feeble!
3
What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!
And what great insight you have displayed!
4
Who has helped you utter these words?
And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?
5
“The dead are in deep anguish,
those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
6
The realm of the dead is naked before God;
Destruction[a] lies uncovered.
My first impression is that these verses deal with death (I saw the word dead first). After reading the full text, I think that it deals with God's help to the powerless, weak, dumb (those without wisdom), and mute. In verses 2 and 3, it seems like Job is speaking/replying to God himself, but I am not sure who he is addressing in verse 4. I am not sure how the dead fits in. So I decided to look at the previous chapter - chapter 25.
Chapter 25 is by a different person/speaker so it doesn't help much.
I remember that Job is a biblical character who suffered a lot. At the start of the book of Job, he loses everything - his possessions, his children, and so on. There was a lot of suffering, but God restored him to former glory.
I looked up the book of Job. I searched Google for "importance of the book of job"
I tried but was never able to finish the book of Job. It is difficult to read. For me, this book is important because it changed my thinking on why people suffer. I always believed that people suffered (they were born with defects or they experience suffering) because they, or maybe their parents, did something wrong - they sinned. The book of Job tells us that Job was an innocent sufferer.
Maybe this Bible reading challenge is about believing God is bigger than your struggles and suffering. I like it.