Job 9:1  Then Job answered and said,
2  I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?
3  If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.
4  He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?

As we have noted before, Job’s three friends had some Bible knowledge. Their problem was that they were drawing wrong conclusions from God’s Word. They were using God’s Word as a tool to defend their false religion. There are many false religions today. Many people use the Bible as a “proof text” for what they believe. They have an opinion, and they want to seem spiritual, so they will do a search of certain words or phrases from a Bible and then they will pick the ones they like and build their case. They do not concern themselves with context.
Many undiscerning people follow these types of people because they use a Bible. They do not pay attention to whether they are actually using the Word of God or a perversion. That does not matter to them. They like the way the person talks and so they follow them.
Content is important. Context is also important.
In this chapter, Job agreed that God is righteous and holy and man is not. He wondered how it is possible for man to be just with God. Job did not seem to know what Abraham knew in Genesis 15:6:

Genesis 15:6  And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

True faith and trust in God is how to be just in His presence. We are not just, He is. When we humbly submit to Him and trust in Him we are justified in Christ. Those who trust in Him follow Him. There are many today who think they are justified in Christ, but they do not walk with Him.
Job had some good things in his life. God tells us this. Job was also lacking some important truths in his life. He would learn some of those truths yet before he would die. Job was willing to learn. He chose to be one to learn the truth. His three friends chose to teach lies. They had closed minds. The truth did not matter to them.
In verse 3 Job understood that no man could stand up to God’s questioning. Job would personally learn this in the final chapters of this book. He had demanded an audience with God. He thought he needed the right to question God on what was happening to him. He would discover that he had no right at all to question God. He needed to trust Him more fully.
In verse 4 Job understood that God is all wise. He is also all powerful. Job admitted that he knew that no one can fight against God and win. Our world is full of examples of people who have tried to defy God and have lost.
In the Bible there are many examples of those who have defied God and suffered the consequences. Cain was a proud man who wanted to set up a humanistic religion that would contrast the truth. His religion did not prosper him nor his family. They could build cities and make things, but they did not know the fear of God and thus perished. Cain’s wicked philosophies spread and by Genesis 6 God saw the wickedness of man, that is was great upon the earth. God destroyed all but eight people in a universal flood, due to the wickedness that was filling the earth. Many people perished at that time.
Lot was called a just man by God, but he was a man who chose to align himself with the world. His children were well versed in the ways of the world, so well that they defied the living God. Lot died a lonely man who had children with his own daughters. Hardly a testimony worth repeating. Yet, God recorded these things about Lot as a warning to us.
Goliath was a man who thought he was bigger than God. He was a tall man. He was a man in a minority as far as his size was concerned. However, he was just like the rest of the Philistines and too many of the Jews. He defied the living God and he lost his head over it. He is not known for building cities and ruling over people. He is known as the foolish giant who defied the living God and was killed by a shepherd lad who had five stones and as sling. God directed that one stone that David slung at Goliath. He crashed to the ground with the full force of his weight. David took his head off and took his sword from him.
It is important to note today as well, that those who defy God will not prosper. Biblical prosperity is more than the things you possess on this earth. Biblical prosperity has to do with knowing the Lord and walking with Him and having a home in heaven when this life is over. It is worth far more to have a good testimony with the Lord than to own stocks and bonds, etc.
Most of those who read these devotionals have been able to attend at least one funeral. You may have seen some fancy coffins. You know that coffin goes into the ground and gets covered with dirt. You know the person inside that coffin has no say on anything that happens to them after they die. They leave everything behind. Jesus said:

Matthew 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

True prosperity is much different than what the world tells us it is. It is knowing the true God and walking in the fear of the Lord. It is seeking to help others to know the truth and trusting God to do His Work as He promises.
As you look at your life, can you honestly say you are prospering. I heard of a young person who was having troubles. They are already an adult and they went to the bank and borrowed $10,000.00 to get them out of a pinch. They blew some of that money on lottery tickets and then went to the bar and blew the rest. They had nothing to make payments on the loan and they were evicted from their rental unit because they were behind in rent.
That person did not gain a thing. They are just digging their hole deeper and deeper. What is needed is to know the Lord and serve Him. That is the only way to be prosperous. That is the only way of blessing.
Pastor Bartel