Chronological Reading Plan for Jan 9
Job has a terse and thought provoking response to his friends' accusations. According to them, the wicked always get their due and Job is now getting his. Job observes that the reverse is closer to reality. The wicked seem to very seldom get their due. In many cases, they seem to prosper while good people suffer.
This is the dichotomy of living in a fallen world. We would all like to believe that the good guy always wins in the end, that clean living and moral honor are rewarded while evil intent and practice will lose. If we allow ourselves to believe that living upright in an immoral world will net worldly benefits, we will end up frustrated and confused assuming, like Job's friends that bad things only happen to bad people. If our perspective is on a worldly reward, we may wind up feeling shortchanged and deprived of what we feel we are due. Job expresses this succinctly in Job 21:15. His question is becoming, "What do I get out of this?"
Eliphaz, in ch 22, goes into full-assault mode. He sarcastically asks Job if God is rebuking him for his piety. Ironically, Job's piety is exactly what God proclaimed when He pointed Job out to Satan (Job 1:8). Eliphaz is totally unaware of how close to the truth he is.
Ch 23 finds Job sinking into grief and asserting his own righteousness. Job sounds confident God will find him guiltless and recognizes God's sovereignty. But his fear of God and what He may do is beginning to increase and interfere with Job's confidence.
Isn't that the case for us? We recognize God's sovereignty. But not knowing how that sovereignty may play out, we get apprehensive about what He may do, what His plan for us may look like. We don't want to suffer. We want to avoid suffering. As a result, the fear of suffering, or, as in Job's case, more suffering, can cloud our perspective on who God is and how He operates in our lives.
These lessons on suffering and trust in God are hard. Hopefully, they help us grow in our faith. This can happen, but only if we are willing to walk through our trials with our trust in Him greater than our fear of the path He places us upon.
It will be interesting to watch this play out in Job's situation.
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The hunger for God's word and obeying it should motivate us in both good and bad circumstances, like Job here....
ReplyDelete23:12 "I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.”