Year 5, Day 99: Job 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

I am amazed at how easy it is to hear the words of Eliphaz today.  So much of the beginning of his argument sounds like good sound theology!  He says, “As for me, I would seek God, who does great things,” and “He frustrates the ways of the crafty,” and “He saves the needy from the sword of their mouth,” and “He wounds, but He binds up.”  Who wouldn’t believe such things?  All of these things are rooted in truth!  Certainly God does such things.

There is a danger in listening to people who know the trite expressions of godliness.  Anyone can hear the typical phrases of godliness and spit them out.  Anyone can say things that make a person sound like they have a genuine relationship with God.

But look at where Eliphaz ends.  As he closes his argument, Eliphaz is making the point that the true test of one’s relationship with God is how long you live and how much success you experience.  He says that a person in relationship with God will be “hidden from the lash of the tongue” and “your tent is at peace” and “your offspring shall be many” and “you will come to your grave at a ripe old age.”  Essentially what Eliphaz is saying is that we can know a person has a good relationship with God when the live a long, peaceful, and prosperous life.

I can’t help but stop and wonder.  Is this true about Jesus, who had the best relationship with the Father?  Was He hidden from the tongue, produce many offspring, and live a long life?  What about Jesus’ own disciples?  Did they lead long and peaceful lives?  Or what about Paul?  Did he lead a long and peaceful life?

Why do we believe that relationship with God ends in a long, peaceful, and prosperous life?  We believe it not because it is God’s truth but because it is what we want to believe.  We believe it because of our own ambition.  Our own personal ambition tells us that we are in a good relationship with God when we are at peace and successful.

But rest assured, that is not the portrait Jesus paints.  We will be eternally at peace with God for sure.  But with respect to the world, those who are in a great relationship with God will naturally be at odds with the world.  This is largely what the whole of Matthew 10 is all about.

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