Year 2, Day 113: Job 19

Kick ‘Em While Their Down

Job begins again with a very typical three pronged approach.  Since we’ve seen it quite a lot already in the book of Job, I’ll begin to summarize.

In the first few verses, Job talks again about how his friends are attacking him.  He does make a few good points.  Why do they feel the need to continue to kick him while he is down?  Has Job’s potential error been so egregious that it affects anyone but him?

Those lines of thinking do have me going today.  Why do we as human beings have a “kick ‘em while they are down” mentality?  Why do we like beating a dead horse?  {Why do I continue to like using clichés?  LOL}  Are we really that depraved as a human race that when we see an easy target we circle like vultures until we can safely go in for the kill and prove ourselves superior to the injured victim laying on the ground?  Does that really prove that we are smart, courageous, or even strong?

Yet, it is who we are.  We even have two other sayings along these lines.  We talk about “going in for the kill” or even “going for the jugular.”  Is that really what society is all about?  Is taking advantage of our neighbor the best way to build a society?  I personally don’t think so.

Lie: God Has Walled Me Off From Support

As we move past Job defending himself from his friends, he himself launches back into his own speech against God.  Again we can say that it is here that we find error within Job.  Has God really stripped away the crown from Job’s head?  Has God really pulled up Job’s hope like a tree?  Has God really counted Job as an adversary?

Of course not.  We know that all of this is because God is reveling in Job’s crown and approving of his righteousness.  And as we’ll get to that in the end, we know that Job is aware of this deep down as well.  The words that Job gives us here is out of his short-sighted grief.  So we hear the words, know them to be an exaggeration of his pain, and we hope for him to move beyond them.

Which, he does.  Actually, he does move beyond these words really quickly.  Job moves beyond them and into the realm of hope.  Thus is the way of the true follower of God.  The true follower of God may get down, but there is a resiliency in God that is unsurpassable.

Truth: My Redeemer Lives

Job knows that his redeemer lives.  What a beautiful statement of faith for a person who may well predate Abraham!  Job knows that one day – even after his flesh has decayed and his bones are dried up – he will stand before his God and he will experience righteousness.  Job knows that in the end, it will be his redeemer that stands upon the earth in control of it.

Can any of us have a greater hope?  Yes, we know that judgment will stand between us and the eternal.  Yes, life itself stands in between us and the eternal. But the true follower of God steps through life with eyes focused on the hope of standing before God in the presence of our Redeemer.  The true follower of God steps into death and into judgment with eyes focused on God and our Redeemer.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 112: Job 18

Taking Things Personally

Bildad begins with the classical human defense: make it about me and no longer about you.  I think this is one of the absolutely most frustrating aspects of humanity.  As soon as I get upset with someone else, if I try and talk about it they want to immediately jump to the defensive and try to tell me what the problem is from their perspective.  {And before anyone says it, yes, I do the same to other people…}

So don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying the other person’s perspective is wrong and has no place.  It absolutely does have a place and if I am going to talk to a person about a problem, I had better be willing to listen to their side of the issue.  What I’m objecting to isn’t that they speak their mind; what I am objecting to is that they aren’t willing to listen before speaking their mind.

Take an example of a married couple in which one spouse (let’s say the wife, just to make the conversation easier) is upset with the other person (obviously, the husband).  If the wife goes to the husband and begins to explain why she is upset, the husband has two choices: listen or rebuttal.  What most husbands do is launch into immediate rebuttal.  It goes something like: “Have you ever thought about it from my perspective?” or “No, you’re wrong.  Let me tell you what is really going on.”  If rebuttal is chosen, then an argument ensues and we have the proverbial “butting of heads.”  Another potential growing edge turns into marital strife.

If the husband were instead to devote himself to listening to his wife and allowing herself to explain her position thoroughly, then he could have the opportunity to repent of what he has legitimately done to make her mad (or at the least repent of making her mad even if unintentionally).  The wife would feel resolution and her anger could be dissipated.  Then, having dissipated his wife’s irritation the husband could say, “Now that I’ve listened to you and genuinely repented, can we look at this from my perspective?”  The woman would then need to return the favor, listen completely, and probably repent of how she erred – or at the very least had some part of the problem.  After all, it usually takes two to tango.

Listening to and resolving one problem at a time leads to forgiveness and restored relationships.  Skipping the listening step and immediately trying to force people to see your side of the issue only leads to further argument.  It’s true about spouses.  It’s true about friends.  It’s true about church councils.  It’s true about Job and Bildad throughout this whole book.  It’s true about all human relationships.

It’s actually back to our old friend the self-monger.  The self-monger hears a person laying blame at their feet and immediately wants to toss the blame away and make it someone else’s problem.  The self-monger cannot admit that they have erred.  But the person who is “killing the self-monger within” – the true disciple of Jesus Christ – is willing to listen first and receive what blame genuinely belongs to them.  The true Christian is not afraid of fault and error because the true Christian believes in forgiveness and restored relationships.

So now let’s return to the opening of this chapter.  Where Bildad makes a huge error in this chapter is in his opening 4 verses.  Basically, he turns to Job and says, “Who are you to call us ‘cattle’ and stupid?’  Have you even considered that it might be you who is wrong?”  

Bildad doesn’t give any credence to what Job is saying.  Rather than listen, Bildad jumps immediately to rebuttal.  It has actually been the whole pattern of Job so far!  When has any of Job’s friends said anything other than, “If your life stinks, you must have sinned.  So repent before it’s too late.”

The Book Of Job: How Not To Communicate

As I read through Job, I see so many examples of bad communication happening.  I see so many examples of people lining up like two battleships on the ocean and they plan on just leveling broadside after broadside at each other.  They only listen deeply enough to be able to make a rebuttal and make their point.  They aren’t listening in order to actually understand and resolve issues.  They are convinced their point is right and they will continue to fire broadside after broadside until the other capitulates from the weariness of the fight.  Unfortunately, I think that is true about many of our human interactions.  It is a condition for which we all deserve to be pitied.

More About “Bad Things Happen To Bad People” Theology

If we actually talk about Bildad’s response in the short space that remains, I do think we can see a repeat of bad theology here.  Bildad’s response to Job is centered on a “bad things happen to bad people” theology.  Or let me phrase it another way.  What goes around comes around.  I don’t find either of those clichés to be true.  The devious person gets away with far more than they get caught.  The manipulative person gets their way far more than they get called on the carpet for being manipulative.  The dominator dominates far more than they get called out.  The kind-natured person doesn’t receive near as much kindness from humanity as they give out.  The gentle person doesn’t see too much human gentleness returned.  What goes around doesn’t usually come back nearly as much as it should.

To be honest, I think a better phrase would be “if you dish out good, be prepared to get more selfishness back than good.”  I know that’s rather pessimistic, but I think it is true.  We live in a sinful and selfish world.  When I choose to be different, I can’t honestly expect everyone else to be different, too.

I just can’t agree with the thrust of Bildad’s words – at least not from the perspective of this life.  Sure, in the end God will set the record straight.  But in this life, we cannot judge a person’s righteousness by the amount of good and the amount of bad that comes his way.  Just because a person is crushed by life, rejected by others, scorned, mocked, and given a rough go isn’t proof that they are evil and deserve it.  Just look at what happened to Jesus, after all.  Jesus was the most righteous person who ever lived.  He got crucified.

Bildad wants to evaluate people by what happens to them.  But in order to determine righteousness, we must look within, not without.  We must gaze internally, not externally.  We must know a person’s spirit, not their circumstances.  We must know them, not know about them.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 111: Job 17

Theology of Hope

I’m going to spend half of this blog post talking about the theology of hope that Job ends with before moving on to a bit of an excursion that has been running through my mind of late.

I absolutely love the way that Job ends this section.  “If I make Sheol my house,” Job says, “then where is my hope?”  He adds, “If I make my bed in darkness, who will see my hope?”  These are deeply profound and personally reflective of the spirit of a true follower of God.

Job has every reason to quit.  It appears the universe has conspired against him.  It appears that the maker of the universe seems to have it out for him.  His friends even think that he has done something wrong.  His wife tells him to just curse his God and die.  There is no earthly reason to go on.  Period.

The only reason left is the only actual real reason for anything: God.  Is giving up on life ever an option when God is still out there?  Is it ever too late in the ninth inning when you know that God will still get a chance to bat?  Or for those of you who prefer a football analogy, can the field ever be too long if you are down by 2 with only seconds to play but God is your field-goal kicker?

You see, there is no point in hoping for anything but God.  There is no point in hoping in anything but God.  Job knows this.  This hope in God is the one thing that keeps him from rolling over and dying.  There is no hope in surrender.  There is no hope in rolling over.  There is no hope in giving up one’s faith.  So long as there is yet room for God to work – there is hope.

For Job, he knows he is not the cause of this.  Only God can vindicate him.  If he forfeits God, he forfeits hope.  If he forfeits God, he forfeits truth.

This is the same spirit that drives the true believer as well.  The true believer may get knocked down. They might even make a few mistakes along the way and say a few things that need some correction.  But they will always be able to muster up the strength to continue to look to heaven and look for God.  Even in our darkest hour, there is God.  That is what it means to be a Christian.

I love the analogy that my mind formed as I wrote that last paragraph.  I pictured Christ as he breathed His last breath upon the cross.  He breathed.  He cried out “Eli, eli, lema sabacthani” towards heaven.  He tasted the sour wine.  He died.  In Jesus’ darkest hour, He still mustered enough strength to look to heaven for the hope of the Father.  It is the example of our Lord to look to God in our darkest hours.

As I said in my opening paragraph, I planned to say more … but having arrived here I think not, actually.  This is a good place to leave us today.  In our darkest hour, the true follower of God turns to the Father.  Nothing else can be said to bring us to a more holy place than that today.  So turn.  Look.  Yearn for the hope that is in God.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 110: Job 16

Repentance And Grace

As we begin Job 16, we get a large dose of what good Christian fellowship should be all about.  As with most things, there are two extremes to Christian fellowship – and I believe that true fellowship needs to ride the path right down the center.

Let me explain.  There are some people that live out their faith believing that the best Christian is the person who comes over and just makes the other person feel better.  This is the coddling Christian.  This is the person who only says, “I know how you feel” or “I can really understand how you can feel that way.”

Then there is the other kind of Christian.  This is the Christian who doesn’t believe in any kind of comfort but only believes in telling the truth.  This is the tactless Christian.  This is the Christian who always has advice on every subject and the advice usually sounds like, “Well, if you would turn to God more…” or “If you would have less sin in your life…”

The reality in life is that repentance must come before grace.  Repentance must even come before forgiveness!  So there is a correct time and place for being upfront with other people.  However, we cannot often get a person to the point of understanding - or welcoming – a perspective of needing to repent without first establishing rapport! 

Yet, if we get too comfortable in the “rapport” stage, we never move beyond it into accountability.  If we do get to accountability, we must learn to not dwell there constantly or else we will never move into grace.  True Christian fellowship is a balance between rapport, accountability, and grace.  Remove any one stage completely and the productiveness of fellowship breaks down completely.

I think this is what I am hearing Job say in reflection to his friends as we open this chapter.  They have skipped the rapport stage completely.  They have dug in their heels in the accountability stage and are convinced that Job has to change his mind and see himself as the problem and repent.  Because of this, they will also not move into the grace phase of fellowship.  Not only have they ignored one of the levels, they’ve ignored two of them!  As we can read in the opening of this passage, Job is not responding well to their approach.  As Christians, we should take note of this and realize that when we ignore any one stage we will experience similar results.

Lie: God Is At Fault

I do need to take issue with the middle portion of Job’s speech in this chapter.  Job points a number of accusations against God here, and I don’t believe that God deserves to be the brunt of most of them.  Sure, it is God who does bring Satan’s attention upon Job initially.  But I don’t believe that having a perspective of God as one who hates people or who tears them up with His wrath is really a legitimate perspective.  I could have used more examples from this chapter, but these suffice. 

Yes, God has set up Job and pointed Satan in Job’s general direction.  But I think that picturing God as a divine being who enjoys seeing His creation suffer is not a correct picture of God.  God knows we suffer – often at our own hands or the hands of others – but He does not enjoy it.

Never Lose The Faith

Yet, I will give Job credit.  Although Job does speak in a fairly adversarial manner against God, he never does lose his faith.  He never denounces God nor denies Him.  He wrestles with God – he wrestles hard, even!  While Job may go astray a bit in His perspective of God, he never loses His faith.  He never does denounce his faith and die as his wife advised him to do so many chapters prior.

Truth: We Need A Witness Before God

I do want to pay a bit of attention to the last few verses in this chapter.  Here again we find the same beautiful foreshadowing of Christ that we found seven chapters ago.  Here we have a very clear perspective on how Job envisions justification actually occurring.  It is in these verses that we have proof that Job has not turned his back on God but is actually just wrestling with what is going on and how God is involved.

Here we have evidence of Job’s belief that his advocate is already in heaven before God.  Job has a belief that there is already someone testifying on his behalf before God.  And I’ve got to tell you. For a man who likely lived a millennia and a half before Jesus Christ, I find more faith in these few verses that end this chapter than I find in many who live a few millennia after Jesus Christ.  I am completely blown away by Job’s faith here as this chapter ends.

After His resurrection, Jesus tells Thomas, “You believe because you have seen?  Blessed is the one who believes while not seeing!”  So often we hear that expression and think Jesus is speaking about those of us who never got a chance to see Jesus in the flesh.  But today I have to sit back in awe at Job.  We at least have the benefit of being able to hear about Jesus.  If the one who believes without seeing are blessed then the one like Job who believes without seeing or hearing should be blessed even more!

I am forced to once again be humbled by Job’s witness.  Yes, he stumbles occasionally and speaks unfairly in God’s direction.  We all stumble and fall.  But here is a man who believes in God and also believes in a personal advocate before God before he had any real reason to believe at all.  Here is a true believer.  To quote the title of a pretty cool song from Thousand Foot Krutch: “Make me a believer.”  After hearing those inspiring words from Job, this is my humble prayer today.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 109: Job 15

Human Beings With Much to Say

I think that we need to take an honest look at Eliphaz’ retort to Job as chapter 15 opens.  On one hand, he does very much have a point.  Human beings – especially human beings that feel they have been wronged – usually have a lot to say.  If you want to see this, all that you have to do is get a Facebook account and get yourself a few friends.  Quite often one little glitch comes in someone’s life and immediately the Facebook posts are up vociferously complaining about what has gone wrong. 

Most of the time, those kind of reactions are rather futile and quite pointless.  All they are is some kind of self-mongerish attempt to get other people to see our way.  You know what they say … misery loves company.  When life is horrible, most of us can’t help but open our mouth about it.

Eliphaz’ Error

On the other hand, I don’t think at this point it is fair to call Job someone who is making a gut reaction to an immediate problem.  Job has sat around for at least a week contemplating what is going on.  He has processed a good bit about life and whether or not he is at fault in any way.  I don’t think at this point Job is talking unprofitably.  I don’t know about you, but I have certainly been challenged by his words!

How Much Can You Take?

I also think there is another dynamic at play here.  There are some people who can tolerate a good deal of questioning about God without feeling like they are being impious.  There are other people who seem to live as though any question about God’s sovereignty is an abomination.  I don’t happen to be one of those people.  I think honest questioning will usually lead to truth if we are willing to accept it and take it to its natural conclusion. 

By saying what he has said thus far, Job has not done away with the fear of God.  Job has struggled to understand why what has happened did in fact happen to him.  That’s completely different than being impious.  Job is searching for truth through his questions, not demanding that he be more right than God.

God’s Trust

I do wrestle with Eliphaz’ perspective on God in Job 15:15-16.  I think it is fairly absurd to say that God does not put any trust in either His holy ones or sinners like us.  I can see some truth in what Eliphaz might be trying to say.  God does know that we are not perfect and He does know that we will be unable to follow Him completely and perfectly.  That is absolutely true. 

However, the God that I see making a covenant with Abraham is a God who puts trust in humanity.  I realize Eliphaz didn’t even remotely have access to the story of Christ because Eliphaz likely predated Christ by 1,500 years or more, but the Christ that I see puts trust in human beings to accomplish His will.  Jesus Christ puts all of His trust in the Holy Spirit and those 11 faithful disciples - and probably a few dozen other folks. 

That is trust.  God entrusted His plan of salvation into the hands of Abraham.  God entrusted the message of salvation to a very small group of human beings.  To me, God is a God who honestly gives us more trust than we deserve!

Eliphaz Doesn’t Paint the Whole Picture

Looking at the rest of the chapter, it appears that our old friend – the telling of “incomplete truth” – rears its ugly head in Eliphaz’ speech once more.  Look at the words that he says.  It isn’t that he says anything wrong per say.  The problem is that he has not painted a full picture.

Take a look at verse 20.  Yes, there will come a day when the wicked will writhe in pain all day long.  Christ speaks often of a place where there will be “weeping and a gnashing of teeth.”  Certainly what Eliphaz says has some truth value to it.  But it is not the whole truth.  Reality tells me that the wicked are just as likely to prosper in this life as the good – perhaps even more likely to prosper if they are really skilled at being wicked.  From an eternal perspective, Eliphaz’ words have a point.  But Eliphaz isn’t speaking about the eternal when he says those words.  Therefore he ends up painting an incomplete picture.  We dare not assume that only those who prosper in this life are good!

Or look at verses 31-32.  Eliphaz seems to indicate that the wicked person will find himself living an empty life before his time on earth is over.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that all wicked people realize that their life is empty and I certainly don’t believe that good people never have periods of emptiness in their life! 

Again, if Eliphaz was talking about an eternal perspective, he would be absolutely spot on.  From an eternal perspective the righteous will be fulfilled in God and the wicked will be emptied of their presence without God.  But Eliphaz is not talking about the eternal here.  Eliphaz is talking about this life, and because of that I find his advice not telling the whole truth.

The lesson here for the followers of God is to make sure we paint a genuine picture of faith and life rather than painting the picture of faith that we want to believe.  Of course, that implies that we have to take the time to learn and understand the genuine picture of faith before we can paint it.  When we go to others and try to help them understand their life, we need to paint a genuine picture, not some picture that makes sense in this or that special case scenario.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 108: Job 14

Trouble Is Our Middle Name

There is much wisdom in Job’s opening lines.  What human being does not cause more trouble in this earth than there would have been had the person not been born?  So not each of us cause trouble for ourselves and others in this life?

Now I admit, that’s a rather negative perspective on life.  Hopefully we do also bring some good into life as well!  But honestly, who among us would even dare to claim that we bring more good in life than evil?  Who among us can claim that our day-in-day-out interactions with people genuinely bring about more good than bad?

Death

Then Job talks about death of a human.  When a human dies, it dies completely.  In this life, there is no rebirth as we see in other organisms that can regenerate lost parts.  Job gives us the example of a tree.  I’ll use the example of a dandelion.  Even if I go out every morning and pluck off every one of those dandelion heads while they are yellow – the plant will continue to just put up more heads. 

Or take many lizards.  Even if they should be in trouble and lose their tail, they can just grow a new one.  But this is not so with human beings.  When we die, we die.  When we lose an appendage, we do not grow one back.  Life is measured differently for humans than for many of the other forms of life upon this earth.

Now, we must be careful and not take Job’s words too far.  When Job speaks about a person dying and not coming to life again, Job is not talking about the resurrection of the dead.  Job is strictly speaking about time here on this earth.  When we die on this earth, we die.

This concept is very important for human beings to understand.  It is called “finitude.”  We must understand our human limitations.  We must understand that at some point our bodies will wear out and we will die.  We must understand that for a time this world will go on without us.  It is life.  It is also one of the hardest things to accept about life.

Yet, it is precisely our wrestling with finitude that sets us up for a proper understanding about eternal life.  We are not what drives life in this world.  We are a mere participant in life.  We have been blessed to be allowed to even live!  So it will be with respect to the resurrection of the dead as well.  We will not be the center of eternal life – God is.  We will simply be a glorious participant in eternal life.  We will be blessed to even be a part of it!

We are Self-Centered First

The end of this chapter paints a grim picture of the human.  In the end, we are all self-mongers.  Even the best parent will not be able to truly determine whether their children have come into honor or dishonor.  Because of our short life spans, this is even truer about the generations that will follow each of us!  Who among us will honestly know whether our grandchildren will be honorable or dishonorable?  What of their children?  No, in the end the only thing that we as human beings can genuinely know is ourselves.  The only person I can genuinely know with respect to honor or dishonor is myself.

As a human being, I will likely go on focusing on my own pain and my own joys.  I will yearn to be involved in the lives of others, but in reality I will only be a part of what the other person and I choose to come together on.  Since I will be a part of my own life all the time, my own life will naturally always take precedence.  Except by the grace of God, my pain will always trump the pain of others with respect to my attention.  Except by the grace of God, my life will always trump the lives of the other.

I think these final verses really bring Job’s pain to a great head.  Job feels hopeless in his current situation.  He also feels that because of the greatness of his pain, he cannot think of anything other than his own pain.  Remember, he has just lost all of his sons and daughters, too!  Unfortunately, it is when we are in great pain or turmoil that our selfishness truly comes out the strongest.

I hear the challenge of Job, but I wonder if any of us are strong enough to actually do anything about it.  Can any of us draw so close to God that even when great pain or turmoil should come our way we would not focus upon ourselves?  Can any of us be so close to God that even in the midst of unendurable pain and suffering we can still “love God and love our neighbor?”  After all, those are the first two commandments and as Jesus says upon those rest the entire law.  Can any of us hope to be so close to God as to still obey those even in spite of great pain?

Only by the grace of God, that’s for sure.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 107: Job 13

If Only We Could Know God Face to Face

In this chapter, Job begins by stating a desire to make his case before God rather than having to make his case before human beings.  I find this thought incredibly profound today – especially as someone who often tries to help people in their understanding of God and their relationship with God.  Job clearly indicates that his friends are doing a poor job of representing God.

That really makes a lot of sense.  Since beginning the book of Job, I’ve frequently spoken about how we cannot understand God.  We cannot know His plans.  None of us truly knows the outcome of any particular action or event.  Because of this, we need to be very careful when we speak on God’s behalf.  The last thing that we want to do is to come and try to help and only become a noisy gong beating out senseless and unhelpful advice.  Even worse, we certainly don’t want to try and help a person and end up driving them further from God!

We Think More Highly of Our Righteousness Than We Ought

Then Job spends a good deal of time talking about why he would speak with God.  While I cannot condone the fact that Job seems to desire to contend with God, neither can I say that I have never been there, either.  I know – I think we all know – what it is to be at a place in our life where we desire to have an in-depth conversation with God where we plan of chewing Him out.  When I wrote those words, I understood the absurdity of them.  But just because I think them absurd now doesn’t mean that I haven’t ever been there in my life, either.

Furthermore, there is actually a good side of desiring to contend with God.  Often this world teaches us to disbelieve what we cannot understand.  This world would tell us that if we cannot understand why God would allow us to be in a certain circumstance then we should disbelieve God’s goodness or His sovereignty.  However, that is not what Job is doing here.  Job is not disbelieving anything about God, he is simply seeking answers.  Job wants to contend with God to get the ugliness out of himself – and perhaps find something better to fill himself than with the ugliness.

We should want to seek out the Lord and seek out answers from His wisdom.  Certainly we should really strive to do that in a way that does not pit us antagonistically against God.  However, better to desire to contend with God than to disbelieve in Him altogether!  Better to get the badness out than to keep it in, believe in it, and find our relationship with God dwindling.

Hope

I am likewise touched by Job’s words in Job 13:15-16.  Here Job is talking about hope.  Notice what Job says in verse 15.  Even if God should slay him, Job will still find hope in Him.  This is really a deep and profound thought.  Even if God should ultimately be the cause of Job’s death, that will not change Job’s relationship with God.  Now that is impressive faith!  Here is a man who truly has put all of his hope in God.  Job is telling us that there is nothing that can happen – even at the hand of God – that will change how Job views his relationship with God.

Sure, Job might want to contend with God.  Job might want a piece of God’s mind.  But that doesn’t mean that Job’s relationship with God is going to be any different.  He is salvation; we are the saved.  Nothing will change that dynamic for Job.

Have you ever noticed that there are two – well, at least two – kinds of Christians?  There are the fair-weather Christians and there are the all-weather Christians.  There are some people who make time for God when things are going well, but when a little persecution comes their way or their schedule gets tight you don’t see them involved in their faith anymore.  Then there are the people that when life gets tough they increase their involvement in their faith life.  In these verses Job is making it clear that he is an all-weather Christian.  Nothing in this life can make Job lose his foundation with God.  The more persecution comes his way, the more Job will trust in God.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 106: Job 12

Job Sets Up His Response to Zophar

Today we see the reaction to Zophar’s overstated and ill-timed blunt approach.  I think Job makes it pretty clear how he is going to react in his opening words: “No doubt you are ‘the people’ and wisdom will die with you.”  If that doesn’t make things pretty clear, I’m not sure that anything else will!  Job is telling Zophar that his advice is blunt and opinionated and not delivered in a manner that Job cares to listen to at all.

Job Is Resolute

I will give Job credit here.  He is absolutely resolute in his understanding that he did not bring this plague upon himself.  Satan came upon him and cursed him, expecting him to curse God.  Job didn’t. Three friends have now come before him and have chastised Job and told him to repent of his sins, and Job remains resolute.  He is in the right, and he continues to stand up for what he knows to be true.  Job did not bring this upon himself except for being righteous.

Truth: Who Among Us Can Resist God

Job’s speech about God turns us to one of the overarching themes of Job.  Who among us can resist God?  Who among us can even fathom God?  Who among us can ever hope to fully grasp the plan of God?  None of us can even see the fullness of what God is doing in the world.

When God punished the people at the tower of Babel, did any of us see that God was actually spreading out the population of the earth to fill it?  When God led the Hebrew people into Egypt, did any see it as a means to demonstrate His power?  When the Hebrew people were led into captivity, did anyone see it as a means to judge the Hebrew people, judge the Babylonians, and bring forth a remnant of faithful people?  When God sent Jesus, how many truly understood what God was doing in Him before He was resurrected and explained it all to us?

No, the truth is that human beings understand best in hindsight.  We might be able to grasp a glimpse of God’s plan, but we cannot grasp it fully.  What God purposes, we cannot fathom.  We can simply get on board with what God is doing and play our part.

When “getting on board” is easy or fun or productive, we enjoy getting on board with God.  When “getting on board” is being persecuted because of our faithfulness – like Job in this story – it isn’t so much fun.  But that is what the disciple of Christ does.  That is what the follower of God does.

The true follower of God may wrestle with understanding what is happening.  In fact, the most faithful people I know in my life can speak profoundly on their wrestling with God.  But the faithful do not doubt God.  They certainly do not doubt that God was worth believing.

Did Job lose his faith in God?  Certainly not!  Did the true prophets lose their faith when the Hebrew people were dragged off into slavery?  No!  Did James – the disciple of Jesus Christ – lose his faith when Herod dragged him into prison and had him beheaded just for a popularity boost?  No way!  Did Saul lose faith when God struck him with a blinding light and essentially told him that he was wrong in every conceivable way?  No!  The true follower finds God and gets on board with God.  They may not understand.  They may wrestle.  They may only really see exactly what God is doing in hindsight.  But they do get on board with God.

After all, who can stand up to the wisdom and perspective of God?  How many of us can genuinely guarantee that when we set out to do something it will end in happiness, glory, or even righteousness?  No, God is the only one among us who can guarantee that He actually knows what He is doing.

Imperfectly Wrestling With a Perfect God

I think this is one of the most challenging aspects to Job – and I keep coming back to it.  Yes, Job is a sinner – as are we all. But I see Job struggling with his knowledge that God is supreme yet he feels like what is happening is unfair.  As a human being, it is so difficult to put trust in God that He genuinely knows what is actually fair.  It is so hard to accept what comes, deal with it, and trust God.  That is a great struggle.  We can only see fairness in our limited self-centered perspective.

Of course, living in a post-Christ church means that we can genuinely know how much God is in control of fairness.  When we didn’t deserve it, He handed us both salvation and forgiveness on a silver platter.  There can be no question in the believer’s mind that God not only knows the definition of fair – He has exceeded the definition for our sake.  We deserve condemnation; God offers us grace and love and mercy and forgiveness and relationship.

Granted, that doesn’t make it easy to remember in every moment of every day.  Even knowing how gracious God is, it is tough to give control of “fairness” to God.  I feel for Job.  It is hard to be in the midst of something that seems so incredibly unfair and accept it while trusting that God knows best and He will work it out to His glory.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 105: Job 11

In this chapter, Zophar gives some fairly sound advice with a few typically human flaws within his speech.  I really don’t find too much to argue with within his speech.  But let’s dive in and see what we shall discover.

Flaw: Approaching the Troubled

The one big flaw that I can see in the opening of his speech is that he forgets to take into account that he is speaking to a human being.  Job is in the midst of his struggle and as such he is going to see with a fairly dark perspective.  In order to minister to a person in that position, those of us who are outside the situation need to accept that the other person is going to come from a dark perspective and try to slowly move them away from it.

This is not what Zophar does.  Zophar comes out and is quite antagonistic with Job’s position.  He accuses Job of talking too much – implying that he really should be listening rather than talking.  Unfortunately we know that listening is important for the counselor because those in distress usually have a lot to say and a need to be heard.

He accuses Job of babbling and mocking God.  Zophar’s words are likely to put Job on the defensive.  This means that it is unlikely that Job is going to actually hear anything that Zophar says.  The first lesson that I learn from Zophar today is that even if we have great ideas – sometimes the way that we say them can determine whether or not the ideas are heard.

Flaw: Assessing the Problem

The other flaw that I can see in Zophar’s words is a hint of believing that Job has a need to repent.  Verses 13 and 14 seem to indicate that Zophar believes that Job does need to repent.  Zophar seems to indicate that Job has some preparation of the heart to accomplish.  Zophar seems to be teaching that there is iniquity within Job.  As we know from the beginning of the story, Job is in the position that he is in because of his righteousness, not his iniquity.  Granted, all of us are sinful by nature and in that sense we all have something to repent.  But in this particular instance the cause of Job’s suffering is not his humanity.  Again we seem to hear one of Job’s friends make that fatal error in discernment.

Wisdom: God is Gracious

Having brought out these detractions from Zophar’s words, let’s take a look at some of the actual theology that Zophar brings.  If we can move beyond Zophar’s indication that Job has some repenting to do, there is some truth that we can apply to humanity in general.  As I said above, all human beings are fallen and not one of us is pure or blameless.  Generally speaking, God does exact from all of us less than we deserve.  This is why God’s nature of grace and mercy are so important to us as human beings.  So in this regard I find Zophar’s words helpful.

Wisdom: Acknowledging Human Limitation in the midst of God’s Greatness

Then Zophar moves into a section of speech where he talks about the greatness of God’s wisdom.  Can any of us ever hope to find the “outer limit” of God?  Can any of us see with enough clarity to find where “God stops?”  No.  Again Zophar seems to be speaking true words here.  What can we know with respect to the limits and boundaries of God?  What can any of us know in comparison to God?

Wisdom: It Is Good To Approach God With Humbleness

As we approach the end, we can also find a bit of wisdom in his words.  Generally speaking, when we do come humbly before the Lord we will find forgiveness.  Then we will be able to lift up our head in His presence.  Our sorrow and suffering will pass away like waters receding from a flood.  We can feel secure and we can know the hope that is in God.  Generally speaking, it is good for us to approach God humbly because then we feel His grace and mercy.  In this instance, Zophar’s words do have some wisdom in them.

Summarizing Zophar’s Speech

As I look back upon this chapter, I wish that Zophar could have looked past the seemingly obvious conclusion that Job must have sinned and needed to repent.  Had Zophar given the advice that he gives in this chapter without implying that Job had some specific repenting to do I think his words would have been very true.  Again this seems to be a chapter reminding us as human beings that we should be quick to listen and slow to speak.  We must take our time in discerning God’s truth in every given situation.

<>< 

Year 2, Day 104: Job 10

From Understandable to Spoiled Brat

As much as I supported Job in the last chapter and found him to be genuinely filled with good thoughts, today I find him absolutely behaving like a spoiled child who needs a heavy dose of perspective.  What is it that we call it lately?  He needs a reality check.

Look at Job’s list of complaints:

• Job accuses God of despising the work of His hands
• Job accuses God of having destroyed him
• Job accuses God of having hunted him intentionally and worked wonders against him
• Job accuses God of renewing His witness against Job and continually bringing fresh troops against him
• Job curses the day that he was born (again)
• Job tells God to go away and leave him alone

Now, I understand that Job is in a dark spot in his life.  I get it.  In fact, I’ve been there.  I know what it is like to wonder so much about his future (or lack thereof) and genuinely desire death.  So I understand that Job is talking out of his pain and his anguish.  I understand and I mourn for Job because of where he is at as we read these words.

But the reality is that his place in life is a place of narrow and limited vision.  Job cannot see the future, none of us can – especially when we are in those kind of situations!  So it is normal for him to be in a place of limited perspective.  Yet, that does not make it right to come out and blast God because of our short-sightedness, either.

The Reality Check

God has a plan for Job, God will restore Job.  But even if he didn’t, God has a greater plan for Job.  Now it is time for the reality check.

Our temporal suffering is nothing compared to our eternal hope in God.  Just because we are in a dark place in life at the moment does not mean that we will always be in a dark place in life.  There will come a blessed day when we will stand in the presence of our maker and rejoice knowing that His gift of true life cannot be threatened any longer.  Oh, what a glorious day that will be!

Now, I understand that Job’s perspective on eternal life is completely different than mine.  After all, the idea of the resurrection of the dead and eternal life didn’t really reach its fullness as we understand it now until about the time when the Persians came onto the scene in Hebrew history – and maybe even later than that.  Certainly Job lived well before that, so perhaps I will confess that even now I speak with a perspective to which Job did not have access.  So I will give Job a little slack on this point.  If he didn’t really have an idea about eternal life, I cannot fault him too harshly for losing sight of a perspective to which he did not have access.

Reality Check For Us, Then

However, we do not have the same luxury, do we?  I suppose this is where the truth of this chapter hits home for me.  While I might be able to give Job a slight pass on his accusations because he may not have had access to the concept of eternal life and the resurrection – I cannot give myself the same pass.  I know about the resurrection.  I believe in the resurrection.  I confess that I believe in it every week!  So what excuse do I have when I let myself sink into those dark moments?

The answer is that I have no excuse.  I must remember the advice Job told me yesterday.  All I can do is repent of my sin – my short-sightedness – and return to the Lord with a humble heart while begging for mercy.

Yes, life is hard.  And life is short.  And life is filled with all kinds of problems.  But we must be certain to never forget the promise to come.  We must be certain to never forget the mark, the goal, or the prize.  As Paul tells us in many of his letters, we must keep our eyes focused on Jesus and the prize of salvation and eternal life.  Therein lay the answer to our grief and our human condition.  Oh, how blessed are we to live after Christ has become our first fruits!

<>< 

Year 2, Day 103: Job 9

Job gives us some really great thoughts here – and as I would expect I can only find the slightest of flaws within his words.  Let’s start with the minor flaw and then go quickly into the wonderful points of truth that Job brings to the table about God.  Finally, we’ll end with what may be the first (from a historical dating perspective) recognition of the need for Jesus Christ.

Lie: I Am Righteous

The only flaw I can find in Job’s words is that twice he calls himself “right.”  (See Job 9:15,20 – other translations might say “innocent” or “just” instead of right.)  Now, let’s be clear.  God does consider Job righteous.  But he is far from right; and he is certainly far from innocent or blameless.  He is righteous because he has turned to God and understands the importance of God’s role in his ability to have any righteousness at all.  But the only reason that he is right, righteous, just, or justified is because of God.

However, this is my only quibble with Job’s words – and it is fairly insignificant.  We can say with confidence that Job did not bring this tragedy upon himself and he certainly did not deserve it.  So in that perspective – as a refutation of Bildad and Eliphaz – Job can say that he is innocent with respect to why this calamity has happened to him.  But as a whole, Job is as fallen as you are or I am.

Truth: Who Is Bigger Than God?

Let’s move on to some of the great theology that Job does paint in these verses.  Who among us can actually answer God’s accusation of our sinfulness with anything other than, “guilty as charged?”  Who among us can contend with God even once and be in the right?  We among us can harden their heart against God and truly succeed in the end?  What Job is really asking is – who among us is bigger than God?

Truth: God’s Power Is Bigger Than Ours

Then we get to this awesome description of God in Job 9:5-10.  God moves mountains effortlessly; we do not.  God causes the earth to shake; we do not.  God made the stars and the sun; we did not.  God stretched out the heavens and laid down the sea under His foot; we did not.  God arranged the stars into constellations; we did not.  God’s acts of greatness are innumerable; ours are not.  God perceives us; we fail to perceive Him.  Job does an incredible job of giving us perspective on the greatness and sheer magnitude of God.  And even what Job says is still understating who God is and what God can do!

Truth: We Have No Defense, Just Confession and Repentance

The rest of the chapter is then devoted to the pointlessness of trying to make a defense against God’s action or God’s accusations.  We cannot answer God.  We can only appeal for mercy.  We cannot lift up any defense against His righteous accusations.  He is wiser, mightier, and more righteous than all of us put together!  Who among us can think of anything other than our own reasons for condemnation when we are in His presence?

Truth: We Need An Arbiter

This leads us to the end of the chapter – and what a beautiful end of the chapter it is.  Job 9:33 is such an incredibly profound verse: “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand upon us both.”  This is such an incredibly profound verse because it is at this moment that Job realizes the need for Jesus Christ.

Now, let’s think about this historically for a second.  Most people believe that the story of Job predates Moses, and likely could even predate Abraham.*  If this story does genuinely predate Moses, then Job is the earliest book in the Bible to be written.  What this likely means, then, is that in the oldest book of the Bible we have a clear reference to at least one person who is able to make the theological connection for their need of an arbiter between them and God.

I don’t know about you, but that is really cool to me today.  The fact that we can put our finger on that verse and conclude with reasonable assurance that even as far back as Job there were loyal followers of God who knew that life would be better with an arbiter between them and God is powerful stuff.  Job understands that if there was someone who knew what it was like to be God and who knew what it was like to be human – then his ability to stand in the presence of God might actually be possible!

Let that thought really sink in for a second.  To put your hand on someone’s shoulder is to identify with them and connect to them.  This whole chapter is about Job’s inability to stand in the presence of God without being completely convinced of his condemnation and his guilt.  But if there were an arbiter – someone who knew what it was like to be both God and human – Job hints that he believes that things might be different.  If there were an arbiter, Job might be able to stand in the presence of God meaningfully.

This is just a really cool thought on so many levels.  But the most fundamental element of this thought is that here we have the most basic understanding of why we need Jesus: without an arbiter, we cannot meaningfully stand in the presence of God.  In order to be able to stand in God’s presence, we need someone who knows what it is like to be both human and God.  That is the most basic understanding of why Jesus had to come.  He had to be the bridge between us and God.

<>< 

* There is little Biblical evidence for this claim.  Ezekiel mentions Job twice in his book, implying that at the latest Job was a contemporary of Ezekiel.  However, we are also told that Job lived 140 years after the events of this book took place – and since Job had grown children at the beginning of this book he was likely at least 30 or 40 at the beginning of this book.  From the Biblical perspective on ages, human beings were not recorded as living 180 or more years except for the time prior to Moses – and actually the age fits for having Job as a contemporary to Abraham.  However, please understand that this point is largely conjecture and not based upon empirical Biblical evidence.

Year 2, Day 102: Job 8

Bildad: Not All Bad

Bildad’s advice seems great.  And I’m going to give Bildad a ton of credit here.  He does give some incredible spiritual advice.  As I read through Bildad’s words I kept finding myself nodding in agreement and saying, “Yep, there’s truth in that.”  So I really do tip my hat to him in being a person who seems to be able to absorb an incredible amount of wisdom into his life.

For example, can God pervert justice?  Certainly not!  And who can argue with Bildad when he talks about the importance of pleading for mercy and trying to live an upright life?  How many of us can argue that in the grand scheme of things each of our lives is anything but a shadow?  Is it not true that the hope of the godless perishes?  Does not the person who forgets God ultimately experience a withering?

You see, Bildad has taken some incredible truth here and spit it forth to Job.  He has given some really great advice.  None of those things can really be argued against.  They shouldn’t be argued against.  They’re all spiritually sound pieces of advice!

Lie: Prosperity Equals Righteousness

However, Bildad is also guilty of the same offense as Eliphaz.  Although they begin in great wisdom, they do not end in great wisdom.  Bildad takes great wisdom and uses it to put God in his box.  Bildad takes circumstantial wisdom and applies it to God in some sort of demonstration of universal truth.  Let’s take another look at some of the things Bildad asserts.

Bildad seems to be telling Job that if he is pure and upright that God will rouse Himself and restore Job.  Now, that seems like truth because we want it to be true.  It even seems like truth about Job!  After all, does not Job restore Job at the end of this book? 

However, we need to remember that God restores Job on His merit and for His glory, not as some “earned reward” that Job truly deserves.  Yes, God does care for those who are faithful to Him.  Yes, God will raise all of His faithful to eternal life in the end.  Those promises are God’s promises and are all true.  But God does not promise that if we are righteous and upright that we will prosper from the perspective of the world.  God is not interested in making His servants the most glorious people in the world. 

That’s a really hard pill for us to swallow – because human beings are inherently selfish.  We know this is a really hard pill to swallow because Eliphaz and Bildad have both now stumbled upon this incorrect theological assertion!  Human beings want to believe in a God that will prosper us from the perspective of this world.  We want to believe that if we are righteous we will be have a great name and a great life.  Perhaps more importantly, we want this to be true so that we can look at a person’s prosperity and judge their character.

God will prosper us.  However, He will cause us to prosper spiritually, not materialistically.  God is not interested in equating righteousness with worldly prosperity.  Neither should we be interested in that same pursuit.

Lie: God Does Not Associate With Evildoers

Towards the end of his speech, Bildad makes another theological mistake.  He says that “God will not take the hand of evildoers.”  I find this to be another shallow truth that we all want to believe.  But it isn’t true at all.

As a simple demonstration, let me ask a simple question.  Which one of us was righteous on our own merit when God came to us and offered the free gift of salvation?  When God took my hand, he took the hand of an evildoer.  For me to claim anything else is to deny my true being.  My nature is sin, my flesh is corrupt.  When God came to me, He took a corrupt sinner and grabbed my hand to lead me into His righteousness.

Maybe you’d like an even stronger case of this.  Think of King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians.  Did not God take Nebuchadnezzar’s hand – the hand of a “pagan” – and lead Nebuchadnezzar against His own people to teach them a lesson?  Were not God’s people led into captivity under Nebuchadnezzar under God’s hand?  Now, I’m not claiming that Nebuchadnezzar stopped being evil and found salvation with God.  That’s between him and God and not for me to judge – although there are more than a few validating pieces of scripture to at least consider the claim.  But regardless of the matter of salvation, certainly God took Nebuchadnezzar’s hand and accomplished His will through an enemy.

To claim that God only pays attention to the upright and God cannot work through an evildoer is shallow faith.  It puts God into our box.  It creates an evaluation tool that ends up giving false results.  It actually leads to a “prosperity Gospel,” in which we assume that God loves most those people who have a “good life” according to the stuff they have and the trouble-free life they live.  That’s just simply not the way God thinks.  God blesses those He blesses.  He lavishes blessing upon the just and the unjust.  That is what God says about Himself.  To say that God loves the prosperous and the peaceful the most denies the closeness that God has had with most of His servants throughout the scope of His Word!

Reflections Into The Present

As we go through Job, I am really beginning to get a sense of just how important it is for me to continue to be cautious about giving “spiritual advice.”  Yes, I do it all the time.  I’m not saying we should stop giving advice, but I think we need to be careful about the advice we give.  If we cannot know the mind of God, we should be careful giving absolute advice as Eliphaz gave earlier and Bildad gives here.

I am in another cliché mood today, so I am going to examine the cliché: “Where there is smoke, there’s fire.”  Let me say that I do believe that in the right context this cliché demonstrates great truth.  However, it is simply a human understanding, so it is prone to failing.  I guess that’s my whole point today with Blidad, too.

Where there is smoke, there is usually fire.  If I sin, I will reap the consequences.  That’s Bildad’s point.  On the other hand, just because I am reaping negative consequences doesn’t automatically mean that the consequences are from my own sin.  In other words, just because I am living in “smoke” does not mean that the smoke is from my own fire.  This is where Bildad makes his first mistake.  Job’s living in smoke, but the fire isn’t his.

We need to be careful of people who present a “one plus one equals two” kind of theology.  Life is never that simple or that straightforward.  One plus one might equal two.  But as I learned in physics class when I had to learn vector math, one plus one can actually equal any result between zero and two (including zero and two).  Dealing with spirituality demands the same kind of flexibility in obtaining truth. 

Truth is almost always simple in its understanding.  But truth is rarely simple in its application.  This is what allows people to start with sound theology and end up giving spiritually unsound advice.

<><