Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind: “Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. “Will you discredit my justice and condemn me just to prove you are right? Are you as strong as God? Can you thunder with a voice like his? All right, put on your glory and splendor, your honor and majesty. Give vent to your anger. Let it overflow against the proud. Humiliate the proud with a glance; walk on the wicked where they stand. Bury them in the dust. Imprison them in the world of the dead. Then even I would praise you, for your own strength would save you. Job 40:6-14
Then Job replied to the Lord: “I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me. You said, ‘Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’ I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” Job 42:1-6
Somewhere along the way Job
forgot his connection to Adam and Eve; Job forgot about original sin and that sin
nature we all inherit from our first parents. Job somehow managed to consign to the back
burner that need we all have for God’s grace-filled forgiveness. Job was a moral, God-fearing man who, as a
paragon of virtue in his community, was respected and did the right
things. He was like the good
brother in the story of the Prodigal Son, obedient, compliant,
useful, and the kind of dependable, unselfish guy every church elects as
chairman of the board.
However, when the unfair, tough
times came and his life’s train got derailed, Job defended his purity level,
demanding an answer from God. For 39
chapters Job tried to pry an accounting from Heaven. When God did answer it shook the “good man”
to his core. The only sound heard from
him the rest of that day was the clicking of his teeth as his mouth closed its’
complaining. That was how Job finally
got it right.
Many in our day who have
ditched “church” in favor of just being good people are making the same mistake
Job made. They assume their goodness is
measure enough to pass whatever test God (if He’s really up there) can pass
out. It’s a kind of macho-bravado that
dares God to question their freedom to determine their chosen pathway. And that attitude holds enough truth to get
them in as big a dilemma with God as Job experienced. That’s because God does, indeed, allow us
free choice in how we will live our lives; it’s just that the consequences of
our choices are just as tied to those choices we make as night is connected to
the next morning’s daylight. It’s like
the proverbial domino reality; when you choose to push that first one, the
second, third, fourth, and each one thereafter will fall the same way. Years ago, the Alaskan highway was just a
rough, unpaved trail through the wilderness.
During the rainy times the ground was soft and muddy. A sign was erected at the start of the trail:
Choose
your rut carefully; you’ll be in it for the next 200 miles.
We could apply that same
wisdom to choosing grace, or our own strength.
God has given us the gift of free will; humility applied to that
choosing will go a long way towards losing that arrogance that says its
my life, I’ll do what I want.
For You Today
Job’s biggest mistake (before
he heard that thundering voice from Heaven cataloging an indictment of his
ignorance) was to think he’d been a self-made man, that his popularity, wealth,
and “goodness” were enough. He may have
been right in the eyes of his neighbors and friends. That day’s culture and community elected him
man of the year every year, until the bad times and boils made their
appearance. Then all Job had was
God. And when he realized that, he realized
he had all he needed!
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Title Image: By Hult, Adolf, 1869-1943; Via
Wikimedia
Commons
Unless noted, Scripture used
from The
New Living Translation©
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