GOOD MORNING SIBLINGS!
Today’s reading is Job 11-13
Click here to read today’s passages on BibleGateway.
Rabbit Trails
This is reading as a court case, going back and forth, to and fro. We can’t help but feel the frustration of Job in reading it and so I suggest we all pause a moment and pray for shalom and insight, guidance by the Holy Spirit, so that we may glean the wisdom that the Father has for us in today’s readings.
YHWH gives strength to His people. YHWH blesses His people with shalom. Psalm 29:11
•We open with Job’s “friends” (I’m going to have to use that word in quotes at this point), continuing to rail into him about not confessing and repenting of whatever sin it is that has brought this punishment about.
•Zophar is quick to condemn Job, assuming that Job is guilty, calling him a liar and accusing him of having no shame. He even goes so far as to accuse Job of only pretending to be a man of God, but not being faithful to the Father in his heart.
Why does he assume all these things? Because of Job’s affliction. Surely, he thinks, if Job were truly a man of God his life would not have these troubles in it. This is something similar to the prosperity gospel that is preached today – expecting riches in life in exchange for following the Father at a mere surface level – because a person who follows the Father on a deep spiritual level understands that the value of riches in this world is equivalent to dust when one looks at the level the Father operates on.
In Chapter 12 Job gets another turn at the mic and starts out with a sharp retort of sarcasm. “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.” He is belittling their puffed up confidence in their own wisdom. What a tragedy to have “friends” who are quick to condemn and insist on judging you in your most desperate time of need. Job reminds them of who he is, he is as wise as them, he is not their inferior and they have walked with him, seen how he lived his life, and yet now presume he is lesser due to no other evidence than misfortune in his life.
It is so important to pray for the Father to send us true friends, who will pray for us, seek the Father’s wisdom rather than their own, and beseech His favor in times of need rather than fall back on their own reasoning.
Job 12:17 It may be me but I read a bit of condemnation of his friends in this verse as he praises the Father announces that “ judges, he makes fools”. They have been quick to judge him, rather than seeking the father’s counsel on how best to behave towards their friend during this time.
Instead, Job rightly calls them “worthless physicians” who would have been wise to keep silent in their lack of knowledge. He goes on to explain that they should consider their own faults rather than his.
In Job 13:15 we have a key verse: “Though He slay me, I will hope in him;”
In saying this, having no knowledge of what was going on between YHWH and Satan, Job proved Satan wrong and the Father right.
Recall:
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” Job 2:4-6
“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.”
Regardless of circumstance, Job trusted in YHWH.
This faith is staggering to think on, knowing all that He had been through. But also remember that oftentimes in reading the Bible, as a reader, we are privy to information than the main characters are not privy to.
Job had no idea why this was happening to him.
All he knew is that YHWH is good and He will continue to trust in Him.
He had faith that the Father would save him, if not in this life, then the next, for he knew he was saved by grace and a true follower and lover of YHWH and that he was made righteous, not through his own actions, but through that grace of YHWH which he had relied upon his entire life – he refused to waver in his reliance upon that.
In times of tribulation, he fell back on what he knew:
•The Father’s wisdom encompasses all.
•He is a God of grace.
•He can be trusted in all things.
Test everything, hold tight to what is good.~ 1 Thess 5:21
We are saved by Grace alone: Obedience is not the root of our salvation, it is the fruit!
May YHWH bless the reading of His Word!