GOOD MORNING, SIBLINGS!
Today’s readings are Job 8-10
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Rabbit Trails
Bildad rebukes Job today, telling him that if he would earnestly seek YHWH and if he had of been pure and upright YHWH would be blessing him instead of afflicting him.
Sidenote: this sounds a lot like the prosperity gospel to me.
It is difficult to read this incessant rebuke of Job by his friends, knowing how Job himself is suffering and seeking the Father. But I find his attitude to be far more reverent than theirs.
Chapter 9 finds Job praising the Father’s wisdom and strength and twice he mentions YHWH’s anger. Job 9:5 and Job 9:13. Note that he does not question his anger but makes note of it. In our culture, we are often taught that YHWH is permissible towards us in all things, is never angered with us (only those we would choose to be angered with), and seeks to shower us with blessings and love at every turn. This is what I call our “Fluffy God” that we’ve made after our own desires because fluffy god doesn’t ask anything of us and applauds and assists in whatever we venture to do as long as we can say we are following our hearts. As the saying goes:
If your god lets you do whatever you want, your god is really you.
Job knows the real YHWH. One who is majestic, who judges righteously and before whom no man can be counted righteous of their own accord. He does not question YHWH and he remains reverent. Chapter 9 could easily be summed up in one sentence:
Job knows that YHWH is God and he is not.
Fb Meyer offers an insightful perspective on this situation in Job:
“As we read these complaints, we may remember days in our lives when we uttered similar ones, but we are without excuse. And when we are tempted in this direction, it is for us to remember that probably we are being tried to teach the manifold wisdom of God, and that the works of God should be made manifest in us. It will enable us to endure, if we remember that God has conferred on us high honor, by choosing us to show that we can stand the fire, like those iron safes, blackened by smoke, which the makers place in the shop windows to prove the stability of their workmanship.”
Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. John 9:3
HOLD TIGHT TO HIM IN THE REFINER’S FIRE!
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!