Today's Reading July 05
Continuing in Job, chapters 31 and 32
Job continues his speech,
Chapter 31
1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
2 For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
3 Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?
4 Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?
5 If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;
6 Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know mine integrity.
and now we change, just a bit. Four visitors had come, three of them contemporaries of Job. They have done the talking up to now. But now the fourth speaks up.
Chapter 32
1 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
2 Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God.
3 Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.
we are heading towards a conclusion here.
Job is, as I've said, an important book and the timing is also meaningful to me. In the last three years, I have known disaster. I have lost a mother, a mother in law, and virtually everything that I had. We have known distress and need and fear. And it all started three years ago tomorrow, July 6th. So the story of Job resonates. But in my heart I know that the Lord is up to something here.
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Continuing in the Acts, chapter `13, verses 1 through 23.
Early mission trip here. Spend some time in this passage - it's all important. Little things that we might miss if we rush past. Here's one, bolded,
1 Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
3 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
4 So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.
no accidental decisions here. And don't you think that someone who knew Herod from of old might have some insights?
Do you think Job got it at this point, or do you think he was still pretty full of himself?
ReplyDeleteI'm not convinced that he was ''full of himself''. Perhaps he was - considering everything that had happened, he might be forgiven for thinking that the world had fallen in on him specifically. If you recall the early part of the story, it had landed on him particularly, this was not just random happenings but was directed precisely at him.
ReplyDeleteAgain, note that in all of his discussions, he is more likely to appeal to God, to what he perceives as God's sense of justice. He never rejects God. He simply does not understand. But he never ceases to grapple with the situation, to 'wrestle' with Him, to try to engage.
He is, in fact, doing what we have to do when we don't understand, we have to trust Him. Job trusts God. He doesn't understand or like the situation: who among us would. But he still looks for Him in the midst of it all.
Is that ''being full of himself''? I don't know. I think that he is struggling to see beyond the circumstances, while realizing that the circumstances are still there.
Faith doesn't make it easy, faith makes it possible