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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Job 22
It is crazy how far we will go to prove ourselves right. Job’s friends knew what they knew; they were certain of their wisdom. As a result, they refused to listen to reason or consider other possibilities. There was simply no way their understanding of things – of God – could be wrong. The thought that God could have brought on or even allowed Job’s suffering if he was actually innocent as he claimed was not conceivable to them. Thus, they stuck to the thought that Job had surly brought it all on himself.
Though his friends accused Job of wrongdoing from the very beginning, their accusations intensified the more Job declared himself innocent. At this point, Eliphaz was completely making up specific sins that Job must have committed. Seriously?!? Could he not see that he had zero evidence that Job had actually done any of these things? All he really knew was that Job had lost everything except his life, which he held by a fine thread. On that one bit of evidence, Eliphaz fabricated his own version of what must be truth based on his own understanding. Talk about being led astray by pride!
However, I don’t want to sit here and point an accusing finger back at Job’s friends. Instead, I want to see myself in them. They were likely not bad people. But they, like I, were human. Thus, their nature is my nature. It is the nature of the flesh that God has so graciously promised to put to death in me, replacing it with something completely new. And, as Paul said, “I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in [me] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:6).
Job 23-24
Job felt abandoned by God. He said, “If only I knew how to find Him, so that I could go to His throne.” (Job 23:3). This is one of many complaints Job makes that causes my thoughts to turn to Jesus. Because of Jesus, we do know how to find God. He is right here with us. And we can approach His throne at any time, not in fear of an aloof and uncaring God, as Job describes, but crying, “Abba, Father!” (see Rom. 8:15) to the God who loves us. We will struggle and suffer in this life, and we may feel abandoned in those moments. But how we feel will never change the truth that we still have Jesus, God with us.