Today’s Reading: Job 11-14

“Common sense,” it is said, “is not so common.” In Job 11, Zophar agrees with Eliphaz and Bildad’s judgment of Job and rebukes him for trying to understand God’s dealings with him. And yet, as Rob reminded us yesterday, each of Job’s friends interpreted God’s work in Job’s life wrong. Zophar’s authority was his own intuition, or common sense. The situation (and everything) was black and white to him. If it seemed right to him, it was right. He was not interested in searching out the mysteries of what God was doing. Thus, by leaning on his own intuition, he made himself his ultimate authority!

How easy it is to assess a situation like Zophar. Chances are we do it all the time. We rely on our own “common sense” to judge, rather than waiting on God to explain it to us. In so doing, we risk missing the point entirely and making ourselves irrelevant and irreverent. Isn’t it “common sense” to seek God’s answer first?