Today’s Reading: Job 25-31
Not sure if I sense rightly the frustration of Job or how big it was (also in the other friends too!), feeling that they have not been understood. This is something I crave when I feel too, when I have been misunderstood, and for me important even more when the person is a friend in whom I have trusted! So Job forges ahead and talks about how great God is in creation. This is something that God Himself appeals to when dealing with people who have no faith. It is something indisputable and proof that is easily seen, seeing we are surrounded by it on every side! How beautiful and what a proof of His love and greatness when you can see beautiful nature where Man has not interfered with it and spoiled it!
I am thinking that integrity is important to Job – “I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity…” But on the other hand, maybe Job and his friends need to remember, and I know I need to remember – I don’t have all the pieces of God’s big puzzle. But I’m glad that I have a loving Father Who knows all, and He knows what I need to know! Job even accuses God of “denying him justice”! At those times of life, I feel the need to lean quietly against Him (like John) and allow He Himself to comfort me!
Job talks of wisdom (isn’t that what Job and his friends were arguing about?) and how hard it is to find! But he comes to the conclusion that God says, “The fear (loving respect for) of the Lord – THAT IS WISDOM, and to shun evil is understanding!” But I also remember the invitation of God in James, “If any man lack wisdom, let Him ask of God, Who gives to every man generously and without reproach, and IT WILL BE GIVEN TO HIM!” (And the verses are talking about when my faith is being tested – Job’s faith certainly was being tested!
And then Job reverts to good memories, but from the sadness that everything has been stripped away! Ever been there? And then from there to enumerating his own righteousness, goodness and how he had not turned to evil! But what seems to cut deepest, is his sense of not being heard or understood (?) by God and so he ends by challenging God to answer Him and he promises to ‘give him an account of his every step.’ I know I certainly won’t like to try that! But I do know of Job’s great sadness at the feeling of separation from God, His loving Father!
Is there hopelessness in Job’s words, “The words of Job are ended!” I pray in humility (hopefully) that my words will never be ended to God, my loving Father for I know that my often misdirected thinking needs to be redirected by His loving gentle honest wisdom! He is never offended by my misdirected, honest but sometimes rather crude thoughts, for His gentle heart knows the longing of my heart as I reach out for Him in tears into the darkness of life that sometimes surrounds me!
May you and I walk in the confidence of faith today, knowing that we can NEVER be separated from Him – not death, and NOT LIFE either, can ever separate us from the One Who loves us with a passion which is far greater than ours (certainly mine!). So it seems to me, when in darkness, I need to even more, CLING to Him, like the little child I am!