Beloved, I am pleased to share with you today the above theme from Job 13:1 and following. Indeed, if God does not deliver him, it’s proof that he has earned his wrath. (In short, this is how Job’s friends reason about him.) “We have judged him punished, struck by God and humiliated” – the repentant Jewish people will say when they return to Jesus their Savior (Isaiah 53:4-5). Yes, Christ, precisely because he was the righteous perfect, knew and felt more than anyone, the bitterness of unjust accusations. But his trust in his God and his complete submission were not shaken (Ps. 56:6-12).
For many people have the same image of God as Job: an all-powerful Being who acts arbitrarily, without accountability to anyone and whose ways are incomprehensible. Man is entirely at his mercy, like a leaf driven away by the wind (Jb 13. 25), and all he can do is seek shelter from his blows as best as possible. This “fatalism” is found in most Eastern religions. It is true that God is almighty and acts sovereignly. It is also true that man is weak and dependent, that he comes out “like a flower, and he is broke” (Jb 14. 2; 1 P 1.22-25). But it is not true that God plays man by dominating him for his pleasure (v. 20). On the contrary, he cares for his creature and does not break “the damaged reed” (Isaiah 42:1-4 quoted in Mat 12:16-21). “Who will draw a pure man out of the unclean?” asks Job (v. 4). Later he cries out: “My transgression is sealed in a bag…” (v. 17). He is not aware of the fullness of grace, as is always the case when one is concerned with one’s own righteousness. Does each of us know the One who perfectly purifies the filthy sinner and threw into the depths of the sea the heavy “sack” containing all his sins? (Micah 7:18-20).
Nations are being raised and destroyed; the leaders of the people are made to fear as children. Trusted leaders wander in a desert; they grope in the darkness of midnight; they stagger like drunkards. Behold, said Job, all this, I have seen. This is God’s work. And with this great God he would speak; he, a man, would have problems with the Lord of all. This impetuous passage, full of revolution, disaster, vast mutations, a mirage of human struggle and defeat, while it provides a note of time and gives a distinct clue to the writer’s position as an Israelite, is remarkable for the faith that survives his apparent pessimism. Others traveled the world and the history of change, and protested with their last voice against the cruelty that seemed to reign.
The word of rebuke and correction, the call to providence must go directly to man’s reason, otherwise it serves no purpose. The word of the Lord is a two-edged sword of truth, piercing to the division of soul and spirit. That is, in the center of energy must be pushed the truth that kills the spirit of rebellion, so that the will of man, liberated, can enter into conscious and passionate agreement with the will of God. But reconciliation is impossible unless everyone treats the truth with the utmost sincerity, realizing the facts of existence, the nature of the soul and the great necessities of its discipline. Job puts them down with a common proverb: “Even a fool, when he is silent, is considered wise. He begs them to be silent. They will now hear his rebuke: “In the name of God, will you speak badly? And for him will you talk about deception? Will you be supporters of him? Or will you fight for God? Job finds them guilty of false speech as special litigants for God in two ways. They insist that he has offended God, but they cannot point the finger at a single sin he has committed. On the other hand, they positively affirm that God will restore prosperity if confession is made. But in this too, they play the role of lawyers without a mandate. They show great presumption by daring to engage the Almighty in a path consistent with their idea of justice.
The problem could be what they predict; that may not be the case. They venture into terrain where their knowledge does not extend. They think their presumption is justified because it is for the sake of religion. Job administers a strong rebuke, and it extends to our own day. Special litigants for God’s sovereign and unconditional right and for his unlimited goodness, also have a warning here. What justification do men have for saying that God will solve His problems in detail according to their views? He has given us the power to grasp the main principles of his action. He revealed much in nature, providence, the Scriptures, and in Christ; but there is the “cache of his power”, “if one trails is in the mighty waters, and his judgments are not known”. Christ said, “It is not for you to know the times and seasons that the Father has set under his own authority. There are certainties of our consciousness, facts of the world and revelation from which we can argue.
Where these are confirmed, dogma will strike at home. But no piety, no desire to justify the Almighty or to convince and convert the sinner, can justify a man by going beyond the certainty that God has given him to that stranger who is far above human knowledge: “He will surely correct you if in secret you are partial. Won’t his majesty terrify you, And his terror invades you?” The Book of Job, although it marks insincerity and cowardly reasoning, justifies all honest and respectful research. Here, as in the teaching of our Lord, the true heretic is the one who is false to his reason and conscience, to the truth of things as God gives him to apprehend it, which in short, makes us believe to a certain extent in the realm of religion. And it is on this man that the terror of divine majesty will fall. We have seen how Bildad based himself on the wisdom of the ancients.
Recalling this, Job casts contempt on his traditional words. “Your memories are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses, defenses of dust.” Did they want to hit him with these proverbs like with stones? They were ashes. Have they entrenched themselves from the assaults of reason behind old assumptions? Their ramparts were nothing but dust. Once again, he asks them to shut up and leave him alone so he can say everything he has in his mind. It is, he knows that at the risk of his life he advances; but it will. The case in which he finds himself can only have recourse by a call to God, and this final call he will do. Now the true beginning of this call is in the twenty-third verse (Jb 13:23), with the words, “How many are my iniquities and sins”? But before Job succeeds, he expresses his sense of the danger and difficulty in which he finds himself, mixing with the statement of these a wonderful confidence in the outcome of what he is about to do.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
He wants a confrontation with God:
- Spiritual Intelligence, general references
Dt 4:6 You will observe them and put them into practice; for this will be your wisdom and intelligence in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear of all these laws and who will say: This great nation is an absolutely wise and intelligent people! Ps 119:104 By your ordinances I become intelligent, So I hate every way of lying. Pr 14:29 He who is slow to anger has a great intelligence, but he who is quick to get carried away proclaims his folly. 2 Tim 2:7 Understand what I am saying, for the Lord will give you intelligence in all things.
- Falsehood, examples
Gen 3:4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “Thou shalt not die; Jos 2:4 The woman took the two men, and hid them; and she said: It is true that these men came to my house, but I did not know where they were from; Mt 28:13 saying: Say: His disciples came at night to steal him, while we slept. Acts 5:8 Peter spoke to him: Tell me, is it at such a price that you have sold the field? Yes, she replied, it is at that price.
- Majesty of God
Jb 37:22 The north makes it radiant like gold. Oh! how formidable the majesty of God is! Ps 93:1 The Lord reigns, he is clothed with majesty, the Lord is clothed, he is surrounded by force. Also the world is firm, it does not falter. Ps 96:6 Splendor and magnificence are before his face, Glory and majesty are in his sanctuary. Isaiah 57:15 For thus speaks the Most High, Whose abode is eternal and whose name is holy: I dwell in high places and in holiness; But I am with the contrite and humiliated man, In order to revive the humiliated minds, In order to revive the contrite hearts.
- Fragility of man, general references
1 Sam 20:3 David said again, swearing: Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he will have said, Let Jonathan not know; it would hurt him. But Jehovah is alive and your soul is alive! there is only one step between me and death. Ps 103:14 For He knows what we are formed of, He remembers that we are dust. Isa 2:22 Stop entrusting yourselves in man, in whose nostrils there is only one breath: For what value is he? 1 Pet 1:24 For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass dries, and the flower falls;
From all of the above, we note that it is through nature and human consciousness that the religious beliefs of the poem seem to have taken shape. Yet, two facts are to be fully borne in mind. The first is that even a natural religion should not be assumed to be an invention of man, with no origin other than his dreams. We must not declare that all religious ideas apart from those of Israel are mere fictions of human fantasy or happy conjectures of truth. Theman’s religion may have owed some of his great thoughts to Israel. But, apart from that, a basis for divine revelation is always laid wherever men think and live. In every country, man’s heart has borne witness to God. Reverent thought, based on justice, truth, mercy and all the virtues found in the range of experience and conscience, has come through them to the idea of God. Whoever made an induction on the Great Invisible Being, his mind open to the facts of nature and his own moral constitution, was in a sense a prophet. As far as they have gone, the reality and value of religious ideas, thus attained, are recognized by the authors of the Bible themselves. Second, it must be borne in mind that Job does not appear as a self-built thinker, dependent on his own religious experience. Centuries and centuries of thought are at the origin of these beliefs that are attributed to him, even ideas that seem to arise again as a result of an original discovery. Imagine a man thinking for himself of divine things in this distant Arab past. His father taught him: There is a faith that comes from several generations. He found words in use that contain in them religious ideas, discoveries, perceptions of the divine reality, grasped and fixed for centuries. When he learned language, the products of evolution, not only psychic, but intellectual and spiritual, became his own. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom as I walk in your ways.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow ” Job asks God to shorten his suffering”.(Jb 14)
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.