Good morning!
Text: Job 4-6; Psalm 119:161-176
I wrote earlier that some consider Job the most intellectually challenging book in the Bible. As we get into Job, let the games begin! After the opening two chapters where we see God and Satan and Job’s great losses, we then hear Job lament and his friends respond. They will wrestle with the great and deep questions of God and man. Why are we suffering? Who is to blame? Was it our own sin or the sin of others? Where is God? Is He good? A vital tip to the reader is that many of the lines of reasoning in Job are just examples of how foolish the thoughts and hearts of men are before God. There are profound truths, but also subtle lies. Read with care, and pray, and wait until the end of Job to draw any broad conclusions.
In today’s reading, Eliphaz asks a potent, rhetorical question;
“Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?” (Job 4:17)
Eliphaz’s answer would probably be “no.” But we know better. Because of His great love, God who is rich in mercy, “made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4), having chosen us to “be holy and blameless before Him.” (Eph 1:4). The point is that, as we read Job,we should set it against the backdrop of Jesus and the rest of Scripture. Then, the precious gems of truth will be easier to pick out. Here is one such gem, also from Eliphaz:
“As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause.” (Job 5:8)
in Him, Mike