Our lack of Understanding

 

Job 27

 

 

The first six verses of Job 27 are directed to his three friends, and it is the last time he addresses these things to them.  “And Job continued his discourse:  “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life bitter, as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,  my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies.  I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity.  I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.”

 

One has to wonder; what if God had let him in on what was taking place in heaven, would Job be like my friend who lost his farm to the bank, and was very angry?  When I ask him, who are you mad at, is it not God, at that moment I had moved over a line and yet though his face was red and I knew he wanted to hit me, I went on and stated we both knew God could have interfered and not allowed it to happen.  He seemed to relax and said, I need to give more thought to who I am mad at.  My friend and I talked about that he was never that excited about farming, but he was now doing the one thing he enjoyed and was making money doing so.  Job never beat around the bush he knew that God took his protection off of him, yet he was a man who was upright before God and man.

 

My second thought on this was if God had let Job in on what was taking place in heaven, would he still blame God for allowing it?  Would it be something any of his three friends would have believed?

 

In verses 8 - 10 Job is telling his friends to get real; they had observed the wicked and knew that they did not look to God in good times or bad.  They will never look to God and so God will not hear their cries when disaster comes on them. “For what hope have the godless when they are cut off when God takes away their life?   Does God listen to their cry when distress comes upon them?   Will they find delight in the Almighty?  Will they call on God at all times?”

 

Let us close with verses 11 – 12, “I will teach you about the power of God;  the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.  You have all seen this yourself.  Why then is this meaningless talk?  I wonder if I’ve been too hard on Job’s friends in that being men is part of the DNA in playing mister fix it.  I still believe they had the religion that only bad things happen to the wicked, and so Job had to be evil.

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice