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The God Who is Approachable [Job 9]
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Job 9
1Then Job answered,
2"In truth I know that this is so;
But how can a man be in the right before God?
3"If one wished to dispute with Him,
He could not answer Him once in a thousand times.
20"Though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me;
Though I am guiltless, He will declare me guilty.
21"I am guiltless;
I do not take notice of myself;
I despise my life.
22"It is all one; therefore I say,
'He destroys the guiltless and the wicked.'
23"If the scourge kills suddenly,
He mocks the despair of the innocent.
24"The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
He covers the faces of its judges.
If it is not He, then who is it?
32"For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him,
That we may go to court together.
33"There is no umpire between us,
Who may lay his hand upon us both.
34"Let Him remove His rod from me,
And let not dread of Him terrify me.
35"Then I would speak and not fear Him;
But I am not like that in myself.
Job was quite a man. Even though he was surrounded by condemning friends, Job began to take his eyes off his pain and began to ponder God, asking himself questions and recounting what he knew about the Sovereign Creator. Some of what he said was really good, too. Unfortunately, as he answered his own questions about God, he also came to some inaccurate conclusions in verses 20-24 by trying to figure out who God was on his own through his particular situation. Instead of asking himself about the character of God, he could have asked God to reveal Himself to him. However, if his friends had been doing a good job of comforting and encouraging him, they would have prayed with him for answers and helped him to connect with God in his pain. God designed us to get through these things together and we need to be surrounded with people who will take us to God when we are suffering. We are not supposed to figure it all out on our own. And I commend Job for doing pretty well in chapter 9 in spite of the lousy company!
I love verses 32-35 as the way to end this chapter because Job concluded that he could use an umpire between him and God to work all this suffering stuff out properly. What he really was recognizing was his need for Jesus even though there was no way for him to put a name on his umpire at that point in history.
Thank You ,God, that you can be seen in creation and that is one way we can know You. I praise You for providing godly people who can point us to talk to the true God and that we have the Bible to guide us now. And most of all, we praise You for our umpire, Jesus Christ, the best umpire ever. |
Beth Warlick, 3/10/2010 |
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| | Verna McCrillis | 03/11/2010 07:16 | | Job understood how awesome God is. He got that He was the Creator and that He alone was keeping His creation intact. He acknowledged that He “does great things, unfathomable, and wondrous works without number.” He had awe and respect for God’s majesty.
What Job didn’t believe was that God is a personal God. "How then can I answer Him, and choose my words before Him? For though I were right, I could not answer; I would have to implore the mercy of my judge. If I called and He answered me, I could not believe that He was listening to my voice.” Now we are getting down to the core of his unbelief. He was interpreting God’s character according to his own feelings and circumstances. Later we will see God blow this unbelief out of the water and Job will be a changed man.
Job had the same problem I have. Keeping both truths together - God’s supreme majesty and His intentional intimacy with me. His fear was that if believed that God would listen to him then that would make God not elevated enough. "For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, that we may go to court together. There is no umpire between us, who may lay his hand upon us both. Let Him remove His rod from me, and let not dread of Him terrify me. Then I would speak and not fear Him; but I am not like that in myself.” Like me, Job was afraid that he would not fear and respect God enough if He were personally involved enough to have a two way conversation, asking each other probing questions.
Father, our finite minds cannot comprehend fully how both of these truths can be true at the same time, but they are. You are a God who is lofty, powerful, doing “great things, unfathomable, and wondrous works without number.” You are also a God who loves us intimately and desires relationship. You do answer our questions when we call out to You. We praise You that You are both sovereign and near.
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