To My Girls,
Picking up at the end of Chapter 10, verse 15...Job is full of confusion. God, he says, you see my plight and my affliction. I am terrified. You hunt me down like a lion and then show your power by crushing me with your weight. God! Don't You see my great affliction and misery. Don't you care, God!?? No matter what I do..whether I am righteous or whether I am wicked...I am still in misery. Job then pleads with God to leave him alone and give him some rest so that he might find some comfort before he dies.
Listen to Zophar at the beginning of Chapter 11!! What a miserable comforter this guy is! Job know that God is exacting from you less than your iniquity deserves.
Now of course there is some truth there...the bible does say that the wages of sin is death but Zophar is not listening to Job's heart here. One of my pastors has wisely said that when someone criticizes you or speaks to you unkindly, the best way to handle it is to look for the truth in what they say and throw the rest out. This is very good advice. Oh that we would listen more and close our mouths even more! That we would pray for mercy both for ourselves and for others. I love what Chuck Smith says about this verse:
"I think only a fool would come to God and say Lord, give me what I deserve." Chuck is so right...when I come before the Lord I pray mercy...mercy and more mercy, please!
Now before Zophar had the arrogance to tell suffering Job that God was exacting less from him than what he really deserved, he reminds Job of what he (JOB) had said:
For you have said, 'My doctrine is pure, And I am clean in your eyes.' But oh, that God would speak, And open His lips against you,
Aaah..but God himself had already spoken his thoughts about Job in chapter 1.
Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?"
Now neither Job nor Zophar were privy to this...but we, as the reader, know what God thinks of Job...and yet we find him suffering and smitten by God.
Chapter 12 finds Job answering and responding to his three "comforters". Now verse 2 of chapter 12 is my favorite verse in the book of Job with a verse in chapter 13 running a very close second. Here is what Job 12:2 says:
No doubt you are the people, And wisdom will die with you!
Ha...when you die wisdom will too! Can you hear the sarcasm in his voice. This is one of the reasons I love Job. He is godly and sarcastic! A winning combination! I have wisdom too, Job says. In fact what you guys are saying about God's justice and sovereignty are common knowledge. In addition, Job has gone through what they have not. He is going to shine a lamp on their ease and make them uncomfortable.
Look around men...the wicked do seem to prosper. Asks the beasts...even they get it! The strongest wins. And what's more, Job goes on to say, God controls it all. (vs 12-25).
Chapter 13 finds Job very very tired of his earthly companions and desiring to speak to His God and reason with Him. In fact Job tells his earthly counselors that the wisest thing they could do would be to shut their mouths. My second favorite verse in Job is below.
"Behold, my eye has seen all this, My ear has heard and understood it. What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. But I would speak to the Almighty, And I desire to reason with God. But you forgers of lies, You are all worthless physicians. Oh, that you would be silent, And it would be your wisdom! --Job 13:1-5
Oh, that you would be silent, and it would be your wisdom. Don't you love that line! God tells us in Isaiah to come, let us reason together. And in James He tells us that if we lack wisdom to ask. Take counsel from God...spend time with Him in a trial..wait on Him. That is where your true help will come from.
Job goes on to say that in their attempt to defend God they are actually offending Him and talking deceitfully.
Their explanations of God's actions were not true. He then asks them if they are prepared to have God search their own hearts? Job tells them that even though he does not understand what he is going through or why he is going through it, he is going to trust him. Here is the famous line from the book of Job.
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
I love that...Job is going to trust God no matter what He is doing and no matter what the outcome. Job's body here is a mass of open sores, his family has been taken from him and his wife has told him to curse God and die. AND YET...Job cries out in faith. What an encouragement!!! Okay...not so good that Job still wants to defend his ways before God and wants God to tell him the reason he is suffering...not exactly trusting God but still...
Job asks God for two things in verses 20 and 21...that He would not withdraw His hand from Him and that the dread of Him would not make him afraid. He is basically saying like Peter said...Lord to whom would I go...you have the words to eternal life. For me thinking about being without the Lord and His word is like falling into a very dark endless hole from which I would never emerge. Truly, the thought is terrifying. Verse 22 and 23 find him asking God once again to make him to know his transgression and his sin. What did I do Lord to merit this kind of misery?? Tell me!
Job wants to move on with his life but can't because God has his feet in the stocks...He is being held prisoner by his punishment and eaten away daily with despair.
Thus ends my notes on 10-13...
Love
Mom
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