The Devotional
Comment:
Coming home from school one day I heard odd noise of a
moving car behind me, I turned around to take a look. In those days most cars
were black so it has no bearing on the matter at hand. It was one of those long
Buicks, these always reminded me of a large roach on wheels. Anyway it was
swerving to and fro and finally the driver lost complete control and the car
wedged itself between two telephone poles that were close together and it came
to a stop. I ran up to the car and inside were two women, they were laughing
hysterically and they sounded drunk. Some others at the accident, an older man
and his wife thought the women were drunk. They had no words of comfort, in
fact they were quite mean to the women. Also there were two children in the
backseat who were crying. The children seemed okay and they were not injured. Finally
the police arrived and as it turned out the cars braking system failed, the
women were not drunk and when their emotions calmed. The driver looked at the
man who had accused her of being drunk said, “Thank you for your kind words of
counsel and comfort”! “I think he melted into a peep frog at that point”.
Challenge:
Job 1 through 17
There is little doubt in my mind that we have ever met a man
or woman like Job and if we have we have no doubt judged him or her wrongly. One
of the several things that struck me in reading through to the beginning of
chapter 18 is something the Eliphaz says 15:27. “Though his face is covered
with fat and his waist bulges with flesh” Man looks on the outward appearance
of another to judge the inner workings that only God sees.
I like Job’s response to Eliphaz, but it is true throughout
the book so far that Job, just as you or I would seek to identify God as the
cause of all of his suffering. Yet and we must see this characteristic in Job
that he remains steadfast in his integrity and faith, both before God and his
friends. As he says in 16:17 “yet my hands have been free of violence and my
prayer is pure.
Job reveals the suffering going on in his heart and
discomfort going on in his physical body beginning in 17:1 – His spirit for
living has in his mind been broken, the grave has opened its door for his
entry, yet the people around him mock and Job’s eyes and ears must see and hear
them. I like what Job says in verse 10, “but come on, try again men” in other
words “bring it on!” maybe the next round of comfort will work for you”! Yet I perceive
that there is not a wise man among you.
When we are called to counsel, we must consider the whole
counsel of God. Otherwise we will be shamed by the very problem in this book
which as I see it is there is much misapplied knowledge of God and little faith
to move mountains.
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