The Devotional - 47

The Devotional

Comment:

God is all around us, Psalm 19:1 declares this truth with these words. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the skies proclaim the work of His Hands”. (NIV) Looking out the window of my office I see this morning that the clouds are moving very quickly. My eyes observed a very small cloud, it looked to be only a few feet in front of a larger cloud that seemed to be chasing the little one. My thoughts were “another rebellious child seeking to separate from a concerned parent” or, just watching the Majesty of God as nature displays His Glory. I sense that these attributes of Creation are a comfort to the suffering who need to know comfort and a joy to those who need to experience joy! What we see from believing in God through His Word and Works; is that God is able to meet our needs of the day by showing us His Glory moment by moment.

Challenge: Job 34

I am not sure that we can discern the ages of these men in the Book of Job, we know that Job’s children were adults, yet we do not know if Job had grandchildren, so was he between forty or fifty years of age or older! For the events in Job’s life age is not a concern, and Elihu acknowledges that he is the youngest of them all. He also uses a bit of sarcasm about the wisdom of his listeners – Job 34:2-4. We are no different today when it comes to positioning our conversations with others.

Elihu presents his argument by listing to the self-implied righteousness of Job. Let’s see now: Job says “I am innocent, I am right, although I am guiltless, yet I am considered a lair” these declarations and more like these were made by Job in every discourse of Job up to this point in the book. Job also concludes as these men do too, that God is the cause of Job’s suffering and illness. The difference, or the opposing views is that Job has sinned, but Job’s view boldly holds on to his integrity and says, no – no; I have not sinned.

The tests, trials or temptations going on between these five men are under the OBSERVATION of God, soon all of this chatter will cease and God will speak to Job out of a whirlwind (tornado/storm). I am so excited to get to God’s discourse. We’ve a ways to go since we are still trudging through the quicksand of religious ideas of then and now. Each time I read the separate discourses of Job’s friends and Job himself I am reminded of how we today have not changed or even understood the Majesty of Almighty God.

Job 34 is again full of some very good religious attacks on Job’s character and integrity, while the words of Elihu sound pure and right his words are as the others; religious content mixed with human good. “Why Job, it is unthinkable that God would do wrong! Yet, Job, you say that God has deserted you and done you wrong.” This same world view in Job’s day is very current in our day. Religion has no understanding of God, yet religion is approved by man, while God is rejected. Religion says “Job you are a rebellious sinner, you clap your hands and multiply your words against God, you sinner you”!

Elihu has much more to say, just as it is in our day, religion has much to do with condemning the righteous while it practices human good. And the closer we get to the return of the LORD Jesus the more suffering we can expect from the ever expanding evil of the human mind as it seeks to remove God from human life to set up their own system of good works. The world has forgotten that all sin was judged at the cross by the death of Jesus and should read and believe in the judgment of works in revelation 20:11-15.