The Devotional - 34

The Devotional

Comment:

If you have ever tried to reach for something that was just out of reach, then you know some of the thought process of Job’s pain and suffering. We see in the discourse of Job’s friends a mixture of true and false comments. God is all of what these men say about Him, but like Job’s comments too, these thoughts they have of God do not extend beyond what man can observe from his earthly position. I found a comment in the NIV Study Bible based on Job’s comment in chapter 9:4 that a gospel musical titled “Are your arms too short to Box with God” and I thought as I listened to the opening song; “yes physically our arms are limited, Job understood too that he needed an arbitrator. Notice if you will 1 Timothy 2:5.

Challenge: Job 8:1 – 10:22

If you fail to take and invest the time in this brief look into Job then I would say your understanding of God would be much like Job’s three friends. Many of us would see nothing wrong with that, it is not that these men do not have godly wisdom, they most certainly do. To be Job’s friends it would be true to assume that what they understood about God was at some point before Job’s suffering agreed upon by these men as theology of their day.

Bildad may seem a bit harsh with his words to Job, but I like what he says in 8:8-10. He says “Ask the former generations”, remember that these men were still alive since the longevity of life had not yet been shortened to 70 or 80 years as it is today (Psalm 90:10). And while there is talk of papyrus, it is not referred to as used for writing at this time, but as a witness that even plants when uprooted are no longer remembered by the soil from where it once thrived.

Yes, we have very much to learn from Job and his friends, we should also note the wisdom of the man Job. In Job 9 he says that God moves mountains without the mountain knowing it, wow! Please don’t think that this statement is lacking wisdom, Creation knows God even better than we do, Psalm 98:7-9 and Isaiah 55:12. 

Our way of life in this nation has changed, we are no longer a nation with a face pointed to God. Our backside to Him will soon be blistered with judgment. While we have rejected His Mercy, His Precepts, His Statutes, His Commands and His Promises the only thing left in His arsenal to correct our ways is His Judgment. This is what I see and I do not mean this to alarm anyone, but I do challenge us to repent. All of Psalm 119 will direct us to do so as an individual and as a nation. Our arms are too short to box with God!