The Devotional - 46

The Devotional

Comment:

When it comes to the people in our life we should be aware that we never know the full story. They reveal to us what their heart is willing to reveal and even they do not always realize the spiritual world around them. Nor do we while looking over the information at hand make comments that are separated from judging when the facts are missing. I remember once a girl I was dating before entering the Navy, she explained to me one day that we could not go on a date that we had planned. Her father had made arrangements for the family to eat at home. Later that day I drove by her home and saw her pitching horseshoes with a boy about our age. I became furious, stopped the car and went to have a word with her. Her father told me to leave and never come back, the girl agreed. He had made arrangements with a local orphanage to bring one of the people to his home for a meal. You can guess who that was, but all guesses are wrong if you think it was someone else besides the boy throwing horseshoes.

Challenge: Job 33

The Book of Job should be one of the books of the Old Testament for people who give counsel to study, even memorize. Also if we fail to understand the spiritual condition of the people who need counsel we will never get to the root of, why to counsel. Job was the first to break the seven day fast of silence in chapter 3, but his opening words certainly confirmed some of the thoughts in the minds of his friends. There is talk of God and life in Job’s day, but there is no hint that Job and friends understood the spiritual war raging over his personal life. By the way; the talk and life of people regarding the things of God and living has not changed even today.

Back to our current chapter 33, I did mention earlier in the devotionals that all four men give seemingly bad counsel to Job, but I do believe that Elihu gives Job good spiritual thoughts. Elihu however believes too that Job has sinned and brought all of the evil on himself resulting in God’s discipline. We are all easily conditioned to blame God for all of our problems and while God’s permissive will is a factor, God is not responsible for the devilish attacks experienced by Job in the early chapters, nor is God responsible for the human viewpoints of people who lack spiritual integrity.

I feel at this point that Elihu is capable of good spiritual integrity, but I also believe he is all fired up emotionally and he is allowing his emotion to carry him along in his discourse at the present time with Job. Elihu is younger than the others and to this point he has sought to learn from his elders over this issue of Job and his suffering. Instead he has only heard things that anger him. One thing he says in Chapter 32:7 speaks to me, he says; “I thought, age should speak, advance years should teach wisdom. But it is the spirit of man and the breath of the Almighty that gives understanding.

This is true, if God is not speaking to our human spirit, whatever pours out of our mouth is nothing more than human good. 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 speaks clearly about this. Also I like what Elihu says regarding the fact that he gave full attention to Job’s friends as they spoke and concludes that not one of them were able to answer or refute Job’s argument, so he says I will not use any of your counsel toward Job in my discourse. This too is important, do not rely on bad counsel as a platform to launch a spiritual struggle or victory.

The anxiety in Elihu’s mind is evident, he says that he is moved by his own spirit to speak so he has in my thinking the ability to shift from a godly viewpoint to human viewpoint easily. This too is something we do too and if we are to give good counsel we must stay in the Spirit. He claims that his words are like bottled up wine in new wineskins ready to burst, I think we have all been in that bottle of wine a time or two.

I especially see this on a Sunday morning after church. People standing around the pulpit with the pastor, waiting for an opportunity to spill out a thought or two. Some of those wineskins come to those pulpit meetings leaking, while others are hoping to stay leak free until the right moment and there are those who wait for a while then turn away for another day. Many of us speak to find relief, but end up going to the car or home to consume an antacid. Elihu has a strong point. He is not skilled in flattery and if he were seeking to flatter, God would remove him from the spotlight, just as I was from the backyard of my friend’s home, since I had no business being there.