Read Job
12-14 & Acts
8:26-40
To discover:
As you read consider how you would
describe Job’s feelings.
To ponder:
Job responds rather sarcastically,
affirming he has knowledge, and his friends are not saying anything not known
to everyone (12v1-3). Although righteous and one who has experienced God’s
acceptance of him in answering his prayers, Job is struggling in having become
a laughing stock to his friends. Again he notes how the wicked enjoy peace,
stating that all creation knows this is God’s doing as he holds the life of every
creature in his hands (12v5-12). Yet Job still holds that God is wise in what
he does, whilst detailing how he displays his power in what is dark and
difficult (12v13-25). So Job knows God cannot be opposed just as his friends
do. But he considers them worthless doctors and liars who would have actually
shown wisdom in being silent. Indeed, he suggests they are speaking for God
deceitfully, perhaps referring to their view that he prospers the righteous and
brings hardship on the wicked (the view Job has just countered). He also says
they show God favouritism by jumping to his defence, rather than being
impartial in considering Job’s case. Therefore, Job thinks God would actually
rebuke them if he were to examine them (13v7-12). It’s a reminder that it doesn’t
necessarily please God for us to jump to defending him, without properly
considering the struggles people have with his ways.
Job
then restates that he is prepared to risk his life in defending himself to God,
yet at the same time saying that even if he were killed, he would hope in him.
This is striking. At the same time Job can fear God’s holiness, whilst hoping
in his justice and mercy. He is therefore confident, that even if slain, he
will be delivered because of his godliness. This is not to suggest he considers
himself worthy of deliverance. Rather, he is confident that because he loves
God, God will act for him. He therefore states that he knows he will be
vindicated, and calls people to bring any charges against him. Job has moved
through his struggle to a point of faith. He trusts that his unfathomable,
mighty, and terrifying God, who does just as he pleases, and who is inflicting
him with such horrors, is still actually for him. Through the clarity of the
gospel, we are called to this same place of faith amidst the mystery of our
suffering. We know that “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus” because his righteousness has been counted as our own (Rom 8v1). So in
God’s eyes we are innocent. We can therefore be confident that he is for us,
despite our hardships (Rom 8v31-39).
Job is not
however quite this clear. He prays God would “withdraw his hand,” but also that
he should respond to him by showing him what offence he has committed. So Job
still assumes that although he is blameless, his sufferings must be for some
sin somewhere. And so, as he wonders why God is considering him an enemy and
chasing down and tormenting one so insignificant, he assumes it must be as
punishment for some sin in his youth (13v24-27). So often when Christians
suffer, they also assume it is punishment for something in their past or even
in their family’s. This is to make the same mistake. Again, “there is no
condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”
Now
Job again affirms the transient nature of human life, but also its fixity. He
recognises that God determines everything, even his degree of purity, and so
questions God judging people before their time is actually over. He then
reflects that unlike natural life which renews, human life seems to just cease
with no rising after death (14v7-12). This reflects the undeveloped
understanding of the afterlife in Job’s day. But in what follows, he sees more.
He longs to be hidden in the grave, and then remembered after God’s anger has
passed. He therefore seems to trust that despite what was assumed in his day,
God will call him from the grave, longing for him as one God had made, and that
his sin would then be covered over (14v13-17). This is an astonishing
affirmation of the hope of the gospel. And in dire and lasting suffering, it
alone is the hope we can have.
However,
Job returns to the fact that, but for the eyes of faith, what seems to be the
case, is that God erodes hope in this life, as people die and so never know how
their sons fare (14v18-22). How futile life is without Christ.
Praying it home:
Praise God for how the certainty of
resurrection gives hope within suffering. Pray that those who suffer would hold
onto the gospel, and so know their hardships are not punishment, and that they
will end with resurrection.
Thinking
further:
None today.
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