Days 24&25: Job 22-28

I had a little time this beautiful Saturday morning so I decided to double up on the assigned reading for today.

Here are a few of the highlights for me today...

Eliphaz says something in the opening verses that rang true to me. In 28:2 he says:

Can a man be of benefit to God?
   Can even a wise person benefit him?

At some point, I suppose, we all need to come to this understanding. It's very humbling, at first, to realize that God is God and I am not...that because He is God He has no need of anything from me. Hm...I started to draw a comparison between God's relationship with me as a created being and my relationship to something I may have made or created. I was going to point out how God doesn't really need me any more than I need the thing I made...whatever it might be. I decided that comparison wasn't going to work because the reality is I DO need the things that I make or create...whether it's a musical arrangement, a home remodeling project, or a piece of writing. I need it, not just for it's practical use but also because I need to create. We all do. I believe that's part of being made in God's image. This could be an insight into how and why God cares so deeply about His creation...about me. I want to think about this some more. In the mean time I believe it's healthy for me to remember that I owe my very existence to Him, not the other way around.

 

Bildad means this as an argument against Job but he makes a valid point in 25:4 when he says::

How then can a mortal be righteous before God?
   How can one born of woman be pure?

Our inability to be righteous on our own is a recurring theme throughout scripture. Isaiah points it out in Isaiah 64:6 when he says "our righteous acts are like filthy rags." Paul continues the theme in Romans 3:23 when he says, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

 

I love Job's sarcastic streak. It becomes evident again in 26:2-4 when he responds to Bildad:

How you have helped the powerless!
   How you have saved the arm that is feeble!
What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!
   And what great insight you have displayed!
Who has helped you utter these words?
   And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?

The final verses of today's reading really struck me. Chapter 28 is labeled in the NIV as an interlude. This is not Job or any of his friends speaking, it's the narrator or author. It's as if he's stopping to the narrative to make sure we get the point. This is what he writes in 28:20-28:

Where then does wisdom come from?
   Where does understanding dwell?
It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,
   concealed even from the birds in the sky.
Destruction and Death say,
   “Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”
God understands the way to it
   and he alone knows where it dwells,
for he views the ends of the earth
   and sees everything under the heavens.
When he established the force of the wind
   and measured out the waters,
when he made a decree for the rain
   and a path for the thunderstorm,
then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
   he confirmed it and tested it.
And he said to the human race,
   “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
   and to shun evil is understanding.”

God gave mankind the ability to think and reason. It's truly awesome when you really think about it...when you think about our ability to think. What other part of creation can do that? It gets us into trouble, though, because we start thinking that if it doesn't make sense to us then it must be wrong. I believe we think too highly of our ability to think. This is not to say that we shouldn't apply our reasoning ability. I'm not advocating an anti-reason approach to faith. What I'm suggesting is that we recognize the source of that ability. And if God is indeed the source then perhaps ours is somewhat limited in comparison.

"Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell? ... God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells."