1Then the Lord said to Job, 2“Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” 3Then Job replied to the Lord, 4“I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand. 5I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.” The Lord Challenges Job Again 6Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind: 7“Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. 8“Will you discredit my justice and condemn me just to prove you are right? 9Are you as strong as God? Can you thunder with a voice like his? 10All right, put on your glory and splendor, your honor and majesty. 11Give vent to your anger. Let it overflow against the proud. 12Humiliate the proud with a glance; walk on the wicked where they stand. 13Bury them in the dust. Imprison them in the world of the dead. 14Then even I would praise you, for your own strength would save you. (Job 40:1-14 NLT) Then… Chapter 42, verses 1 through 6, 1Then Job replied to the Lord: 2“I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you.3You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me. 4You said, ‘Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’ 5I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. 6I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”
I was in this position recently and I have decided to write about it. I know that not many other followers of Christ have found themselves chastised by the Most High God, but for the few that have been, I have felt your pain. Of course I am being facetious. If you have never felt the way Job feels in the above passage; if you have never been chastised by God – then there is every chance that you are, in fact, not a follower of God. You see, we learn that Job is a righteous man, doing all that God commands and teaching his children to do the same. In fact, Job, through all of his pain and suffering, never condemns God as unjust or wicked (even though his own wife tells him to do so). But Job does question God. He wonders “why;” he asks for reasons because he, in fact, knows himself to be a righteous man. This seems perfectly reasonable to us, doesn’t it? But it is not reasonable in any conceivable measure – for God is NOT us; and as God reminds our brother Job, we are NOT God.
Two statements really stick out for me as they relate to my ongoing relationship with Christ. The first is verse 14, after discussing several actions that Job himself could never accomplish, God says, “Then even I would praise you, for your own strength would save you.” The message of the cross is that WE cannot save ourselves and that is why the Christ became incarnate; yet nearly every day, instead of picking up the cross of Christ, his followers pick up their own cross of self-righteousness and press into the world to fight with it. The simple, powerful truth is that we cannot save ourselves, nor can we save this world – but Christ can – and has!
The second statement from this passage rings so powerfully in my own personal experience and it comes from verses 5 and 6 of Chapter 42. It is really Job’s final realization and lesson. Job says, “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” This IS the TRUTH of the CROSS! For it is by the power of Jesus’s life, crucifixion and death, resurrection and ascension that we not only know ABOUT Him – but KNOW HIM! I want every person on earth to one day be able to say, “There was a time that I only knew about God, but now I KNOW HIM!” HE IS ALIVE!!!!!!!
I was in this position recently and I have decided to write about it. I know that not many other followers of Christ have found themselves chastised by the Most High God, but for the few that have been, I have felt your pain. Of course I am being facetious. If you have never felt the way Job feels in the above passage; if you have never been chastised by God – then there is every chance that you are, in fact, not a follower of God. You see, we learn that Job is a righteous man, doing all that God commands and teaching his children to do the same. In fact, Job, through all of his pain and suffering, never condemns God as unjust or wicked (even though his own wife tells him to do so). But Job does question God. He wonders “why;” he asks for reasons because he, in fact, knows himself to be a righteous man. This seems perfectly reasonable to us, doesn’t it? But it is not reasonable in any conceivable measure – for God is NOT us; and as God reminds our brother Job, we are NOT God.
Two statements really stick out for me as they relate to my ongoing relationship with Christ. The first is verse 14, after discussing several actions that Job himself could never accomplish, God says, “Then even I would praise you, for your own strength would save you.” The message of the cross is that WE cannot save ourselves and that is why the Christ became incarnate; yet nearly every day, instead of picking up the cross of Christ, his followers pick up their own cross of self-righteousness and press into the world to fight with it. The simple, powerful truth is that we cannot save ourselves, nor can we save this world – but Christ can – and has!
The second statement from this passage rings so powerfully in my own personal experience and it comes from verses 5 and 6 of Chapter 42. It is really Job’s final realization and lesson. Job says, “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” This IS the TRUTH of the CROSS! For it is by the power of Jesus’s life, crucifixion and death, resurrection and ascension that we not only know ABOUT Him – but KNOW HIM! I want every person on earth to one day be able to say, “There was a time that I only knew about God, but now I KNOW HIM!” HE IS ALIVE!!!!!!!
RSS Feed