Job 8:6. “If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.” FALSE ASSUMPTIONS. “Something severe has happened. He must have sinned – Or acted in some terrible way.
You know God wouldn’t allow such a terrible thing, If in some way he had not gone astray!” The carnal man thinks he is the center of his world – And everything revolves around him. He doesn’t consider that God allows things to happen – Even when it is not caused by sin.
If God thinks a person can be more spiritually mature, He may allow testing times to come. He is not limited in any way by time or space – He is maturing us on our way home. It may be a lingering problem we wish would go – But He leaves it to reveal His grace. It may be something happens in a moment of time To give us opportunity to exercise faith.
The people around may look askance Thinking that something was terrible we did. It was really so serious that God stepped in to judge Some secret sins we thought we’d hid. But they do not know the mind of the Lord – Or the reasons He sends a trial. The Lord Jesus was tempted in the wilderness forty days So, we could know he does not fail.
When some event happens in the lives of other people – Never hasten to find a reason to blame. The time will come when serious things happen to you – And you will get a taste of the same. Do not make assumptions without all the facts – You may be making a serious mistake. Pray for the one going through the hard time – Because God knows the way that he takes.
“I am praying today Father, for that family that has gone through the loss of so many. The cemetery stones to testify to all they have been through. May they get some peace and loose the bitterness they have. May they experience Thy presence in a very real way. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”
Job 9 - 10 I NEED A DAYSMAN Sometimes when bad things happen to God's people, we find within us a certain antagonism toward God and perhaps even some bitterness that we hate to acknowledge, but it is there. We feel we are being treated unfairly and we become impatient with God. Job's questions and claims of not deserving the suffering he was enduring bordered on arrogance rather than grief and misunderstanding. The charges of his friends only made the sufferings of loss and pain he was enduring, worse as they provoked a bitter spirit in him.
The reply of Job to the charge of Bildad follows mostly the same pattern as his reply to Eliphaz. He responds to the criticism of Bildad in chapter nine and then more or less addresses his appeal to God personally in chapter ten. In a bit of a sarcastic way, Job tells Bildad, "You have said nothing that is helpful or new. I know the wicked perish, but why am I suffering so much? Tell me that! How can I be just with God?"
Job insisted he was not pretending to try to deceive God. He knew he could not win if he were to contend with God. God is totally wise and powerful in every way. He moves mountains and makes earthquakes. He controls the sun and has arranged the stars to be in specific places in the universe. He can walk on water as the Lord Jesus demonstrated when He was here. He is the Creator of everything and maintains everything. Even though He cannot be seen because He is a Spirit and passes right by me without me knowing it, He is real and involved in my life and all that happens to me.
Job knew God is the Judge, and he wouldn't know what to say if he saw Him. It is almost like Job has moved into a scene in a courtroom and God is the Judge wanting to prosecute him, but he doesn't know why. He doesn't know what he has done wrong. It seems to him to be an exercise in futility to plead his case before God. Job seemed to think God was determined to condemn him without him knowing what charges were laid against him. If only God would answer him, he would appeal to God for mercy.
In the lives of God's people there come times of doubt, despair and impatience. We long for someone who really knows us to come and help us or at least listen to us. Frustration, hurt and a sense of abandonment are very hard to deal with and yet not be bitter in our spirit. Meaningful suffering tests our faith. It is a common opinion of most people that effect always has a cause whether it be good or bad. It is not natural for us to think that good comes out of bad. A faithful servant of God has to look beyond himself or herself, and deliberately put confidence in the Lord and His intentions even if we don't know what they are.
Job said, "I do not know..." because if what happened to him was justified because of something he did not know was wrong, it seemed so unfair. If by trying to do what is right and being punished for it, why would a person even try to be righteous. Why not everyone just be wicked and do what they want. After all, the same result comes. Job knew that some earthly judges favor the wicked as if God was okay with it. Job expresses his thought that pointless suffering leads to pointless living, so why live.
Even if he cleaned up everything in life to his own satisfaction, God would put him so deep in filth that his clothes couldn't cover it up. He concludes that he could not win in court against a perfect God, and he cannot prove his innocence. He has only one hope. He needs a daysman. He needs a mediator to mediate a just conclusion between him and God. How thankful we all should be that One has been provided.
"For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." The one and only daysman who can mediate for Job and us is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is qualified to do that because He bears God's image, and man's likeness [Phil.2:6-8; Heb.2:14-17]. He is both sinless and the sin-bearer [Isa.53:6-10; Eph.2:13-18]. He endured God's wrath, and brings God's righteousness [Rom.5:6-19]. He is both the sacrifice and the priest [Heb.7:27; 10:5-22]. He performed the office of the mediator by taking our nature [1Jn.1:1-3], and dying as our substitute [1Pe.1:18- 19; 3:18]. By doing that our Lord Jesus Christ has reconciled us to God [Eph.2:16].
Job anxiously longed for such a person who would connect both God and him in reaching a conclusion for the suffering he was going through. He had become so weary of life that he lamented before God, who he thinks is being unfair to him. He claims to have sought to be righteous and can't figure out why he is so condemned, oppressed and despised. He steps very close to sin when he said that it seemed like to him God was acting in judgment like a mere mortal man. Obviously, Job is needing to learn some humility.