Job 17:11-16
My days are past My purposes are broken off, even the thoughts
of my heart. They change the night into day; the light is near, they say, in the face of darkness. If I wait for
the rave as my house, if I make my bed in darkness, if I say to corruption, “You
are my father” and to the worm, “You are my mother and sister,” where then is
my hope? As for my hope, who can see it? Will they go down to the gates of Sheol?
Shall we have rest together in the dust?
A certain type of religious hypocrisy makes men hide
what they feel, but Job has come to the place where he cannot hide it -- “I
cannot pretend that I am comforted of God,” he says. If only Job could have
taken on the pose that he had the comfort of God, his friends would not have
challenged him, but he says, “I have no comfort; I do not see God, neither can
I talk to Him; all I know is that my former creed and former belief must be
wrong. I do not know what to accept, but I am certain God will prove that He is
just and true and right, and I refuse to tell a lie in order to help Him out.”
This attitude of religious faith is finely expressed
by the psalmist: “Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy.”
This is sublime faith, the faith that Jesus demanded of John the Baptist.
“Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” Will I stick to it, without
any presence or humbug, that God is righteous, although everything in my actual
experience seems to prove that He is cruel? Job stuck to his point that when
everything was known, it would not be to God’s dishonor, but to His honor.
Excerpts from Oswald
Chambers
Daily Devotional Bible,
Reading 225 (8/13)
From Baffled to Fight Better
No comments:
Post a Comment