Job was at his lowest moment, at the end of the three cycles of conversation with his friends. He was in despair and angry at everyone - the world, his friends, and even God. Job 27:2-6 he expresses his feelings clearly.
As God lives, who has deprived me of justice,
and the Almighty who has made me bitter,as long as my breath is still in me
and the breath from God remains in my nostrils,my lips will not speak unjustly,
and my tongue will not utter deceit.I will never affirm that you are right.
I will maintain my integrity until I die.I will cling to my righteousness and never let it go.
My conscience will not accuse me as long as I live!
He sees God as the one who has refused him justice and has attacked him. God is the source of his bitterness, not the cure for it. As long as God allows him to breathe he is going to declare his innocence, defend his own righteousness and, frankly, accuse God of injustice. He has lost his faith in the goodness, nearness, and love of God.
Or has he? Deep down, somewhere in his heart, in spite of his bitterness and rancor, there was a place of faith. It was seen in Job 19:25 when he declared that he knew that "my Redeemer lives." He jcould not abandon completely his belief that God would somehow sort all this mess out.
In chapter 28 we have another diamond in the fertilizer pile. Job's words are harsh, discouraged, angry and bitter, but once in a while there is a note of faith, a hint of hope that comes through. In verses 23-28 he affirms God's wisdom at work in this world.
But God understands the way to wisdom,
and He knows its location.
and He knows its location.
For He looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
When God fixed the weight of the wind
and limited the water by measure,
when He established a limit for the rain
and a path for the lightning,
He considered wisdom and evaluated it;
He established it and examined it.
He said to mankind,
“The fear of the Lord is this: wisdom.
And to turn from evil is understanding.”
There is no question here, Job is messed up bad. But in a certain sense this moment of faith has a beauty that shines brighter because of the darkness in his life. When everything is going great it doesn't take much faith to affirm God's goodness. Paul distinguished between faith and sight. When you can see it, it's not really faith.
It is when you can't see what God is doing, when you can't see the joy and the hope in life that faith is demanded. Faith is trusting God when you cannot see the light. Job could see nothing but darkness at this moment, but he held on to his belief that the light was there and that one day he would see it again.
We are called to live by faith, to believe God even when our minds and our hearts tell us to abandon faith. We trust God when our circumstances make that seem ridiculous. We see through the darkness to the light we know will one day shine on us.
Father, I thank you for those times when your goodness is so clear and plain. But help me to believe in those times when I cannot see your face, feel your touch, or hear your voice.
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