"Blurred Truth" January 9 Readings: Job 25-31

Today's Reading - Job 25-31

Another long reading. If you can only read a portion, focus on chapters 29-31, Job's final speech, which summarizes his case.

Background

Here at the end of the third cycle the reader might notice that Zophar does not speak. At the end of chapter 26, where we would expect a response, there is nothing. Perhaps that is the most eloquent and awful speech of all. Job's friends had given up. "Job is too far gone - he is not worth the trouble anymore. It is not that Zophar did not speak - silence is his sermon.

Job 29-31 are Job's final defense - a legal brief stating his case against God for the mistreatment that has come his way.

NOTE: Job raises some tricky issues regarding inerrancy. Job says strong things at times. Inerrancy demands that his thoughts were accurately recorded but not that everything he said is true. He may have spoken falsely, but the word of God speaks that truly.

Devotional - Blurred Truth

In Job's final speech, we see a common syndrome that occurs throughout this book. Job is cynical and angry, but the vast majority of what he says is true. Job is venting a bad attitude, lashing out at God, at other people, at the whole world, but he bases his lament on nuggets of truth.

He begins chapter 29 with a trip down Nostalgia Lane, remember the good ol' days gone by when life was good, he was respected, and everything in his life was good. He recounts the good works that he did toward others and remembered how everyone held him in the highest esteem.

But in chapter 30, he tells how everything has changed. His life is one of suffering and sorrow, marked by a distance from God that he had never before experienced. But in the first 15 verses he complains about how the people who once venerated him now scorn him. He was honored, now debased. Once envied, he is now pitied. In verses 24-31 he seems to be saying that he would never have treated others (when he was riding high) the way people are treating him now that he has been brought low.

Chapter 31 is his defense, laid out in detail. He has been accused of sinning so grievously that he deserved his suffering - that what was poured out on him was just retribution. Here, he speaks as his own defense attorney and lays out his defense, stating his righteous behavior point by point. He was not lustful or immoral, greedy or oppressive, violent or unkind.

He closes the speech, in 31:35-40, with an appeal to God to listen and hear. "If only there was someone who would listen to him." Poor Job. Even God won't give him a fair hearing. But if God did, Job would be proven righteous and the injustice of all of this would be made clear.

There is one significant problem with all of this that led to Job's sad state of mind. He is right about what he was before the troubles, what his life had become, and he was even right that he was a righteous man - that is how the book introduces. But there is a fundamental flaw here in Job's outlook that was the root of his issues.

Everything in these 3 chapters is about Job. Job's past. Job's present. Job's righteousness. When we are suffering we can sometimes become self-centered and self-absorbed. Certainly, that was true for Job. God had allowed all of these sufferings to teach Job that life isn't about him, but about the glory and power of God.

Job wasn't a bad man or a liar, but he was all about himself and that is something that God will never accept. When our focus is on ourselves, life will always be blurry. It only comes into sharp focus when our gaze is on God. Even in suffering and trial, even in pain and hurt, we can be focused on the glory of God and the work he is doing in our lives.

We must not allow life's troubles to blur our focus on the work of God in us, to make us self-pitying or inward. That is the root from which bitter grows, as it did in Job.

Never gaze at life's hardships. Gaze at God and glance at the troubles of life, then the path will be clear and your focus will be sharp.

Lord, may my focus be sharp every day. Protect me from self-centeredness and bitterness, from becog inward. May I live for your glory every day.min 

Think and Pray

Are you focused on the glory of God and the work he is doing in your life, or are you inward, focused on yourself?
Remember that when you focus on your self, life will always be a little blurry!