Each week we feature a devotional, book review or testimony ~ a “Devotional Spotlight”, written by a woman in our ministry. We hope you are blessed in reading Becky’s devotional!
“Do You Know God?”
Most people think the book of Job is about suffering. Yes, there is a theme of suffering in this relevant book, but it is so much more than that. Some think Job is a theodicy: an attempt to explain God’s allowing evil to exist. Again, this is touched on, but this book in no way attempts to elevate man to the position of judge of the Divine.
No, Job is more about the erroneous views of man concerning Who God is.
Satan is wrong about God. Job is wrong about God (at the beginning.) Job’s three friends are wrong about God.
This book opens and ends with questions. God questions Satan in chapter one by asking, “Have you considered my servant Job?” The book ends with God questioning Job. “Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me! Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, Who set its measurements? … When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Job 38: 3-7
So if you are looking for answers to all you questions, Job is not the book for you. But if you are on a “quest”, not focusing on “questions” but a mission to see more clearly this Almighty, glorious God, then Job is the book for you.
The Christian does not live on explanations, but on promises and really more than that, the Christian lives focused on the revelation of the Promise-Keeper.
Satan is wrong about God. He thinks that God buys His people’s affection and devotion. Job 1:9, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” (another question)
Job, by his faithful enduring, proves Satan wrong. Christian, as you endure, you are making a statement that reaches the heavens: God is worthy of my faith and trust. I know Him and He is allowing this pain for purposes which He alone knows. “When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” 23:10
Again, the point of this truth is not explaining away suffering, but making a declaration of faith. When things are smooth, our declaration of faith may not carry as much weight, but when we are suffering this same declaration “breaks the sound barrier” of the heavens: God is faithful, good and just, even as I am in pain. Satan hates this.
The stars shine brightest in the dark. During the day, we do not see the stars. But at night, we see their full glory, in splendid array. Our faith is most glorious when things seem the darkest.
Job is suffering. His three friends travel from far away to attempt to comfort him. They sit in silence for seven days. So far, so good. Then they open their mouths.
Each friend has advice to “make sense” of Job’s pain. Their advice ends up pointing the finger at Job so as not to point the finger at God. Much of what the friends say has some truth to it. Keep in mind when Satan tempted Jesus, he used Scripture to support his arguments. We need to be on guard even when discussing spiritual things which can be supported with Scripture. Biblical truth does not contradict Biblical truth. If there is a conflict, it lies with our understanding and not with the truth of God’s ways.
Pointing the finger at Job and not God seems to make sense, right?
Well, let’s examine the reason the friends are so desperate to prove Job at fault. Their understanding of God is based on the Retribution Principle: if I obey God, then God is required to bless me.
If Job is innocent and a faithful man can endure the losses that Job has endured, then anyone is open to this kind of suffering. The friends are frantic to prove Job in the wrong because they are at risk; their understanding of God is at risk, if Job is indeed innocent. They have some stock in this argument.
For Job it is far more than an argument, this is his life and he is not arguing a point, he is trying to make sense of his personal experience and maintain a relationship with God.
In reading Job, there is something remarkable. Job cries out to God. Job talks to God.
The friends talk “about” God. Job has a relationship with God. His friends have a theology of God: safe and at a distance. Job is one on One with God.
One of the most dangerous and costly mistakes a person can make is to create God in their own image. We so desire to be right about our pet view of Who God is that we rarely examine Who He says He is in His one clear communication: His Word.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge once criticized Christians for believing not in God Himself, but for believing only in their beliefs about Him. Great suffering puts an end to belief in belief.
It is time for us to know God. This is the most important “knowing” in our lives.
There is no short-cut to knowing Him.
There is no safe way of knowing Him.
It may – no – it will cost us to know Him. It cost Job, but he knew God in a deep way at the close of this book.
Do you know God? …. Well-enough, you say.
Job thought he knew God well-enough – but then he met the true and mysterious, Holiest of All, the Ancient of Days. “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; BUT NOW my eye sees You.” Job 42:5
Don’t be satisfied with hearing about God … know Him and know Him well.
