Monthly Archives: May 2021

(Job 32-37) Whatever Your Age

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I found myself laughing out loud today as I read these chapters in God’s Word. And every time I have that experience, it’s because I see myself in what I read. And usually, not in a good way.

I don’t know how much younger Elihu was than Job and his buddies. But is seems there were more than a few years between them because Elihu sat with them for some time without speaking, out of respect for his elders.

Now, I’m projecting here but I imagine Elihu was a typical young person. I see him rolling his eyes, shaking his head, snickering under his breath at what he perceived as ignorance in the older generation. After all, Elihu was woke. So when he got his chance, he would teach those old geezers the wisdom of youth.

“Pay attention,” he says. “I’m going to open my mouth and tell you where you are wrong.”

He then proceeds to prove he has no more understanding than the others. If you read his sermon, you’ll see him refer to himself about as often as he refers to God. Elihu isn’t hesitant about pointing out his knowledge and wisdom.

Oh, there are several times Elihu gives God a nod for giving him knowledge, and for having superior knowledge. But I see a lot of young Elihu in these chapters.

Now, before anyone thinks I am targeting millennials, let me confess I remember being young, too. I remember rolling my eyes at the things my dad would say. I mean, I’d gone to college and he didn’t. I was enlightened and he wasn’t (or so I thought).

Trust me when I say this, kids. One day you are going to be faced with the realization that you aren’t as stupid as your kids will think you are, either.

I don’t think this portion of Scripture has to be only about youth versus age. There’s a little Elihu in all of us. And it’s a sin. It was a sin when Adam and Eve thought they understood God apart from His Word, and it’s a sin today. There is no wisdom, no understanding that isn’t written in the pages of the Bible.

Now here is where I laughed out loud today. Elihu’s final words are found in verse 37:24b and they are hilarious.

(God) does not look favorably on any who are wise in heart.

Except, of course, me. Right?

Dear Elihu is condemning the very thing he himself is guilty of. But I don’t think he sees it like that. He thinks he’s pointing a finger at Job and his friends, not considering there are three fingers pointed back at him.

I hope you have knowledge of Scripture. I hope you study your Bible, memorize verses, can share the accounts of people who lived during that time. I hope you have an understanding of who God is and what His plan is according to the Words He inspired men to write down. I hope you have wisdom from above.

But let’s not think, even for a second, that any of that is our own doing. Let’s not put ourselves anywhere near the level of God. I don’t care how old you are, or how young.

It’s about God. Whatever your age.

(Job 29-31) Prejudice

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Do we get a glimpse at the less-than-righteous side of Job here? I have no doubt the man was a good, generous, upright guy who truly loved and feared God. God Himself called Job a righteous man, and God doesn’t lie.

But this man, who gave to the poor and fed the traveler, encouraged those who mourned, and received respect and honor from others, might have been a bit prejudice. In speaking of the young men who were harassing him, Job said this of their fathers:

I wouldn’t have put them with my dogs. They were emaciated, ate tree roots and shrubs like animals. These fathers weren’t fit for human society, and everyone treated them like thieves. They howled like wolves, and were forced out of the land.

Then Job says:

Now I am mocked by THEIR songs. I have become an object of scorn to THEM. THEY despise ME and keep their distance from ME. (30:9-10, emphasis mine)

Job is indignant at the very thought that the dregs of society would dare look down on him. But my question is, Job, why consider anyone throw-away?

I ask the same thing of us. ALL people are equally precious in God’s sight, and should be in the sight of all of His children: the unborn, the physically and mentally handicapped, the poor and the rich, the homeless and those living in luxury, homosexuals and those who reject that lifestyle, people with different skin color and nationalities, people with differing opinions, tattoos and piercings, grey hair and wrinkles.

We can be doing all the “right” things, we can be generous and loving and devoted to God. But is there a bit of prejudice in us, too? Because the truth is, ALL people need Jesus. Everyone needs Jesus, no matter what kind of life they are living!

God is asking me to do a prejudice check in my own heart. Might He be asking you to do the same?

(Job 25-28) Answers to Questions

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Question: Who is the shortest person in the Bible? If you answered Zacchaeus, you would be wrong. The shortest person in the Bible is Bildad the Shuhite (shoe-height).

Groan.

Job and his friends have been talking about sin and righteousness, judgment and blessing. We know none of them have a lock on any of it. Once in awhile, though, someone will say something that resembles truth.

Like when Bildad, while comparing God’s greatness to man’s insignificance, asks the questions:

How can a human be justified before God? How can one born of woman be pure? (25:4)

The implied answer to those questions is – we can’t. You and I can’t compare our righteousness, our goodness, our love to God’s. A maggot can’t make itself pure any more than we can make ourselves pure before our holy God.

Then Job, as he has done consistently, points us to God, God’s vastness, power and perfection. We must bow to God. He doesn’t bow to us.

Yet we want to understand. We want to know what He knows.

So Job tells us, if we really want answers:

The fear of the Lord – that is wisdom. And to turn from evil is understanding. (28:28)

So many people want God to “show up,” to reveal Himself, give us a sign, change a circumstance. But God is telling us wisdom and understanding is available IF we go to Him on His terms: Fear Him, and repent of sin.

And if you go to Him on His terms, either answers will follow, or you’ll realize having the answers isn’t all that important, anyway. That’s wisdom. That’s understanding. And both are gifts from God to those who follow Him.

(Job 22-24) Find Him

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Job makes me sad. He is in such pain and hopelessness, and his friends just aren’t helping him. He wants to trust God, but it’s hard. He wants to understand, but he can’t. His words break my heart:

If only I knew how to find him. (23:3a)

Where is God in our times of trouble? Why does He seem the furtherest when we hurt the most? Where can we go, what can we do to find Him?

The answer is too simple for some. Go to His Word. Get out your Bible and begin to read. But let me warn you, you may not like what is written there.

What is hard for some to accept is the truth that the only way to find God is to go through His Son Jesus. Scripture will tell you He is the only way, the only truth, and the only life. (John 14:6)

You may look for God in nature, in religions, gurus and mystics, but you will only find forgeries. You may look for Him in commentaries, and self-help books, but you will just find opinions.

Why not look to the source? If I am baking a cake I look at a cake recipe and not a recipe for fried fish. If I am looking to build a cabinet I look at the blueprint of a cabinet and not a jet airplane. If I’m looking for the definition of “approbation” or “congruity” I don’t go to Fortnite. I go to a dictionary.

Do you, like Job, wish you knew where to find God? He’s not hiding. He’s right there in the pages of the Book He inspired men to write to you.

Read it for yourself. Ask Him to give you understanding, and to reveal Himself to you. You can find Him. But you have to look in the right place.

(Job 8-10) Prosperity

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Bildad was perhaps the first health-and-wealth-gospel preacher.

But if you earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright… your final days will be full of prosperity. (8:5-7)

If you do this, this, and this, God will pay your bills and heal you. So yes, the prosperity gospel is in the Bible. Are we to base our faith upon it?

Even Job questioned the truth of it. He realized God’s ways are not our ways, and God is not accountable to us humans.

He destroys both the blameless and the wicked. (9:22b))

If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye, then you dip me in a pit of mud, and my own clothes despise me. (9:30-31)

Job’s outlook is bleak. But he is acknowledging that the evidence proves that good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people. The truth is you can’t buy God’s blessings with good behavior. So, no Bildad. What you say is not true.

Job needed to learn, as do we, that God’s ultimate goal has nothing to do with our comfort or material blessings. Paul emphasized this fact when he said in Philippians 4:11-13 that he had learned to be content in whatever situation he found himself.

Let go of expecting that check in the mail, and turn off the preacher who promises it will come if you do this or that, pray the right words, have enough faith, give enough money. That prosperity gospel was wrong when Bildad preached it, and it’s wrong in 2021.