Each one of Job’s friends, along with his wife, believed that God was punishing Job for his sins. They surmised based on their simple cause and effect experiences that this is the real issue.  Maybe they were partially right but who they expressed themselves was less that righteous?  What we do know is they think Job is no longer thought of as righteous to his friends and his wife. They are positive in the most negative way that Job brought this on himself. Job is not who they thought he was. They looked at all that has been done in Job’s life and then list the causes for it.  After all, cause and effect is the human reaction in order to fix our problems, right?

“God has it out for Job,” his friends and family say out loud for all to hear! They declare that Job must repent of his sins, (even though they don’t know what his sins are) that are causing these calamities in his life.  Only then, will the pain, despair, illnesses, and brokenness end.  Most of all, Job’s friends and family are disappointed with the man they thought they knew. For Job, knowing how they feel, is probably the worst pain of all.  But yet, Job still trusts in the God who made him even thought Job is weary and wants to die.  Job wonders if death is his only relief from the pain.  Job also wonders, “if someone dies, will they live again?” Could Job be God’s prophet of pain who is proclaiming who is to come to give eternal life—without really knowing God’s Plan?  Mmm…

No one can claim to completely understand God’s ways.  Yet, will we trust Him!

Job 14

“Mortals, born of woman,
    are of few days and full of trouble.
² They spring up like flowers and wither away;
    like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.
³ Do you fix your eye on them?
    Will you bring them before you for judgment?
⁴ Who can bring what is pure from the impure?
    No one!
⁵ A person’s days are determined;
    you have decreed the number of his months
    and have set limits he cannot exceed.
⁶ So look away from him and let him alone,
    till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.

⁷ “At least there is hope for a tree:
    If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
    and its new shoots will not fail.
⁸ Its roots may grow old in the ground
    and its stump die in the soil,
⁹ yet at the scent of water it will bud
    and put forth shoots like a plant.
¹⁰ But a man dies and is laid low;
    he breathes his last and is no more.
¹¹ As the water of a lake dries up
    or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,
¹² so he lies down and does not rise;
    till the heavens are no more, people will not awake
    or be roused from their sleep.

¹³ “If only you would hide me in the grave
    and conceal me till your anger has passed!
If only you would set me a time
    and then remember me!
¹⁴ If someone dies, will they live again?
    All the days of my hard service
    I will wait for my renewal to come.
¹⁵ You will call and I will answer you;
    you will long for the creature your hands have made.

¹⁶ Surely then you will count my steps
    but not keep track of my sin.
¹⁷ My offenses will be sealed up in a bag;
    you will cover over my sin.

¹⁸ “But as a mountain erodes and crumbles
    and as a rock is moved from its place,
¹⁹ as water wears away stones
    and torrents wash away the soil,
    so you destroy a person’s hope.
²⁰ You overpower them once for all, and they are gone;
    you change their countenance and send them away.
²¹ If their children are honored, they do not know it;
    if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.
²² They feel but the pain of their own bodies
    and mourn only for themselves.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God’s Word tells us our days are numbered by God.  Zophar had assured Job that he could have hope if only he would acknowledge his sins and repent (Job 11:13–20). But Zophar was not standing in Job’s shoes!

From Job’s point of view, his future was bleak. Job used several images to illustrate the hopeless condition of a person in this world in verses 1–12. Job knows that God knows the limits of our days (Job 7:1; Job 14:5; Psalm 139:16). One thing we know for sure; Job knows more about God than his friends and family think he does and trusts God alone for the final outcome.  “Yet, will I trust Him” is the most profound expression of faith the world has ever known and is expressed as Job questions God reverently and honestly.  In suffering and wondering; Trust is the key to knowing God.

Trust is our motivation for Obedience to God. If everybody believed as Job believed—that God does not always punish the wicked and reward the godly—then what motive would people have for obeying God? Our religious busy activities would not be worth doing according to man if we were not rewarded! But this is the devil’s theology, which was the theology God was using Job to refute as God reset his thinking to the default of God’s way of thinking!

Let’s just say this out loud so the people in the back can hear; If we serve God only for what we can get out of it, then we are not serving God at all!  We are only serving ourselves by making God our servant. Our religion is only a pious system for promoting selfishness and not for glorifying God.  Pause, read that again. 

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” in this area of our lives of seeking self promotion and self-worth in all the wrong places.  (Romans 3:23) How then can we be saved?  Paul is glad you asked! 

This proclamation for all sinners is followed up with the solution;

“…and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:24-26

There is no need for self-promotion of righteousness, no need for trying to earn salvation through good works that are pleasing to man, no need for thinking we must do more to be accepted by God and no need to think we can pay enough or sacrifice enough for our sins to be removed.  That’s not how God works! 

Only Jesus, He who was without sin, did what we could not do for ourselves—justify us completely— “just as if” we had never committed our sins in the first place! Only Jesus made the removal of our sins complete—to be remembered no more!

God’s Plan of salvation cannot be earned nor does anyone deserve what Jesus did for us.  it is only by God’s relentless love, unending mercies, and His amazing grace that we have been set free.

God’s Perfect Plan leaves no room for human boasting.  “Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” Romans 3:27-28

Our only boast is Jesus who died for our sins, rose again to defeat death so that we who believe may also have eternal life, and is the One who is preparing a place for us with Him in glory.

Believe, repent, surrender to God’s Holy Spirit who helps us become the person God created us to be.  Humbly walk with God who is just and merciful.  Love what God loves and move in harmony with His Spirit.  His love in our hearts is the highest motivation to trust and obey Him in all we think, say and do.

Lord,

Thank you for all the thoughts about you as we read of Job’s struggle to see you in his pain delivered by the Enemy.  Job is not perfect; yet he trusts in You.  We are certainly not perfect and must now judge Job or others who struggle in pain with cause and effect criticisms. So, cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh and feed our souls, and restore the joy of your salvation at work within us—even when it is painful.  This is the peace not of this world but given to us directly from your throne of grace. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, Amen