READING: Job 6-9
“Is there injustice on my tongue or can my palate not taste disaster?”
Job 6:30
There are times when your friends who try to help you through difficulties are really no help at all. They might mean well, but their intervention brings more pain than comfort. Job’s friends were that way.
They saw Job’s anguish, and their theology would only let them conclude that Job must have committed some sin that warranted such justice. In yesterday’s reading, Eliphaz put it this way: “In my experience, those who plow injustice and those who sow trouble reap the same” (Job 4:8). Bildad concluded the same, though from a different direction that asserted God’s blessing on the obedient: “if you are pure and upright, then he will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells” (Job 8:6). Had Job been righteous, he said, God would be blessing him – not bringing on him what was obviously judgment for wrong.
Job, too, could not understand what he was facing – particularly because he could see no sin in his life that demanded such judgment. Instead, he only defended his righteousness: “But now, please look at me; I will not lie to your face. Reconsider; don’t be unjust. Reconsider; my righteousness is still the issue. Is there injustice on my tongue or can my palate not taste disaster?” (Job 6:28-30). Bildad later thought Job’s words were only a “blast of wind” (Job 8:2), but Job surely meant what he said. He consistently defended himself even when his friends pressed hard against him.
Here’s what I wonder today: do I so live in righteousness that I could make the same claim as Job did? While recognizing and admitting my general sin, would I be willing to let others peer into my soul without fear they would find flagrant sin that warrants God’s immediate judgment?
ACTION STEPS:
- Make sure somebody has permission to know you deeply – and to ask questions about your walk with God.
- Choose to walk with God so that you have nothing to hide.
PRAYER: “Father, show me my sin. I turn from it.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Job 10-13