SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 11/4/2011 9:17:40 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: “Job’s Three Affirmations”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Job
12-14
Message
of the verses: In this section of
Job we will see that Job will answer the three accusations that Zophar had said
to Job. He will begin in chapter twelve
with the second accusation that Job had no knowledge of God, and also speaks to
the fact that he has wisdom and understanding in chapter twelve. Job then moves to the first accusation that
Zophar gave, that he was a guilty sinner, and Job continues to affirm his
integrity in Job 13. Zophar had told Job
that there would be hope if he would only confess his sins to the Lord, but in
chapter fourteen Job believes that there is little hope.
We will now look at the greatness of
God from Job twelve: “1 Then Job responded, 2 “Truly then you are the
people, And with you wisdom will die! 3 “But I have intelligence as well as
you; I am not inferior to you. And who does not know such things as these? 4 “I
am a joke to my friends, The one who called on God and He answered him; The
just and blameless man is a joke. 5 “He who is at ease holds calamity in
contempt, As prepared for those whose feet slip.
“6 "The tents of the destroyers
prosper, And those who provoke God are secure, Whom God brings into their
power. 7 “But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you; And the birds of the
heavens, and let them tell you. 8 “Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you. 9
"Who among all these does not know That the hand of the LORD has
done this, 10 In whose hand is the life
of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind? 11 “Does not the ear test
words, As the palate tastes its food?
“12 "Wisdom is with aged men, With long life is understanding. 13 “With
Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding. 14 “Behold,
He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt; He imprisons a man, and there can be
no release. 15 “Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up; And He sends
them out, and they inundate the earth. 16 “With Him are strength and sound
wisdom, The misled and the misleader belong to Him. 17 “He makes counselors
walk barefoot And makes fools of judges. 18 “He loosens the bond of kings And
binds their loins with a girdle. 19 “He makes priests walk barefoot And
overthrows the secure ones. 20 “He deprives the trusted ones of speech And
takes away the discernment of the elders. 21 “He pours contempt on nobles And
loosens the belt of the strong. 22 “He reveals mysteries from the darkness And
brings the deep darkness into light. 23 “He makes the nations great, then
destroys them; He enlarges the nations, then leads them away. 24 “He deprives
of intelligence the chiefs of the earth’s people And makes them wander in a
pathless waste. 25 “They grope in darkness with no light, And He makes them
stagger like a drunken man.”
There are two verses that truly
speak to my heart that are found in chapter twelve of Job. The first one is verse one when even though
Job is in pain and has suffered great loss there is still a bit of humor that
comes from his lips, humor that is true, for the three friends of Job thought
that they knew everything. Verse twelve
is a great verse for the younger generation; for when you are young you think
you know everything, especially the young generation that is in America at this
time. They don’t need the older
generation, for they only get in their way of progress. This generation, for the most part, gets
their wisdom from their cell phones and from their laptops, so there is no need
for the wisdom from the older generation who has been through the tough times,
made mistakes, and can tell them of these things.
In the first part of this section
Job rebukes his friends for being so unfeeling toward him and turning him into
a laughingstock. He only felt that he
was upright, which is exactly the way that God had described Job. Job is saying to these people that because
they are at ease, not having any problems, that God is punishing Job, but Job
asks why God was not punishing the robbers and other people who provoke
God.
In chapter eleven (7-9z) Zophar had
claimed that wisdom was not accessible to man, yet Job illustrates through the
animals that they know that God had created everything. Animals have less of a hard time obeying the
Lord than we do. My favorite character
in the OT is Balaam’s donkey. Now some
make think that is strange, but the reason that I like her, and yes it was a
female donkey, is because she was available to be used of the Lord. When God wanted her to talk to Balaam she did
and did not argue about it, but just did what she was told, for she was
available to be used of God. Man is not
that way for much of the time, but that is what I desire to be available to do
what my Lord wants me to do.
We can see from verses twelve
through twenty-five that Job is describing the wisdom and the power of
God. We can see in these verses that God
is sovereign and will do what he desires to do with nature and with people
alike.
Job’s argument in all of this is
that all kinds of people experience difficulties in life because God can do
what He pleases. God is not a respecter
of persons and surely is not impressed with people’s ranks, something we on
earth seem to be far too much of.
This section is a great section
about the sovereignty of God, and in verses 23-25 Job describes how God is
sovereign over the nations. Daniel
2:20-22 and Acts 17:24-28 also speak of this.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: We will
take up more of this last main point from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on Job in
the next SD, as each of the sub-points under this main point take up a whole
chapter of Job.
The sovereignty of God is a great
subject that is covered throughout the Scriptures and one that is worth
studying all by itself. I have studied
it from different books and it is now a great part of my life. God is God and He can do as He wishes. There have been some crazy questions about
God that do not deserve an answer, but the fact remains that God can do what He
wants to do within His character. God
cannot sin. Whatever God does will bring
glory to Him, and all of God’s attributes bring glory to Him. Too many people today put God in a box saying
that God has to do this or that, but He will do what He wants when He wants to
do it. The best way to understand this
is to continue to read your Bible each and every day, and not just read it but
study it.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to trust the Lord
through the challenges that I am going through at this time.
2. Continue to learn contentment.
3. Give myself to the Lord for this
day and be available to do what He wants me to do.
4. Put on the Spiritual armor.
5. Trust in the Lord and do not lean
on my understanding.
6. Psalm 139: 23 “ Search me, O God,
and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.”
11/4/2011
10:18:28 AM
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