Today in God's Word—June 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
June 8, Job 13
“Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face." - Job 13:15
Sometimes a near-death experience gives a sense of clarity and certainty to someone who lacked it before their brush with death. I have listened at hospital bedsides to confessions of sin, rededications of life and reassessments of priority. When the crisis passes, not everyone follows through on the things they vowed to do when they were freshly snatched from death's jaws. But some folks recognize a wakeup call when they hear one, and respond to it with gratitude.
We all experience days when we're down. But I hope you and I will never have a tragically compounded experience of loss, grief, physical suffering and mental anguish such as Job suffered. Satan (with permission from God) heaped unspeakable misery upon poor Job. But Satan was wrong and God was right about Job. He held on to his integrity and trust in God despite cruel torment. Job's wife and friends only made matters worse. In Chapter 13, Job stated three things with certainty: 1) His counselors were worthless. 2) His trust in God was deep and strong to the point of dying if that was God's will for him. 3) He wanted God to ease his suffering a bit, and let him have his say.
Job would have rated his friends' counsel with zero stars on a scale of one to five. They had lied about him, and their prescriptions were worthless to him. He would prefer total silence to any more “wisdom" from them. Their words were words of ashes. Their plans were soft clay. Job again asserted his innocence and declared his absolute trust in God. In one of the most famous verses of the Bible, Job, through the intense mental anguish and physical pain he suffered said, "Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.” He was ready to die if God so willed. He trusted God that much. But he still wanted to speak to
God and ask questions to understand the awful suffering he had endured.
Job summed up his request to God in two simple statements: He asked God to withdraw his hand from him, and he wanted a dialogue with the Lord. Job was asking for a respite from the agony he had endured since this test at Satan's cruel hand had begun. He then invited God to speak first, or he was willing to go first and listen to God's reply. Either way, he wanted to express his case to God. Remember Job (and his friends) thought God had dealt Job all the pain and sorrow that had come to him. Job admitted he was ruined. Under the intense suffering, he was wasting away like a decaying carcass. His life was like a moth-eaten garment.
Many centuries and half a world away from Job, what can we learn, remember and apply from Job's words? As much as we appreciate wise counsel from trusted friends, we may come to a place where our friends cannot explain our troubles or do anything to relieve the burden of our grief. (We need to remember that about our own attempts to comfort and counsel as well.) In the depths of suffering, human wisdom will not suffice. We all need higher wisdom from God to face the worst calamities of life.
We admire Job's great trust in God, that he was willing to die if it was God's will. We want to imagine that we trust God like that as well. But how often does our trust fall far short of laying down our lives when we face something much less threatening than death? As the great hymn says, "O for a faith that will not shrink, though pressed by ev'ry foe, That will not tremble on the brink of any earthly woe." As you and I kneel together to pray that request to God, let's remember Job and realize that a severe trial may be necessary to confirm such faith.
And as much as we admire Job's integrity and can sympathize with his desire for dialogue with God, let's remember how it turned out near the end of this book when God did reply and demand an answer from Job. Most people who
long to hear the voice of God may be like the Israelites when they heard the booming thunder of God's voice at Mt. Sinai. They begged Moses to not let God speak to them any more. They wanted Moses to go talk to God and bring back word about what he said to them. They promised to do whatever God said. But they didn’t want to hear directly from him any more.
Let's take comfort and be assured that God knows us better than we know ourselves. We don't have to explain or testify about our lives to God. He already knows. Let's resolve to be men and women of integrity, and trust our God completely to do with and in our lives as he pleases. Job did want some answers, but he trusted God completely, with his very life. You and I can examine our own lives and trust, and find room to grow to be like Job.
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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