Soul-Searching Questions and Conundrums - Day 220 Through the Bible

A trashformation house in Houston made from discarded cans - a gathering of 3 generations of believers.

My Lessons and Applications from Today's Readings

Job's Soul-Searching Questions and Conundrums - Job 9 and 10 - Job ponders what his friends have said thus far, knowing immediately what is true and untrue in their accusations and their purported knowledge of God...because of his own close fellowship and walk with God.  But Job has unanswerable questions at this stage that go far beyond the platitudinous drivel of his counselors:  1) But how can a man be righteous before God?  2) Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?  3) Who can say to Him, 'What are You doing?' 4) How then can I answer Him, and choose my words to reason with Him?...For He crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds...without cause. 5) If it is a matter of justice, who will appoint my day in court? 6) Therefore, I say, "He destroys the blameless and the wicked.  If the scourge slays suddenly, He laughs at the plight of the innocent.  The earth is given into the hand of the wicked.  He covers the faces of its judges.  If it is not He, who else could it be?  7) If I am condemned, why then do I labor in vain? 8) For He is not a man, as I am that I may answer Him, and that we should go to court together.  Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both. 9) Does it seem good to You that You should oppress, that You should despise the work of Your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked? 10)...that You should seek for my iniquity and search out my sin, although You know that I am not wicked, and there is no one who can deliver me from Your hand?  11) Why then have You brought me out of the womb?

A Psalm that Speaks to Job's Dilemma - Psalm 93:1-5 - The LORD reigns...clothed with majesty...girds Himself with strength...His throne is established...from everlasting...The floods have lifted up, O LORD.  The floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.  The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the might waves of the sea.  Your testimonies are very sure; Holiness adorns Your house, O LORD, forever.

A Proverb that Speaks to Job's Dilemma - Proverbs 22:22-23 - Do not rob the poor because he is poor, nor oppress the afflicted at the gate; For the LORD will plead their cause, and plunder the soul of those who plunder them.

Paul and OT Scripture on Job's Dilemma - So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.  For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.'  Therefore, He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.  You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault?  For who has resisted His will?"  But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God?  Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"  Does not the potter have power over the clay?...What shall we say then?  That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith, but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.  Why?  Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.  For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.  As it is written: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."

My Lessons and Applications: 1) Even God has called Job a righteous, blameless man without fault, but Job knows that true purity and righteousness (holiness) before God by mortal man is impossible.  Of course, Paul - another godly man who endured constant and horrible persecution - confirms this in Romans 3:10:  "No one is righteous - not even one." Sinful man cannot stand before holy God.  2) There are reasons that saints suffer on earth - reasons far beyond mortal understanding.  "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." An understanding of this can only be gained by the full counsel of Scripture - reading and studying it in its entirety from the OT to the NT. 3) Job's life is almost a precursor to the NT covenant promise that as believers we WILL share in Christ's sufferings on this earth.  The world hates us because it hated Him. (John 15: 17-27) We are called to persevere to the end.  He will honor us through this, and through even this, He will be glorified. 4) I love how Job begins his questions with God as the 3rd person.  Then as the suffering saint delves deeper, God draws Him closer, and it becomes the more intimate "You".  The same thing happens with the psalmist who is in distress with the flood overwhelming him - speaking first to "He and His" and then, his confidence is restored as he meditates on God, and then the cry and praise become personal with "O, LORD...Your." 5) The Mediator Job longed for, we now have.  Jesus is the way that sinful man can now be declared righteous...holy...able to stand before God.  Jesus makes intercession for us constantly as He sits at the right hand of God.  Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26)