I have two questions, and a couple of thoughts.
The first question: What is the Leviathan referenced in Job 41?
I don't have much of an answer to this except that it's some kind of creature that is referenced a couple of times within the bible. hahah, sorry to disappoint!
----
The second question: What did Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar do that was wrong enough that they needed to make offerings to God and have Job pray for them? Weren't they defending God while Job cried out against Him?
"When Job’s three friends - Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar - heard of his
adversity, they came to visit him, saying they wanted to comfort him (Job 2:11).
But they didn’t actually comfort him at all, when we see the way they
spoke to him later on. They only criticised and accused him. All three
of them were in fellowship with the devil, the accuser of the brethren.
These three men were jealous of Job, because Job was a godly man and a
rich man and everything was going well for him and for his family.
Many believers are jealous of godly men, when they see their
influence and ministry - and are often waiting for some calamity to hit
them. We know that the devil is eager for some calamity to befall godly
people. But there are believers who wait for that too, and who are
secretly happy when it happens.
These three men pretended that they were very sorry for Job. They
wept when they saw Job and tore their robes and threw dust over their
heads. They were really good actors. But secretly they were delighted,
because they were jealous of him. These three preachers only knew about
God. They didn’t know God personally. That’s why God couldn’t point out
any of them to Satan.
...When God’s blessing and
anointing are on a godly man, and someone else is jealous of him, God
may allow some physical calamity to come to that man, in order to expose
the other person’s wicked jealousy. Once the other man’s evil has been
exposed, God will heal the sickness and restore the godly man to health.
All three of these men could not truly understand why Job suffered as
he did. They could only find fault with him. That is because they were
religious people like the Pharisees later on, in Jesus’ time..." (http://www.cfcindia.com/web/mainpages/word_for_the_week.php?display=11_04&year=10)
I can relate to being like Bildad, Zophar, and Eliphaz. I've felt jealous of people and what they've had. I would start to think, what's so good about them that they deserve more than me? But that's just selfish. Other people have nothing to do with my life and what God has blessed me with, so I have learned to be a little happier for other people instead of dwelling on what I (don't) have. Of course, this is still a battle every now and then...
-----------
But all in all, what came to mind while reading the chapters, and when God began to answer Job directly, is something that occurs pretty frequently in real life. I am a sensitive person. It's not just because I'm a girl, but because of who I am and how I grew up. With that in mind, I feel very intimidated around sarcastic, witty, or snappy people. Whether a mean comment is directed towards or me, I tend to recoil because I feel like they could have said it in a nicer way. I've had a couple of conversations with my friends about people who are blunt and don't censor what they feel in how they relay it to whoever, but basically the response that I've gotten is... yea, it might be mean to say it out loud or to say it bluntly, but it's the truth so you can't really do anything about it. You can't counter it because it's not as if they're stating a lie, but rather you must accept what they're saying.
In the same way, when God is talking to Job, He brings up the fact that He knows more about everything than Job. At first, it seems as if God is a cocky being who likes to talk about Himself and boast about how much better he is than humans, however, that is not the case. Job was never neglected and left alone by God. God just wanted Job to trust Him because there is no one who knows more about anything than Him nor is there anyone who loves more than Himself. In Job 40-41, God elaborates that He was there when the world was being created (because He created it), when the first humans were created, when animals hunt to eat, and when seemingly insignificant things occur, like a single ox hides from the shade by sitting under a lotus plant. God is by definition an all-knowing, all-loving, and all-feeling being... so doesn't that mean that if Job was hurting, that God was hurting an equal amount PLUS the pain of all of the other humans and creatures on the Earth? God didn't deserve being rebuked by Job, even if he did go through so much. And Job recognizes this, resulting in forgiveness from God and a blessed life until death.
Pride is one of man's greatest enemies. Pride is so easy to give into... we think we deserve something and fight to get it. Or we feel like we don't deserve punishment and we run away from it. God is the maker of justice... if we deserve punishment, then we need to recognize it like Job. It takes more of a man to be punished for something that we don't think we completely deserve than to run away from it, avoid it, or push it onto something else.
No comments:
Post a Comment