Devotions

20240717

not meant to understand

Job 39:1-30 (JDV)

Job 39:1 Do you know the time mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the deer in labor?
Job 39:2 Can you count the months they are pregnant so you can know the time they give birth?
Job 39:3 They crouch down to give birth to their young; they deliver their newborn.
Job 39:4 Their offspring are healthy and grow up in the open field. They leave and do not return.
Job 39:5 Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from its bonds?
Job 39:6 I made the desert its home, and the salty wasteland its dwelling.
Job 39:7 It scorns at the noise of the village and never hears the shouts of a driver.
Job 39:8 It roams the mountains for its pastureland, searching for anything green.
Job 39:9 Would the wild ox be willing to serve you? Would it spend the night by your feeding trough?
Job 39:10 Can you hold the wild ox to a furrow by its harness? Will it plow the valleys behind you?
Job 39:11 Can you depend on it because its strength is great? Would you leave it to do your hard work?
Job 39:12 Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain and bring it to your threshing floor?
Job 39:13 The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but are her feathers and plumage like the stork’s?
Job 39:14 She abandons her eggs on the ground and lets them be warmed in the sand.
Job 39:15 She forgets that a foot may crush them or that some wild animal may trample them.
Job 39:16 She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own, with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.
Job 39:17 You see, God has deprived her of wisdom; he has not endowed her with insight.
Job 39:18 When she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.
Job 39:19 Do you give strength to the horse? Do you adorn his neck with a mane?
Job 39:20 Do you make him leap like a locust? His proud snorting fills one with terror.
Job 39:21 He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he charges into battle.
Job 39:22 He laughs at fear since he is afraid of nothing; he does not run from the sword.
Job 39:23 A quiver rattles at his side, along with a flashing spear and a javelin.
Job 39:24 He chews up the ground with trembling rage; he cannot stand still at the trumpet’s sound.
Job 39:25 When the trumpet blasts, he snorts defiantly. He smells the battle from a distance; he hears the officers’ shouts and the battle cry.
Job 39:26 Does the hawk take flight by your insight and spread its wings to the south?
Job 39:27 Does the eagle soar at your command and make its nest high?
Job 39:28 It lives on a cliff where it spends the night; its stronghold is on a rocky crag.
Job 39:29 From there it searches for prey; its eyes penetrate the distance.
Job 39:30 Its brood gulps down blood, and where the slain are, it is there.

not meant to understand

The LORD reminds Job of all those ways of the animal world – both wild and tame, that are beyond the scientific inquiry of humans. There are some things that we are not meant to understand. How God works through suffering is sometimes one of those things.

20240714

theological myopia

Job 36:1-33 (JDV)

Job 36:1 Then Elihu continued and said:
Job 36:2 Be patient with me a little longer, and I will inform you, for there is still more to be said on God’s behalf.
Job 36:3 I will get my knowledge from a distant place and ascribe justice to my Maker.
Job 36:4 Indeed, my words are not false; one who has complete knowledge is with you.
Job 36:5 Yes, God is mighty, but he despises no one; he understands all things.
Job 36:6 He does not keep the wicked alive, but he gives justice to the oppressed.
Job 36:7 He does not withdraw his gaze from the righteous, but he seats them forever with enthroned kings, and they are exalted.
Job 36:8 If people are bound with chains and trapped by the cords of affliction,
Job 36:9 God tells them what they have done and how arrogantly they have transgressed.
Job 36:10 He opens their ears to correction and tells them to turn from iniquity.
Job 36:11 If they listen and serve him, they will end their days in prosperity and their years in happiness.
Job 36:12 But if they do not listen, they will cross the river of death and die without knowledge.
Job 36:13 Those who have a godless heart harbor anger; even when God binds them, they do not cry for help.
Job 36:14 They die in their youth; their life ends among male cult prostitutes.
Job 36:15 God rescues the afflicted by their affliction; he instructs them by their torment.
Job 36:16 Indeed, he lured you from the jaws of distress to a spacious and unconfined place. Your table was spread with choice food.
Job 36:17 Yet now you are obsessed with the judgment due the wicked; judgment and justice have seized you.
Job 36:18 Be careful that no one lures you with riches; do not let a large ransom lead you astray.
Job 36:19 Can your wealth or all your physical exertion keep you from distress?
Job 36:20 Do not long for the night when nations will disappear from their places.
Job 36:21 Be careful that you do not turn to iniquity, for that is why you have been tested by affliction.
Job 36:22 Look, God shows himself exalted by his power. Who is a teacher like him?
Job 36:23 Who has appointed his way for him, and who has declared, “You have done wrong”?
Job 36:24 Remember that you should praise his work, which people have sung about.
Job 36:25 All mankind has seen it; people have looked at it from a distance.
Job 36:26 Yes, God is exalted beyond our knowledge; the number of his years cannot be counted.
Job 36:27 For he makes waterdrops evaporate; they refine the rain into its mist,
Job 36:28 which the clouds pour out and shower abundantly on mankind.
Job 36:29 Can anyone understand how the clouds spread out or how the thunder roars from God’s pavilion?
Job 36:30 See how he spreads his lightning around him and covers the depths of the sea.
Job 36:31 For He judges the nations with these; he gives food in abundance.
Job 36:32 He covers his hands with lightning and commands it to hit its mark.
Job 36:33 The thunder declares his presence; the cattle also, the approaching storm.

theological myopia

Elihu assumes that God only works in one way and for one reason. He fails to see the big picture that reveals why Job was suffering. He was guilty of theological myopia.

LORD, forgive us for being so myopic. When we don’t know the whole story, keep us from publishing what we think we know.

20240712

wrong assumption

Job 34:1-37 (JDV)

Job 34:1 Then Elihu continued and said:
Job 34:2 Hear my words, wise ones, and listen to me, knowing ones.
Job 34:3 Doesn’t the ear test words as the palate tastes food?
Job 34:4 Let us judge for ourselves what is right; let us decide together what is good.
Job 34:5 Because Job has declared, “I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice.
Job 34:6 Would I lie about my case? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.”
Job 34:7 What healthy man is like Job? He drinks derision like water.
Job 34:8 He keeps company with evildoers and walks with wicked men.
Job 34:9 Because he has said, “A healthy man gains nothing when he becomes God’s friend.”
Job 34:10 Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding. It is impossible for God to do wrong, and for the Almighty to act unjustly.
Job 34:11 Because he repays a person according to his deeds, and he gives him what his conduct deserves.
Job 34:12 It is also true that God does not act wickedly and the Almighty does not pervert justice.
Job 34:13 Who gave him authority over the land? Who put him in charge of the continents?
Job 34:14 If he put his mind to it and withdrew the breath and breathing he gave,
Job 34:15 every living thing would expire together and Adam would return to the dust.
Job 34:16 If you have insight, hear this; listen to what I have to say.
Job 34:17 Could one who hates justice govern the world? Will you condemn the mighty Righteous One,
Job 34:18 who says to a king, “Worthless man!” and to nobles, “Wicked men!”?
Job 34:19 God is not partial to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of his hands.
Job 34:20 They die suddenly in the middle of the night; people shudder, then pass away. Even the mighty are removed without effort.
Job 34:21 For his eyes watch over a man’s ways, and he observes all his steps.
Job 34:22 There is no darkness, no deep darkness, where evildoers can hide.
Job 34:23 God does not need to examine a person further, that one should approach him in court.
Job 34:24 He shatters the mighty without an investigation and sets others in their place.
Job 34:25 Therefore, he recognizes their deeds and overthrows them by night, and they are crushed.
Job 34:26 In full view of the public, he strikes them for their wickedness,
Job 34:27 because they turned aside from following him and did not understand any of his ways
Job 34:28 but caused the poor to cry out to him, and he heard the outcry of the needy.
Job 34:29 But when God is silent, who can declare him guilty? When he hides his face, who can see him? Yet he watches over both individuals and nations,
Job 34:30 so that godless men should not rule or ensnare the people.
Job 34:31 Suppose someone says to God, “I have endured my punishment; I will no longer act wickedly.
Job 34:32 Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I won’t do it again.”
Job 34:33 Should God repay you on your terms when you have rejected his? You must choose, not I! So, declare what you know.
Job 34:34 Reasonable men will say to me, along with the wise healthy men who hear me,
Job 34:35 “Job speaks without knowledge; his words are without insight.”
Job 34:36 If only Job were tested to the limit, because his answers are like those of wicked men.
Job 34:37 Because he adds rebellion to his sin; he scornfully claps in our presence, while multiplying his words against God.

wrong assumption

Elihu insists that God must be in the right, therefore Job must have wronged someone for God to bring this suffering upon him. He feels he must say this in order to defend God. Believers need to be careful who we condemn. God is capable of fighting his own battles.

LORD, give us the grace to trust your judgment, but not to assume that it is happening.