March 21, 2024

Passage Read: Job 5-8
Meditation Verses: 8:2-6

Thought

Job's friends considered themselves very wise and knowledgeable, and they desired to help Job understand that he obviously had sinned in some major way to bring such wrath on himself. But anyone reading this knows that Job did nothing wrong; all he did was get held up as an example of righteousness. So the more Job's friends talk, the more obvious their flawed wisdom comes through. They know that Job has sinned, how else could God bring such calamity on him; God only does such things to the very wicked. But Job is aware of nothing he has done wrong, and we readers know that these things have happened to him through no fault of his own. He is not being punished for doing wrong, but is suffering in order to magnify his uprightness.

Application

Our earnest friends sometimes are very wise in the wisdom of this world. They sometimes have deep understanding of current theological belief. But they don't always know God as well as they think, and their understanding of "truth" is incomplete, and so their application can be very wrong. Indeed, our theology can be very shallow and aimed more at making us feel better about ourselves than truly revealing God. I need to be careful to know God well, and that comes from letting Him be who He is, accepting all He does and says, and being careful to draw temporary conclusions that He can still correct. He is not so simple as any branch of theology can attempt to make out. But neither is He unknowable. When earnest friends come to counsel me in accordance with prevailing theological beliefs, I shouldn't be surprised, but should hold to what I know to be true, even if I myself don't see all things clearly. What has been revealed, I can not and must not deny, just because it doesn't fit with the current thinking about Christ and Christianity. God is always right; men can be earnest and learned…and wrong.