March 30, 2024

Passage Read: Job 41 - Psalm 2
Meditation Verse: Job 42:7

Thought

Job repents in dust and ashes; he retracts his words, but then the Lord reveals that He is angry at Job's friends because they have not spoken what was right about the Lord as Job had. So Job was right and his friends were wrong, but Job retracts his words and repents. Was he repenting of his request or demand to meet with God and argue his case? What he said about God was correct, but he never got to plead his case. He never had to. God knew what had happened all along. Job was right in that he had done nothing wrong to deserve what he was suffering. It had nothing to do with what he had done, but with what he would do in response to unjust suffering, and he did pretty well. But Job's friends had spoken wrong about God, and they had condemned Job without cause; their only proof was Job's suffering.

Application

It is easy to get trapped by our own understanding of God, such that when circumstances don't line up or when evidence comes to challenge our beliefs, we can't accept that our belief is wrong. God's Word is absolutely correct and trustworthy, but the doctrines of men, which attempt to describe God can be incorrect, especially given that so many doctrines are in conflict with each other. They cannot all be right, so some have to be wrong, or else all those that conflict may be wrong, either partially or completely. I can only trust to be true that which the Scriptures actually say and teach; if God's word challenges my belief, I need to adjust my belief to align with Scripture. My beliefs should continuously be refined by Scripture. When my beliefs are immoveable, it can only be because I've grasped all of Scripture's teaching, in all its detail, which is tough to say, or else I'm in the presence of the Lord and there is no longer any uncertainty. So until I depart this life, I need to be teachable to Scripture and never hold any doctrine so firmly that God's Word cannot correct or refine it.