Thursday, August 27, 2009

2009 – Day 238.Aug 27 – Futile Search

Passage of the Day: Job 10 … Linked for study …

My Journal for Today:
Well, here we are back again with Job who is still confused and reeling with the desire to understand and find clarity for his loss and pain. Chapter 10 is like a replay of Chapter 3, isn’t it? But in the intervening time, Job has received feedback from Eliphaz and Bildad … to no avail. These men, whom we’ve seen are really friends of Job; and they are men who earned the right, by their grieving with Job and spending time being at his side, to share their ideas with this beaten friend.

BUT (again, it’s a big “BUT”), what they shared didn’t help. And we need to learn a lesson from that. And the lesson is that no amount of human or worldly wisdom, … scientifically based, historically sound, or culturally accepted, is going to be of help when a Christian friend feels abandoned by God. Job needed understanding for his dilemma; and when no man, even a caring friend, could explain his dilemma, all he felt was further separation from God.

What Job needed was truth; and my friend, that can only come from God, … not from man; and most certainly not from our own self. Sure, it’s okay to listen to friends, … especially Godly friends you trust – as did Job. But don’t expect them to be able to tap into God’s mind, … UNLESS they are quoting or exposing the one, true source of God’s mind; and that is something we have in God’s word, but something which Job had no access. Oh, what an advantage we have over poor Job. We not only have God’s truth to lean on when life goes awry; but we have the Mediator Whom Job sought but had not been a part of Job’s belief system.

Job’s God never left him or forsook him; but Job didn’t have that truth from Deut. 31: 6. Nor did he have the tradition of Joshua 1: 5 to lean on. And most certainly the concept of a coming Redeemer, “a Messiah,” was not part of his conscious belief as yet. So, all Job had was three friends with very human, and very imperfect, ideas about WHY all this was happening. Therefore, Job returns to God and he re-voices his confusion and angst here in Chapter 10. And therein lies a second lesson, we can learn from Job’s dilemma; and that is to keep going back to God when there is confusion or pain which we simply cannot understand from our human hearts/minds.

If you’ve been following along with this study in Job, we’ve seen Job persistently going to the one – and only – place he knows to go, in faith, for answers; and that is to God. And here in this Chapter we see our downtrodden hero doing just that - AGAIN. So, we learn that if – or I really should said WHEN – we are in a place of utter confusion and even doubting God’s presence or power, we must GO TO HIM. And we must keep going to Him to get answers. And yes, prayer is one way; but I’ve found that the best way is to go deeper and deeper into the word of God, and finding God’s promises and His perfect insights to lift us up when we feel separated from God due to our feelings.

Feelings are so very fickle, my friend. Don’t trust them for a moment! Don’t rely on them at all!! The only answers we’ll ever get to explain things or lift us up are found in The Bible. The only place we can go with our feelings is to God. And when we do, we’ll find what is promised in the Bible and what our relationship with God will produce … and that is to trust Him – in faith – with the truth of passages like Deut. 31: 8 … Joshua 1: 8 … Proverbs 3: 5, 6 … Romans 8: 28 … 1st Cor. 10: 13 … or Phil. 4: 13. And all of those are truths which just bubbled up into my mind from my heart/mind as I was sitting here writing this. I hope you know them – and others as well; and I hope that you lean on those truths when God has led you into “the valley of the shadow of death.”

My Prayer for Today: Lord, You are with me always; and Your truths, they do comfort me. Amen

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