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- Good Saturday morning, people of faith. It is good to be back with you. I know that we did broadcast last
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- Saturday, but that recording happened about six weeks ago. So this is actually the first recording that I've made for one of our
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- Saturday morning devotionals in about six weeks. This morning, our passage is from Job, chapters 22 through 27.
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- We're actually going to start in chapter 21 with the very last verse of chapter 21, and we're going to go into just the first part of chapter 22.
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- Before we do that though, let me ask you a question. Have you ever had a conversation with someone in which you made an assumption about what they were saying about what was really happening on the inside of them that ended up being completely wrong?
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- I'm going to make the case to you today that Eliphaz is doing exactly that to Job.
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- All right, verse 34 of chapter 21, this is Job speaking. He says, how then can you comfort me with empty words since falsehood remains in your answers?
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- Now, many falsehoods, and we talked about this last Saturday, and I'm sure
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- Pastor will be talking, has talked about it this week as well. The approach that Job's friends are taking is a mixture of truth and error, and when you mix truth with error, you generally come out with error, okay?
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- And so Job is rightly proclaiming that falsehood remains in your answers, but his words there at the beginning of verse 34, how then can you comfort me?
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- Give the impression of someone who is unconsolable, someone who is filled with bitterness and perhaps even anger at God, all right?
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- And that's the assumption that Job is making, or that Job's friends here are making, that there is a problem in the relationship between Job and God because Job's circumstances are so horrible.
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- So chapter 22, then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, can a man be profitable to God, though he who is wise may be profitable to himself?
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- Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous, or is it gain to him that you make your ways blameless?
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- Is it because of your fear of him that he corrects you and enters into judgment with you?
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- All right, so a couple of things here, starting out with a little bit of truth in the question, it says, can a man be profitable to God?
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- And the answer is no in this sense, that all your righteousnesses or all my righteousnesses are as filthy rags to God.
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- We do not bring anything in terms of our righteousness to add to what
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- Christ has done. Christ has paid it all, all right? Is it a pleasure to the
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- Almighty that you are righteous? He has chosen to be pleased with us because he sees us in his
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- Son. So that one may be not quite so true. Now, we get down to verse four, and this is where that assumption really comes out that Eliphaz is making.
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- He's good to ask a question, but notice that there's a subtle sharp knife in the back in this question.
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- Is it because of your fear of him that he corrects you? Notice that he's ultimately assuming that the bad things that have happened in Job's life must be that the
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- Lord is correcting Job for something wrong that he's done. So the accusation is made within the question and enters into judgment with you.
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- He is outright accusing in the question that Job is under judgment for doing wrong here.
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- Might I suggest to you that there's a better way to go about this, that instead he should have said, could it be that the
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- Lord is correcting you? Notice how different that question is from, is it because of your fear of him that he corrects you?
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- Notice the first one, my question says, could it be that the
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- Lord is providing correction? Meaning, I'm asking the question so that you have opportunity to dwell on that question.
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- The Holy Spirit can guide your answer to that question to see if there be anything wrong that needs correcting.
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- The second one is an accusation that there is something wrong and you need to deal with it, even though it's put in terms of a question.
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- Alright, so a couple of applications here. If things aren't going well in your life,
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- I would ask you the question, is the Lord providing correction?
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- Now notice I'm not saying that the Lord is providing correction on that. I'm saying, is the
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- Lord providing correction? And there's a very, very subtle but very distinct difference, okay?
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- That is not something that I have inside information to, alright?
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- And then perhaps in conversation this week you'll have opportunity to talk to someone and rather than assuming something about the situation, ask about the situation so that the
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- Lord can work through that without us being in the position of being one of Job's friends because that's not a good place to be.
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- Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word.
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- Thank you for this interaction between Job and his friends and with God's sovereignty over the situation for us to learn about you as the sovereign and supreme over everything.
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- Help us to walk with you this day. It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.
