A life brighter than the midday sun

 Job 11

• Summary

We now have Job's third friend, Zophar, giving his opinion on Job and his circumstances.

He commences by reproving Job of all his talking, which he calls lies and mocking, and says that Job needs rebuking for wrongly saying he is pure and clean. 

Zophar expresses a longing that God would speak and show Job the depths of his wisdom, and how he exacts less of Job than his sin deserves.

He tries to describe how immense God's wisdom and greatness is, comparing it to more than the length of the earth and the width of the sea.

Photo by Adriana Velásquez on Unsplash

Zophar then tells Job that if he were to put away sin and turn to God he would be able to 'lift up his face without spot' and would be happy and secure, forgetting all his calamities as 'water under the bridge' - as we would say - and many would court his favour.  

• Thoughts

My attention was caught today by verses 15-19, but in particular verse 17.

Although, Zophar, like Job's other two friends so far has misjudged him and assumed he has committed great sins from which he is urging him to repent, I see such beauty in these last verses.  They seem to speak to me of the experience of a christian when they come to know the Lord as their Saviour:

• verse 15, 'for then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot' -  the forgiven sinner approaches Jesus with that sense of their guilt and shame taken away;

• verse 16, 'because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away' - the child of God's sins are forgotten and washed away;

• verse 15, 'thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear', - believers trust that the Lord loves them, they approach him with the confidence, freedom and privilege of reciprocated love;

• verse 18 & 19, 'thou shalt be secure, because there is hope...thou shalt take thy rest in safety...thou shalt lie down, and none shalt make thee afraid' - believers have the comfort of everlasting safety.

...and then verse 17 .  It reads:

'And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning'.  

My study Bible helps us understand the meaning by suggesting 'age' could be 'life' and 'clearer' 'brighter', so that it would read, 'thy life shall be brighter than the noonday'.

Photo by Peter Steiner 🇨🇭 on Unsplash

I do wonder whether Zophar is actually speaking of how bright Job's life would be in it's uprightness and goodness - as an example to others -  because he then says in verse 19 that many would 'make suit unto thee' or court his favour. 

Perhaps Zophar is suggesting people would flock to follow Job as they see his life,  a bright and shiny example, like the sun at noon.  But as I see these verses in their application to our new lives as believers in Jesus, they speak to me of the wonderful newness of life and joy of salvation that a believer - and particularly a new believer feels.

Although each believer is brought to know the Lord in their own unique path - with some it is a more gentle process of coming to believe and with others it is more sudden -  they can all say with the blind man who was literally given sight by one of Jesus's miracles of healing, ...'whereas I was blind, now I see' (John 9: 25).  A believer has new understanding and life.  As 1 Corinthians 5:17 says, 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new'.  Their life becomes brighter than the noonday with the joy and hope of salvation.

Photo by Johen Redman on Unsplash

If you are a believer do you remember when you first felt that joy, that hope in the Lord?  A feeling of complete rest and security that you are safe in him for your eternal life, a belief that whatever trials and troubles you may have to go through on earth you are safe in the arms of God, loved, precious and redeemed, that nothing can happen without his permission and knowledge, and that he will use it for your good, to make you more like him, to prepare you to meet him in heaven?

Are you a believer who is feeling low today?  Are you praying to the Lord to help you in your path but perhaps feeling and looking at all the things that weigh you down?

Dear child of God, remember that time when you first believed!  Remember who you believe in!  He has not changed.  He is still your loving Saviour, your Heavenly Father, and the Comforter - the Holy Spirit - lives in you. 

I remember a christian friend once telling me how people would ask them what their secret was - how they always seemed to be happy - people didn't know that that believer was often low and troubled, but they had learnt to turn to the Lord - 'the secret of the LORD is with them that fear him' (Psalm 25:14).  And although the believer perhaps didn't always feel it, people were seeing the fruit of the Spirit within them - peace...love...joy...temperance (or self-control). 

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Perhaps as they continued in life's pilgrimage their inner light of initial joy didn't always shine as brightly as the noon sun, but nevertheless, it was evident.  Their life as a believer was as the freshness of a new day.   As Jesus told his disciples, believers are 'the light of the world.  A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid...' that men 'may glorify your Father which is in heaven' (Matthew 5: 14-16). 

Our visit to Mdina, Malta on our honeymoon, 2018

Let us think on the Lord and remember and thank him for what he has done for us.  Let us take time - whether we can spare 5 minutes or 25 minutes from busy lives - to shut ourselves away from everybody, sit before him and lift our hearts to him, that he may refresh us, bless us, renew us, fill us and enable us too to shine as the noon day sun to those around us - his light in us.

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