Job 13
This chapter continues with Job lecturing his friends that he knows as much as they and whilst he wants to talk and reason with God he considers them liars and useless physicians. He wishes they would be silent - it would be much wiser.
Whilst telling them to listen to his reasoning and pleadings he claims that they are speaking wrongly on God's behalf and mocking God. He says that if God were to search them they would be rebuked and afraid,and that their platitudes are as proverbs of ashes.
He tells them again to be silent, to leave him alone, for though God were to kill him he would still trust him, but he would defend himself to him. Having prepared his case he believes God will vindicate him, but to be able to speak with God he needs God to remove his hand from him and take the sense of his dreadfulness away, so that Job is not afraid to answer him when he calls him.
He then asks God to show him his sins asking why God is not speaking to him and treating him as his enemy, which he then describes using illustrations such as having his feet put in the stocks.
My thoughts today have focused on Job's trust in God rather than man. In verses 3 and 4 he says,
'Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God. But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value'. And then in verse 15 he says, 'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him'.
Job has been greatly bereaved of all of his children, he has suffered disaster after disaster in his 'business' and now is enduring the pain and discomfort of boils all over his body, and yet he says he would rather talk to God about it than his friends and though God were to kill him, he would still trust him!
What faith in God! Although somewhat wrongly Job believes he will be able to reason with God and defend his righteousness, yet his trust in God and his justness is striking.
It reminds me of King David, who after proudfully counting how many people he had in his nation was given a choice of punishments - he chose God's direct punishment rather than via man, saying, 'let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man' (1 Chronicles 21:13).
Both Job and David would rather have God manage them and their affairs than mankind. They had both experienced what we humans are like - they knew themselves - but God - God is merciful, just, compassionate, forgiving and righteous.
It is summed up nicely in Psalm 146, 'Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. ' The 'son of man' according to my study Bible is here meaning 'a' son of man, ie another human.
Don't put your trust in mortal humans, who will die, instead, 'Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose help is in the LORD his God: which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth forever...'.
Although we may naturally trust our parents, friends and co-workers - those who care about us, love us, have a moral or professional duty towards us, yet they may sometimes either because of circumstances out of their control or because of their own human weakness, let us down.
I remember the first time I saw one of my parents in deep distress about a matter, and it shook me. I was by that time a young adult and I suddenly became aware that my parents too, were weak humans. In my experience of childhood I had always felt safe and secure, but suddenly now I became conscious of a sense that this foundation was being shaken.
Dear friend, do you sometimes have this feeling of insecurity? Do you fear what is going to happen? Do you feel you have no one to turn to, or no one who can really help you? Perhaps you have felt let down by other people or you consider all the events going on in the world and society and you feel helpless, hopeless or anxious.
Jesus likens those who believe in his sayings and put their trust in him to being like a person who builds their home on a rock solid foundation, which when exposed to all the elements of nature stands firm. In contrast, those who don't follow his sayings, those who don't trust in him, he says are like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand, which when the rain, winds and floods come, falls down (Matthew 7).
Are we building our hopes of safety and security in Jesus? Are we like those in Psalm 27: 5 who can say of God, 'in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock'?
Do we run to Jesus to pour out all our desires, troubles, fears and confessions in prayer, trusting that he hears, forgives, loves and will manage all for his people? As it says in Proverbs 18: 10, 'the name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe'.
We have some patio steps in our garden and when sunny I love to sit on them with a mug of tea and just listen and look - to see, hear and feel God's creation. To feel the expanse of air and world around me - to look up at the sky and clouds, and think,
'God made all of this! God is greater than this! And yet he loves me?!'
How insignificant problems seem in comparison. How reassuring it is to feel that God is in control! How our life is put into perspective...and how good it is to feel that rock, that refuge, that secret place, that pavilion of safety - to trust.
May the Lord bless you as you think on this too, and if you do not yet know him as your refuge, may he enable you to put your trust in him so that whatever circumstances you come into, whatever happens to you, you can turn to him and know him as your Saviour, your rock, your refuge for this life and eternity.
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