©Kris Gerbrandt
Chapter 27:1-7 (ESV) - And Job again took up his discourse, and said:
“As God lives, who has taken away my right,
and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,
as long as my breath is in me,
and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,
my lips will not speak falsehood,
and my tongue will not utter deceit.
Far be it from me to say that you are right;
till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;
my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.
Let my enemy be as the wicked,
and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.
Question to consider: Was God responsible for making Job’s soul bitter?
Today it may seem unimaginable to us to witness such a debate. Throughout this book, Job gave each friend a turn to speak and give their complete thought before he made his rebuttal. We don’t see that kind of debate today because television segments are divided up in such a way that it is difficult to develop a complete thought, and each participant is competing against the next commercial break to get their time to speak. It is a little bit better in organized court proceedings on C-Span, but there is a fundamental lack of respect for the wisdom of other people so modern debates sound more like noise pollution.
Job had made his case for a Redeemer who would make him right before God, and the only friend to speak against it was Bildad. After giving his rebuttal to Bildad, Job waited for Zophar to speak up before continuing his discourse. From the very beginning of this discourse, Job had proclaimed, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)
Even if God was the one who had taken away his justice and made his soul bitter, Job still swore upon His holy name that he was telling the truth about not having done any kind of egregious sin to warrant the calamity that befell him. He disagreed with his friends in the strongest of terms and would hold fast to his integrity till death. In fact, at this point Job considered those who opposed him with false accusations to be his enemies, and he asked that God would treat them as the wicked or unrighteous.
I wonder if James had Job in mind when he wrote the following in his epistle, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” (James 1:12-13) Job ignorantly attributed to God the work of Satan. Regardless of whether God allowed Satan to act, the bitterness of Job rested at the feet of Satan, but Job could only go by what he witnessed.
James was able to give his advice to the persecuted church because of what he learned from Job’s experience, and like James, we have the blessing of being able to know that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17) We don’t need to be deceived by the painful trials that Satan or the world tries to bring against us but can put our faith and trust in the One who judges justly.
Dear heavenly Father, thank You for giving us insight through Your word regarding the spiritual war that goes on all around us. Please help us to put our trust in You to deliver us from evil and bring us to everlasting peace and righteousness in Christ Jesus. Amen.