daily java

Daily Java:

Then Bildad the Shuhite replied to Job “How long will you go on like this? You sound like a blustering wind.”  (Job 8:1-2)

I am reading the book of Job in my daily Bible reading. Job had some real problems and his life was ruined through no fault of his own. When it came down to it, his problems were a result of a bet between God and satan. Satan told God that Job was only devout because God blessed him. God said, take it all away and he will still worship. And the contest was on.

Nothing that happened to Job after this was Job’s fault. Everything Job had was taken away. All he had left was his wife and three friends he could have done without.

Job’s wife was understandably upset. She saw her husband, whom she loved, broken and beaten, afflicted with boils, having taken residence on a trash heap. Her response was to go ahead and get it over with. Curse God and die. To her anything was better than this living hell.

His three friends were well-meaning, on one level, but they were also self-righteous men who, although they didn’t have the slightest idea what they were talking about, still felt compelled to give advice.

Bildad’s entry into the stupid advice pool? “If you would just listen to us, you would be able to understand. We know what is wrong and you refuse to listen.”

In his mind, as well as the minds of the other two, he had the answer, if only Job would listen. Job was wrong and they were right. It was that simple.

You come across people like this a lot. It is almost a gnostic sense of “I know what is right and if you were smart, you would listen to me.”

What did Job do when faced with these well-meaning friends who knew nothing? He ignored their advice.

Job knew what his relationship with God was. Later on, he makes the beautiful comment:  

But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! (Job 19:25-26)

Of course, just because you think you are right doesn’t mean anything. In fact, you can feel you right down to the very core of your being and still be wrong. Two examples of this.

First is the passage from Jeremiah 17:9-10:  

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.

Only God knows our hearts and what is truly right. We may think we do, but what we think is too colored with our lives and what is going on in our lives. We cannot be objective. Which brings us to the second thought and our example.

In 2 Samuel 6, King David decided to move the ark to a new location. Instead of carrying it like God said, with poles put in special rings carried by priests, he decided it would be nice if he carried it on a new wagon pulled by young horses.

As it hit a bump in the road, a young man names Uzzah put his hand up to steady it and dropped dead immediately.

A perfectly normal reaction to try to save the ark from falling off, but no one was to ever touch the ark, God had said, even in good intentions.

It scared David so much he parked it and waited.

The point? Just because you think something is a good idea and what God wants doesn’t mean it is. And like in Bildad’s case above, just because you think you are right doesn’t mean you are.

Job knew his relationship, and these three men, I think, were secretly pleased to see such a great man fall.

Just the kind of friends Job needed.