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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today, as Job continues the speech he began making yesterday, he shows us how much he longs for the past, specifically starting with his relationship with God. He reflects on a time when he felt the nearness of God in a way that he described as friendship. In 29.4, he says, "...the friendship of God was upon my tent."
Knowing about someone is different than having a friendship with them. And it's certainly different than saying you feel like their friendship dwells in your home with you. It made me stop and reflect on how I view God. Do I just know who He is and know about Him from what others say about Him? Or do I know Him personally? Or do I feel like I have an intimate relationship with Him that is part of my everyday life?
Job not only laments the loss of that nearness, but he also laments the loss of his reputation. People used to listen when he spoke and be in awe at his wisdom. Now they won't stop advising him and they think he's a fool. The only thing that changed was his circumstances. His wisdom didn't vanish. They were judging his wisdom and his righteousness based on his life circumstances.
Previously, Job's friends had accused him of mistreating the poor. But here, Job tells us about all the ways he's extended his hands to the needy and fought for justice. Now, not only are his friends not fighting for him, but they're fighting against him. And because God revealed his vantage point to us in the first chapter of this book, we know which scenario is true. We know who to believe here. We know his friends are wrong.
This is the lowest point of Job's despair. All along, he has been acknowledging that God is responsible for his circumstances, because even though he isn't the active agent, he's still sovereign over it and allowed it. So there's some truth to that.
But the question of God's motives remains unknown to Job. However, in chapter 30, we hit this point where Job seems to begin reaching his own conclusions on what his trials say about God's motives and character. In verse 21, he says, After all this, Job's troubles make him question the character of God.
Even though Job was righteous indeed, he has pride and entitlement in his heart. Job is innocent of the thing his friends have accused him of, but God uses this trial to reveal other things in his heart, things that couldn't have been revealed in any other way but through this trial. And now that these thoughts of Job's heart have surfaced, we've reached a turning point in the story. Because God loves Job, and God doesn't want Job to think things about him that aren't true.
God is going to deal with it, just like Job, who didn't want his friends to think things about him that weren't true. Have you ever had that happen? Has anyone ever misunderstood you? Especially if it's someone that you love, don't you want to help them see the truth about you?
God wants to help Job see the truth so that Job doesn't believe lies about him anymore. God is always in the process of revealing himself to his adopted kids. God will defend his name. My heart breaks for Job, truly. There were two years of my life where my journals and my prayers looked a lot like Job's. Some of my relationships even looked like Job's. I would never say I was righteous like Job, but I relate to a lot of what he's feeling here.
And because I can relate a bit to his emotions, I'm eager for us to keep reading tomorrow because things are about to shift for Job in a dramatic way. But where did you see God at work in today's reading? What was your God shot? I loved seeing that Job considered God his friend.
Even though Job isn't feeling God's nearness at the time, to even know that a level of intimacy with God like that is possible, that encourages me. Friendship implies not just knowledge of a person, but trust of a person and time spent with that person. You can only trust someone you know, and you can only know someone you spend time with.
I want my knowledge of God and my trust of God to always be increasing so that my friendship with God is growing richer and deeper all the time. Because as I get to know Him better, I see all the more that He's where the joy is.
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