If only there were a mediator
Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:
What did I like about today’s passage?
We can get a lot from this if we remember the daily HEALTH WARNING for most of this book, that stuff which sounds like wisdom without context is not really wisdom. Bildad sounds godly, but his theology is twisted around the idea that good people must be enjoying increasing prosperity throughout life, and therefore misfortune must indicate sin.
I’m not sure if his response was even focused on Job as much as the tension which is emerging as misplaced initial advice from Eliphaz has framed Job’s situation with a faulty premise, and misunderstandings are likely to grow like an increasingly off-topic thread of comments.
Despite the frustration piling up, I love that Job still has a stack of faith in God to draw from. He speaks a lot of awe-inspiring truth about God. But the mistakes that Job and his friends are increasingly making are in how God relates to people and what makes us righteous.
Job’s despair that he can never prove his innocence to God brings him to say, “If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together…” Without this, “even the light is like darkness.”
What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?
God wants us to live in relationship with him and I am reminded that Jesus is the mediator that Job knew could make all the difference.
God does not want us to feel the way Job does. We will never be good enough to earn God's favour, and worshiping a distorted image of God made from human misunderstandings can only result in pain. But relationship with the real God is something good and we can have it, even though we are not perfect, because of Jesus.
What am I going to do differently as a result?
This reminds me that my view of God can easily get distorted if I spend too much time focusing on stuff and not enough simply being with God, getting to know Jesus and letting me and my views get shaped by him. So I will spend more time over the next few days listening to God and letting Jesus and his Spirit bring us together.
Who am I going to share this with?
When I pray with people this week and next, I will make sure we make time and space to be with God and let him speak to us rather than only fire our thoughts and concerns at him.