It’s easy to misunderstand stuff without good relationship

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?

It’s helpful alongside a HEALTH WARNING that lots of stuff here has the form of Psalms and wisdom but lacks a foundation of truth. Please don’t turn it into songs.

Zophar joins the comment thread with vigour and forceful accusation. Funny how comment threads can go like that, especially when everyone happens to be an expert. Unfortunately, no matter how much Zophar might be right about God in many ways, by failing to understand Job and by assuming that he must know why Job is suffering (spoiler alert: he does not know), Zophar’s apparent wisdom is no wisdom at all. It’s a mockery of wisdom.

If I want to guide other people, I find that people will tend to do what I do much more readily than do something I tell them to do. I think Job is showing that in his response to Zophar, which matches and elevates the mocking tone, making it hard to tell what he really thinks about the God he appears to recognise as powerful. Which bits are only mock praise, honour and worship in this black mirror of a Psalm? Does Job even know?

Somewhere in this discussion about the ideas of God and sin, I think Job has been losing his clear view of God and his grasp on the discipline which kept his life pointing towards God. Job is developing anger which has changed how he expresses his desire to argue with God - he is increasingly up for a fight, and this is hardening the self-justification he would need in order to prevail.

However, his sense of hopelessness is also heightening, and this is now leading him to start accusing God of being a destroyer of hope. The image of God Job has started to form in his head is a dark distortion of God's true nature, and it is tearing him up. I don't like any of this, but I recognise some of it.

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

This distorted picture is not good for drawing conclusions about God's nature. It does show me that while God's awesome power can be recognised, people who only live with the idea of God will end up frustrated and fighting, while God really wants a relationship with us.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

I don’t want to be like a worker putting up signs warning people not to fall into a pit, only to step back, admire my own work and fall into the pit myself. This passage shows that it's not enough for me to write about the idea of God. I'm going to keep trying to increase the amount of time I spend praying and listening.

Who am I going to share this with?

Good relationships are key. I need to build relationship with God in relationship with other believers. So I will discuss how we can do this in our next open house discipleship chat.