Why I Believe the person
Job in the OT Suffered.
Maybe why you’re suffering
as a Christian?
—
He ‘burnt’ himself out.
When God perhaps
didn’t want him to burn himself out.
—
6For I desired mercy,
and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of God
more than “burnt” offerings.
—Hosea 6:6
—
Derek Prince, a godly teacher, and a man who studied much in philosophy, said that he realized that the Bible is the most logical book ever written.
Hosea 6:6 says God desires the knowledge of God MORE
than “burnt” offerings.
Mercy is relational…
Knowledge of God is relational…
Sacrifice and “burnt offerings”
is honorable. And I would say even good. But it’s not Gods preference. Because God is love 1 John 4:8
Being Relational is more important to God. Because where the cultivation of love is, there is the “bond of perfectness”
Colossians 3:14?
This is why one of the things God hates most is those who sow discord among brethren.
Proverbs 6
—
Make no mistake…
God was very pleased with Job.
I think it is reasonable to say that God was proud of Job.
But God needed to work on Job.
Because Job wasn’t living his life the way God preferred him to. Relationally.
Job wasn’t with his children having a meal with them, relationally, when he could have…
Instead he was burning himself out, making a burnt sacrifice for their spiritual well-being.
A good thing…
but perhaps not the best thing…
If Job was there for his kids… maybe things would have been different…
His kids needed primarily a daddy, secondarily a
“prophet, priest and king.”
Job was honorable,
dedicated to God.
His ambition was to please God.
2 Corinthians 5:9
He was industrious in righteous ways. He helped the poor, and continually made sacrifices on behalf of his children.
“Thus did Job continually.”
Job 1:5
There’s a lot of theology in this one part of the verse;
“Thus did Job continually.”
Job was burning himself out…
And God saw, it seems,
that it was not good.
So God stopped him.
.
.
.
.
His friends came, and Eliphaz, though not sympathetically as he probably should have been, put his finger on something that Job really needed to have cleared in his life.
Eliphaz, as a true friend,
told Job the truth.
Hard as it was for Job to probably hear.
3Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?
—Job 22:3
His ambition and will-power to serve God — apparently exceeded his relational knowledge of who God is.
Because Jobs deliverance came when he had a relational encounter with the holiness of Gods person.
And then, when he prayed for his friends, (another relational thing), his trials abated.
Jesus’ prayer for the church was relational. “That they may be one, as we Father are one.” John 17
We can “strive” about with
“words (and works) to no profit”
2 Timothy 2:14
(Let him who reads, filter and discern what I say)(Mark 13:14)
That if the only profit we get is an accomplishment of some righteous endeavor, but its goal is not love for God and love for each other, then we have ”missed the mark” 🎯 and sinned…
Jesus said what he did, so that others “might be saved.” John 5:34
~
And Job did what he did, it seems, because He wanted to honor God. and protect his children from losing Gods favor. So he made sacrifice for them.
Job was noble.
He thought about the right things Philippians 4:8
But it seems Job was not relational.
And perhaps Job was not relational because his 3 [VERY]elderly friends
(see Job 15:10), were not relational themselves.
Job was like Christ,
who “sat in the temple” Asking the doctors of the law questions.
Job probably revered the holiness of his 3 elderly friends…
But because they themselves weren’t relationally mature, they had to suffer this ordeal, in seeing their protégé — Job, suffer…
What did Job need?
Relational bonding abilities with God and one another. And he never got it because his elderly friends weren’t able to teach him this.
(It seems they had relational wills, but they weren’t good at being relationally loving naturally so).
(In the beginning Jobs 3 friends sat on the dirt with him for a week, before they said a word).
As much as Job’s 3 friends failed to help Job, they probably did a much better job helping Job than most of us ever would.
Who among us would sit on the dirt ground for a week with a suffering friend? Jobs 3 friends did…
But Job ultimately needed a relational encounter with God…
According to the wisdom of Eliphaz, and it was wisdom; he asked Job; “is it any gain to him that you make your ways perfect?”
—Job 22:3
Eliphaz put his finger on something in Jobs life that he needed to be more well-rounded in…
Jesus, our Lord and Savior,
calls us to “be perfect”
Matthew 5:48
“To make our ways perfect”
—Job 22:3
In context we can only do this secondarily, If we know that we are “children of our Father.”
Matthew 5:45
“Behold what manner of LOVE that the FATHER has bestowed on us. That we would be called
children of God.”
1 John 3:1
I wonder if that’s why you and I are suffering as believers?
We aren’t enjoying our relationship with God and each other.
And we are forgetting how.
And the Lord would have us remember the value of relational love.
The pandemic tried to shut everyone’s love out and down.
“But where sin (and sinful events) abounded, grace abounded more.”
—Roman’s 5
This isn’t the end of love.
“Having hope, when our faith is increased.” 2 Corinthians 10:15
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