Good Job still
Continuing on Job. He and especially his friends did not really have a right understanding of who God was. Their views are shared by many today. Job at least was honest about his feelings. He challenged the simplistic belief by his friends which was simply ‘bad things happen to bad people’. They assumed that Job had a hidden evil past that incurred his disasters.
Job said that evil people got away with being evil and even prospered as a result. Job also said, wrongly, that God was responsible for the evil things that happened. But through it all, Job showed a glimpse of understanding that God was his defender and his advocate. Especially when he kept having to defend himself against his so called friends: Bildad, Zophar and Eliphaz.
“I know that my Defender lives. And in the end he will come to show that I am right.”
Job 19:25 ICB
https://www.bible.com/1359/job.19.25.icb
God doesn’t do evil. The devil does. Jesus says in John chapter 10, verse 10: ‘The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly’.
We do have a defender, an advocate, and that is Jesus. The devil is the accuser, the prosecutor. Jesus is our defender, our defence counsel. Jesus won the case once and for all by taking our place on the cross, taking all our sins and punishment on himself.
God is our loving father. He looks to restore us, to have a close relationship with us, to show us his love. God restored Job’s fortunes and he also showed his true character to Job and his friends. God loves us. He wants us to be honest with him about our feelings. We don’t understand everything and we can’t spit out pat answers or simplistic arguments for human suffering. We need to acknowledge God and his ultimate wisdom, justice, love and mercy. We need to trust God.
“Even now I have one who speaks for me in heaven. The one who is on my side is high above. The one who speaks for me is my friend. While he does this, my eyes pour out tears to God. He begs God on behalf of a man as a man begs for his friend.”
Job 16:19-21 ICB
https://www.bible.com/1359/job.16.19-21.icb
“I mean that God was in Christ, making peace between the world and himself. In Christ, God did not hold the world guilty of its sins. And he gave us this message of peace.”
2 Corinthians 5:19 ICB
https://www.bible.com/1359/2co.5.19.icb
“Christ had no sin. But God made him become sin. God did this for us so that in Christ we could become right with God.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 ICB
unfetteredconviction 