10/30/2011 9:19:03 AM
SPIRITIUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: The Logical Arguments
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Job 8:1-22
Message of the verses: Today’s SD begins the third chapter in Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on Job which he has entitled “The Discussion Continues.” In order to understand the direction that he will take us as we study this section he gives a clue at the beginning of the chapter. He writes “As the discussion continues, Bildad presents three logical arguments to prove Job is guilty; and Job counters with three painful question to help his friends understand how perplexed and tormented he really is.” There is also a quote from John Wesley at the beginning of this chapter which says “You may be as orthodox as the devil, and as wicked.”
Job is looking for comfort from his friends, but that will not happen, in fact Bildad as much as tells him that he is full of hot air (8:2). Dr. Wiersbe writes “Bildad preached a sermon on God’s justice, and this text was taken from the ‘vision’ of Eliphaz: ‘Shall mortal man be more just than God’ (4:17). In defending God’s justice, Bildad presented three logical arguments.”
“The character of God (Job 8:1-7): “1 ¶ Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, 2 "How long will you say these things, And the words of your mouth be a mighty wind? 3 "Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert what is right? 4 "If your sons sinned against Him, Then He delivered them into the power of their transgression. 5 "If you would seek God And implore the compassion of the Almighty, 6 If you are pure and upright, Surely now He would rouse Himself for you And restore your righteous estate. 7 "Though your beginning was insignificant, Yet your end will increase greatly.”
In Job’s last talk he spoke of God doing these things that happened to him, and now Bildad tells Job that this is as much as blaspheming God as he begins his speech to Job. Bildad asks “does God pervert justice or does the Almighty prevent what is right?”
When you look at God you have to look at His attributes in order to understand who God is, and most people today only think of the love of God, while in the case of Bildad he was looking only at the Justice of God, and both ways are wrong, for we must understand both His love and His justice. When we look at the cross we see God’s love, but we also see the justice of God as He takes His wrath out on the sinless Savior for those who would accept His forgiveness. In the Old Testament times people were looking towards the cross and when Christ came and died there sins were completely forgiven. We in the New Testament times look back to the cross seeing what Jesus Christ has done for us there, paying for our sins through His death, and satisfying an angry God so that we can be forgiven. Then being raised from the dead to prove that God was satisfied with His sacrifice.
Bildad even went so far in his speech to say that Job’s children sinned and that is why they were killed, and this must have been painful for Job to hear.
We seen in Job 8:6-7 that Bildad is using a ploy of Satan by saying that if you say you have not sinned why then has God taken everything away from you. We will see in the future (Job 42:7-13) that Job will be assigned by God to pray for Bildad, and the rest of Job’s “friends,”
“The wisdom of the past (Job 8:8-10): “8 ¶ "Please inquire of past generations, And consider the things searched out by their fathers. 9 "For we are only of yesterday and know nothing, Because our days on earth are as a shadow. 10 "Will they not teach you and tell you, And bring forth words from their minds?”
Bildad is now going to talk about the past, and the wisdom that we can get from learning about the past, yet just because one looks at the past does not mean that they will not make the same mistakes of those in the past, for if they were wrong then they are still wrong today. Dr. Wiersbe give a quote from Historian Jeroslav Pelikan who writes, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” These words are true.
We truly can learn from those in the past, but must be careful not to make the same mistakes of those in the past. While living in Hawaii for eight months earlier this year we attended a church where the Pastor gave a message on the importance of having every age group in the church, and then went on to tell why all age groups were necessary. I was waiting to hear what he was going to say about those in the age group that I am in, (Older people). He said that we need the older people in the church so that we can learn from the mistakes that they have made and not make the same mistakes they have already made. I felt that this was great wisdom on his part to say this, but there was a younger woman who began to laugh so loud and for so long that the Pastor had to tell her that this was not a funny issue, it was truth. There are many in the Church today that go along with the woman who laughed. There are many young Pastors that have no desire to have older people in the church where they serve and make it evident so that the older people are forced to leave. This is a grave mistake on their part, one that they will have to answer to when they sit at the Judgment seat of Christ.
In this section we do not see Bildad quoting from the ancients, for he knew that Job knew what he was talking about. Bildad makes it clear to Job that he believed the ancients over his contemporaries.
The evidence in nature (Job 8:11-22): “11 "Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh? Can the rushes grow without water? 12 "While it is still green and not cut down, Yet it withers before any other plant. 13 "So are the paths of all who forget God; And the hope of the godless will perish, 14 Whose confidence is fragile, And whose trust a spider’s web. 15 "He trusts in his house, but it does not stand; He holds fast to it, but it does not endure. 16 "He thrives before the sun, And his shoots spread out over his garden. 17 "His roots wrap around a rock pile, He grasps a house of stones. 18 "If he is removed from his place, Then it will deny him, saying, ’I never saw you.’ 19 "Behold, this is the joy of His way; And out of the dust others will spring.
“20 ¶ "Lo, God will not reject a man of integrity, Nor will He support the evildoers. 21 "He will yet fill your mouth with laughter And your lips with shouting. 22 "Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, And the tent of the wicked will be no longer.’”
To better understand this section Dr. Wiersbe writes, “In this ‘wisdom poem,’ Bildad may have summarized some of the sayings of the ancients as he argued from the law of ‘cause and effect.’ If this law applies in nature, why not in human life as well.”
If we take the illustration of the papyrus plant and know that if it does not have water then it will die. In the same way Job was withering and dying, so there had to be a cause for why this was happening to Job, and it must have been that Job sinned to cause this to happen to him.
Bildad moves to a spider’s web and asks if you lean on it will you not fall. In the same way Job was leaning on his life that he had not sinned to cause all of this trouble, and according to Bildad he will fall.
The last example is from the garden, and if you pull up a plant, no matter how luxuriant it may be it will eventually die. Job’s root system has something wrong with it and because of that he will soon die, according to Bildad. Bildad was saying that God had pulled up Job, like a plant because it was faulty and now he would die.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: When the pilgrims were leaving for the New World John Robinson said to them this important truth that I want to learn and make it my spiritual meaning for today’s SD: “The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of His Holy Word.” I believe that he was saying to them that through their adventure they were going to learn new truths from God’s Word. As I got through life I want to learn new Truth’s from God’s Word too.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to learn from the Word of God each day.
2. Continue to learn contentment.
10/30/2011 10:22:18 AM
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