Jump Start # 1603

Job 42:7 “It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has.”

  I’m reading a new book about Job, “How to read Job.”  So far, I like it. It’s made me think of our passage today, found in the final chapter of Job. It has been a long journey for Job. It’s easy to think that what took place happened in just one week. The book ends with ten more children being born. That takes time. This journey with his friends has been as painful as the suffering Job endured. His friends have accused. They have pointed fingers. They have demanded that Job repent. Like a criminal on trial, Job has been prosecuted heavily by these friends who came to comfort. The words of the friends fall short. They don’t add up. There is nothing in Job’s life to warrant the suffering he has endured. He is not being punished. It is in this atmosphere that Job’s friends thought that they had a corner market on understanding God. They spoke confidently about God. They knew God. They were so wrong.

Now, as the book ends, God blesses Job but He is angry with these three friends. They have not spoken accurately about God. They were wrong about God. They made God to appear mean and hateful. They had a God who did not have any room for mercy.

All of this reminds us of some simple truths:

First, some can speak so confidently about God but be wrong. This can come from family. This can come from friends, as in Job’s case. This can even come from the pulpit. Current thought from books today is that God is still speaking directly to people. Current thought today is that God ignores His own words and closes His eyes to the very things He once condemned. How certain some are about the god that they have created. This should be but one more reason to “search the Scriptures daily to see whether those things are true.” Just because someone says it loudly doesn’t make it so. Just because it’s published in a book, doesn’t mean that it is so. Sometimes the worst information about God comes from those who sit in pews on Sundays.

Job never bought into what his friends were saying. That irritated them. We must do the same. God will not go against His own revealed word.

Second, we can confidently know God, and be right. We can know Him through the Scriptures. This is how God introduces Himself to us. We understand His will. We understand what pleases Him. We understand what is wrong. We understand what is right. Guessing isn’t the right way to go. Just hoping for the best doesn’t work. You know God by spending time in the Scriptures. The Bible is His book. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth…” It is possible to know.

Third, our knowledge of God shapes us. If we feel that God is distant and doesn’t want anything to do with us, then that’s the way we will be towards Him. If we feel that God is out to get us, why try? If we feel that God loves us and wants us to be with Him, then we will come to Him with an honest and open heart.

Fourth, misrepresenting God has grave consequences. It not only affects our own faith, but now it will affect those that we influence. Consider a home in which the dad has a wrong understanding of God. That thinking will affect his children. They will grow up never knowing the true God. Every problem becomes God’s fault. The family will be raised but not upon the Bible. More wrong thinking prevails as these kids grow up and have their own families. Think about the person who went off to seminary school and has drunk deeply into liberal theology. He’s not sure if God is male or female. He’s not sure the Bible is even from God. His wacko thinking has twisted the image of God into something that no one understands. On a Sunday, this pitiful person tries to lead a congregation into worshipping God, something he no longer understands and on many days even believes in. The church becomes a social function for the community doing good deeds and not having much spiritual connection to God. The professors at the seminary are so smug in their theology that they have outgrown God. They know more than even God does. Every semester more and more minds are twisted and faith shattered by their rambling liberal theology.

God was angry with Job’s friends. They did not speak right about God. I expect God is angry with those today who do the same.

Fifth, the responsibility of knowing God falls upon each of us individually. God has given evidence of His creative hand throughout nature. The world shows us that things just do not happen. There are cause and affects. There is design. There is order. There is beauty. All of this points to God. Nature does not tell us what God’s name is. Nature does not tell us what God expects from us. Nature does not give us God’s will. The Bible does. This is why hours need to be spent pouring over Scriptures. Read it not like the Sunday newspaper, but slowly and carefully. Take notes. Look at words. Think. Chew on things a while. You can know. You can know certainly.

Not only can you know God, but you can know if you are walking with Him or not. You can know if you are forgiven or not. You can know if you are headed to Heaven or not. John said, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn 5:13). You can know. You can know for certain. No guessing. No hoping. No crossing fingers.

Job’s friends sure talked a lot. They thought they had God figured out. They were so wrong. God asked Job to pray for his friends.

Wrong about God. This may be one of the greatest delusions of all. Convinced that one is forgiven when he is not. Convinced that one is saved when he is not. Convinced that one is pleasing God when he is not. Convinced that one knows God, when he doesn’t. It makes us think of the words of Jesus, “I never knew you, depart from Me…”

It might be good for some to go back and have a basic study of God. If we misunderstand God we are likely to misunderstand everything about God. Start at the beginning, the real beginning. “In the beginning, God…”

Roger