Think of the most powerful thing in all of creation.  Something fierce that you have no power over.  God is stronger than that. He is greater than every created thing.  He is over it all because He is the One who created it in the first place.  That is the message He has for Job.  The beginning of my reading today is again God saying to Job who are you to question my justice, to condemn Me to prove you are right?  ​

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm:
 “Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.
 “Would you discredit my justice?
    Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
 Do you have an arm like God’s,
    and can your voice thunder like his?
 Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,
    and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.
 Unleash the fury of your wrath,
    look at all who are proud and bring them low,
 look at all who are proud and humble them,
    crush the wicked where they stand.
 Bury them all in the dust together;
    shroud their faces in the grave.
 Then I myself will admit to you
    that your own right hand can save you.
(Job 40:6-14)
​

And then Job responds:
​

Our Tuesday night group has been talking a lot about that day to come when every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and declare that Jesus Christ is Lord.  Those who have denied God all through their life will finally see Him face to face and there will be no turning back and no denying.  Every knee will bow to Him.  For some, it will be a day of rejoicing for others a day of terror. And no matter which, it will be extremely humbling to come before God.  When we see God I think we will feel very foolish for the way we have acted and the things we have said and for those of us who are saved by His grace I think it will be a renewed realization of just how unworthy we would be if not for the blood of Christ Jesus that was poured out on our behalf.  Honestly, I tear up just thinking about it at this moment so I can only imagine what that day will actually be like.

But our story does not end there with Job.  God has words for three of his friends too.  God tells them He is angry with them for the things they have said about Him.  God is angry with them.  Let that sink in for a moment.  So God gives them an out.  He tells them to bring their sacrifice to Job and offer up a burnt offering there to the Lord and Job will pray for them.  This is the part that intrigues me today.  God directs Job to pray for these men.

 God accepts Job's prayerful intercession for these men and they do not get what they deserve because of it.  That is a really powerful statement.  And we don't have an imperfect man interceding on our behalf before God we have the perfect Son of God and Son of Man.  The Lamb of God is our perfect sacrifice.  Jesus is the one found worthy, He is the one who willingly surrendered His life so that I might have life and have it abundantly.  Job's story ends with Him being blessed by God even more in the second half of his life than he was in the first.  Believers in Jesus Christ-our story ends with us being so much more abundantly blessed when we get to heaven than we could ever imagine while we are here on earth.  And the really cool thing is it is not the end of our story at all but an amazing "to be continued."  The best is yet to come!

May grace abound,

The the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind:
"Who is this that questions my wisdom
with such ignorant words?
Brace yourself like a man,
becasue I have some questions for you,
and you must answer them.

Where were you when I laid the foundations fo the earth?
Tell me, if you know so much.
(Job 38:1-4)

You know there were a few things that Elihu got right in his argument.  One of the statements he made in my reading from yesterday was this:

If you wonder what God is like then just read the last few chapters of Job.  His power is displayed in all of creation.  And the care He takes for even the tiniest detail.  I pray for rain, I even pray for snow much to the chagrin of many I know in our community.  God has storehouses of snow and hail.  He sends the rain where it is needed when He decideds it is time.  He directs the path of the lightning.  He set the stars in their courses and laid out boundaries for the oceans.  He rules the day and the night, the seasons, the tides.  He feeds the lion and the raven.  Imagine this God then saying to you, "Do you still want to argue with the Almighty?  You are God's ciritc, but do you have the answers?" (Job 40:1-2)  Job rightly responds-I am not sure I would have even been able to speak in asnwer-though answer one must, because God commended that Job do so.

May grace abound,

Well, Elihu was certainly long-winded as we enter day two of his speech.  One of the struggles I have always had with reading the book of Job is sorting through the truths, the half-truths and the total mischaracterizations of God.  On the surface all of the arguments make good points, often points that sound pretty good until you lay them out against the rest of Scripture.  Which I suppose is good practice for us as we are faced with such arguments all the time.  Statements that sound good-they tickle our ears-but upon closer evaluation are just slighty off the mark.

May grace abound,