So in the midst of the story that never ends, between hearing Job's friends accuse him and Job proclaim his innocence, a thought occurs to me.
Job's friends weren't all wrong.
This story is too often painted with a hero named Job and 3 guys who could have been better friends. Ok, maybe their theology was a little too simplistic and Job wasn't the mass murderer that they may have considered him to be. After all, God did tell Satan that Job was righteous. but God never did say Job was perfect.
In Job 22, Eliphaz makes some good points. Are any of us actually innocent? In fact, Elihu, that young punk of a man, makes the best points when he accuses Job of placing his own self-righteousness above the righteousness of God. After all, if we aren't the ones in the wrong, then someone else must be. And in this story, who is left? Do you really want to blame God?
Job took awfully great pains and many, many words to convince his friends he was blameless in all this. We often do the same, don't we? 'I'm not worthy of being mistreated like this,' we'll say. We may have sin, but not enough to warrant punishment, certainly not enough to necessitate God getting involved with plagues or anything like that. That should be reserved for politicians and people named Pharaoh.
But when we see our sin as God sees our sin, it is a different story. Our sin, even one little sin, is as black as black can be. Contrast it with the perfect unblemished whiteness of God and it becomes easy to see how even a little sin can be spotted. Like a spaghetti stain on my son's yellow shirt, it will not be missed.
It's ok though, because God has us covered. The sacrifice of Jesus was more than enough to cover the sin-stains on our hearts. Your heart, my heart...even Job's heart. The next time we get all wordy and start talking about how innocent we are, we should keep in mind that Job's friends weren't all wrong.
Job's friends weren't all wrong.
This story is too often painted with a hero named Job and 3 guys who could have been better friends. Ok, maybe their theology was a little too simplistic and Job wasn't the mass murderer that they may have considered him to be. After all, God did tell Satan that Job was righteous. but God never did say Job was perfect.
In Job 22, Eliphaz makes some good points. Are any of us actually innocent? In fact, Elihu, that young punk of a man, makes the best points when he accuses Job of placing his own self-righteousness above the righteousness of God. After all, if we aren't the ones in the wrong, then someone else must be. And in this story, who is left? Do you really want to blame God?
Job took awfully great pains and many, many words to convince his friends he was blameless in all this. We often do the same, don't we? 'I'm not worthy of being mistreated like this,' we'll say. We may have sin, but not enough to warrant punishment, certainly not enough to necessitate God getting involved with plagues or anything like that. That should be reserved for politicians and people named Pharaoh.
But when we see our sin as God sees our sin, it is a different story. Our sin, even one little sin, is as black as black can be. Contrast it with the perfect unblemished whiteness of God and it becomes easy to see how even a little sin can be spotted. Like a spaghetti stain on my son's yellow shirt, it will not be missed.
It's ok though, because God has us covered. The sacrifice of Jesus was more than enough to cover the sin-stains on our hearts. Your heart, my heart...even Job's heart. The next time we get all wordy and start talking about how innocent we are, we should keep in mind that Job's friends weren't all wrong.
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