Family devotions & Job: A case of misapplied truth

In our family devotionals we are slowly working our way through the Bible. There are times when I wonder if our children are ready for some of the books we come across. I was tempted to skip Judges but I read it anyway. I was tempted to skip Chronicles but I read it anyway. I was tempted to skip Job but I still plug away and find this decision rewarded in the confirmation that God’s design in His Word is fitting. The children don’t pick up everything (There are some things they are not yet ready to pick up on. Thankfully those things go over their heads.) but as they hear through all, the thick and the thin of Scripture they are gradually getting a full picture of the God who created, loves and sustains us.

Now as we work through Job, I am beginning to see a better picture of this book. I am getting a better grasp and I believe my children are picking up bits that will help them see God in a truer light. Job’s friends continue to assure him that if only he will repent of his sin, then God will restore him to his former glory. They insist that he must have done something horrible for all these things to have fallen on him. Job continues to respond to them insisting that he is innocent of their claims. He is not saying that he has never sinned or that he is holy and pure. But Job is saying that he has not run after other gods and that he has not rejected the God of creation. 

         I was particularly impressed with Job’s response in chapter 24. He responds to the accusations that God always punishes the guilty and if God is punishing him then he must be guilty. Job points out the difficult truth that there are so many wicked people out there who are not being punished. It sounds like Job is saying that these wicked are never punished. He argues to his friends that their assumptions are wrong because there are guilty people going free, therefore they are wrong to say that God always swiftly punished the guilty and to therefore assume his guilt. This confirms the thought that has been running through my mind (after reading Mathew Henry on it) of calling this book, A case of misapplied truth. For that is exactly what is going on. Job’s friends are stating general truths but they are misapplying them. How easy it is for us to do the same.

It is like Psalm 73. The psalmist describes his jealousy of the wicked who go around fat and happy. The psalmist says he was like a beast before God with his complaint until his thoughts returned to God’s holiness and eternity and then realized that the wicked will be judged in the end. 
Job’s friends have missed this reality. God does not always judge on our timeline. God will judge all wickedness in the end but there are times when he waits for reasons that we do not know. Just as God does not always judge in our timeline, we see in Job that God sometimes allows suffering for other reasons that we do not understand.

We must simply wait and trust that God is good and just. He is able and is doing something that we may not understand. We must seek to understand that we do not always understand why He does what He does. We can trust that He is good. We can trust that He is present. We must remember humility and not always assume that our perspective on reality is accurate. Perhaps we are only looking on things in light of (as the Preacher in Ecclesiastes says) the sun’s rays on the earth instead of seeing them in light of the Son’s rays on the universe.