The Joy of Glory

Job 18 (click here)
Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, such is the place of him who knows not God.” (Job 18:21)

Reflection
Bildad is appalled that Job cannot see the “reality” of his situation, namely, that his dire circumstances prove he is being punished for sin somehow. The fact that Job cannot see this leads Bildad to conclude that Job must not even know God.

But, we know better than Bildad. We know that Job is not being punished and that he does know God. We must be very slow to connect external circumstances with unseen spiritual realities. We must be very slow to condemn someone based on their situation as we see it…actually…to condemn is never our place at all.

How often do we find ourselves talking about people and how we know what they should do in their situation? How often do we find ourselves passing along our expert advice to them. If they’d just do what we said, see it our way, act our way…then all would be well.

Yet, there is always more than meets the eye in any given situation. I’m not saying that we can never give advice or speak truth into someone’s life…far from it! What I’m saying is that we must be quick to listen and slow to speak. We must be steadfast in prayer, before we are steadfast in offering counsel…otherwise we may find ourselves telling someone they “don’t know God” when, in fact, they know him infinitely better than we do.

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.