Lent Devotional: Job 25
Job 25 (click here)
How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? 5 Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes; 6 how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm! (Job 25:4-6)
Reflection
There is some truth in Bildad’s words. No person can be considered 100% in the right before God on the basis of their own merits. However, the point Bildad (and all Job’s friends) have been driving home is that either Job is in the wrong or God is in the wrong. The one thing Bildad has not considered is that he may be in the wrong.
His understanding of God is so tightly put together that he has no room to bring his own theology under scrutiny. He cannot fathom a situation in which Job is not in the wrong and neither is God… but that is precisely the reality!
We must be willing to allow God to constantly teach us more about himself and more about who he is. We often form a “solid” image of God. We build this image from many things… such as… things we were taught growing up, our favorite Scriptures, things we’ve heard preachers say, etc. But, what happens when we encounter a Scripture that says something we don’t like… perhaps it corrects a belief we hold about God? What do we do then?
We dare not hold onto an image of God we have made… that is the very definition of idolatry! We must hold onto to the image of God as he has revealed himself to us. Often we take even things that are true, like Bildad, and distort them to our own understanding or purposes. We must be careful not to put ourselves in a position where we are attempting to teach God what he is like… no… he is the teacher and we are always the learner.
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.
The Joy of Glory 