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6-30-14. Job 8:1-22. LEARN THE FAITH FROM THOSE OF THE PAST–my devotional

6-30-14. Job 8:1-22. LEARN THE FAITH FROM THOSE OF THE PAST–my devotional

wisdom of the ancients

Job 8:1-22                                                                                                            Kevin E. Jesmer

Key Verse: 8:8,9                                                                                                  6-30-14

“Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned, 9 for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow” (NIV)

       Dear Lord heavenly Father, thank you for the peace and security we have in our nation. Thank you for securing freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom together, freedom to preach and teach the gospel, freedom to love and serve others in the name of Christ, freedom to pursue prosperity and happiness. What a blessing. But Lord, not everyone enjoys the freedoms we enjoy. There is so much suffering in nations overcome by violence and oppression. Lord, please help the kingdom of God overflow to the people in these nations. May the gospel free hearts and societies and nations from elements of darkness. Help them to find true freedom so that people may be able to navigate their future without violence and oppression. Establish leaders who can lead the people in ways of righteousness. Work a miracle in those nations. Deliver them in miraculous ways.  Please enlighten my heart today by your word. I pray in the liberating name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Part 1: Humbly Allow God To Restore Your Life In His Way (1-10)

Verses 1-10, “Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: 2 “How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind. 3 Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? 4 When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin. 5 But if you will seek God earnestly  and plead with the Almighty, 6 if you are pure and upright,    even now he will rouse himself on your behalf  and restore you to your prosperous state. 7 Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be. 8 “Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned, 9 for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow. 10 Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?”

Does Job need to be rebuked at this time? I think not. He does not need people to diagnose his problems. He needs someone to quietly sit with him and pray for him and if, the opportunity arises, speak wise words that lead a person to a life giving relationship with God. Maybe they can comfort Job’s wife and take care of the needs of his home. What about cooking a few meals and doing some laundry? Why get into a theological argument with a sick person? It is like calling a dying AIDS patient to repentance at the hospital bedside. There is some truth to his words on two counts.

First, Bildad assumes that Job’s problems are the result of some specific sin in his life, or in the lives of his children (4). He does share some truth, like God is just and if Job is righteous, and pleads with God, he will be restored. I can accept this in some ways. If we seek Christ and his kingdom, we will be restored. But what will that restoration look like? And second, true wisdom calls us to learn from the past. First, seeking God earnestly will restore you in God’s way. Look at verses 5-7, “But if you will seek God earnestly  and plead with the Almighty, 6 if you are pure and upright,    even now he will rouse himself on your behalf  and restore you to your prosperous state. 7 Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.” This reminds me of Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (NIV)  There is truth in this. But God will restore us in his ways and in his time. We may be expecting to be restored financially, with a great career, great health and a happy marriage, etc. God will restore our lives but the restoration may not look what we expect or want. The restoration may come in the form of peace of mind. It may be entering into eternal salvation. It may be a restored mission in life. It may be being led on the fruitful path, in step with the Holy Spirit. It may be that we are called to glory Jesus as we are slowly dying of an illness. Most would not call that restoration, but it is from God’s perspective. When we see things from this point of view, we can say that God surely will restore any person who seeks first God’s kingdom and his righteousness.

Second, for those who seek to apply the wisdom from the past…we must always be humble and learn from the past. Bildad spoke right when he reminded of this. Look at verses Job 7:8-10, “Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned, 9 for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow. 10 Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?”  (NIV) It has been said, “those who can not remember the past are destined to repeat it.”

(http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_said_Those_who_ignore_history_are_bound_to_repeat_it )

It is truly wise to learn from the people and events of the past. After all isn’t learning from the past, a lot of what Bible study is all about? To ignore the past is to blind ourselves to the path of a fruitful, prosperous and victorious future.

.   In reflecting on the wisdom of the past, we must not enslave ourselves to the paradigms of the past, especially if the Holy Spirit is leading us to try something new. Just because something worked in the past does not mean it is going to work in the future. It also means that we need to glean the wisdom of the past, winning principles from the past, and yet not hold slavishly onto to the structures of the past. God may be leading us in another direction. We definitely need God’s wisdom on, what it means to have “a sense of history” and “learn from the past.” But we do need to ask the former generations and incorporate their wisdom in our present lives and mission.

Part 2: Where There Is Trust In God There Is Hope (11-21)

Verses 11-21, “11 Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water? 12 While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass. 13 Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless. 14 What they trust in is fragile; what they rely on is a spider’s web. 15 They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold. 16 They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden; 17 it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones. 18 But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’ 19 Surely its life withers away and from the soil other plants grow. 20 “Surely God does not reject one who is blameless or strengthen the hands of evildoers. 21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. 22 Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”

Our roots must be in God or we will perish like papyrus reeds without water or like a plant trying to be re-planted among the rocky soil, (Once you disturb it’s roots, it will wither and die, even if you try your best to replant it.) Those who are not in Christ, are living a very precarious life. They bloom and prosper for a while, but their very existence and survival in this world is teetering on the edge. Such people are here today and gone tomorrow.

To trust anyone or anything other than God is like leaning on a spider’s web. It will give way. Like resting on a spider’s web, there is minuscule support for a very short time. It may fool someone. But before they know it, the web gives way and they collapse. It is like depending on our own human efforts, things may go alright for a while, but there will come a time when our own human efforts no longer work. It is all we can do to eat, pay the bills and make sure the kids are ok. It is hard to even maintain our mental health. We are not able, but God is more than able. We need the Lord. We need to lean on God; submit to him and entrust our lives and future to him.

There is hope in God. Look at verses 20-22, “Surely God does not reject one who is blameless or strengthen the hands of evildoers. 21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. 22 Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”  Bildad infers that if a man is blameless then he can trust God to bring joy to his life and help him to defeat his enemies. I agree with this in some sense. But the only way to be blameless is through faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ. Through faith in the Gospel, we can be totally forgiven and we can be declared blameless. Then God will bless us with laughter and joy. He will give us wisdom on how to relate to our enemies so victory could be procured. As we seek God, God will restore our fortunes in a spiritual sense, and maybe, God willing, in a physical sense to.

Prayer: Lord, help me to learn spiritual lessons from the past and apply then now and in the future. Help me to be rooted in you. Take the reigns of my life and restore me by your will.

One Word: Hold onto to the wisdom of the ancient believers and take deep roots in Jesus.

 




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