"Mock on!"
Why do the friends of Job continue to hang around and speak against
him? The problem is that they believe
they're speaking for God, doing His work when in truth they are doing satan's
work of accuser and they're doing it badly.
Even satan couldn't find anything of which to accuse Job. Job clearly doesn't want or need them
around. He knows the drill by now, I speak,
they mock. Job goes all Psalm 73 in his
argument here, that the wicked prosper and never suffer. Nothing makes sense, things aren't the way
they are supposed to be if there is fairness in the world but there is no
fairness. The search is truly who to
blame for the way things are. The reason
Genesis matters is that it ends the search for blame right in the third
chapter. If we read the rest of the book
and the world around us through that lens we can stop blaming God and begin to
ask for the wisdom, the knowledge of good and evil in all things, all choices,
and begin to cooperate with Him in bringing justice to the world. We should go back to the Sermon on the Mount
more often.
Does it give you comfort to know that Jesus is the Good
Shepherd? It should. You know that He came to give rest and restoration,
to shepherd you all the days of your life so that you might reach the destination
prepared for you. He, as the door of the
sheepfold, is your protection when you are vulnerable. He is your defender, your provider, your
companion. He tenderly cares for your
wounds and gives you confidence in Him, that you might trust Him in and for all
things. You are to be so bound up with
Him that His voice is the only one to which you respond. You are to know His voice, calling your Name,
calling you to Himself. That knowledge
of good and evil is found in following Him.
What an amazing proclamation Paul makes! He says that God raised this Jesus, crucified
by the Jews of Jerusalem and their leaders, from the dead. That, he says, is in keeping with the
prophecies of David himself in the Psalms.
More than just making Jesus amazing because of God's work on His behalf,
all this has implications for these people to whom Paul is speaking. Simply through believing Paul's message they
can have forgiveness of sin and freedom that even the law of Moses couldn't
give them. It is an incredible claim to
say the least, it seems there must surely be a catch to this offer, it is too
good to be true isn't it? Not surprisingly
the people clamored for more of this message the next week and tagged along
with Paul and Barnabas to hear more. How
long has it been since the Gospel was this Good for you? If it has been awhile you need to remember
why it is so amazing. Job longed for
vindication and things to be set right, he longed for this redeemer we too
often take for granted.
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