Life Matters - September 18, 2024

Context and application matter; do they not? Job certainly knew that and so did his three friends in their back and forth intellectually fine-tuned arguments that went on for 20-some chapters in the Book of Job. Many good and right things were said. And I suppose, after commiserating with Job, after sitting with him in silence for seven days and seven nights, (upon the ground!) Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar thought they had a platform from which to speak into Job’s life. To vent the bottled up feelings and thoughts of their week-long word-fast in his presence. To vent in a controlled intellectual manner. How different would their responses have been had Job expressed appreciation for them first, before launching into his complaints? We don’t know as there is no such record given nor conjecture made. In consideration of human nature, however,  they may just have become agreeable hush puppies pandering to Job’s complaints and not become recorded for our learning in the Book of Job. But Job was making them feel bad, not good. Perhaps because they did so to him first. 

What we do learn from Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar is that spirit, soul, and body pain can never be met, soothed, and healed by intellectual soliloquies. That context matters and that the healing balm of Gilead is only to be found at the throne of God’s grace. We learn from them what not to do. And, as we relearn in Romans chapter 7, that the minds of men and women are not strong enough to overcome inner wars nor to deliver peace and rest, tranquility to our souls. Though they had right things to say, they were directionally wrong, as both Elihu and God later testify. 

The context into which these men were speaking was one man’s abject misery and the application they were making was one of judgement. Judgement on the man. We don’t hear judgement on his deeds, nor his things, nor his policies, but we do hear judgement upon him as a person. Thus they purported to know something about Job that not even Job knew, or else he knew and was living in denial. The problem is that they were not God and therefore they didn’t really know and couldn’t know aside from a confession from Job or a prophetic revelation from God, upon which revelation they should be called upon to ‘’try the spirits to see whether they are of God.’’ Or they could choose to go on down the road of guessing accusations. They chose the road of guessing accusations and Job chose the road of justifying himself. 

For both parties it was a frustrating experience. Job, because his past accomplishments were entirely ignored—except when ‘’needed’’ to remind him of God’s ‘’judgement’’—and his three friends, because no matter how many good and right things they said, they just couldn’t get ‘’through’’ to Job.  Both sides (if Job alone can be called a ‘’side”) understood the context. (Job) The argument was application—is Job righteous or is he unrighteous? (Judgement) The three friends argument was that ‘’God blesses the righteous’’ even going so far as to accuse Job of being a hypocrite, while Job contended for his own integrity. And so … on it went. 

And so it goes … does it not?  Do not people–centered governing politics too often creep into the church until ‘’what is right’’ becomes obscured beneath ‘’who is right?” And so it was with Job and his three friends. His friends keep trying to back him into an intellectual corner and Job keeps slipping out. Both get on the offence until eventually both sides (for they are ‘’sides’’ by now) are attacking the other’s integrity. But integrity is not determined by the intellect, rather, by how well the spirit (intellect) soul (emotions) and body (including the tongue) are brought and given in subjection to God the Father and to Jesus Christ whom He has sent. God is the only source that is always right.  

The founders of America knew that one cannot openly defy the Word of God and created nature then go on adhering to integrity in character. God refers to such an one as a fool. (Romans chapter 1)  

American politics, since its founding, has taken on many such fools. May we get, and stay, on the offence with the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Woke politics claim that right and wrong are determined by how they make one feel—good or bad. The Word of God makes no such claim. 

Faith has feelings, but feelings are not necessarily faith. As in Hebrews chapter 11 ‘’Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’’ Jesus Christ is the substance looked forward to, His rising from the grave—the evidence. The Old Testament saints looked forward to The Promise by faith, we live in its fulfillment. His life within is the substance of faith. Faith in Christ gives us peace within and peace feels good. Christ is the context to which application must bow.  

Life Matters!