Scripture Reading For Today
Scripture Focus
10 On our side are aged, gray-haired men
much older than your father!
(Job 14:14 NLT)
Observation
Job has three “friends” (at present, anyway) who have arrived to “encourage” him with their wisdom. Each time Job speaks his heart—raising a question, lamenting a wound, declaring his convictions and assurances—these guys take turns mowing him down! Job is mercilessly battered with conventional wisdom that contradicts Job’s knowledge of himself and of his God. It’s not that Job has all the answers—he simply knows something his friends don’t yet know, even if he doesn’t know quite yet what he knows!
In chapter 14, Eliphaz the Temanite (yeah, if that was my name, I wouldn’t be passing out counsel, either!) brings out the big guns. “What do you know?” he says…
7 “Were you the first person ever born?
Were you born before the hills were made?
8 Were you listening at God’s secret council?
Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?
9 What do you know that we don’t?
What do you understand that we do not?
10 On our side are aged, gray-haired men
much older than your father!
(Job 14:7-10 NLT)
“There’s a whole history,” says Eliphaz, “that stands in opposition to you!”
In this case, though, history—even if true—wasn’t the whole story…or the final answer.
Eliphaz’ argument leaves me wondering when I’ve listened to history—my own history and the voices that affirm it—rather than God. Wondering how often I’ve let “conventional wisdom”—what everybody believes to be true…assumes to be true…argues to be true—keep me from seeing and acting on what *is* true because God has spoken it. How difficult it can be to discern God’s voice in a world filled with competing voices! How challenging it can be to hold tightly to truth God has spoken in sacred moments—especially when bombarded with the shouts of a quite secular world! And yet how essential—how absolutely necessary—even in times of challenge and questioning and sometimes painful growth, to secure in our hearts the loving character of God, the generous promises of God, and the life-giving truth of God.
Today I will choose God’s voice over all others.
My partner is a full blown athiest that i work with at night. We have had our battles on truth and the way of the Lord. He will never get to me and I hope that I will get to him someday. there is so many others though that shout out false truths and it is easy to be decieved. I just want to thank the Lord that I get to sit here and read Gods truth, i am trying my hardest to live Gods truth, and I will always carry Gods truth and let it be known! Thank you God!
ReplyDeleteGreat insight Pastor! Jesus said, "He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out." (John 10:3) God, please give me the ears to be able to hear your voice in the midst of the storms of life...(or even when it is not storming!!!)
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