For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
No matter how well you know the situation, how wisely planned your actions, no matter how well-crafted and chosen your words, your plans will fail if they are counter to the will of God. We need to prepare for the battles we will face, but recognize that, no matter how well prepared, victory will only come if we are fighting on God’s side.
When we strive to avoid sinning by what we say, remaining silent is not an option. Let us speak only that which is good and cry out to God for His forgiveness and guidance. Our lives are short, we have but a little time to do God’s will, let us not waste it.
Paul continues his arguments for believing in the resurrection of the dead. He points out that if we do not believe in the resurrection than we may as well live by the philosophy of “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” If this life is all that there is, we may as well seek all the pleasure we can find and put no effort into anything else.
Paul then addresses another argument about the resurrection. When we are raised from the dead, our bodies will be different than the bodies we have on this earth. Our current bodies break down and decay, they are subject to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. However, the bodies we will have after the resurrection will be imperishable, no longer subject to breakdown and decay. It is when this transformation happens that Christ’s victory over death will be fully realized. We will see a place where death and decay no longer hold sway over life.
Job responds to the lectures he receives from his friends by reminding them that he knows what they know, that he is every bit their equal. He has seen what they have seen and understands what they have understood. He asks his friends to hear the arguments he would like to lay before God. Job tells them not to meet his arguments with lies and warns them that God will call them to account if they do.
I always struggle with the middle portion of the book of Job. I know there are important things to be learned here, but it is hard to be sure what, since at the end of the book God confronts most of the characters in the book for what they said. However, today I noticed something important. Job warns his friends against lying in order to make the case against him. We should be careful not to ever attempt to make the case for God and the Gospel with things that are not true.
When we come to offer comfort to those who are suffering, let us always be honest and truthful. We should not attempt to make them feel better by telling them things that are not true, nor should we attempt to convince them to accept the Gospel as a sure fire relief for their physical suffering. Further, we should not have the attitude that we are better than they or wiser than they. We are all equal before God. It is more important that we allow those who are suffering to express their pain and anguish than it is to offer them answers to their troubles.