Job: Chapter 11

Zophar Speaks: You Deserve Worse

Crestone Needle | Colorado

I can no longer sit here and listen to this blasphemy! Do you really believe you can speak these things about God, before us, and expect nothing in return? Do you truly believe we will not call you out for your obvious sin? How dare you! Endless you go on and on about how much you are suffering, you haven't even started to suffer in the way you deserve. You tell us that you are wise and pure yet God is punishing you, clearly, you have sinned against Him. You are under the false pride that you are clean in the eyes of God, HA! Oh, yes, Almighty God, please open your lips to Job and show Him how "clean" he is in your eyes. Tell him your secrets of Wisdom and unlock his mind to a whole new understanding. PAH. Don't you know that God is giving you less than you deserve? You know nothing, Job. None can discover the depths of God, none can see His limits because they are endless. His measure of wisdom is beyond our own comprehension, outside the bounds of time and space, not restricted in any sense of the word. If God says someone is guilty, they are guilty, who can escape the creator of the prison, land, country, earth, heavens? He is the judge of all judges and cannot escape justness for it is Him. God knows stupid men and He does not always keep them from their iniquity. He allows them to suffer. You are stupid, Job, and you will not receive understanding unless the very fabric of creation is tampered with and queer things are beheld. Why can't you just prepare your heart and soul and seek Him out? Wash your hands clean of your sins, sacrifice on the altar and allow Him to know you are seeking redemption. Do not even think in a way that is full of injustice. Then, and only then, will you be able to face Him without blemish and He will accept you for what you are. You won't have to fear God once you have cleansed your heart of all impurity. You will be able to forget all of your pain and misery, it will be behind you and only a memory. You will have a light within you that will never go out, brighter than the noonday sun. You will feel safe again because you have hope, unlike now. You will sleep well knowing that you are secure. However, if you continue to have these eyes of wickedness which look at me, you will fail. If this is the case, you should allow yourself to die because death is your only hope. Life is not worth living. Zophar believes that God only punishes those who have sinned against Him. He is under the very popular theory, especially in the time he lived, that good things happen to those in a way that is honoring to God (or gods). Bad things only happen to those who defy God (or gods). It is the concept that we all obey to some level, we want to do good things because we want good things to happen to us. Example: If I lived in this time period, I would be accused of having done unthinkable things, because I have Stage IVb Metastatic Melanoma and have very little chance of living longer than 12-18 months, clearly, I have sinned against God in ways that few people ever do. People would leave me for death and curse me, I would be a bane to society and unfit to be a friend to anyone, lower than cattle in any regard. Unfortunately, we haven't really fallen away from this idea entirely. We still base a majority of our lives on the concept of earning grace or blessings. We strive for excellence in a lot of things that are meaningless without the proper perspective wrapped around them.

• Career? Irrelevant in the grand scheme of eternity.
• Spouse? Pointless unless they spur us towards the cross and reminds us of our calling to be brothers and sisters in Christ to everyone.
• Children? A big distraction that can steal our time away from God if we don't place them into their proper role.
• Money? Easily the worst distraction from who God is and how He cares for us.

Now, put these things into proper perspective:

• Career? A way to honor God in the workplace and shine the light of the Gospel in a way that exudes love.
• Spouse? An unbelievably excellent example of how we can share love in a way that honors God. A marriage marked by trusting God in all things.
• Children? Souls, we can raise that one day to choose to give their lives into the hands of God and trust His will more than their own.
• Money? We can use our money to bless those less fortunate than ourselves and spread the Gospel through the example of giving wildly.

God isn't waiting to strike us when we disobey His law, He gave us the law to show us that we cannot obey it perfectly and fall on our knees and seek His grace, which He freely gives us. God does not give karma any breath.

Dear Lord, I pray that you will continue to give me the proper perspective in life. Draw us towards you so that we might be the best people we can be within a world of sin. Allow us not to seek comfort but to seek righteousness. Amen. 

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