PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Job 25-27
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“I will never admit you are in the right.” (Job 27:5)
As I read these speeches, I struggle to know what is right.
Both Job and his friends speak confidently, as if they are right.
In the end, God humbles both Job and his friends.
In a sense, none of them are right… and neither am I.
Humility does not mean we cannot believe anything.
But it should keep us from thinking that we are totally right.
If we hold to our doctrines with the certainy of Job (v.5), watch out.
Who can dare say “I will never” to God, only God is totally right.
Unlike Job, all I can say is, ‘I will never admit I AM in the right.’
We need to hold truth by faith, gently and humbly, open to God’s correction.
My church tradition has doctrines that I believe lightly.
There’s something in them that seems right to me… and yet not totally.
Jesus does not save me because I am right, in fact the opposite.
I am saved by grace, not by orthodoxy – and thank God for that!
PRAYER
Lord, if I am not totally right, then others are not totally wrong. Only you are right. Humble and open my heart and mind to learn from your truth, whoever it comes from.
“For what hope have the godless when they are cut off, when God takes away their life?” Even though Job feels he has been unjustly treated by God – he makes this comment – for he knows that without God there is nothing else. He can only appeal to God. To have no god is to have no hope at all. WE can despair and lose hope as well – but what else is there if there is no god. Our hope is in vain. Lord help me to be patient when you are refining me – especially when I think I am in the right and deserving of better – the truth is my hope is in God’s grace – not my own rightness!
You can toss me into a burning furnace for all I care, because the Lord will deliver me…
BUT IF NOT I will still praise the Lord.
Thank You Lord for Your Son for in Him I am right before You. In all things there is my way, other peoples way and then the only way – Your way – to live each day anew. Help me daily to walk in that way, listening to Your voice saying, ‘This is the way. Walk in it.’ That is the right way.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.