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Feb 21 2007

2-point takeaway

If there are any main “points” that I think you need to come away from a study of Job with, I think they would be…

1. No matter what you believe to be true ‘about’ God, you could be wrong; and,
2. God is. Deal with it.

The majority of the book of Job, in all of its excellence and poetry, is comprised of Job’s friends extolling the virtues of their particular brand of theology/philosophy/belief system. For the greater part of his life, Job believed pretty much as they did.

But then his experience challenged his belief.

It is precisely in this challenge that God is revealed as being NOT what was believed… but much more. It was not so much that they believed wrongly, but rather that their belief was too limited.

Job’s three friends, Bildad, Zophar, and Eliphaz, each represent a common and familiar line of reasoning. They each represent a trend in the philosophy of religion; and yet, at the end of their debates, God declares “you have not spoken rightly about me”.

Could it be that, whatever our belief about God, we are left somewhat lacking? Could it be that, regardless what you claim to be true about God… and regardless how close to the truth you may be… you still come up short of being able to express the totality of truth that is God?

I think that may be the essence of what Job has to teach us; that no matter what we think is true about God… we are wrong, because our capacity for thinking is too small. AND no matter how much we may think rightly about God, we are still far from the God who really is.

We cannot box him in with our finely tuned explanations and religious word bytes, because he is more than can be expressed.

We cannot reduce him to a finely crafted set of beliefs, which is what most of our modern religions try to do. God is beyond, and above, our abilities to believe… reason… express.

God is.

And it’s not our ability to express our belief about him that is important. What is important, as revealed in the story of Job, is our ability to trust in Him… regardless what may seem to be true.

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.” Job 19:25.

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