Job 27:11–12: “I [Job] will teach you about the hand of God; / What is with the Almighty I will not conceal. / Surely all of you have seen it; / Why then do you behave with complete nonsense?”

December 22nd, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Job continued to assert his innocence in answer to his friends’ charge that he was hiding some great sin. The accepted theology of the day was that God did not allow the innocent to suffer, so if a person was suffering, it was because of their sins. They believed you could tell the guilt or innocence of a person by their circumstances. Job may have even held those same opinions before pain and suffering fell on him. But now he saw that his friends’ mechanistic understanding of God’s ways was wrong and “complete nonsense.”

Both Job and his friends agreed that the wicked deserved God’s judgment, and Job even described the punishment they deserved. By inference, he was also suggesting that his friends deserved this kind of punishment for their false and arrogant accusations against him. But where they differed was that Job knew suffering didn’t mean you were wicked and that the wicked could even have success in life. However, at some point they would face God’s judgment.

The fact that good people suffer has always been one of the great challenges to believers. For centuries, even non-believers have asked how one could reconcile pain and suffering with God’s justice and love. The Book of Job is not glib about evil and suffering. In fact, Scripture is brutally honest about them, and the challenges they present to faith. Such darkness can only make sense by looking at the passion of Jesus. We have a Creator, a Savior, who understands suffering. As New Testament believers, we can stand at the foot of the cross in dark times, and that is where we find the true depth of the pain and suffering God endured on our behalf. Scottish pastor Alexander McLaren said it this way: “There are things that God gives us to do without any light or illumination at all, except His own command; but those who know the way to God, can find it in the dark.”

“LORD, please keep Your hand on our lives this day, in Jesus’ name.”

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Job 27 KJV

¹ Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,  ² As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;  ³ All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;  ⁴ My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. ⁵ God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. ⁶ My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. ⁷ Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous. ⁸ For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? ⁹ Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? ¹⁰Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God? ¹¹ I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.  ¹² Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are ye thus altogether vain? ¹³ This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. ¹⁴ If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. ¹⁵ Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep. ¹⁶ Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay; ¹⁷ He may prepare it , but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver. ¹⁸ He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh. ¹⁹ The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he openeth his eyes, and he is not. ²⁰ Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night. ²¹ The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place. ²² For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand.  ²³ Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.