Wednesday, June 9, 2010
June 10 ... Job 32 - 34 "If God is Silent"
Job 34:29 "if God is silent" ... then what? What stirs in you as we read chapter after chapter after chapter about a man who lost his 10 children? Job is trying to make sense of his suffering. Suffering with no explanation. Elihu explodes cause evidently the older generation should make sense of it all. What's his pull? What stirs in you? I keep thinking about how Job and his wife lost their 10 children and I wonder what God is saying to Job in his silence? I keep thinking of a very old quote: "The first step to sanctity is self-knowledge." Job is wrestling with what is really going on inside of him. "If we stay within the darkness, stick close to the Cross, through death we will come to know the God Who reveals Himself in the process of dying and renewal." Something beautiful is happening to Job on the inside. We know that because we know the rest of the story. Am I staying within my own darkness, sticking close to His Cross, and dying to my pride and fears so that He may reveal and renew my spirit. Have mercy on us, O God!
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"What I'm about to say
ReplyDeletehas been carefully thought out.
I have no ulterior motives in this;
I'm speaking honestly from my heart."
I love how Elihu tried to respect this elders, yet had to say what he had on his mind. And... I especially love how he thought first before exploding "like a volcano" ready to blow! Too often I l keep stuff in (-if you can't say anything nice...) and the pressure feels exactly like that, but my problem is that I have trouble carefully thinking it out ahead of time and don't articulate it well. I also love the wording of The Message here..."Look, I'm human—no better than you; we're both made of the same kind of mud."
Have a good day, friends!
Love, Angie xoxo
Trying to get comfortable with silence here. I don't like it with people or with God. I want to be heard, to matter, to be loved on, so to speak. God's silence can shake me up, especially when I'm desperately seeking Him. I examine my motives again. Am I desperately seeking or demanding a response?
ReplyDeleteA couple of things that struck me that Elihu said:
"getting old doesn't guarantee good sense" --how true.
This is the way God works. Over and over again He pulls our souls back from certain destruction so we'll see the light—and live in the light!--Thanks be to God.
The Morning Star is easiest to be seen in the darkest night...something like that from earlier this week. Learning to wait on Him.
"Teach me to see what I still don't see." That is the sentence that really caught my attention today. He shows me over and over, and it takes me so long to see it. He is such a patient and loving father.
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"I kept thinking, 'Experience will tell. The longer you live, the wiser you become."
ReplyDeleteElihu's statement reminded me of how I thought as a child. I was very confused by decisions adults made because they didn't make sense to me, but I thought if you were an adult, you knew everything. Boy, was I wrong! Took me until my early twenties to figure that one out.
I struggled with Elihu lashing out at Job, thinking he knew everything that Job had done and why. It brought back memories of being accused by a "friend" of attitudes and motives that weren't accurate. I wasn't heard or understood or even asked any questions. I was just indicted and declared guilty. That's the way this feels to me. Job is suffering deeply and others keep piling it on, it seems.
Listening to all of this between Job and his friends is such an eye-opener. How much people (read: me) are willing to spout opinions and points of view without really seeing what's on the inside. I don't have much mercy, unfortunately, and this is showing me, once again, how much pain my words and lack of mercy can cause others when I'm careless or think I know everything. Very convicting.
I'm struggling with this reading today, too.
ReplyDeleteElihu leaves no question about why he thinks Job has been "punished."
The commentary mention something about following God during mercy and during terror.
Job is in his terror moment. What's he going to do?
What is he going to do?
I'm on the edge of my seat, waiting to hear the God of creation address these "friends."
Bubbles, I hear you. All I know is something I've heard Beth Moore say that her husband, Keith, is always sharing with them:
"Goodbye is a necessary life skill."
Praying for each of us to follow God faithfully, trusting Him during our days and nights when He is silent.
"I kept thinking, 'Experience will tell. The longer you live, the wiser you become.' But I see I was wrong-it's God's Spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty One, that makes wise human insight posssible." (Job 32:7-8)
ReplyDelete"Getting old doesn't guarantee good sense." (Job 32:9b)
"The Spirit of God made me what I am, the breath of God Almighty gave me life." (33:4)
This is the key for me. I think I'm the oldest in this group (63), but I've gleaned so much from each of you.
Mike Mason says in his book on Job:
"The truly wise person is the one, whether old or young, whose spirit is yielded to the Holy Spirit..."
Mason goes on to say that while Elihu has an emphasis on the Spirit
he falls short because: "Speaking by the Spirit means more than speaking truth: it means speaking the truth in love."
So we've heard the 'old and arrogant' speak and now we hear the 'young and arrogant'.
Mason writes of our stuggle between flesh and Spirit, between creed and living faith, between mere orthodoxy and authentic discipleship.
The flesh vs. the Spirit...that's my struggle. How will I respond when there is no 'felt presence' of God? When there is silence? I am so aware of how I try to fix things. Waiting hurts. Will I stay in that place, trusting the Spirit, yielding, giving up control? Will I let the Life in me do the living?
FG