Today's Scripture Reading (July 21, 2021): Job 23
Star Trek; the voyage to the place where no one has gone before. I have always been intrigued by
Science Fiction and the examination of the unknown. People who don’t read Science Fiction often miss that the genre comes in many forms. Only portions of the genre are about space exploration, but all quality
Science Fiction examines what we don’t know. Science Fiction dreams of what we don’t understand
and attempts to think of ways that the unknown can become the known. Good Science Fiction strives to
make fiction become a reality, carrying us to the many places where no human being has gone before.
Job admits that he doesn’t know everything, and that
includes the actions of God. Job is the first to admit that the moving of God is beyond his comprehension. Job’s friends are willing
to place their trust in the tired wisdom of their ancestors, but Job recognizes
the failure of that wisdom. Maybe he believed it once, but then his life fell
apart, and while his tormentors quoted the understanding of the day about God, Job knew that none of it seemed to apply to his situation. Job felt that he had done everything
right, and yet everything had turned out wrong. There must be an explanation,
but if there is one, Job didn’t know what that explanation might be.
As a result, Job felt that he was in darkness,
surrounded by such thick darkness that he couldn’t see anything. Maybe the
answer was in front of his face, but it wouldn’t matter if it were because Job couldn’t make out anything in the
thickness of the night that had trapped him. The darkness scared him, and yet he
still seemed to have confidence in the God that had brought him this far,
and he knew that
God could carry him even further. This might be the closest that Job would get to
accepting his situation. Job had finally found himself in a place that actually brought God honor.
Often, we mistakenly believe that it is our job to
understand everything, to provide an explanation for what we do and what we
believe. Maybe it is just a reaction to the admonition of Peter.
Who is going to harm you if you are
eager to do good? But even if
you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their
threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the
reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and
respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that
those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed
of their slander (1 Peter 3:13-16).
The need to explain keeps us pressing into the darkness to
try to understand it. But the truth is not that we need to know the
explanation, but that we are willing to trust the one who sees through the thick
darkness surrounding us. It was the place that Job’s journey had finally
brought him, and even though he could not see, he trusted the one who could; Job
trusted the God he had always relied on to carry him through the journey. And even
when the trip was filled with pain and disappointment, Job knew that the only
one that he could trust was his God. He was the only one who would not fail him
when his path went where no one had gone before.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Job 24
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