Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Is it possible that a sinful man could be right and God could be wrong (or at least appear to be wrong)? Could a man be reverent and rebuke God? Or correct Him? If that were to happen, would God be angry with him?
If God were like the Islamic Allah, the answer would be yes, God would be very angry with such a man.
But there was once such a man and God was pleased with him--Job.
He did not know about the altercation in chapters one and two between God and Satan over him. God told the truth about him, he was indeed a "perfect and an upright man, one that fear[ed] God, and eschew[ed] evil" (1:8; 2:3). In Job's innocence, he could not understand why it appeared that God had treated him unjustly; his three friends pressed this thorn deeply into Job's heart, telling him that God had not punished him as much as he deserved--Job was a terribly evil man, or all these calamities could never have come upon him.
Job knew positively that was not true, about him; he knew that he had been "a perfect and upright man, one that feared God and eschewed evil." That was plain, solid truth. To him in his innocent honesty, God was going back on His true character of righteousness and justice.
So Job did what any honest person should do under that circumstance: he called on God to repent and return to His true character of love and righteousness!
And God loved to hear him say it. Job proved that God was right when He told Satan that Job was "perfect and upright." In the end God vindicated Job and honored him as a man who anticipated the people in Revelation 17:14 as the group who are "with" "the Lamb of God" [openly and bravely on His side in the great controversy!] and "are called, and chosen, and faithful."
The Lord Jesus is even now calling His "144,000" out of "every nation, kindred, tongue, and people" (Rev. 14:6). The story of Job is a great blessing, for it helps us understand that immense developments are happening behind the heavenly scenes when it appears to us on the surface that God has abandoned the great controversy with Satan. When probation closes, there will be a people who will "taste" of the "cup" that Jesus drank down when He cried on His cross, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Their hearts will be knit with His in eternal union!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 10, 2007.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
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