Day 1,083: Job 12- Get Outside Your Box

Then Job answered and said:
2 “No doubt you are the people,
    and wisdom will die with you.

3 But I have understanding as well as you;
    I am not inferior to you.
    Who does not know such things as these?

4 I am a laughingstock to my friends;
    I, who called to God and he answered me,
    a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.

5 In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune;
    it is ready for those whose feet slip.
6 The tents of robbers are at peace,
    and those who provoke God are secure,
    who bring their god in their hand.
 
7 “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
    the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;
8 or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you;
    and the fish of the sea will declare to you.

9 Who among all these does not know
    that the hand of the Lord has done this?

10 In his hand is the life of every living thing
    and the breath of all mankind.

11 Does not the ear test words
    as the palate tastes food?

12 Wisdom is with the aged,
    and understanding in length of days.
 
13 “With God are wisdom and might;
    he has counsel and understanding.

14 If he tears down, none can rebuild;
    if he shuts a man in, none can open.

15 If he withholds the waters, they dry up;
    if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.

16 With him are strength and sound wisdom;
    the deceived and the deceiver are his.

17 He leads counselors away stripped,
    and judges he makes fools.

18 He looses the bonds of kings
    and binds a waistcloth on their hips.

19 He leads priests away stripped
    and overthrows the mighty.

20 He deprives of speech those who are trusted
    and takes away the discernment of the elders.

21 He pours contempt on princes
    and loosens the belt of the strong.

22 He uncovers the deeps out of darkness
    and brings deep darkness to light.

23 He makes nations great, and he destroys them;
    he enlarges nations, and leads them away.

24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth
    and makes them wander in a trackless waste.

25 They grope in the dark without light,
    and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.
 
Meditation
God is bigger than any box we can attempt to fit him in. One blessing of suffering and struggle is a different perspective whereby we see more of who God is in all His wild sovereignty.
 
Christopher Ash says of Job’s response to Zophar, “Job is not solving any problems; but he is demonstrating that the simple moral and religious system of his friends can
never be a solution.” Job’s friends had small, self-righteous, boxes for God. They believed Job’s suffering was punitive, placing participation in God’s promises on personal performance and reflecting poisonous prosperity theology that is, in essence, moralism. The opposite is true: Job is suffering BECAUSE he is righteous (see chapters 1-2), pointing us to the redemptive suffering of Christ. God is sovereign over suffering; uncontrollably bigger than any box we can put Him into.
 
Job diagnoses the small, self-righteous box his friends put God into as incoherent with reality (1-6) and too small (7-12) to contain an untamed God (13-25).  If Job’s friends are correct, why are robbers at peace and those who are hostile to God living in prosperity (6)? How is it the birds and beast know the bigness of God and not so the self-perceived righteous? God alone knows what to do and has the power to do it (13). God rules over natural disasters, global leaders, and all peoples (13-25). God is supremely sovereign.
 
God’s sovereignty, even over suffering, shatters boxes we try to shoehorn Him into as it gives us security and sanctity in our struggles and suffering.
 
Richly Dwelling
-What stands out to you in Job’s response to Zophar, especially in regard to his celebration of God’s sovereignty?
 
-Where do you try to put God into a box by justifying suffering and struggle of the world and your life merely as God’s punitive reaction to human depravity?
 
-How does the undeserved and redemptive suffering of Jesus explode the box of your self-righteous and self-focused view of the world and of God, freeing you to see that there may be a higher and better reason for suffering and struggle?
 
Key Verse
9 Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? 10 In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.