I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Elihu challenges Job for claiming to be innocent and for saying that it is a waste of time trying to please God. He tells us that God does not sin and cannot do wrong. Elihu tells us that God watches how people live, there is no way to hide anything from Him. It is God who determines when we will come before Him for judgment. When the poor and needy cry out, God hears them, but if he chooses to remain quiet, who are we to criticize Him? God is a god of justice, but He will not tailor His justice to our standards. It is up to us to meet His standards. Elihu tells Job that he was in the wrong for failing to show respect to God and for speaking angrily against Him.
Elihu tells us that Job asked what was in it for him to behave righteously. However, Elihu points out that God gains nothing when we live righteously and loses nothing when we sin. Whether we live righteously or sinfully has no impact on God. There is nothing that we can give God that He does not already have. Nevertheless, when we cry out to God, He hears and will bring justice in His time. God makes an effort to get our attention and to show us when we do wrong. If we listen and turn from our sins, God will reward us. The godless are full of resentment towards God and refuse to cry out to Him when they are in trouble.
Elihu condemns Job for being obsessed with whether or not God will judge the wicked. He tells Job, and us, that we should not concern ourselves with that. Instead, we should seek to do right and avoid being seduced into doing evil. God is greater than we can understand. Rather than blame Him for not doing things as we think He should, we are to praise His mighty works and sing of His glory.
Paul tells the Corinthians that since God, in His mercy, has given Paul this ministry to this new covenant, he does not and will not lose heart, no matter what difficulties he may face. Paul further says that he has renounced using any sort of trickery to spread the Gospel. The Gospel is only veiled to those who refuse to believe and have allowed Satan to blind them to glorious light of the Good News. Paul emphasized that the message he preached was not about himself, rather he preached that Christ was Lord. The God who said, “Let there be light,” and thus caused the entire universe to explode into being, has made the light of the Gospel shine in our hearts so that we can see the glory of God as displayed on the face of Christ.
Yet despite all of this, we are fragile like clay jars. It is not our power that allows us to witness to others about the greatness of God. Anything we accomplish is from the all-surpassing power of God. We carry in our bodies the death of Jesus so that His life can be revealed through us.
From time to time a group of Christians will attempt to come up with a program that will attract people to their events without people realizing that the event is being sponsored by Christians. I think that part of Paul’s message here is that this is a mistake. We should be upfront about who we are and the message we are preaching. We are not going to bring anyone to the Lord by our own cleverness, or power. It is only through the action of the Holy Spirit that individuals come to Christ.
It is not by the might of our arms, or the brilliance of our strategies, that we will gain victory that lasts. It is only through the might of God as we serve His will that we will be victorious as we face this life’s struggles and as we strive to bring others to know Him.
If you have a group that is beset by strife, get rid of those who mock others and the strife will go with them. God watches over those who act openly and above board, but frustrates the plans of those who lie and cheat.