I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 29-33.

We can take a lesson about what is important in life from Job’s list of things of which he is not guilty.  The first of those things, and one to which he returns after touching on another, is lust.  He emphasizes that he has not looked on a woman with lust and calls lust a shameful sin.  The presentation here suggests to me that when a society starts to find lust acceptable all of the other sins become more prevalent.  This does not mean that the other sins to which Job refers are any less bad, just that lust is the one which we are most likely to pass over and justify in others (and perhaps in ourselves).  However, lying and deception, mistreating those over whom we have power, abusing the powerless, and greed are all deep sins of which Job finds it worth proclaiming innocence.  Most of these sins are sins of commission, but Job also gives prominence to sins of omission.  We should all be challenged by Job’s reference to the sins of failing to help the poor or allowing someone to go hungry.  Do we help the poor in all of the ways that we can?  Have we allowed someone to go hungry when it was within our power to feed them?  If we are not sure that the answer to the first is “yes” and to the second is “no”, let us look for ways to change that.

Now we hear from Elihu for the first time.  It has always struck me that Elihu is the only one of the characters in this account whom God does not chastise for what they said when He speaks.  Elihu starts by stating that he waited until his elders were done speaking before speaking his piece.  He only spoke up because he thought none of the others had made the argument which he thought most telling.  Elihu makes clear that, while he thinks he is not inferior to Job or the others, he also does not think that he is better than them.  We need to seek to emulate Elihu when we attempt to correct others, or enter into a disagreement with them.  Consider yourself neither inferior not superior to those with whom you are disputing.  Each and everyone of us has been made in the image of God.