Poetry – Job 23-24

Today we hear only the words of Job.

Bible Passage: Job 23-24

I think most of us can empathize with Job in Chapter 23 when he laments that he seeks God forwards, backwards, left and right and yet, does not find God.

There are times in the midst of our trials where despite our prayers and seeking of God, He does not seem to be found.

But the response of Job is amazing for me and it is something we can surely learn.

First, despite not hearing from God, he was determine to continue following God and keeping His ways (vs 11-12). Indeed, he treasured the Word of God more than his daily bread!

Secondly, Job is terrified of God’s presence (vs 15-17). What does that tell us?

To me, it speaks about Job clearly knowing his position as the created and receiver and that God is the Lord of Creation and the Giver. I have heard and seen with my own eyes how some believers react when adversity befalls them with no apparent help from God.

Some grow distant from God. Some refuse to pray and come for services. Some even openly said things which they should not have said against God.

But Job was different, he clearly knew his place. Despite reeling from severe tragedies and wondering what kind of God would allow these terrible things to happen, Job held fast to his faith.

We are luckier today. We have the benefit of looking back at God’s dealings with all the people in the Bible and that can help us gain perspective on what our attitude should be toward God. Let’s pray we remember this when we are in the midst of our own sufferings.

I just came off a long plane journey and to kill off time on the plane and train, I was reading this very long article on Bernie Madoff. I’m sure most of you would know about how he swindled lots of people of their life savings in a ponzi scheme. The amazing thing was that he did it for many many years and the people he took money from ranged from the very wealthy and smart people to widows who had trusted him with their retirement life savings. Everyone who knew him thought of him as an affable gentleman – kind of like everyone’s favourite uncle. And no one could believe he did such a thing.

Why did this come to mind?

In Chapter 24, Job laments that it seems that God did not notice wickedness. He went on to list out an inventory of evil in verses 2-12 and continued to observe that the criminals never get detected.

One of the best ways to assess the integrity of a person’s heart is to look at how he treats the poor and disadvantaged. In many passages of the Bible, we are reminded about how God esteems the downcast. And here Job mentions a list of some of the evils:

• Cheating in business and stealing other’s possessions (Job 24:2).
• Take aways the resources of the powerless and drive them into needless debt (24:3)
• Abuse the poor and force them out of your way (24:4)
• Cause the poor to lose work so that they must fend for themselves to even forage for basic things like food, clothing and shelter (24:5-8)
• Lock the powerless into situations and systems that bleed them but benefit you (24:9-10)
• Live lavishly, even as people nearby are dying for lack of basic resources (24:11-12)

It is quite remarkable that when I read the interviews with the people who were taken by Madoff’s schemes – how similar were they to what was described by Job.

So what does that mean for us today? We may not be Madoffs. We may not hurt the thousands he has.

But when we look through that list today and consider how we behave in our workplace or business… how do we score?