Take My Case to God 08-07-2024

Bible Reading (August 7 2024)

• Job 14-15
• Psalm 109
• James 3

What is God saying to me today?

Job 13:1-5 “Look, I have seen all this with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears, and now I understand. I know as much as you do. You are no better than I am. As for me, I would speak directly to the Almighty. I want to argue my case with God himself. As for you, you smear me with lies. As physicians, you are worthless quacks. If only you could be silent! That’s the wisest thing you could do.

Ps 109:1-3 O God, whom I praise, don’t stand silent and aloof while the wicked slander me and tell lies about me. They surround me with hateful words and fight against me for no reason.

I wonder if Job felt this way about his “counselors?” He definitely says things like this… you slander me, you tell lies about me.. you surround me with hateful words accusing me of evil and sin. Your words fight against me…

Job 12:9-10 For they all know that my disaster has come from the hand of the LORD. For the life of every living thing is in his hand, and the breath of every human being.

Job was absolutely confident that his trials were coming from God, but WERE NOT a judgement for sin!

Job 19:6-8 But it is God who has wronged me, capturing me in his net. “I cry out, ‘Help!’ but no one answers me. I protest, but there is no justice. God has blocked my way so I cannot move. He has plunged my path into darkness.

Job’s friends actually had somewhat of an accurate view of God and his sovereignty. They just misinterpreted God’s actions as judgment.

Job 11:10 If God comes and puts a person in prison or calls the court to order, who can stop him?

While his counselors saw what was happening as a judgment for sin, Job believed everything that happened to him was by the hand of God. So Job had the right response… to take his case up with God.

Job 13:15-16 God might kill me, but I have no other hope. I am going to argue my case with him. But this is what will save me—I am not godless. If I were, I could not stand before him.

Is this not what we see David doing often? Listen to the end of David’s complaint in Psalm 109:22-25 “For I am poor and needy, and my heart is full of pain. I am fading like a shadow at dusk; I am brushed off like a locust. My knees are weak from fasting, and I am skin and bones. I am a joke to people everywhere; when they see me, they shake their heads in scorn.” David just spent Ps 109:6-21 laying out all the things he was being accused of and people were doing to him. Then, he follows that up with:

Ps 109:26-31 Help me, O LORD my God! Save me because of your unfailing love. Let them see that this is your doing, that you yourself have done it, LORD. Then let them curse me if they like, but you will bless me! When they attack me, they will be disgraced! But I, your servant, will go right on rejoicing! May my accusers be clothed with disgrace; may their humiliation cover them like a cloak. But I will give repeated thanks to the LORD, praising him to everyone. For he stands beside the needy, ready to save them from those who condemn them.