Assuming God’s Role

Assuming God’s Role

21 Withdraw your hand far from me,
and stop frightening me with your terrors.

22 Then summon me and I will answer,
or let me speak, and you reply.

23 How many wrongs and sins have I committed?
Show me my offense and my sin.

                        - Job 13:21-23

        The reason for Job’s affliction was unknown even to him. The contemporary thought, which even mirrors some of today’s thinking, was that if you were suffering it was because of some sin. Yet Job knew that there were people who were great sinners and yet still prosper. And so he had resigned himself to trusting in God no matter what. But Job’s friends had different ideas. They assumed that Job had committed some heinous, unconfessed sin. They were effectively trying to assume God’s role of judgment. But Job knew better than to jump to conclusions. Only two people knew Job’s heart, God and Job himself. Yet his three friends and even his wife were speaking about things they knew nothing about. Job even tells his friends that it would be wise if they just shut their mouths.
        Here we see Job asking God “…Show me my offense and my sin.” He truly wanted to root out that sin in his heart. And he was the only one that had the right to ask that of God for himself.
        When I first read it seemed to me that he would question and complain to God. Yet it says that through all of this he did not sin. And so we see that God wants us to come to Him with our concerns. Even times like this when we don’t understand fully what is going on in our lives, He wants us to question Him that we might rely on Him more and more.
        

        How many times have I jumped to conclusions about God and what He is doing in my life before even questioning Him about it? How many times have I said, “Oh, it must be because of such and such.” And then I leave it at that. Assuming that I already know the answer before first coming to the foot of the throne as Job does here. And on the flipside, have I ever assumed that I knew what God was doing something in someone else’s life? Have I ever been an Eliphaz, Bildad or Zophar? Before thinking about anything and assuming that I know what God knows I need to realize that only God knows the hearts of men.