Jsnuary 26th

Job 26:1-29:25

Job rebuked his friend Bildad for not providing comfort when he needed it most. Then, he went on to reaffirm his own conscience, that it was clear and right before God. Job continually had to defend against his friends’ accusations, as they tried to peg his suffering to some personal unconfessed sin.

Despite Bildad’s inability to console Job, he did raise a question that I think deserves repeating, “How can a mere mortal stand before God and claim to be righteous? Who in all the earth is pure?” (25:4). In several places in this book, eternal questions like this one are raised and find, of course, their answers only in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. He is the answer to all eternal questions. He alone makes men righteous; He alone makes men pure. “For God made Him, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

However, I wish not to focus on Bildad’s question but on one of Job’s. The question he raised was this, “Do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding? No one knows where to find it, for it is not found among the living” (28:12, 13, 20).

This is a great question to consider, and I believe Job answered it for us. “God surely knows where wisdom can be found. This is what He says to all humanity: ‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom; to forsake evil is real understanding’” (28:23, 28).

Here, I believe Job to be on target, and the Scriptures echo as much later in Proverbs, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge..., and the fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverted mouth, I hate” (1:7a; 8:13).

Part of fearing the Lord is to hate what God hates and to love what God loves. If we would just live our lives by that motto, then we would definitely be in pursuit of wisdom; but this world most often embraces what God hates and despises what God loves. Unfortunately, God’s people get caught up in the world’s thinking and repeat the same foolish mistakes.

Daily Reflection

None of us wants to be a fool, but sadly we often choose to follow the foolish thinking of our ungodly, fallen world. Many of us have Christian, regenerate hearts but pagan, degenerate minds. What are you doing to pursue true godly wisdom and to avoid falling prey to the secular mindset around you?

Do you love what God loves and hate what God hates? What in your life is godly? What in your life is worldly? What needs to change?

BiAY.org | Day 26 — 339 Days to Go