Samuel D. High
sdhigh@aristotle.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Apostle Tom <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thu, 29 May 2008 18:40:06 -0500
To: <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Subject: Morning Manna (May 30); BP: Jn. 11:30-57; II Chron. 10-12
May 30 “Where is God?”
“But none says, ‘Where is God, my Maker, Who gives songs in the night. . .’?”
Job 35:10a
Be still, soul—and listen.
Night is a wonderful time when the winds die down, the moon and stars appear and all the world seems to rest from her labors. The setting sun reminds us of a curtain closing on an act in the play—later to reopen with a new one.
Yet, sometimes the night is not so inviting.
Some fear the approaching darkness because of things that go bump in the night. Their inability to see and overactive imagination combine to torture them, robbing them of much-needed rest. Or, memories of what might have been. . .guilt over what has been . . .or dread of what will be leaves them exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
There’s no doubt Job was going through a rough time.
You don’t lose everything you’ve own (1:13-17), have all of your children suddenly killed (1:18-20), be afflicted with boils from head to foot (2:7) and have a wife telling you to “curse God and die” (2:9) without it affecting you. And, when you throw in three “friends” whose “comfort” is telling you that you must have sinned to be having such things happen (2:11ff), you’ve got the ingredients for committing hari-kari.
But, Job didn’t do that.
When his wife encouraged him to give up on God, he said “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? Shall we receive good at the Hand of God and not receive evil?” (2:10). And, it goes on to say “In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips” (2:10b).
Later on, Job would say “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15a) and “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tried (Heb. ‘bachan’—‘to test, investigate, examine, etc.’) me, I shall come forth as gold” (23:10).
Elihu’s words to Job in today’s Manna are piercing ones that call for quiet contemplation. He’d sat quietly by for some time listening to Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar fail to give convincing answers to Job’s questions. So, he entered the fray and began contending with Job “because he justified himself rather than God” (32:1). He also was angry with the “taunting trio” because “they had found no answer and yet had condemned Job” (32:3).
As he basically told all four of them to sit down and be quiet, this young man—who’d “been afraid and hesitant to share his opinion” (32:6)—began speaking God’s deep truths to them (32:7ff). In the midst of their bantering back-and-forth, none of them had asked, “God, what’s Your Opinion in all of this?” No, they’d been too busy pushing their own positions and agendas to ask, “Where is God, my Maker, Who gives songs in the night?” May the Holy Spirit help us today to “be still and know that HE is God”—not us (Ps. 46:10).
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