Don’t Bury God’s Word Under Empty Distractions. Job 38:2.

Posted bySteven WalesPosted inListening well, WordsTags:, ,

Begin your day with God’s word. Don’t let TV and social media fill your head with the noise of the anxious, fighting world.  Begin your day with God’s voice.  End your day with God’s voice.

Imagine: You’ve lost your riches, your status, your health, and your children. Your farm and ranch operation is destroyed.  Once the city fathers put their hands over their mouths so as not to interrupt you when you spoke—but now homeless men mock you, Job 29:9; 30:9. 

Your friends come to visit. For days the five of you debate God and the “problem of evil.” They say you have sinned because God would not allow such devastation to happen to a righteous man. You argue you have not sinned and that God has chosen you for bad treatment.

Finally, GOD SPEAKS.

How will God begin? In this case, he will not speak with a “still, small voice.” Instead, he blows in with a TORNADO.  A furious storm overwhelms Job:

“Who is this who darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” Job 38:2.

(Huh?) 

God is asking a rhetorical question.  It’s a bit like “Who do you think you are?”  But God adds that Job’s words “darken counsel.”  That is, Job’s complaints have obscured the light of God’s truth.  In other words, by accusing God of treating him unfairly, Job has thrown shade on God’s reputation, or “darkened” God’s wise counsel.

I like to paraphrase the question: Who is this who makes My purpose and instructions unclear by saying things that are untrue and void of knowledge?

WHO IS THIS THAT OBSCURES MY WORDS OF WISDOM BY BURYING THEM UNDER WORDS OF IGNORANCE?[1]

Sometimes Facebook makes me feel that way.  I walk silently to my car after scrolling the net and hear hundreds of ignorant, angry voices ringing in my ears, trolls and “social media warriors” screaming about anything and everything.  I don’t want their ignorant words to block God’s words of wisdom and peace.

Read the Word for PEACE OF MIND. Focus on God’s counsel in mornings, evenings, and all day.

ΑΩ

[1] Note the way Job restates God’s question: “You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel with ignorance?’” Job 42:3.

Published by Steven Wales

Dad's Daily Devotional began as text messages to my family. I wanted my teenagers to know their father was reading the Bible. But they were at school by then. Initially, I sent them a favorite verse or an insight based on what I read each day. That grew into drafting a devotional readng which I would send them via text. I work as an attorney and an adjunct professor, and recently wrote a book called HOW TO MAKE A'S.

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