Living Room Study

Job 34

“Is there a man like Job, who drinks in scoffing like water, who keeps company with evildoers and goes with wicked men, since he thinks, ‘It profits a person nothing to be in accord with God’?  So listen to me, you men with sense!  Far be it from God to do anything wicked!  For He pays people back for what they do and sees that each gets what his conduct deserves.  It is certain that God does nothing wicked; Shaddai will not pervert justice.” Job 34:7-12

It has been said that bad company corrupts good morals. But sometimes, we must risk our personal reputations in order to get close to those who need the gospel. In the previous chapters, Job revealed how he helped those who were poor and downcast, widows and orphans. In today’s passage, Elihu accuses Job that his affiliations were less than noble…and eventually led to Job’s downfall. It reminiscent of how the religious elite accused Jesus when He reached out to those in need, and how they mocked Him during His trial and crucifixion.

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with Him and His disciples.  When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’  On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.’” Matthew 9:10-12

Import to remember is that, while the Bible commands us to be above reproach (1 Timothy 3:2), not even Jesus was above accusation. False accusation is a natural response of the spiritually proud, towards those who reach-out to the lost. Apart from the Spirit’s guidance, all that humans have for discernment are gut feelings, hunches, and “intuitions”. The natural man evaluates a scenario and forms a judgment. This usually works, but because the wisdom of God is foolishness to the unbeliever, they cannot fathom our rationale and expectations, as pertains to ministry.

But accusation, alone, cannot ultimately dishonor the innocent. Whether in this World or the next, the muscle of truth will eventually flex the arm of justice to win-out on the side of the believer, for the cause of Messiah. In the meantime, trouble will continue to plague the innocent as long as hypocrites feel threatened by the presence of true believers. Like oil & water, or dark & light, the citizen of Heaven will never be completely at home in this World…in it, but not of it.

“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace.  In this World you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the World.” John 16:33

Blessings.

Steve Wiggins