TOO SMART FOR OUR OWN GOOD

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then Job answered:

"Listen carefully to my words, and let this be the way you comfort me. Be patient while I speak. After I have finished, you may continue to make fun of me.”

"My complaint is not just against people; I have reason to be impatient. Look at me and be shocked; put your hand over your mouth in shock. When I think about this, I am terribly afraid and my body shakes. Why do evil people live a long time? They grow old and become more powerful.  They see their children around them; they watch them grow up. Their homes are safe and without fear; God does not punish them. Their bulls never fail to mate; their cows have healthy calves. They send out their children like a flock; their little ones dance about. They sing to the music of tambourines and harps, and the sound of the flute makes them happy. Evil people enjoy successful lives and then go peacefully to the grave. They say to God, 'Leave us alone! We don't want to know your ways. Who is the Almighty that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?' The success of the wicked is not their own doing. Their way of thinking is different from mine. Yet how often are the lamps of evil people turned off? How often does trouble come to them? How often do they suffer God's angry punishment? How often are they like straw in the wind or like chaff that is blown away by a storm? It is said, 'God saves up a person's punishment for his children.' But God should punish the wicked themselves so they will know it. Their eyes should see their own destruction, and they should suffer the anger of the Almighty. They do not care about the families they leave behind when their lives have come to an end.”

"No one can teach knowledge to God; He is the one who judges even the most important people. One person dies while he still has all his strength, feeling completely safe and comfortable. His body was well fed, and his bones were strong and healthy. But another person dies with an unhappy heart, never enjoying any happiness. They are buried next to each other, and worms cover them both.”

"I know very well your thoughts and your plans to wrong me. you ask about me, 'Where is this great man's house? Where are the tents where the wicked live?' Have you never asked those who travel? Have you never listened to their stories? On the day of God's anger and punishment, it is the wicked who are spared. Who will accuse them to their faces? Who will pay them back for the evil they have done? They are carried to their graves, and someone keeps watch over their tombs. The dirt in the valley seems sweet to them. Everybody follows after them, and many people go before them.”

"So how can you comfort me with this nonsense? Your answers are only lies!"

Job 21:1-34 (New Century Version)

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As the second round of exchanges between Job and his friends concludes, we can see that nothing has really changed. The friends are ever more attacking Job for his attitude in the midst of his suffering and affliction and in return Job fires back words to defend himself. The incendiary words of one person throw more fuel on the dispute and so it rages on. Maybe you have been in the midst a situation like this. I know I have once or twice.

You see, in our humanity, we seem to want to hold our intellect as being special and distinct. Debate is too often preferred over agreement…and we want to be right, sometimes so much so that we allow ourselves to be blinded to the truth. In other words, we can too often be too smart for our own good.

And as if it’s not bad enough that we do this with one another, we also seem to lack the proper common sense to know where the limits of our intelligence exist. I say this because we also too often approach God like we do any other person and think we can question or dispute Him, His ways, and His authority.

Did I mention we were too smart for our own good?

We get the sense through the series of discourses between Job, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar that all four of these men think they know the mind and heart of God Himself. They all at one point or another speak as if they know all about God, as if they are intellectually intertwined with God’s very mind and soul.

I can’t help but think that God was less than amused by all this and as we’ll see at the conclusion of this book, God sets things straight as to who He is and where man stands in comparison to Him.

As we have seen in prior chapters, Job feels God is an unjust God as the wicked seemingly get a free ride through life while the good suffer. That really is at the crux of the way he feels. No matter how his friends have tried to convince him that God’s wrath and judgment fall on the wicked, Job will have none of it. After all, he is smarter than they are and knows God better…or at least he thinks he does. Job, you see, is too smart for his own good.

It’s little wonder that the Bible makes it very clear where we stand when it comes to wisdom before the One who created and imparted it to us. Consider this:

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” 1 Corinthians 1:25

In other words, when it comes to intellect and God, it’s no contest. So why do we behave like we know as much as He does?

Look at Job’s words. For in the midst of foolish railing about the injustice of God, he speaks a line of great wisdom saying, “No one can teach knowledge to God; He is the one who judges even the most important people.” Job knew man’s relation to God and His authority…and yet he continued to speak words that would reflect otherwise. Rather than submit to the wisdom that could help him through his hardship more than the three friends who he was debating, Job chose to try and reason everything out on his own. He was making things harder than they needed to be.

Did I mention he was too smart for his own good?

Indeed, sin can get a grip on us if we’re not careful in the midst of hardship and result in us behaving badly. Job yearned to be free of his suffering so much so that he envied the state of the wicked who he perceived to be better off than he was. “If only he could be free from his affliction and be healthy like they were”, he much have thought.

James, in his letter to the twelve tribes, wrote these words about wisdom and the dangers of allowing sin to taint it. He wrote:

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” James 3:13-17

Friends, these are words of truth from God’s word to you and I. Yes, James hadn’t penned these words in the time of Job so that Job may have had the chance to read them himself but they are certainly accessible to man today and have been accessible since the first century after Christ’s crucifixion. Wisdom is not imparted from man up to God. No, God imparts wisdom from heaven to you and me by way of the Holy Spirit that abides with us…the Holy Spirit we so often choose to ignore.

Remember, we are often too smart for our own good.

There is much to be said about wisdom and as you study the scriptures, you will continue to see reference to it because the Bible is full of instruction on the subject. We would be well suited to take a step back, assess our intellectual attitudes, and eliminate any of them that would not first be submissive to God. And then with humility, we need to step forward again with a renewed commitment to seek God’s wisdom always, acknowledging our limited intelligence before Him.

In the beginning of the Bible’s authoritative book on wisdom, Proverbs, Solomon says these words:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7

A reverent approach to God always will bring us to Him with the right mindset to receive His instruction. And when we do, we can proclaim like Paul as he wrote to the Romans (11:33-36):

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”

“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

“Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”

 
“For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Indeed, friends. Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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