Job 10-13

by Diana Durrill

Job's friend, Zophar, gives Job some really good advice in verses 12-13 -

1.  Prepare your heart (devotion to God).
2.  Stretch out your hands toward Him (demonstrating repentance and forgiveness).
3.  Put iniquity far away.
4.  Let not injustice dwell in your tent (don't let sin dwell in your tent).

All of this is good advice and things we should surely be striving to do in our walk with the Lord.  But Zophar errs when he continues in verse 14 -


"Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish; you will be secure and will not fear.  You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away.  And your life will be brighter than the noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.  And you will feel secure, because there is hope; you will look around and take your rest in security."

Did you catch it?  It's a small, seemingly irrelevant phrase in this passage....surely then.  It's as if Job has to conform to an "if...then" relationship with God.  IF you do all these things, then surely all the rest will fall into place.

The problem is, Zophar didn't have the mind of God and didn't understand God's ways (Isaiah 55:9).  Zophar had no idea that these trials were part of a much bigger picture.  There were elements at work that no one on earth could fathom.  As we continue to read through the book we will see more of God's perspective revealed, but the one thing you can take away today is this:

Life is not so easily judged by mankind....we have limited perspective.