Job Chapter 27. “Watch your attitude young man!”
Job continues to speak with his comforters and he makes two oaths:
1st Oath: he makes an oath that he will never let wickedness and evil come from his mouth.
Job maintained his innocence. Job acknowledge's that the wicked get Justice by God but he assumes God is not being just with him.
2nd Oath: Job puts a curse against his enemies, and possibly directing it towards the comforters. He wishes his enemies to be as the wicked people so they would suffer like he is. Let them have no hope in this life or the afterlife. Job is so frustrated and upset with the comforters that he was wishing evil upon them. Job wants them to know that he agrees that God punishes evil. He acknowledges that and he gives examples of how God brings pain and suffering upon the evil, but he wants his comforters to know he's not evil.
If I may repeat what I've said in previous chapters that God allows good and bad to fall upon the righteous and the unrighteous. When this happens it's hard to grasp and understand, especially when we are in the midst of pain and suffering. It's so easy to question God and ask why? Why me, God? I'm a Christian! I'd understand it if I were not. I'd understand if it was somebody else going through this.
I don't want to sound insensitive because I've responded to God with such words, but to have this attitude seems very arrogant to me. It's a way of elevating ourselves above others. As if God should love us more than he loves the rest of his creation.
I remember Gale Sayers, the famous football player, when he was dying of a disease. He was begging people who were ahead of him in line to receive help. He was asking that they let him go ahead of them because he was Gale Sayers. It's almost as if he was saying you're not as important as I am.
We have to change our attitude when we go through pain and suffering. We need to maintain our faith in God and trust him despite the pain. We have to believe he's at work and he will use the misfortunes of life for his glory and good, and for his purpose.
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose.”
The bottom line is, we need to trust God and trust he's at work for his glory and his kingdom and his purpose. So let's change our attitude.
Job chose to not let go of his integrity. I’m sure that what he heard from his wife and ‘comforters’ wasn’t exactly what he wanted to hear, but even after experiencing such tremendous loss and difficulties in his life, he held on to righteousness.
May we be compassionate towards others and submissive to God so He can do what He wants in us and through us. I’m reminded today of what we see in Romans 5:1-5.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”