To hear this Morning Devotion, please click Finding gold in the garbage
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You’ve heard the phrase, “Even a broken watch is right twice a day.”
That phrase came to mind this morning while I was reading Job 11 in the One-Year Bible. You’ll recall that Job had three friends who, for seven days, comforted him in silence just after he had lost everything except his life and his cynical wife.
Then the three friends, using the term loosely, began an extended, tag-team criticism of Job, dumping streams of judgmentalism upon the shoulders of one called by God as the most faithful of men.
No, it was not fair. Yet, on that conveyor belt of criticism garbage were random nuggets of gold.
It’s surprising, actually, that people bent on breaking down Job could still come up with words that so accurately describe God’s desires for man.
What Zophar the Naamathite said in Job 11:13-19 is so good, I don’t want to edit any of the words. So the complete text is below:
“Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to Him, if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear.
“You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by. Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning.
“You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety. You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid, and many will court your favor.” (NIV)
These are the sort of words that one would expect from the pen of David or from the lips of Jesus. But they are instead from a person seemingly given to a judgmental spirit.
Wow.
Beyond the fact that these words should become part of our evangelistic toolbox, these words should also stir us toward a greater appreciation for the loving grace of God offered to us.
These truths are good but that’s not the objective of my devotion today.
Rather, learning how to listen closely for truth regardless of the setting and regardless of the speaker is what I want to promote.
It would have been quite easy for Job to tune out Zophar’s words since Zophar and his friends had served up criticism after criticism in previous statements.
But Job listened. Well enough, in fact, that he could record those words later when he wrote the book bearing his name.
Job did live out these words, I’m sure, by keeping his heart devoted to God and by stretching out his hands to heaven for the rest of his life.
What Zophar said would happen to the faithful person is what happened to Job when God later exonerated him and blessed him even more greatly than he was blessed before.
My charge to you is this: always listen for truth, for those words that accurately describe God and the attitudes/actions that He desires from us.
Even if the words come from one who isn’t like God and who might not even like us, we can appreciate whatever amount of “God” is in the words.
After all, we’re not to exalt the messenger but instead receive whatever truth is in the message.
As always, I love you
Martin
