after his friends spend the last round outlining the fate that befalls the wicked, Job argues that the wicked people, who do not serve God, do (and often) prosper: living on and growing old, increasing in power and seeing their children established around them, homes safe and free and the rod of God not upon them, spending their years in prosperity and going down to their grave in peace.
But he knows that their prosperity is not in their own hands, and that the might of God will come down on them. As God-rejecting people, they will end up in the lake of fire (Rev 20: 11-15)
Eliphaz, the Temanite, continues to accuse Job of wickedness e.g. not giving water and food to the weary and hungry despite being a land-owning powerful man. and that he should return to the Almighty for restoration. While it is indeed true that most of us we have some area in our Christian living that needs improvement and that we should confess that, ask for forgiveness and gain restoration, in Job’s case, God himself described Job to Satan by saying, “…there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?”
Based upon that, an admission to guilt where no guilt exists would be what? …an attempt to fool God? The Book of Job shows us that conventional wisdom about God’s nature failed – miserably failed! No one, including Job himself, could cite a substantive example of sin in Job’s life or character. And…that’s why Job did not feel it would be appropriate to confess sin that simply didn’t exist.
Job seeks to state his case before God and he is confident that if he does get a chance to prove his righteousness, he will be delivered and that after this test, he will come forth as gold. He has never departed from the commands of his lips and treasures the word more than his daily bread.
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