A brief prayer is offered that you can add to your daily prayers. The scripture is from our Sunday Service Bulletin. We are continuing on a multi-part series on Job.
Old Testament Reading: Job 27:1-6; 28:12-15; 28:23-28; 31:35-40
27: 1And Job again took up his discourse, and said:
2 “As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,3 as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,4 my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit.5 Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.6 I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.
Devotion: “A Guilty Conscience”
Job is pretty much fed up. His three “friends” are telling him that his troubles and misfortune are coming from something wicked he has done but Job knows in his heart that this is not true. He finally and sternly takes an oath in verse 2 and he declares in verse 6 that he has a clear conscience. He is not saying that he is sinless -- he is saying that his sins are forgiven by his creator thus clearing his guilt. If you think about it, the human is likely the only one of God’s earthly creatures with a true conscience meaning we have an innate knowledge of right and wrong. When we do wrong we suffer guilt. We can, like Job, claim forgiven lives and confess our sins. God tell us he forgives all our sins if we come before Him humbly. What a gift of hope and comfort to Christians!!
Pray: Lord, thank you for Your forgiveness. Amen
Blessings,
Joe
1. Knowing yourself: What one entity would like it if we all lived continually with a guilty conscience? What can we do to disappoint this entity? An intriguing vision emerges of a writhing Satan as we confess our sins…can you see it?
2. Scripture: Please read 1 John 1:9. How does this NT passage relate to our OT lesson? Several times in our passages in Job, we read about Job saying that he sees rich and wicked people living happy lives. Do you think he has some concern that his friends see this repeated message as a desire to become rich and happy by wicked ways? Is it possible he thought this was part of their accusation?
3. Application: If a person is being inappropriately judged by another, that person might become defensive. What lesson could we learn from Job that might turn this around? Let’s put you in the hot seat, if you observe defensive behavior from someone with whom you are having a conversation, what should you do?