"Were He to pass by me, I would not see Him; Were He to move past {me,} I would not perceive Him.
"Were He to snatch away, who could restrain Him? Who could say to Him, 'What are You doing?'
"God will not turn back His anger; Beneath Him crouch the helpers of Rahab.

This develops in me a reverent fear of God because the Spirit of God lives within me. Others are just stuck on "What are You doing God?". Although Job was obviously wondering what God was doing, he was giving Him glory in the midst of his confusion and pain.

I love the thought that my God is so powerful that no one can stop or even hinder Him from what He wants to do. If He wants to, He can take away anything that I posses. My kids. My job. My health. But I can always know that He is just. I can always know that there isn't an evil thought in Him. I also know that everything works for the good of me because I am His child.

Then Job answered,

"In truth I know that this is so; But how can a man be in the right before God?
"If one wished to dispute with Him, He could not answer Him once in a thousand {times.}
"Wise in heart and mighty in strength, Who has defied Him without harm?
"{It is God} who removes the mountains, they know not {how,} When He overturns them in His anger;
Who shakes the earth out of its place, And its pillars tremble;
Who commands the sun not to shine, And sets a seal upon the stars;
Who alone stretches out the heavens And tramples down the waves of the sea;
Who makes the Bear, Orion and the Pleiades, And the chambers of the south;
Who does great things, unfathomable, And wondrous works without number.

Once again Job is answering one of his "friends" after accusing him of cursing God. In chapter 8 Bildad went off on Job about him needing to repent. Bildad's last words were, "The dwelling place of the wicked will come to nothing." implying that Job's dwelling place was brought to nothing because Job was wicked.
Sometimes i will look at someone who is prosperous and automatically assume that they accumulated it all by greed and secretly want to see God punish them. I need to watch that jealousy in my own heart.
I love Job's answer. He exalts God. He didn't go off on Bildad. He simply just started talking about how no one is righteous before God. Of course he was responding to Bildad's self righteous attacks so there was probably a reason why he sais "How can a man be right before God?". This makes me think that in every situation or conflict, it would be wise to bring God into the picture. Just start talking about how good He is. Start exalting Him and lifting up His name. Why because that is what the other person needs. He or she, especially if you consider them to be self righteous, needs to get a right perspective of a holy God. This is also good for my soul to dwell on this passage to keep from thinking that I can control things.

Job 6:14

1."One should be kind to a fainting friend, but you have accused me without the slightest fear of the Almighty.

2."To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend,
Even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

3."For the despairing man {there should be} kindness from his friend; So that he does not forsake the fear of the Almighty.

Here we have three different translations of Job answering his "friends". I haven't had the time to dissect this passage to find out what the correct rendering is but i think i can take wisdom from all three.

1.I should be afraid of accusing a man, who is right with God, of wrong. This would put me in the category of Satan who's name means accuser.

2.Kindness should be shown to my friend even if he is not fearing God in his actions. I should rebuke him as kindly as I could.

3.If i was despairing, I would want my friends to comfort me, not accuse me. I would want them to help keep me from forsaking the Lord in my distress.

Truth & Wisdom With Truth

Behold, happy [is] the man whom God corrects: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

I know these words to be true. When God corrects me it is bittersweet. He lets me do something stupid for a short time, then lets me experience the consequences of it. He then teaches me why He told me not to do it in the first place. He shows me that His commandments are not burdensome but a joy. It is disobedience that is burdensome in the long run. I might get pleasure or satisfaction temporarily but the ramifications out-way the short-lived gratification. When God asks me to do something it is for my good. When He asks me to refrain from something it is for my good. I may not be able to see this right away. Also sometimes the reward for obeying Him may not come until I meet Him face to face. But since I know that God is just, I know that He is faithful to reward according to my deeds. I know this because He sais it in His word that He will tally up the works done in faith by the believer as well as keeping record of every sin committed by the unbeliever.

There is something that I can't ignore about this passage though. It is spoken by Eliphaz, Job's "friend". How true are his words but how false is his judgement of Job. See I am convinced that Job's friends were secretly jealous of his wealth and prosperity. They were probably thinking that he was gaining all he had from greed. So when Job hit hard times they thought that God was finally giving Job what he deserved. I know this isn't true because the intro to this book shows me that Job was being tried and proven, not corrected. Yes God has things to say to Job later about the way that Job was questioning God through his suffering but Job's suffering was not a result of sin as his "friend" here was impying.

This makes me cautious about thinking i know what God is doing behind the scenes is someone elses life. I could be thinking something that is true, such as "Happy is the man whom God corrects", but be way out of line in the way that I apply that truth to the situation. Because of this danger of missusing truth, I think I will try more to be quick to listen and slow to speak. I will try harder to seek out God's heart in each situation and with each person.

One more thought; I get a certain fear that i am capable of misusing truth and ,as a result, speaking foolishly. I don't to use God's word to hinder His work. For that would be the ultimate slap in the face of God.

And said, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD"(Job 1:21)

Here Job has just lost all his possessions and his family accept his wife.

Shall we accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity"(Job 2:10)

Here Job is responding to his wife telling him to curse God and die. No doubt God used his marriage previously to allow Job to grow.
I am amazed at these words. For someone to go through such pain and suffering and still come back and say this. Wow. This is such an example to me. This is the kind of faith that I desire. Even though Job spends chapter three cursing the day he was born. This shows what was in his heart as a first response.
I also think about the purpose of all this suffering. Was it all for nothing? What was God doing. He is proving Job's character. Not only that but He was proving Himself in that the people who truly put their trust in Him will have stability and hope. Our God is worthy of this kind of trust.

Job

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.(Job1:1)

I'v started a read through of Job. As I go through, I will be underlining things that stuck out to me. I will be sharing what I like about these verses.

This introduction to the man Job is one that is not said of many. It almost looks like it is saying that he is perfect. Well we know according to the rest of scripture that God is the only one who is perfect. But it does say that he is blameless.
Blameless is not perfection. Blameless is setting straight what you've screwed up. It's admitting your wrong, not making exuses, and trying your best to change.
Upright is saying that he was a moral man. Probably cause he had only one wife while even David who was a man after God's own heart, had many wives.
He feared God and turned away from evil. This is the key. Fearing God. It is the fear of God and the awe of Him that will make me blameless, upright and cause me to turn form evil.

Unsaving belief and saving belief

Unsaving belief is saying yes with your mind. Saving belief is saying yes with your life.