Reading: Job 7-8
Verse of the day: "What is man that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart to him." (v. 7:17)
Observations
Questions
Why is faith so important to God?
Verse of the day: "What is man that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart to him." (v. 7:17)
Observations
- Job's statement in 7:17 mirrors a much better known verse in Psalm 8:4, "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"...Yet the context between the two verses can't be any more different.
In the Psalm, David praises God's majesty, both pf his wonderful creations and his triumph over evil (Psalm 8:2-3), and he is overawed that one as exalted as God would deign to pay attention to an unworthy creature as him. Job, on the other hand, spoke these words in the middle of his complaints against God's apparent injustice, having "forsaken the fear of the almighty" (Job 6:14). He bemoans about God's scrutiny over his life, and wishes that God would leave him alone instead.
- While Job's attitude regarding his circumstances is not right, he is nevertheless correct in saying that being set in God's sight doesn't guarantee us a life of blessings & exaltations. Indeed Job's suffering precisely began because of God's lavish attention towards him (Job 1:8, 2:3 - "Have you considered my servant Job...?"). God had chosen Job as his champion of faith to demonstrate that trust in God is independent of our life circumstances. God is, in the end, more concerned about our faith than our happiness.
Questions
Why is faith so important to God?
- The Bible teaches that "without faith it's impossible to please Him" (Hebres 11:6), but why is that? Why couldn't God be satisfied with our good conduct alone? C.S. Lewis once wrote that anything done for the glory of God, no matter how small and simple is precious; while anything that is not for God, no matter how big and grand, is sin. Once again, God demonstrates that he values our internal condition more than external achievements.
But perhaps this shouldn't actually come as a surprise. After all, even in business and working relationships, trustworthiness is often valued more than competence and skill. But that trust goes both ways. A person who trusts would behave in a more trustworthy manner than someone who doesn't. We are more willing to abandon, betray or exploit from people whom we don't believe have our best interest.
- And how is faith more important than happiness?
Having faith in God allows us to find delight in Him and not just His gifts, and this joy is far greater and more lasting because He, unlike his creations, is perfect and unchanging. A Christian writer once asserted that everything that exists have an inherent glory placed in it by God, and that the maximum amount of joy we can get from those things are directly proportional to the glory they contain. And since God is the most glorious of all, He alone can give us the greatest joy.
- Of course, faith doesn't mean that we must never question or have doubts; rather, it is continuing to believe, and to take a step forward towards the object of our faith in spite of our doubts. And we do this all the time with our daily lives. We never have a full knowledge to be absolutely confidence that every decision we make is not going to lead to a disastrous mistake, and yet we still make the choice to stay on course--we don't try to jump off the ride at every turbulence and shake.
- But while faith forms the foundation of a relationship, the relationship grows through deeper understanding. And this understanding doesn't manifest by suppressing or ignoring legitimate concerns as though they don't matter, but it is built by asking honest questions and humble acceptance of the answers that might not please us, and strengthened by trials nad experiences that may put cracks on our biases and preconceived notions about who God is.
- Who is God to me? What hope/expectations do I have in Him?
- What does the Bible say about God? What has He actually promised me?
