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| Intercession par excellence | |
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| Topic Started: Aug 27 2008, 09:56 PM (58 Views) | |
| Stace | Aug 27 2008, 09:56 PM Post #1 |
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Job 22 29 If they are cast down, thou sayest, "Arise!" And him that hath low eyes He saveth. 30 He shall rescue him who is not guiltless, And he is rescued by the purity of thy hands. Well, I started this study to find out what the verse was really saying. In one translation, it reads, "If YOU are cast down..." and in most of the other translations it says, "If THEY are cast down." This sort of bothered me. Which is it? You being cast down, or them? So, what I did was run through the commentaries that I have available. I had to resort to Keil and Delitzsch. If you have ever read through this commentary, you know how detailed it can be.. But, I wanted to share what I found, I am only going to briefly touch on that matter because it is quiet detailed. The setting is in chapter 22 of Job. Eliphaz is getting a little frustrated with Job because Job will not listen. Eliphaz considers right to be right, and wrong to be wrong. There is a simple cause and effect going on in Eliphaz's mind, or in this case, his religion. See, Eliphaz is a flat liner who allows no curves or detours. If you sin, you get the punishment of God. If you are getting the punishment, then you sinned. So, when you understand this and apply it to verse 30, you can see that the 'not guiltless' is Job, at least in Eliphaz's eyes. And that man, Job, will be rescued when he cleans his hands. But, Eliphaz's statement is a beautiful promise, just very misapplied. K and D says, "The greatness of the poet is manifest from this, that he makes the speeches of the friends, considered in themselves, and apart from the connection of the drama, express the most glorious truths, while they are proved to be inadequate, indeed perverted and false, in so far as they are designed to solve the existing mystery. According to their general substance, these speeches are genuine diamonds; according to their special application, they are false ones." You see, Job's friends did not have the view that we as readers of the Bible have. They did not see a devil doing the destruction and bringing on the pain. They had no vision behind the scenes. Job, on the other hand, knew his relationship with the Lord and knew that there was something going on that he could not figure out. Read the next few paragraphs from K and D and see if you see what I see. ~~Quote: For the dogma demands wickedness in an equal degree to correspond to a great evil, unlimited sins to unlimited sufferings. Therefore the former wealth of Job must furnish him with the ground of heavy accusations, which he now expresses directly and unconditionally to Job. He whose conscience, however, does not accuse him of mammon-worship, Job_31:24, is suffering the punishment of a covetous and compassionless rich man. Thus is the dogma of the justice of God rescued by the unjust abandonment of Job. Further, how true is Eliphaz' condemnatory judgment against the free-thinking, which, if it does not deny the existence of God, still regards God as shut up in the heavens, without concerning himself about anything that takes place on earth! The divine judgment of total destruction came upon a former generation that had thought thus insolently of God, and to the joy of the righteous the same judgment is still executed upon evil-doers of the same mind. This is true, but it does not apply to Job, for whom it is intended. Job has denied the universality of a just divine retribution, but not the special providence of God. Eliphaz sets retributive justice and special providence again here in a false correlation. He thinks that, so far as a man fails to perceive the one, he must at once doubt the other, - another instance of the absurd reasoning of their dogmatic one-sidedness. Such is Job's relation to God, that even if he failed to discover a single trace of retributive justice anywhere, he would not deny His rule in nature and among men. For his God is not a mere notion, but a person to whom he stands in a living relation. A notion falls to pieces as soon as it is found to be self-contradictory; but God remains what He is, however much the phenomenon of His rule contradicts the nature of His person. The rule of God on earth Job firmly holds, although in manifold instances he can only explain it by God's absolute and arbitrary power. Thus he really knows no higher motive in God to which to refer his affliction; but nevertheless he knows that God interests himself about him, and that He who is even now his Witness in heaven will soon arise on the dust of the grave in his behalf. For such utterances of Job's faith Eliphaz has no ear. He knows no faith beyond the circle of his dogma. The exhortations and promises by which Eliphaz then (Job_22:21-30) seeks to lead Job back to God are in and of themselves true and most glorious. There is also somewhat in them which reflects shame on Job; they direct him to that inward peace, to that joy in God, which he had entirely lost sight of when he spoke of the misfortune of the righteous in contrast with the prosperity of the wicked. ~~unquote So, what is all of this saying? Well, one thing it is saying is that in some of the things that Eliphaz is saying is true. "Job 22:30 He will deliver even him that is not innocent: Yea, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of thy hands." My first note on this is that most of the translations say, "He will deliver one who is not innocent...." This is a true statement in that even at the end of this book we see Job praying for the deliverance of his friends. My second note is that we see a person full of condemning words actually prophesying a golden truth, much like we find in the new testament where it is said of Jesus that 'one must die for the good of all." We know it was not meant to be a good thing, but it was actually the most wonderful thing for all of us. On the intellectual level (and logically evaluated) we see things one way, but if we can get over into another perspective of the situation, we will be able to see beyond the obvious and see the wonderfulness of a loving Heavenly Father. Putting God in a box, living by a dogma, setting concepts in stone can lead to our being like Job's friends, that is, speaking wonderful truths, but in a condemning spirit. In summary, this is what I get out of this study. If I see my brother sin, and then something bad happens in his life... If I don't agree with the way one of my brothers is acting or living, and then something bad happens in his life... Then don't jump to conclusions and just figure I have it all figured out just because I know the traditional rules and regulations of our faith. Perhaps there is more to meets the eye. Perhaps there is an unseen element at work. Perhaps I am blinded to the whole story. And then? Pray about it. Hear God on the matter for yourself. And grasp the promise that has been delivered to us in Job 22: 29, 30 Job 22:29 When you are cast down, you will speak with confidence, and the humble person He will save. Job 22:30 He will deliver one who is not innocent, and he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands. Now that is 'Intercession par excellence.'  stace |
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11:55 AM Nov 27
