Bringing us back from the pit

I’m in Job.

I’ll be you thought I was going to say I was in a pit?

Nope, I’m in Job.  In my Chrono read that is.

Actually, I’m having  a bit of  a hard time slugging thru this book, it’s a bit less clear than I thought I recalled.

I have to keep the big picture in mind here – that God has allowed tremendous trial to come upon Job and despite the misguided advice of his friends, Job’s sin isn’t the cause of this.  That is clear from the opening in Chapter 1.

But Job’s buddies don’t know about what brought on these trials, so their advice is centered on Job thinking that he is righteous, when he obviously couldn’t be or else why would this all be happening?

Even in that, his buddies do hit on some truths in their advice.  After all, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

I was struck in Job 33 when it’s Mr. Elihu’s turn to try and make sense of this.  I like him right away because he is respectful of the elders and waits his turn to vent, but still he vents nonetheless and carries on about how Job is “not right” (33:12).

But he does hit some truths in all that:

• the Spirit of God made us and given us life (v4)
• we are all equal as humans (“pinched off from a piece of clay” – v6)
• God is greater than man (v12)
• God speaks in ways sometimes that we don’t understand (v14)
• He opens ears to hear his message (v16)

Look at the progression here.  Its the gospel.  God has created us, we are all “equal” in our sin (Rom 3:23), God is greater than us and worthy of glory and worship, yet we miss the many ways (like creation Rom 1:20) that He calls us to himself.

Ultimately, he is calling us to himself as our redeemer.  A theme that pops up in Job every now and again, as it does here.

God also speaks to us thru trials and difficulties (duh, this IS Job here…) and he pursues us.  He wants us to see him as our redeemer and he will be faithful in pursuing us:

²⁹“Behold, God does all these things,
twice,^(AR) three times, with a man,
³⁰to bring back his soul from the pit,
that he may be lighted with^(AS) the light of life.

I know this to be true in my own life. God faithfully pursued me, as I pursued a life of rebellion against him years ago.  There were times that I actually felt him saying to me “Are you SURE you want to keep living like this? You know what to do.  Return to me…” Enter Jesus.  He is how God brings us back from the pit and lights us with the light of life.  Jesus exchanged his life for mine.

Thank you God, for pursuing me and redeeming me thru Jesus.  If it weren’t for him, I would most certainly be in that pit.