{"id":7199,"date":"2020-01-16T20:00:22","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T03:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=7199"},"modified":"2020-01-19T17:45:48","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T00:45:48","slug":"job10_1-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/job10_1-22\/","title":{"rendered":"It Matters How You Question God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Job 10:1-22 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Job 10:1-22.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Job 10:1-2 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will say to God: Do not condemn me, but tell me what charges you have against me.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0\u00a0Because Job hated his life, he had no problems complaining, being bitter and questioning God.\u00a0\u00a0When a person is constantly complaining and bitter, you know there is something unhealthy going on in their heart.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0As Jesus says, \u201cout of the heart the mouth speaks\u201d (Matthew\u00a012:34).\u00a0\u00a0What comes out of one\u2019s mouth is a reflection of what\u2019s going on inside their heart.\u00a0\u00a0So if you want to change your speech, it starts with letting God change your heart.<\/p>\n

Job 10:3-8 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked?
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees?
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a man,
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin–
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0though you know that I am not guilty and that no one can rescue me from your hand?
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me?<\/em>
\n
\nJob\u00a010:18\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 3-22:\u00a0\u00a0Job questions God in a taunting, complaining and dismissive manner.\u00a0\u00a0Here is my paraphrase of Job\u2019s line of questioning in verses 3-22: \u201cGod, do you take pleasure in hurting your child who has tried to live blamelessly before You, while blessing those who don\u2019t even try to please You (v3)?\u00a0\u00a0Are you so finite like a human being that You need to conduct experiments and treat me like a lab rat to see if there is any sin in my life (v4-6), even though deep down You know that I am innocent (v7)?\u00a0\u00a0God, I don\u2019t understand.\u00a0\u00a0Why would You make me only to destroy me? (v8-11) What is the point of that?\u00a0\u00a0At first I thought You were so kind (v12).\u00a0\u00a0Little did I know that if I made a single misstep, You would punish me to no end (v13-17).\u00a0\u00a0I wish I had never lived (v18-19). Since my life is almost over anyway, just turn Your wrath away from me for a second and let me have a moment\u2019s peace before I disappear into eternal darkness and gloom (v20-22).\u201d<\/p>\n

Notice that while Job was asking God a lot of questions, I\u2019m not sure that Job was really that interested in hearing God\u2019s answer.\u00a0 What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0There are at least two ways you can question God: you can question God with a dismissive, complaining, prideful attitude, or you can question God with a humble, teachable attitude.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0In the former case, because you\u2019re more interested in venting than learning, it is unlikely you will get any answers from God when you ask, \u201cWhy God?\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0In the latter case, because you are humbling yourself before God and really wanting to learn, it is more likely that you will experience Him, gain wisdom and grow when you ask, \u201cWhy God?\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, in Psalm 119:73, the Psalmist echoes what Job says in verse 8,\u00a0\u201cYour hands made me and formed me\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Yet while Job follows this up with an angry and bitter question, \u201cWill you now turn and destroy me?\u201d (Job 10:8), the Psalmist comes to God with a humble request: \u201cgive me understanding to learn your commands\u201d (Psalm 119:73).\u00a0\u00a0David in Psalm 139:13-16 does something similar.\u00a0\u00a0After recognizing that God \u201ccreated my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother\u2019s womb,\u201d he prays, \u201cSearch me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.\u00a0\u00a0See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (v23-24)\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, while both Job and the Psalmists believed in God, while they both came to God with questions,\u00a0the way\u00a0<\/em>they questioned God was very different.\u00a0\u00a0Job\u2019s line of questioning was angry, dismissive, and hard-hearted.\u00a0\u00a0Job was more interested in complaining than consulting God.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In contrast, the Psalmist sought to understand.\u00a0\u00a0He would say, \u201cGod, I really don\u2019t understand, but I want to.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Would you please teach me?\u00a0\u00a0Why did this happen and what should I do now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes when we are in so much pain, the questions we give God are not so much honest questions as they are closed-hearted complaints.\u00a0\u00a0But it\u2019s when we calm down and humbly ask, \u201cWhy God?\u201d that we position ourselves to hear from God and grow in wisdom.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You that You hear my questions, both when I\u2019m just complaining and when I really want to learn.\u00a0\u00a0I pray I would complain to You less and inquire of You more, so that I may grow in wisdom.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Job 10:1-22.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!
\n\u00a0
\nJob 10:1-2 (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0\u00a0“I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.\u00a0
\n2\u00a0\u00a0I will say to God: Do not condemn me, but tell me what charges you have against me.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 1-2:\u00a0\u00a0Because Job hated his life, he had no problems complaining, being bitter and questioning God.\u00a0\u00a0When a person is constantly complaining and bitter, you know there is something unhealthy going on in their heart.\u00a0\u00a0As Jesus says, \u201cout of the heart the mouth speaks\u201d (Matthew\u00a012:34).\u00a0\u00a0What comes out of one\u2019s mouth is a reflection of what\u2019s going on inside their heart.\u00a0\u00a0So if you want to change your speech, it starts with letting God change your heart.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7199"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7202,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199\/revisions\/7202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}