the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Job 27:1-23
It will take no fewer than six chapters for Job to try to establish his own righteousness. This is too much, yet at the same time, too little! If there were a hundred chapters, that would not be sufficient, since nothing which comes from man can have any weight in the scales of divine justice. Moreover this justification has already been accomplished totally outside of man’s own efforts.
We should note that this act of justifying himself leads Job implicitly to accuse God of injustice in wrongly striking him down (cf. Job 40:8). Also he is permitted openly to reproach the All-powerful who has taken away his rights and who is tormenting him without cause (v. 2).
This attitude shows pride. "My righteousness I hold fast," says Job, "my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live" (v. 6). But what answer does the Word of God have to this? "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). Besides, even if our own heart does not reproach us, that does not prove we are without sin. God is infinitely more perceptive of evil than are our consciences (1 Corinthians 4:4). In the darkness, our clothes can seem clean to us, whilst in full sunshine (the light of God) the least stain will show up (Proverbs 4:18).
