Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Devotional: January 8th

Job 7:1-21

It is no longer to Eliphaz but to the LORD that Job addresses the end of his discourse. He paints a brief picture of the pitiable condition of man on earth. Labour, earnest desire, darkness, wearisome nights, tossings, bitterness, complaints, loathing, vanity — these are the expressions he uses and which sum up human experience only too well. But the keyword has not yet been spoken, the word which, whether we recognize it or not, is the primary cause of man’s distress. Finally Job cries out, "I have sinned", (v. 20). It is in fact sin – not only Adam’s nor other people’s, but also mine – which is responsible for the evils of the human race. But Job adds, "What have I done unto thee?" as if sin were only that, a source of misery for man, when it is first and foremost an offence against God.

Generally speaking, in testing someone, God seeks to bring him to an acknowledgment of his wretched state, a conviction of sin and confession of it to God.

Psalms 8:1-9 brings a glorious answer to the despairing questions of vv. 17 and 18 by presenting Christ, the Son of man, the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22; 1 Corinthians 15:45).