The other day, I kind of skipped over everything Job had to say in response to Eliphaz in chapter 23. There are actually some very interesting things to ponder.
Job says "complaining is rebellion." Hello! Think about it – you have a boss, who gives orders to get "something" done. Better yet, you give your child or employee their list of chores (their orders) for the day. How would you view their complaining about what you have given them to do. You know "I can't do that", or "why doesn't my sister/brother/someone else have to do this much?" After all the time you spent trying to figure out who whould be best for the job and what you know they can do…[more]
The real stopper came as I re-read that it was like Job laid out a map or floor plan, and said "it doesn't make any difference which way I go, I can't find Him!" (verses 8 and 9) Here was a man who knew the way of and to God. Yet he feels sort of lost, because he cannot see the one who's instructions he is trying to follow. It's like "I know He's here, I just can't see Him."
But I love Job's analogy of his being gold, tried in the fire. The immediate image is of a pot of gold being melted, along with all the impurities. When it is hot enough, the first thing a goldsmith (metalsmith?) does is pour off the dross, leaving the pure gold. The less dross, the purer the gold. To see the beauty of the gold, you have to get rid of the dull – that which does not belong there.
Oh that we might let our lives be purified. Sure the gold when it goes in the pot has all the junk mixed up with it, but to become better, it needs to be "fired".
The last thing I found in this chapter was Job's insistence that he has followed the right path – his feet held fast. Imagine that you are walking along the edge of a mountainous path – narrow and along the crevices. Your feet have to hold on to keep you from falling to injury or death.
When I was a boy in San Francisco, my friends and I used to go walking on Red Rock Hill. We learned early that we could either slip and fall from the top to the bottom, or we could walk down if we placed our feet correctly. Feet in the wrong place not only scrapped our legs, but out fingers were screpped raw and we tried to stop our slide.
Red Rock Hill is no longer there – it's been replaced by Diamond Heights, but the lessons it taught remain. Walk carefully and you can go up or down safely. Make a mistake, and you can start over again. Make a mistake, and your body will let you know. You could not blame the hill because it was your footsteps that took you down.
That sounds a whole lot like life. The path does not put itself under my feet – I move my feet in the direction I choose. Better tred carefully then.