July 11, 2022: Day 146 – Job 11-14 and Romans 9-10

Another one of Job’s friends speaks and this time he is not very diplomatic.  Basically he asks aloud who is going to stop this Job from speaking lies in regards to his current state.  Everyone knows that God punishes the wicked and rewards the good.  The deduction from this then, of course, is that Job is wicked and must confess his wickedness and then everything will go back to normal.  

Job counters and says you have said nothing new.  But who doesn’t know that God can do whatever God wants to do.  He can stop the water and there will be drought.  He can make the water come and there will be flooding.  All things are in the hands of God and we are not able to dictate, good or bad, according to our actions, good or bad.  It is God’s perogative to act and decide how God wants.  Not according to our actions as if God is somehow tethered and limited by what we do and what we don’t do.  

In Romans there is a bit of a more sophisticated argument in regards to faith and the Israelites.  Paul says a few times a similar theme to what we hear in Job which is found especially in 9:15: I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and  I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.  This points to the fact that God has chosen to act according to His will, and not our desires.  Look at vs.16 in that same chapter:  It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but5 on God’s mercy.  I’ll be happy to rely upon and count on God’s mercy as opposed to my effort.