Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

That's what makes the climax of Job's life so satisfying. This dear man, who never deserved the suffering he endured, is dealt with justly. And those who made his life so miserable weren't overlooked either. The God of justice finally steps up.

"I've come to the end of my understanding, and I leave it at that. My very existence is Yours, O God. It's Yours to unravel the mystery, to track the labyrinthine ways, to handle the profound, to know the reasons behind the inexplicable events of my life."

Job's response prompts me to think of what this says to our twenty-first-century world. What needed messages it offers to our times! The first: If God's ways are higher than mine, then I bow before Him in submission. The result of that attitude is true humility.

If you take the time to analyze those words, you'll see that Job has three responses. The first is a response of humility. The second is a response of relief. And the third is a response of surrender. That's all God wanted to hear.

When God finally does speak, He answers Job out of a whirlwind. Suddenly, there He is! Wouldn't it have been great for us to have been there? Whoosh! Lightning, loud thunder, mighty winds blowing dark clouds across the heavens, and out of nowhere God bursts on the scene.

God is prominent and preeminent. He is majestic in His power, magnificent in His person, and marvelous in His purposes. How refreshing to step back into the shadows of our own insignificance and give full attention to the greatness of our God! It's all about Him!

There is a man in our congregation who recently underwent brain surgery. The tumor in the frontal section within his cranium was pushing his brain back and slowly eroding his memory. Each week the growth of the tumor became more pronounced and debilitating for him.

Allow me to offer a simple definition of wisdom. Wisdom is looking at life from God's point of view. When we employ wisdom we are viewing life as God sees it. That's why it's so valuable to think God's thoughts. You look at difficulties and tests as God looks at them.

Reflecting on past blessings gives us reasons to rejoice. Let me urge you who are parents still rearing young children to teach them how to do this by practicing it often. Suppertime is a great opportunity to reflect. It's an ideal time to look back over the day and to count the blessings.

Isn't that closing comment a great line? The wicked man may have more clothes in his closet, but he'll wind up leaving them to us. Remember the materialistic line that is framed around license plates? "He who dies with the most toys wins."

Thinking God's thoughts is our highest goal. That's one of the reasons I'm such a proponent of the discipline of Scripture memorization. You cannot think God's thoughts more acutely than when you quote God's very words back to life's situations.

What a thrilling thought! "Bildad, as magnificent as all of these things are, what I've mentioned represents only the fringes of His ways." Isn't "fringes" a great word? The fringes, the outer edges of His ways; only the quiet whispers of His mighty voice.

What Job lacked here in tact, he made up for in total honesty. Frankly, this was no time for tact. Bildad has been brutal. It's doubtful he would even hear if Job had been soft and diplomatic. Job gets tough! Sores will do that to you.

David, in Psalm 139, makes the appropriate comment, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it" (v. 6). If David lived today, he would write, "This blows my mind."

We could go all the way through this list to the end. There are wrongs, there are failures, and there are injustices. There were robberies and sexual sins and hidden wrongs done in the dark. And where is God? He is permitting it. Why? "I don't know," says Job.

Back when Job's body was covered with sores, when his friends were still against him, when he was bankrupt and sitting in a garbage dump at the outskirts of the city, Job had the temerity to say, "But He knows the way I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).

Job struggles, finally admitting his frustration: he cannot find God. Ever been there? Of course. All of us have! There are days we search in vain for some visible evidence of the living God.

As we get to chapters 23 and 24 of Job, we observe three calm, vulnerable responses from him. Take the time to read through these two chapters—they're magnificent! Job's first theme seems to be, "I am unable to locate the presence of God, but I trust You, Lord."

While speaking the truth Job left the defense of his own character in the Lord's hands. He was firm and deliberate, but he remained in control. I repeat, I understand what it's like to be unjustly maligned. I have been accused of things, and that rumor has kept me awake.

Chances are good that many of you who are reading these lines are currently the target of someone's lying accusations. That can be an anguishing cross to bear. I've been there, so I speak from painful experience.