{"id":5098,"date":"2023-10-20T22:52:14","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T03:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=5098"},"modified":"2023-10-20T22:52:14","modified_gmt":"2023-10-21T03:52:14","slug":"devotional-on-job-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-job-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Job"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-WRKAIsThvgs\/XzBbZ_8IG6I\/AAAAAAABFt4\/4GG5ZsAU_QENLXY-Nas-6SV60KS-0P52wCPcBGAsYHg\/s1600\/67914930_10156874716038717_1063023209126821888_o.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"969\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2019 &#8211; Lake Ontario, Wilson, NY<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nFalse advertising<br \/>\nJob 22: Give in to God&#8230;and everything will turn out just fine.<br \/>\nAs I read Eliphaz&#8217;s third speech I see that he\u2019s hardened during the exchanges with Job.  Now, to justify his position he\u2019s telling outright lies about Job.  According to this latest version of Job&#8217;s life, he\u2019s crushed orphans and exploited the homeless.  If Job wasn\u2019t in such misery this would be downright silly.  Old Eliphaz isn&#8217;t above rewriting the facts if it helps him keep his religious views on track.  He even goes so far as to suggest that if a person gives their life to God that everything will turn out just fine!  How overboard is that!  Wait a minute.  I&#8217;ve heard people say that.  Serve God and have faith and you\u2019ll be healthy and wealthy.  I know that if I skip over a few pages I\u2019ll find that it turns out okay for Job, although he\u2019ll live with the memory of his departed children the rest of his days.  Since the book of Job is about asking big questions we might as well ask the one before us today.  If a person &#8220;gives in to God&#8221; will &#8220;everything turn out just fine\u201d?  Since I believe in the existence of heaven, I can answer &#8220;yes&#8221; in the broadest of terms.  However, I don&#8217;t think that\u2019s what Eliphaz is thinking about.  He says that people who give their lives to God will have a better life here and now.  Is that always true?  When I think of those who\u2019ve been martyred for their faith, those who\u2019ve been imprisoned and tortured, or those who suffered as Job did I know it isn&#8217;t necessarily true. Living for the Lord is a wonderful way to live and the benefits are, well, eternal.  However, it\u2019s false advertising to tell people that if they give their hearts to the Lord that everything will be fine this side of eternity.<br \/>\nTake Away: We shortchange the power of the gospel if we sell it as some kind of \u201cget rich\u201d scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>False advertising Job 22: Give in to God&#8230;and everything will turn out just fine. As I read Eliphaz&#8217;s third speech I see that he\u2019s hardened during the exchanges with Job. Now, to justify his position he\u2019s telling outright lies about Job. According to this latest version of Job&#8217;s life, he\u2019s crushed orphans and exploited the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1505,7],"tags":[133,303,538,560],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5098"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14748,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5098\/revisions\/14748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}