How to Grow in God’s Word
What a blessing to spend time with God every morning.

Last week, I was talking to a friend at church who questions the value of trying to read through the Bible. He likes to spend a week or even a month memorizing a verse, studying everything he can find about that verse.

This is a noble pursuit.

I have read the same chapter each day in five translations for a week at a time. Doing this produced much spiritual growth for me.

I have read non-stop as much as I could and completed the journey through the Bible more than one time in a year. There was some growth from this as well.

When I was a baby Christian, still new to the Word of God, I needed to become familiar with it.

We think hearing parts of it in church will expose us to all the Word. To an extent, we are correct.

What we lose is the context of everything that is happening. I feel concentrating on a single verse or chapter carries the same risk.
Can We Prove Our Innocence?
Today, we will read Job 9-12, but chapter 9 starts with the words, “Then Job replied:” (v9.1, NIV)

Therefore, I backed up to review what he was replying to.

In chapter 8, Bildad had asked him, “Does God pervert justice?” (v8:3) and answered that Job’s children sinned, and they received punishment for that sin. (v8:4).

“The wage of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).

While Bildad is rebuking Job, he is encouraging him, too. In verse 8:7, Bildad assures Job of his restoration.

He wasn’t talking about a restoration in this lifetime, though he didn’t preclude it.

In verse 8:9, he points out that our days here are short.

Toward the end of his rebuttal, he states that “God does not reject one who is blameless” (v8:20).

This is what Job was responding to.

He states aligned with this statement, but doesn’t accept guilt. He asks, “how can mere mortals prove their innocence?” (v9:2).
Confronting Our Guilt
God sees everything and knows all. He knows what is in our hearts and minds.

When our eyes are watching an attractive young lady walk past, our wife may elbow us and scowl. We might get away with denying we did it.

This response is natural to men. This manifests the sin nature, the “old man”, who we fight against.

God knows the thoughts which were going through our mind, brief as they were. He knows we fought them.

He knew, with a sickening certainty, that they were all as guilty as Job claimed. As the judge, He has all the evidence to convict everyone of us.

That is because He is omnipresent and omniscient. As Job states, He is there when we can’t see Him. (v9:11).

He has an airtight case against us, and the wage of sin is due. Job asks, if God is collecting that payment, snatching away, “who can stop Him?” (v9:12).

Job points to the problem in verse 9:14: we want to argue with God.

Comparing ourselves to others, we feel our record is strong.

Compared to society’s shallow pursuits, our goodness is clear.

We must measure ourselves against perfection. The entry to heaven is very narrow (see Matt 7:13-20).

Only a sinless person can enter paradise.

That does not leave us with much hope.
The Only Hope
Meanwhile, our days fly past. “Like eagles swooping down on their pray” (v9:26, NIV).

What beautiful imagery. Quiet, still, and lethal.

Job knows, like all of us, that he is “already found guilty” (v9:29).

He knows he cannot clean himself up (v9:30). We have no righteousness of our own.

Remember, Jesus did not come to condemn the world (see John 3:17), but condemnation already befell us. He came to save us.

Job asks the important question: “If only there were someone to mediate between us.” (v9:33, NIV).

There is! Jesus is the mediator between us and God (see Heb 9:15).

God knows how narrow the gate is and only by changing all we are for all Jesus is can we pass through it. (see 2 Cor 5:21).

Job is struggling with that issue we all must confront.

He does not see his sinfulness. Assuming innocence, he wants to dispute the fairness of being condemned.

Then he realized we all owe a debt we can’t pay and wishes for a mediator.

God responded to his request by sending Jesus as our Savior.

Have you accepted this truth?

Are you ready to trust Jesus as your Savior and Lord today?
Tomorrow we read Job 13-15