Job 13:8

Would you show partiality toward Him?

   Would you plead the case for God?

 

We went to a gathering for a friend’s birthday and saw many long-time neighbors. It was good to see our friend, but it also brought mostly discomfort as we are no longer active with this group. It reminded me of a show I watched that involved people living in a small town forever. The more time you spend with someone, the more likely you are to offend them.

In rereading the various versions of the first stitch, all except the King James say essentially the same thing. King James says ’Will ye accept His person?’ The difference in meaning was initially beyond me.

‘Plead’ was also ‘argue’ or ‘content’. It does not really capture alignment with the first stitch, so I may be missing something.

As much smaller as it is than where I live now, I did not grow up in a small town. There were always people that you did not know and that did not know you. However, our neighborhood did include people who had been there as long as we had. People who knew who I was and were eventually irritated by my behavior; be it riding my bike through their side yard, walking on their grass, ignoring them, or whatever it was that a ignorant kid might do to offend a neighbor or classmate. I often wonder how offensive my behavior was and how much better a friend or neighbor I could have been if I understood more as a child.

Once a coworker pointed out how poorly I could treat people if I judged another coworker to be stupid, incompetent, or worse. That coworker was and is my friend, and he can tell me stuff like that because of the quality of our relationship. He is also not stupid, incompetent, nor worse. Another time, he ‘caught’ me doing something exactly like I had complained to him about a person I thought was stupid, incompetent, and worse. Made me rethink that ‘worse’ evaluation.

Would you show partiality toward God? – This is exactly my goal for every day all day; to follow God and not my own selfish desires. That is why I think I and some of my sources have missed something in this verse. It almost seems as if the question should be ‘Would you be negative towards others based on their relationship with God?’ My paradigm would say I am to help the believer and witness to the non-believer; so it would seem I would be partial to how others treat God. Since I cannot know someone’s heart, makes it kinda foolish to base my behavior towards others on such a thing.

Would you plead the case for God? – My first pass is that of course I will try to show others God. But upon reflection, I think maybe the question is ‘Do you think so highly of yourself that you would not leave the arguing to God who is so much better than you?’ The phrase from my past is ‘Jeff is arrogant.’ Another friend told me that once. Well, she really wrote it on something of mine, but I kept it to help me try and be better. We would probably still be friends if I could reconcile some unknowns about married men and women who are not their wives.

 

I want to change my amalgamation to be:

Would you show partiality on His behalf?

   Would you plead God’s case instead of Him?

 

I am certainly a sinner and have offended many people in my life. Some are still my friends, and some would still be if I let them. Others are not my friends and will never forgive me. I can live with that, but only because God has forgiven me and I could never understand all the ways I offended nor could I go back and ask each individually for forgiveness if they even would.

Written 4/20/24, Posted 7/15/24, Job 293