Job 15:14

What is man, that he could be cleared of guilt?

   One born of woman, that he could be in the right?

For at least the third day this week I woke feeling less than ready to charge into the day. I have a little book that I want to track these things in as I seek to figure out what ails me and move on from it/them. It’s probably all the salt and flour in my diet. Which of course is a well-known problem I keep returning to.

‘Cleared of guilt, was also ‘clean’, ‘pure’, ‘merit’, and ‘guiltless’.

‘Be in the right’ was also ‘be righteous’ or ‘be innocent’.

Upon rereading this verse, I get the question. How can we think ‘we as flawed’ can really be worthy? Many people in looking at this ignore the role of Christ and find that there is no other satisfying answer. The character is telling Job that his goal is not achievable because of his natural condition.

A baseball card I wanted of a near nobody went for more than I was willing to pay yesterday. This is the second one in recent memory that just blows me away that someone would pay more than me. I have heard that some players are buying up their own rare cards, so that could be it, but wow. I can understand superstars like Altuve and Yordan, but Eli Iorg who never made the majors and Mark Appel who barely did 10 years after college?

But the answer to both of these mysteries (righteousness and cards) is that God has made each of us unique, in His image, and has set before us a unique path to follow. (The cards I am mentioning are the 1/1s that are therefore unique as well.) Man can be cleared of guilt because God made it possible. Man can be in the right because God makes it possible. (The whole PC thing about changing the meaning of the word man to not include all humans is a travesty.) God has made each person to be loved and to love. Individuals experience terrible things at the hands of others, both the purposeful and the thoughtless. The call on us is to treat each person as if they are special to God and therefore special to us. We cannot treat everyone the same as they are all different. So, we treat them all the same by loving them as God calls us to, individually and for His glory.

Written 12/15/24, Posted 1/20/25, Job 351