Job 12:22

He reveals deep secrets of darkness,

   Brings blackest gloom to light.

 

This is my first piece of Job for the year and my first at all since vacation. I’ve been sick for a week, recovering for a week, and finally back to normal, I think. Part of getting older, but I saw someone in a meeting this morning that looked old, and it made me feel young again. Hopefully, I can apply all the things I am learning and avoid getting sick and taking so long to recover.

‘Reveals’ was also ‘uncovers’, ‘discovers’, ‘draws’, ‘discloses’, and ‘lays bare’. I like the image of lays bare better, but I felt reveals more matched my limited vocabulary. I did not like the ‘discovers’ at all as God knows all. ‘Deep secrets’ was also ‘the deeps’, ‘the deep things’, ‘mysteries’, and ‘depths’. Deep secrets just seemed to match the context better for me. ‘The deeps’ seem like a printing error.

‘Blackest gloom’ was also ‘deep darkness’, ‘deep shadows’, ‘the shadow of death’, ‘obscurities’, and ‘death dark’. I really did not like the repeat of darkness from the first stitch and blackest gloom was least like it.

Sunday, we looked at Genesis 3 and the story of ‘Original Sin’. Oddly, we could not decide what was actually the first sin or the exact nature of the sin. Since this story is so entwined with everything, it always felt like the details were obvious. When I read this verse in Job, I am reminded of how God uses the Holy Spirit to guide believers to understand the important ideas without the focus of knowing the exact details.

One of my thoughts based on this story in Genesis 3 and the parts of Job’s story that involve Satan was ‘When exactly was Satan cast out of heaven?’ Tradition has it that Satan was cast out before the event in the garden. But if Adam was the first, then Job happened after Adam. If Satan was cast out before this event, then how could he go to the heavenly courts to discuss Job, if he had already been cast out? If Satan was cursed in the garden for his role in this event, how does he still act as anything other than a physical snake?

When I was younger, I expected God to make known all these details and everything else I ever wanted to know. Now, I think it does not matter how many free throws I ever made, nor who really was my grandfather. But I was still really on the fence about how well I would understand the Bible after I entered His presence in Heaven based on my faith in Christ. Now I wonder how much understanding do I really need of the Bible once I am in heaven? Or even how much do I even need now before I get there?

I love studying the Bible as it gives me a better understanding of who God is and why it is so great that He offered me salvation through the death of Jesus. I am trying to give up the ‘drive’ to know more and replace it with the joy of abiding in Him. Does it matter that Ebenerzer (or some word like that) is actually a place referred to in the Old Testament or does it just matter than God spent so much effort trying to get us to understand that He loved us, and we need nothing else? I intend to be content with who God is and limit my goals to enjoying the relationship that Christ has provided for us here on earth and rest knowing it will be even greater upon its end. (More on goals later.)

Written 1/25/24, Posted 2/7/24, Job 279