Study of Job 13:16

Indeed, in this He will be my rescue,

   For no flatterer comes before Him.

 

I went to a work function last night. It started at 6:00, but I got there closer to 8:30. This verse reminded me of all the salesmen that I avoided at the function. I just do not want to hear a bunch of nothing from some old flatterers.

‘He’ was left out of many options leaving the second stitch as the noun and therefore the source of his salvation. That just doesn’t seem right. ‘My rescue’ was obviously also ‘salvation’, but also ‘deliverance’ and ‘vindication’. I went with God being the source of his rescue. And I am 100% behind that idea, but I am no longer confident that the verse should not be something more like ‘Indeed, this will turn out for my vindication’.

‘Flatterer’ was also ‘godless’, ‘hypocrite’, ‘impious man’, or ‘tainted man’. There was also the idea that Job was saying that ‘It would be me coming before Him and I am not a hypocrite’. or whichever negative word you want to put in for flatterer. ‘Comes before’ was also ‘comes into the presence of’. And there was also some sense that a flatterer could not or would not choose to come before Him. I think my rendition does not eliminate any of these.

Interestingly, the difference between God being his rescue or the fact that he is not a hypocrite coming before God is his vindication is huge. Either He is submitting to God as the source for everything, or he is still relying on himself to win out the day. My sources were split down the middle on this one. I love the idea of God being my rescue, but I do not think it keep with the verses around it, i.e. context.  Therefore, I will have to change; I think.

I was late to the function because I chose to go to the kid’s school function. I may have missed speaking with the engineers and others that I like to speak to that go to these things early, but I decided the family opportunity was better. Oddly, I got stopped at every light and the traffic was not well mannered and I often wondered if I should have gone at all. I did speak with the most important person at the function, and I learned a little, so it was all worth it.

Verses that can turn on the definition of a single word are very interesting to me. I fundamentally believe that the Bible is God breathed meaning that God caused it to be written the way it was written beyond the capabilities of man. I also believe that certain meanings are hidden such that only the Holy Spirit living inside the believer can really understand the message and that the same verse can hold different meanings for different people at different stages of their own lives and over the eons of time. The desire to know God better and to study the nuances of this verse I think were put into me by God as who He wanted me to be.

I have often struggled with self-discipline or self-control. Some of this is physical, like not brushing my teeth or not exercising. Some of this is rooted in why bother, like I’ll never need to run 26 miles all at once. But this week, I have been confronted with the need to plan to be able to do more and better later. I have no plans to climb a mountain, so I have not put forth the effort to be able to do so. But someone invited me this week to do something I had never done before. I went because I could. So now I have to get prepared to do more things that I might never have expected to do. Because as I learned in Boy Scouts, Be Prepared.

Written 5/8/2024, Posted 5/8/24 (oops, I hit the wrong button), Job 288