Job 10:7
In spite of Your knowing that I am not guilty,
No one can deliver me from Your hand.
I saw a link at the bottom of Amazon about self-publishing. I followed it to see how it worked. I have thought about getting my Amalgamation published once I am done, but its far enough away that I do not want to get ahead of myself. As I was reading my sources for 22:11, I found another instance of my favorite source getting something right that all the others missed. I can not thank God enough for leading me to this source as I have learned so much just from its difference from the others.
“In spite of” was “although”, “though”, and “surely” but I picked none and went my way. “I am not guilty” was also ”I am not wicked” and “I have done nothing truly wicked”. I like the concept of Job pushing away from being not guilty to be not wicked and even more the idea that he has not done anything that can be considered truly wicked. Job knows he has sinned, but he also knows he has followed God as truly as he can, and yet he knows God is allowing him to suffer. The idea: Godly people sin, but they do not do truly wicked things. I can accept that, but in the end, I think that puts too much into the words the author used.
“Deliver” was also “rescue” or “save”. “Me” was also “nothing”. Nothing is true, but this is about job. The other options all mean the same thing in this use.
I found a baseball card that I did not have. I figured it was worth no more than $20 to me. The owner had a price listed, but also allowed lower offers to be made. I made several lower offers that were rejected automatically and then I made my final $20 offer. The owner rejected it saying, “Is $1.92 really gonna matter?” Well, the answer is yes, it does matter. I moved on.
The $2 does not matter, it is the principle of setting a limit and sticking to it. God asked us to love Him and follow Him. Making a mistake or making an unwise decision are sins that each of us make. But turning our backs on God and doing something evil (being truly wicked) is another thing altogether. I might spend $2 extra on a baseball card, but I am not going to drive my car into a throng of people on purpose. I might go really fast in my car, but I am not going to ram it into a store front to hit my enemy.
Jesus did not come back to save the righteous, He came back to save the sinner. (No one else is righteous, but just to be clear.) Every single person who has been or will be saved was, is, or will be a sinner. There is no path to salvation but through sin. This is not a license to sin, but a license to forgive yourself for your sins and to forgive everyone you encounter for theirs. Only God can deliver any one of us from the earned outcome of death for our sin. But He has done so because He loved us while we were sinners. So, I will forgive the guy for rejecting my $20 offer, but I will stick to my $20 limit.
(Written 12/7, Posted 15, Job 215)