“Far be it from me to say that you are right…” Job 27:5
It’s a disease that plagues mankind today. And it didn’t just start yesterday, it has plagued mankind since one of the very earliest books in God’s Word was penned. Mankind’s judgement of right and wrong. Men and women hold their ideal of personal right very close to the vest. And within that tight grasp lies little room for movement. You see, just like flipping a coin, if one side is my personal right then there is only one other side of the coin that can possibly exist…wrong. And using simple deductive reasoning we can conclude that if I am right than any other view that does not align with my side of the coin must therefore be wrong. It’s so simple to slip into this fallacy, in fact, you see people sliding into it daily all over the world. A closely held personal belief of right is contested by another and knowing that they are indeed right, they immediately attack the other party using the assumption that they are wrong. But what if that coin really has three sides? What if there is a right that trumps what we think is right? If true, then right is not right and therefore redefines what we perceive as wrong. Huh?
Job chapter 27 sees Job building in his confidence. He commands the speaking floor now and his speech is rising in authority. After exasperating his friends in a battle of lengthy speeches, he now moves into rebuking them for their density in failing to understand God the way he does. Many people would declare that the book of Job is a lesson on suffering and endurance, but not so. The book of Job is a tremendous lesson in humility. A lesson in continued repentance, that is, the constant turning from ourselves, to instead continuing in baby steps towards the righteousness of Almighty God. And as we see Job boldly speak out to God and His friends, we start to see grains of pride and ego materialize upon Job’s seashore. A seashore that will be washed clean by God in later chapters. And in our inspiration verse above, we see Job slip into the fallacy of assuming only one person can be right. Job believes with all his heart that his friends are wrong and therefore, he is automatically right. It’s a simple case for Job, open and shut. But Job has not learned that the rights and wrongs of men are always trumped by the ultimate right, the right of God.
Today you may be in the midst of an argument or disagreement and you are hanging your hat on the fact that you are right. Your closely held belief of right will not leave your side and you know that you are right with all of your being. But in your self-righteous belief, you leave little room for any other right. If you are the only one that can be right, that automatically means the rest of the world is wrong, and sadly, that includes God. The journey of Job is one of discovery. God is revealing and Job is discovering. It is this same journey that all believers in Christ are on. For you see, the journey of following the path of Christ is meant to reveal who God is. God is supreme, God is sovereign, God is right. Today, before strongly exerting the fact that you are right, go to God in prayer and ask Him what His right is. Don’t assume you are right, instead seek to learn what God sees as right. For only the righteousness of God will endure and lead the follower to the feet of Jesus.
“A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart.” Proverbs 21:12
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