“I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.”
~ Job 23:12
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like to be told what to do? Do you like to be told when to get up in the morning? Do you like to be told when to go to bed at night? Do you like to be told what food that you have to eat? How do you feel when your dad tells you to do something? What do you feel like doing when your dad and/or ma tells you to do something and you do not feel like doing what your dad and/or ma has told you to do? How do you feel when your teacher tells you to do something? What do you feel like doing when your teacher tells you to do something and you do not feel like doing what your teacher has told you to do? Your grandpaa thinks that you are probably not happy campers when you are told to do something that you do not feel like doing. How do you feel when you have been told that you have done something wrong? How do you feel when your ma tells you that you have made a mess in the house? How do you feel when your teacher tells you that you are being too noisy in his or her class? Your grandpaa thinks that you are probably not happy campers when you are told that you have done something wrong or that you have done something that you should not have done. How do you feel when you are sick? How do you feel when you are hurt? Your grandpaa is sure that you are not happy campers when you are sick or hurt. How do you think that Job felt when three self-appointed friends – Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, kept telling Job over and over again what he needed to do to be on speaking terms again with God? How do you think that Job felt when Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar kept telling him that they were absolutely sure that the reason that he was no longer on speaking terms with God was because he had sinned against God? How do you think that Job felt to have Sabeans show up to steal all his oxen and donkeys, to have Chaldeans show up to steal all his camels, to have fire come down from heaven to kill all his sheep and to have gale force wind blow apart his oldest son’s house while all ten of his kids were partying in the house – resulting in all the kids being killed when the house was destroyed? How do you think that Job really felt when his body was suddenly covered from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head with painful, repugnant looking sores? Your grandpaa thinks that Job was really . . . how do you think that Job felt by now?
How do you feel about having to hear more about Job? Why do you think that you are having to hear so much about Job in just a few days? All the little slips of paper – with each slip having the name of a book in the Bible and a chapter of the book on it, are now in a stubby ‘Original’ PRINGLES Potato Crisps can. Your grandmaa without looking takes one of these slips of paper out of this PRINGLES can each time after your grandpaa has sent you one of these . . . that he has just completed. Your grandpaa is now calling these things – James and Ellen letters. There are still over a thousand slips in the stubby PRINGLES can. Who do you think decides – your grandmaa or God, what your grandpaa will write on the next time that he writes a James and Ellen letter? Your grandmaa is who picks out the slip of paper but God is Who decides which Bible book and chapter that is on the slip of paper that your grandpaa will write on next – when he writes a James and Ellen letter. Your grandpaa does not know why God really wants you to get to know Job. Your grandpaa is learning a lot more about Job than he ever knew about Job. Job 23 has Job answering Eliphaz again. Eliphaz got real spiky when he last talked to Job. Eliphaz had just gotten done telling Job that God had to be punishing him because Job was not into helping widows and orphans. Eliphaz was now to where he was siding with his two buddies – Bildad and Zophar, in really believing that Job was a really wicked guy. What do you do when a kid friend or your teacher or your dad and/or ma tells you something about you that you know is not true? A couple of years after your grandpaa – as a South American Mission missionary, arrived in Bolivia, the Bolivia South American Mission acting Field Director one evening told your grandpaa that he wanted to talk to your grandpaa in one of the rooms at the South America Mission mission base that is in Santa Cruz. The acting Field Director thought that your grandpaa was saying negative things about him to the other missionaries. The acting Field Director was really upset with your grandpaa. The acting Field Firector told your grandpaa that your grandpaa needed to stop saying what he was saying or . . . your grandpaa had been having a really good time before the acting Field Director talked with him. Your grandpaa had no clue what the acting Field Director was talking about until your grandpaa mentioned something to another missionary about what the acting Field Director had said to him. Ted told your grandpaa that he was the guy who had said what the acting Field Director thought that your grandpaa had been saying to the other missionaries. Your grandpaa knows that it is not fun to be told to stop doing something – or else, that it does not feel good to be told that he has said something that he knows that he has not said and that being really sick with something – like with malaria, really takes the fun out of life. Your grandpaa is sure that Job by this time is really wishing that Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar would just get out of his face and get lost.
Job wanted to talk with God – his Heavenly Father, more than anything else. Job was becoming concerned that God might never want to talk directly with him again. Verse 12 recounts Job’s feelings after everything that he had gone through, “I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.” It was more important to Job to be able to talk directly with God – his Heavenly Father, than to eat. Job knew that God was unfolding His perfect plan for his life – a plan that had awful things happening to him.
Job 23 (177)