Job 12 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence Bowlin

Job has heard now from all three of his friends, but he still has not been convinced by any of their arguments since they all have assumed that he has done something evil which has caused this great misery in his life. In the first few verses he challenges their unique claims to wisdom reminding them that he too has been known as a wise man and is quite familiar with the ways of God. In fact, in vv.5-7 he points out to them that their thinking on this subject is not as clear as they think because they themselves have never experienced such misfortune and thus wrongly despise anyone who has. Then he reminds them that thieves regularly get away with their thievery and that idolaters live long in the land seemingly without any consequence for their many provocations. These examples in themselves disprove their logic of the natural consequences of sin in this world.

Then in the beginning of his soliloquy in v.9 Job uniquely uses the covenantal name of God, “the LORD,” saying, “Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?” Outside of the opening and closing chapters of the book of Job in which we get a glimpse of the Lord’s throne room in heaven, this is the only occasion in which the Lord’s name is mentioned in the ongoing dialogue, and that seems to be on purpose to show that, indeed, Job does know the Lord and is familiar with his ways. And the one thing that Job has learned about God more than any other is the fact that God has created all things and works out all things according to his own purpose and plan. Where his friends spoke of God’s providence over mere men, Job speaks of God’s providence over kings and princes and priests, over nations and peoples and all the beasts of the fields, the fish in the sea and the birds in the air.

In vv.13-25 Job wonderfully describes God’s wise and overruling providence over all things. He it is who tears down kingdoms and shuts in men. At times he withholds what men desperately need and at other times he overwhelms them with more than they can handle. Somehow, both the deceiver and the deceived are in the palm of his hand. He can easily confuse a counselor or turn a judge into a jester, a sovereign into a slave, a priest into a pauper, and a mighty man into a mouse. What God has hidden he alone can uncover. What he builds up a times he also tears down. What he enlarges he also diminishes.
A truly wise man must come to terms with God’s wise and overruling providence, for only the fool continues to fight against his sovereign will. Nevertheless, the Lord’s gives us room to complain in the original sense of the word which means to grieve or lament our circumstances and to ask for understanding, justice and mercy. But by faith we know that we are never to find fault with God or to accuse him of evil, for he has clearly revealed to us his character and his ways. What he has not clearly revealed to us is his secret will and all the wisdom behind his inscrutable providence. And that is where our faith and trust come in. Will we continue to believe in what God has clearly revealed to us as we seek to understand the things that God has not disclosed? With God’s fullest revelation given in his son Jesus, we know that the pure Lamb of God died for rebellious sinners, so whatever may happen to us otherwise in God’s mystery providence always has to be judged in light of that eternal truth.