Job 35 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence

Is it truly profitable to serve the Lord? What do we really get if we obey Him? There is nothing wrong with asking such questions. After all, even Jesus exhorted us to count the cost of following him to see whether or not we want to start out on that journey in the first place. The questions are good, but our answers are not always right and good. Back in chapter twenty-one, verse fifteen, Job was quoting the boasting of the wicked who said, “What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?” And it seems that Job has not only begun to ask the same questions as they, but he has also come to the same conclusion that, as Elihu quotes him in verse nine of chapter thirty-four, he says, “It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God.” And Elihu quotes him again in our chapter this morning, in v.3 saying, “What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?’ Clearly the question seems to imply that there is no advantage and that he is not any better off than the wicked for seeking God.

So Elihu, in vv.5-7, defends God’s honor in respect to Job and the rest of God’s people by showing just how high above them He sits in heaven and why whatever good or evil they commit on earth neither helps nor hurts Him that He must be beholden to them or owe them anything for being good. Then, in vv.8-12, Elihu explains that the reason that God does not provide help nor answer the prayers of many sufferers on earth is because they are merely looking for relief or a reward but are not looking for the God who gives them songs in the night and teaches them the ways of wisdom. Finally, in vv.13-16 Elihu states that Job’s cry is just as empty as theirs, for he too is acting according to his pride and is merely seeking the relief and the rewards of the Lord but not really seeking the Lord himself. Therefore, he says the same thing he said in the previous chapter, and will say it again in the following chapter: “Job opens his mouth in empty talk; he multiplies words without knowledge.” And, here, we know that Elihu has given good counsel because the Lord thunders out the same words in Job 38:2 saying, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”

At times we all have a tendency to lose sight of our Maker and focus only on what He has made, and to forget the Giver and look only to His gifts. This is the true test of faith that Job is undergoing at this time, and he is beginning to waver looking to some earthly reward rather than to a heavenly one. Of course, even the apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:19 that “if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” His point was that if Christ had not be raised and there was no hope of heaven then we are fools who follow Christ unto death. But even though Job and his counselors did not have the fullness of revelation back then, they still had the same hope of heaven that we do. Nevertheless, there is still a desire to see some foretaste of our heavenly reward on earth. But that will not often be found through one’s continual health, accumulation of wealth or through the long lives of one’s family members. The reward for godliness is not always riches, honor and long life. In Matthew 5.12, Jesus says, “Blessed are the persecuted for great is their reward in heaven.” Even though they’ve lost their wealth, their freedom and their loved ones, there is still a reward waiting for them, an eternal inheritance.

But the reward is not always delayed, and the eternal reward is not based merely upon a better place or better things. The greatest reward for the righteous is God Himself, for He is what makes Heaven a wonderful place, and He is what enables us to enjoy all things here on earth. This is what Job is learning through his trials and what we must learn through our trials as well that the Lord Himself is our great reward, and that He is our eternal inheritance. That is what the apostle Paul is saying in Philippians 3:7-8 “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” He who really knows Jesus has found the pearl of great price; he has found his great reward, whereas he who does not really know him, is still looking for some earthly trinkets which will never satisfy.