Is It Well With Your Soul?

I'm still reading the book of Job. In the eleventh chapter Zophar the Naamathite addresses Job condemning Job's boldness to speak to God. Then in the next two chapters Job responds. There is a question he asks in Job 13:9 (NIV),

Would it turn out well if he examined you?
Could you deceive him as you might deceive men?

If I could do a personal paraphrase, it might read like this,
"Hey, Zophar, since you seem to have all the answers, how would you like it if God put you to the test? How do you think it would turn out for you? Do you think you could lie to God as you do to men?"

As I read these words I thought about how easy it is for us to judge others. What we really need to do is to examine ourselves. Jesus put it this way in Matthew 7:1-5, (The Message)

Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults--unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, "Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt? It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

You probably remember the King James Version a little better, which reads like this in verses 3-5,
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Job's question to Zophar rings as a message to us all. How would we fare if God were to put us to the test. I remember at the very beginning of the book of Job, that God declares His confidence in Job's faithfulness. It is one thing for us to declare the faithfulness of God, but what a marvelous thing to think that God could declare His confidence in anyone. How then does your faithfulness measure up? Does God have confidence in you? How would it go with you if God put you to the test?

The other lesson here is simply to be careful about hasty judgment of others. With the same judgment you judge you will be judged.

I am also remembering the old hymn of the church which I hope we can sing from our hearts today, "It is Well with My Soul." Have a blessed day.