Job 6:24

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"... cause me to understand wherein I have erred." Job 6:24

Job does not admit his error, but inasmuch as he is suffering as if he had erred he wishes to have the mistake definitely pointed out. All unexplained suffering is made the larger by its very mystery. We do not always see the errors we have committed; sometimes they require to be distinctly pointed out by him against whom we have transgressed. Error is not broad, vulgar, and obvious, in all its manifestations. Sometimes it is spiritual, subtle, beyond the reach of words, and wholly invisible, except when high moral light falls upon it from above. The patriarch is in a reasonable mood, inasmuch as he desires to have his understanding enlightened as to his faults; at the same time, even our reasonableness may be barbed with a cruel sting: the soft tone does not always convey the soft meaning: even in this exclamation of the sufferer there may be a tone of self-complacency or even of defiance, as who should say, It is impossible to charge me with error: if I am chargeable with it, let me know what it is, for I have no consciousness of it, and if any proof can be furnished it will excite my surprise. Men are not quick to see their own errors. Even the best man requires all the light of heaven in which to see himself as he really is. Comparing ourselves with ourselves, we become wise in our own conceit, but comparing ourselves with the spiritual law of God, we see that even our virtue cannot boast to be without stain or flaw. The prayer may be turned to high practical uses: Search me, O God, and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me. We must get rid of the deception that we fully and absolutely see ourselves as we really are: every day we need God's help to show us our true character, our real motive, our complete design. We can hide many things under a false exterior which we would not for the world expose to the light of day. We must insist upon viewing ourselves in the divine light, rather than judging ourselves by social canons and conventional standards. Let us go to God for full explanations of natural mysteries, personal perplexities, and all social hindrances and vexations. There is always more in a case of this kind than is obvious on the surface. All inward trouble does not indicate itself by outward symptoms: hence we need the intervention and guidance of the divine.