Not Guilty!

Daily Reading:  Job 22

He delivers even the one who is not innocent (Job 22.30)

Devotional Thought: Many years ago (how many, I'll keep to myself!) I drove into South Carolina and within a few miles saw flashing blue lights behind me.  It turned out those South Carolinians took their speed limits quite seriously!  As fortune would have it, I had been on my way to church.  When I arrived, I was greeted by a SC Highway Patrolmen, off duty, not in uniform.  Not knowing who he was, I told him what had happened.  He told me who he was and said, "Don't worry about it.  I'll take care of it."  That's the last I heard of it!  I wasn't innocent, but I certainly was delivered!

Eliphaz, Job's antagonist, stumbled on this deep spiritual truth.  God delivers even the one who is not innocent!  Time and again in the Bible we see it.  King David was not innocent.  Yet, he found mercy.  The woman taken in adultery was not innocent.  Yet, she found mercy.  The Apostle Paul was not innocent.  Yet, he found mercy. 

The Bible is the story of God's plan to deliver the one who is not innocent.  Our sins, the Bible says, are as scarlet, but God will wash them white as snow.  He longs to have mercy on us.  So, yes, Eliphaz got that part right.

But, Eliphaz so badly missed the second part when he said that the guilty "will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands."  There is no one whose hands are clean enough to deliver themselves.  Only one pair of hands was that clean, and those hands are nail-scarred!  Thanks be to God that he delivers the one who is not innocent through the One who is innocent - Jesus Christ!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb without blemish, who takes away the sin of the world.  By faith, I receive your forgiveness and live by your righteousness.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 120.1-7

1 In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me.

2 Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.

3 What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue?

4 A warrior's sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree!

5 Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

6 Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.

7 I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!