Job 26 · Matt 26

Devotion 1 of 2: Job 26

Job asks 6 questions in v.1-4. If we can answer them, we will be able to gain a great spiritual lesson from this book. Job’s 3 friends thought God was punishing Job for his sins, so they thought the way to help Job was to get him to admit his sins. They tried many times to make him do that, but they failed because Job refused to say his suffering was caused by his sins, as we see in the next chapter, 27:2-6.

So what can we learn from this? First, we should not look at people as sinful, but look at them as good people who are trying their best, but have weaknesses and sins, just like we all do (answer to v.4). And our job as friends and counselors is to try to help them to solve their problems and live a better life by loving, encouraging and praying for them. And if there is a sin problem, we don’t try to convince them of it ourselves. Rather, we try to help them to recognize and confess it themselves (answer to v.2-3). Let’s seek the Lord to help us to truly love our neighbors and help them solve their problems.

Devotion 2 of 2: Matt 26

(2/3)
1) I think the main reason is because they didn’t understand God’s plan. Jesus had told them he would be delivered up to be crucified (v.2); be buried (v.12); be betrayed (v.21); his disciples would all stumble (v.31); Peter would deny him 3 times (v.34); and finally, the betrayer had arrived (v.46), meaning everything he had predicted would now start to happen! But his disciples didn’t have a clue about what Jesus was talking about!

So they just kept their normal, common sense way of thinking, which is what we also would do! So when Jesus was arrested, Peter thought that was bad, so he tried to protect Jesus with his sword by cutting off a servant’s ear (v.51)! But Jesus stopped him by saying if he asked, God would send angels to protect him (v.53), but doing that would stop the Scriptures from being fulfilled (v.54)! So the disciples were all confused! They didn’t know what was going on! Everything they thought was bad, Jesus said was fulfilling Scripture! And when they tried to do something to help, Jesus stopped them! They didn’t understand what Jesus was saying and were totally mixed up! So that’s when they gave up and forsook Jesus and fled!

MATT 26 answers: (3/3)
2) Verses 63 and 64. The high priest demanded Jesus to answer if he was the Christ, the Son of God, and Jesus answered, “It is as you said.” When the high priest heard that, he declared Jesus had spoken blasphemy and deserved to die (v.65-66)! So what Jesus said was very strong and extreme, not what a sane person would say, which contradicts the Muslims claim that Jesus never said he was the Son of God.