Who Am I? Part 1

Who Am I? Part 1
Tuesday, October 15, 2024 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Categories: Contemporary issues / Scripture discussion / Spiritual deception / Spiritual warfare / Thought for Today

Who am I? Where does identity come from? Who influences us? Who do we listen to?

We are surrounded by a cacophony of human voices, each one clamoring for our attention; each one insisting that they are the one we must listen to, the one we should identify with, the one who should define us.

On top of that, there are the accusatory voices of spiritual beings and forces, voices we often mistake as coming from our own selves, voices that typically run us down, demean us, and seek to incapacitate us. Often those accusations have at least some merit, reminding us of some incident in our past. Satan knows our weaknesses, what buttons he can push.

All too often those forces speak through people, people who don’t realize what is going on. Peter comes to mind. He confesses that Jesus is the Christ, a truth revealed to him by God, and then moments later he speaks against Jesus’s pending crucifixion, a comment Jesus stated came directly from Satan.

I think of Eliphaz’s speech in Job 22. As you may recall Job’s situation is absolute misery. He has lost all his possessions, all his children are now dead, and his wife has urged him to curse God and die. He has been afflicted with painful boils from his head down to his feet. Eliphaz accuses Job of having done great evil, and as a result, Job is now under God’s severe judgment.

In Job 22:4–10 Eliphaz says: “Is it because of your reverence that He reproves you, That He enters into judgment against you? Is not your wickedness great, And your iniquities without end? For you have taken pledges of your brothers without cause, And stripped men naked. To the weary you have given no water to drink, And from the hungry you have withheld bread.”

“But the earth belongs to the mighty man, And the honorable man dwells in it. You have sent widows away empty, And the strength of the orphans has been crushed. Therefore snares surround you, And sudden dread terrifies you.” (NAU)

What does Eliphaz accuse Job of doing? According to Eliphaz, Job is guilty of endless wickedness. He has in essence committed extortion, stripped men of their clothing, and he has refused to help the tired and weak. He has refused to help widows, and he has crushed orphans. Because of all that—and a whole lot more—God is judging him. Therefore, as Eliphaz says later on, Job must repent.

Based on Eliphaz’s speech, what might we conclude about Job? Obviously, Job must be a miserable wretch of a person, one who deeply deserves God’s judgment that is now being poured out upon him.

But there is a problem: all of Eliphaz’s accusations are false. They are outright lies. How do we know that? Job 1:1 (NAU): “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.”

Job was an upright person. When the text says “turning away from evil” it doesn’t mean that Job did evil and then stopped doing it. Rather, it means that Job had absolutely nothing to do with evil. Whenever he saw someone doing evil or something he identified as being evil, he avoided them or it, staying far away.

Scripture says that Job was blameless. That isn’t how Eliphaz describes him, is it? What might have happened if Job had listened to Eliphaz, if he ended up believing him, and taken his identity accordingly?

We know from Scripture that Job didn’t do that. But, how often do we listen to lies? How often do we take our identity from other’s accusations? What about us?

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