Job 21:3 “Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.”
You’re probably familiar with the pop expression, “Rock on.” Well how about “Mock on”?
After Job suffered the loss of family, fortune and physical well-being, his three friends came to comfort him. But they ended up making his pain even more excruciating by falsely accusing him of hidden wickedness. They mistakenly believed his suffering was due to unrepentant sin in his life.
So how did Job respond to their condemnation? He told them to “mock on!” Such was Job’s confidence. When accused of things he knew were untrue, he didn’t melt like a marshmallow. He stood firm in his integrity. “Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days” (Job 27:5-6).
Job never wavered in his assessment of his own character. Why? Because he never wavered in his assessment of God’s character. Oh, he questioned God. He didn’t understand why God was allowing him to suffer. But his confidence in God’s character of goodness and justness remained unshakeable. He believed if he could just present his case before God, he would be vindicated (Job 23:6-7). He looked for God’s judgment, not man’s. That’s why Job could tell his accusers to “mock on.”
When we have confidence in who God says he is, we will have confidence in who he says we are.
It’s not a conspiracy to say followers of Jesus are facing some strong headwinds from our culture today. Winds that give no indication of slowing down. One journalist recently reported it’s becoming cool to mock Christianity. If we hope to exude the same kind of confidence Job displayed, it rests on the unwavering assurance of God’s credentials, not ours. We are imperfect people, but we serve a perfect God. One who always has our back no matter what the crowd says.
I pray you and I will know who we are in Christ. That we won’t let whatever false accusations that come our way fill us with self-doubt. I guess if Jesus was mocked, we should expect no less. And he knows how to bravely lead us through.
[Next week, Part 3, “Forgiveness Completes”]