the Holy Spirit, ones forming all wisdom from their own knowledge, ones urging me to utter what I did not understand, ignoring things too wonderful for me to know. Hear me now Lord, requesting, no begging, to correct my ignorance, recognizing at last You understand all our thoughts, believing no one can hide from Your knowing, not even from silent secrets of our minds, recognizing You are ready to instruct us with Your unseen aspirations, rewarding ones humbly confessing their ignorance. Therefore, I despise myself, repenting in dust and ashes, as I begin to listen and follow the Holy Spirit, no longer ignoring what He urges me to know.
Bystander: (aside) God clearly said to Job, Do you think I deal with you in any other way than to make you only appear righteous, calling your appearance sufficient for Me to name you blameless? We know you lament in frustration, complaining over your afflictions, never for condemning your actions but for justifying all your deeds, your worthiness to merit being called blameless.
Job: My self-pity gave way, yielding to despondency, as I was exhausted by shame and dishonor, tormented by my adversaries, whipping me with scornful words, vomiting their truths, making me more unclean, unloading gifts of their wisdom, until I recognized
self-pity revealed its nature, failure in doing things my way, inheriting consequences of my truths, looking for something to blame, someone to accuse, vainly to justify my adversities, never considering it a sin of my own doing, common to all attested to be blameless. Have we heard it all, convincing us there is nothing new under the sun?
Bystander: What do you expect from a debate with God, wallowing in self-pity, knowing you grieve His Spirit, calling on Him to justify your adversity, afflictions orchestrated by circumstances you chose to implement, never realizing, despite your expectations, He is adequately sufficient to supply all your needs. Silence is all your will hear from Him until you recover from your tantrum, giving you time to experience impatience, waiting for His unknown moment to come.
Job: I trusted with understanding we can walk uprightly, asking who can criticize our wisdom, formed from our breadth of knowledge, trusting in it to last until our purpose vanishes, disappearing with the multitude of comrades supporting our decisions. Now I begin to claim no importance for myself, knowing I have never been worthy to be called righteous, accepting God's justification for all my circumstances, confessing now I was never worthy of bowing down to His majesty, begging for His answers, never wanting to discern His will for me, never accepting His qualifications for me to become sanctified, never knowing what could change for my purpose.
Bystander: After sanctification it is not difficult to identify your purpose, God having moved you into His justification, revealed only through the Holy Spirit, heard by your willingness to listen, dismissing anything from your myself's will, seeking to magnify yourself, believing "God has called me for this and not for that", barricading God from using you. As long as you remain captive to your own interests and personal ambitions, you cannot share or even discern God's interests, calling you to develop absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity from failures intensified by self-interest, satisfying demons, leaves one wallowing, useless in serving God's purpose. Nevertheless, as human suffering continues, people never understand God's purpose completely, with Him never clearly announcing His way to all, knowing it would make them spiritually proud, seeking shortcuts for the long road home.
Job: Truly, sanctification promises me much hope, knowing my sins will be forgiven, trusting an end for needing sacrifices to gods, confession becoming my solution, in sacrifice becoming a continual praise to God, proclaiming my allegiance to His name.
Needing no answers for my earlier requests, badgering God to accept hearing my arguments, I would like to know more of His ways, thereby explaining some mysteries I cannot fathom.
Reckoner: You will not be the only one. Ask so we might know.
Job: God, having had eons to create and rule, planning His tenure to be unending, extending beyond infinity, begs to never answer why He created me to exist no more than a moment, believing He should suffer my fleeting time with afflictions, giving me little peace, unfilled with joy, accomplishing only brief instances of happiness, a mysterious gift found only on earth. Is creating me to suffer only to make me hate His created world, telling me He might have something better to come? I expect no answer.
Bystander: Reaching his limits of frustration, despising himself beyond endurance, regretting all his words, Job now confesses, accepting all his unworthy actions, realizing only confession can reward him with redemption, preparing him for repentance which he now freely entrusts to his hopelessness, impossible before without confession, deploring his prideful ways after suffering through God's pages of wisdom to discover what he was. Confession bridges all ways to escape pride, converting one to repentance, understanding repentance without confession provides a porous mantle of security, penetrated by frequent sharp pains of remorse, waiting for confession to collide with a person's respectable goodness, convictions of being blameless, adequate to be upright, never compelling one to struggle for more, never to enter treacherous waters, floundering to reach righteousness' shore, battling to remain afloat, bobbing about in a sea of seemingly faultless sins, never comprehending wonders waiting, fulfillment of salvation's promises, interwoven by confession's conviction of sin, repentance, forgiveness, and holiness, opening the way to God's kingdom.
Reckoner: Must we, Job's counselors, also be required to make confession as the basis for our redemption, needing it to become righteous?
Bystander: Confession begins Job's run for righteousness, allowing God to begin his redemption, revealing Himself more, giving Job more of His knowledge, enabling him to comprehend God's grace, mercifully planned for human beings, leaving ones unconfessed behind, without escape from their my-selves, continuing to claim blamelessness, basing their goodness on imperfect knowledge, comprehending understandings incompletely, suffering misfortune of their reason and common sense, continuing to justify their pride and hypocrisy.
Job: Hopefully, repentance dependent on confession will bless me, scour my past from memory, cleanse me of my sins, dismiss my self-pity, accept circumstances God placed in my way, and I now pray for nothing but sanctification, seeking more than freedom from sin, deliberately committing myself to God, my salvation, by following His way, the only path to righteousness, as I willingly pay the cost. The Lord baptizes me now, ordaining me to witness, to tell others blamelessness is never enough, sacrificing empty words, promising no rewards, exacting only tokens of worship, expecting upright ones to honor the Lord, but hearing Him now, He tells us He is no longer satisfied with sacrifice, demanding instead complete surrender to Him. What I suffered can be expected for people seeking sanctification by trusting in the power of sacrifice without confession, thinking it can atone for sins, cleansing us with forgiveness, empowering the divine miracle of grace.
Dumdum: Seeing what God now does for Job, we can honor him as a new priest, ordained by God, sent to call all upright ones to bring Him offerings, precious gifts of confession sacrificing for their sins, judging him able now to deal gently with ignorant ones, subject to his same weaknesses, with Job praying they could be redeemed like him, hoping God would justify them all, succeeding where other high priest’s judgments failed.
Bystander: God sent Job's friends His spirit, ordaining them to be His messengers, prophets selected for a finite time, instructing them with His plan, telling them to show Job the prideful ways of blameless people, to gain humility for revealing their deceit, initiated only by confession, and God could not emphasize His message without hastening fate's coming circumstances for Job's life.
Dumdum: Does God think we did not speak His truths, exposing the faults of Job's blamelessness?
Bystander: Ones accusing Job's friends of lies are blameless ones--call them hypocrites as all upright people are--seeking to show Job his pride and lack of humility caused his suffering, as truly blameless ones believe if he was righteous he would
never had deserved his suffering circumstances. See here how blameless ones write stories on how injustice serves upright people. Blameless Job carefully reasoned his case, using arguments taking many words to counter God's silence, but he never found the key to become right with God until now.
Job: I pray now for my siblings and friends, knowing at last the Lord hears me, one now filled with the Holy Spirit, having confessed, completing my renewal with repentance, trusting my prayers will intercede and bring them all to believe more in Him. Was I destined for this, never realizing this purpose when I was secure in my blamelessness, basking in the accolade of others, supporting pride in my uprightness.
Bystander: God chooses to bless you now, restoring your wealth beyond numbers, rewarding you for your change of heart, inscribing on it your promises to follow Him, redesigning it to accommodate the Holy Spirit.
Job: Changing my goals, I no longer wish to be honored by wealth or measure success by treasured idols, and cease to decorate my self-esteem with other's