become righteous.
Joseph: You speak of human reason's ephemeral delusions of human truths, deceiving people into trusting themselves for generating lasting wisdom, determining all their judgments. What is new under the sun?
Bystander: With human truths cycling through a revolving turn-style, changing now only to change again, should people tolerate all now, preparing for tomorrow's certainty, but tumbling through its cycle could tolerance be abolished in the name of tolerance, protecting my way is as good as yours?
Job: Then wait for the promises of its companion, its soulmate of violence, disruption of goodness scattered to nature's whims, for human reason must live through its tyrannies.
Joseph: Blamelessness exudes with willingness, no eagerness, to compromise, living and belonging in the world, tolerating human truths determined by the majority, while we hide our token eternal truths, hoping to adhere to them enough to assure us life after death. Admired for being upright, we must never forget we can carry it to an extreme and be shunned by happiness in this world. Even priests profaning the Sabbath remain blameless, escaping condemnation for being unrighteous.
Bystander: Does sin also lie at your door, accumulating on mats, where you wipe away evil, thinking it prevents you from entering the kingdom, convincing you sins can be brushed away easily, as effective as removing your shoes, following the command to walk on holy ground, but even bare feet carrying sins cannot be washed sufficiently, reminding you it is impossible to clean your sandals of all the sins you carry, condemning you to be no more righteous than blameless.
Joseph: We remember. He who covers his sins will not prosper, trusting whosoever confesses, forsaking them, will have mercy.
Job: Being one blameless, devoted to worldly cares, investing all my thoughts in the deceitfulness of riches, lusting after all my desires, I choked out the life of God, closing the door for Him to enter, but being upright I never dared to curse Him, only lamenting my plight and God's injustice, sanctioning and sustaining my afflictions, my adversity for no reason, rejecting my friends' suggestions I am guilty, as I insisted on my innocence, shifting all burden of guilt to God.
Joseph: Would you trust ending human trials by seeking after righteousness, believing the righteous never suffer? Know the ways of the Lord, settling all with trials, revealing many are afflictions for righteous ones, but He delivers such ones from them all, redeeming them, rewarding their righteousness, or better said, showering mercy on those reaching for its heights.
Bystander: Remember the demands of seeking righteousness, impaling all on the cross of violence, following what judgment demands, destroys many.
Job: Though the righteous never receive their due on earth, expecting no protection against trials, contemplating unjust afflictions, often little different from blameless ones, I agonize no longer, now knowing my redeemer lives, my Lord revealing and promising redemption, coming when I confessed my unworthiness, opening the way for my image to approach His, the one promised for me to copy.
Joseph: Rejoicing now, you can expect your reward, restoring life, removing your afflictions, replacing all earthly treasures stolen by thieves, returning all your peace taken by nature.
Job: Should I expect all to come back, reviving moments of my blamelessness, comforting who I once was, returning to know all would be lost again? Better I should wish for something different, never wanting securities of my previous life, flocks too numerous to count, children living only to celebrate life, a wife telling me to curse God, friends coming to aid me with trials testing my conscience, all this for cycling back to rerun my existence and suffer again, resuming life with new afflictions, expecting some even for the righteous.
Joseph: Since you confessed, learning its necessity, all has changed.
Job: I thank you for bringing me to confession.
Joseph: Never give me credit belonging only to God. He created circumstances for you to change, confessing your blamelessness to protect you from His judgment, to admit your uprightness is no regal garment guarding you from innate desires. He was merciful, choosing your time to come, convincing you to confess, opening your will to receive the fullness of His grace.
Job: Yes, give Him thanks. He has now given me a treasure greater than I have ever known, joy, and I seek nothing more from Him, nothing of what I struggled to make me blameless before. With my confession, I faithfully follow God, never choosing how I would do it, but allowing His will to determine my work for Him, calling me to His service. I once sat at the door of His purpose, hearing none of His directions, never entering, enduring a slow death through self-pity, afflicting me worse than by my persisting sores and wounds.
Joseph: You have discovered His promises. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--never from yourselves, but as a gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. With your confession, He poured out mercy on you, desolate and afflicted, troubles tumbling from your heart, authorizing confession to bless you with integrity, revealing uprightness couldn't preserve your dignity or cover hostilities shaming you.
Job: My love for this world had been reserved for being cautious, wise, sensible, shrewd, and limited to scrutiny by reason and common sense, never surrendering totally to any commitments, as I depended on growing personal holiness to remain blameless, concerned about focusing on myself, walking and talking rightly with God, trusting He would never expect me to totally surrender, releasing my all to Him, to love Him unashamedly, rather than being seen to do works He expects of me.
Joseph: Why must it take so long to realize treasures of wickedness profit nothing, preventing us from being holy, believed to be never possible in a realm of created beings, thinking wrongly we can find ways to approach righteousness and be holy as God in His realm.
Job: I persisted in crying out to the Lord, seeking an argument, demanding to learn His reasons, His supernatural ways, realizing if I sat calmly by, hearing nothing from Him, I would be forced to deify my reason and common sense, accepting there is nothing else to rely on. I suffered because I believed there must be answers to justify my afflictions. If there were none, I would worry no more, expecting no answers to be given, resigning to believe no supernatural powers were at work, joining others believing in no God, no gods, trusting only in seeing to believe, committing ourselves wholly, investing in reasons to believe, to using our common sense, making ways through the world on our own.
Joseph: As you have discovered, faith by its very nature must be tested and tried, verified as by Abraham and humans since, tested by everyone, seeking miracles for verification, asking proof to assure reason and common sense, unsure of His life for us, but we must trust God's character and truths as the only essence for our faith.
Bystander: Has anyone a heart for more than neighborly love, greater than for friendly love, perhaps matching love for your child, without discovering love's depth required for your Lord, a love beyond anything one can feel or describe, always answering God with agape's commitment, unrestricted, never to be dismissed, always there, encoded in one's soul, inherent for eternity, growing one to become part of the Almighty, preserving souls to be with Him always.
Job: Once we all tested commitments, trying evidence for friendships, evaluating love for brothers, trusting our image of God, but I carried it too far, treating Him as a big brother, expecting Him to hear my arguments, while He waited to hear me declare I love Him. Wanting to be certain of his being, being present to acknowledge my requests, I sought some miracle to prove my invisible Father was there, ready with fatherly love. It took me a long time to learn He expected me to relate to Him with a different love, more than any love I might have for another human being, with love different from any other.
Joseph: Did you stumble on this understanding?
Job: Sort of. He kept asking, Do you love me? It took me some time to discover how to answer Him, to trust His words and expectations, to accept His testimonies as certain, making wise the simple, discovering His statutes are righ
t, rejoicing for my heart, His commandments being pure, His judgments always true and altogether righteous, blessing me by enlightening my spirit.
Joseph: Did some scribe lead you to this understanding?
Job: Scribes instructed me on being blameless, sacrificing continuously to appease a blood-thirsty deity, no more, no less, counseling me to withhold nothing, so my arguments were never ceasing, persisting for anyone willing to hear, driven by being right in my own eyes, following ways customary to all, exercising prerogatives of the upright, thinking the Lord is a friend seeking love as all other friends.
Joseph: Who gave scribes credentials for their words, authorizing them to counsel ways of people, to believe they have insights, such as offerings of philosophers?
Job: Struggling with my adversities, I never questioned their authority, hounding me with accusations, until by His grace God sent me the Holy Spirit, realizing I needed more than another human filling me with earthly truths, someone to give me a clear vision of His will, directing me to walk in the light, and