Tuesday May 24, 2011
The fourth quality that the Lord verbalized to satan regarding Job was shunning. “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no-one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” (Job 1:8). It is an interesting word to use and is only used in the bible 9 times; four times in Job, four times in Proverbs, and one time in Isaiah. In all cases it is used in conjunction with evil.
I then looked up the word shun in Websters dictionary and it said that to shun something or someone is to deliberately avoid that person or thing and especially avoid habitually destructive things. Job when he was venting with his friends in 28:28, he spoke about this shunning and said that, “to shun evil is understanding.” Shunning is an action word in which someone is acting on the knowledge and wisdom they have gotten, in this case wisdom from God. Job used fear of God as being the essence of wisdom and shunning evil the culmination into understanding. Fear (reverence) for God and shunning (avoiding) evil are two inseparable concepts. In Job 28:28 Job says “to fear the Lord that is wisdom and to shun evil is understanding.” The word “and” connects these two concepts. One is a quality a person has and the other is an action that comes out of the quality. The fear of the Lord opens my senses to gain insight and brings wisdom. Once I recognize what I need to do or change in my life as I fear the Lord, my next obvious step in the process is to act on what I have learned and shun any actions that point me in the direction of evil actions. As I do this I have full understanding of not only the truth that sets me free but my actions demonstrate my understanding.
On this journey we will need to have an open mind to hear God’s truth, and then put feet to those truths for wisdom and understanding to be ours in abundance in all of our relationships.
relationallychallenged 