Take heed, do not turn to iniquity, for you have chosen this rather than affliction. Job 36:21
We all face adversity and affliction in our lives, the difference is how we handle that adversity and affliction. Are you responding to it in a negative fallen human way? Or are you taking it to Jesus?
How many times have you heard a person say, I was afflicted, and the stress became to much, so I turned to drugs or excessive drinking to forget my problems. My parents raised me terribly, so I turned to a life of crime and sin. After all, it’s not my fault it’s someone else’s fault. If they had not sinned against me, or if a calamity had not happened upon my life, I would not be the loser in life I am.
In the discourse of Job and his friends, the fourth man, Elihu, is the youngest. Yet he is the one who’s wisdom is the most profound. Follow what he tells Job and his friends about handling affliction.
Job 36:13-21
But the hypocrites in heart store up wrath; They do not cry for help when He binds them.
They die in youth, And their life ends among the perverted persons.
He delivers the poor in their affliction, And opens their ears in oppression.
“Indeed He would have brought you out of dire distress, Into a broad place where there is no restraint; And what is set on your table would be full of richness.
But you are filled with the judgment due the wicked; Judgment and justice take hold of you.
Because there is wrath, beware lest He take you away with one blow; For a large ransom would not help you avoid it.
Will your riches, Or all the mighty forces, Keep you from distress?
Do not desire the night, When people are cut off in their place.
Take heed, do not turn to iniquity, For you have chosen this rather than affliction.
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