Devotions

knowing forgiveness

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?
(Job 15:9 ESV)

Eliphaz’ question was a good one – if only he had not meant it as a rhetorical device. Job did have access to a kind of knowledge that his three “comforters” did not. Job trusted in his creator. Job was not sinless. He admitted that he had sinned in his youth, and that God was not holding him accountable for those sins. He knew forgiveness. A person can endure much suffering and still stay true to God if that person has a relationship with God based on grace. Do you know Job’s secret? Do you know God’s forgiveness?

LORD, give us the wisdom to trust you, and to rely upon your grace.

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hidden… and remembered

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

Job 14

Job laments that human beings are not like trees. A tree may be cut down, but given the right conditions, it may sprout back again from the apparently dead stump. But, Job complains, human beings are not like that. When a man’s life comes to an end, he lies down and sleeps, not to wake up again.

Job is not arguing against the concept of the resurrection. Even in this chapter, he pleads with God to hide him in Sheol (death) until his wrath is past, and then remember him, causing him to live again (13-14). One cannot ask for a more clear statement of the hope of resurrection. Later, Job asserts that he has a Redeemer who lives, and that he (Job) will see God in a resurrected body, long after his present body has been consumed.

So, since Job is not arguing against the notion of a resurrection, why does he insist that death is a sleep that one does not wake up from? He is contrasting the fate of humans with that of trees. Trees have something within their nature that allows them to bounce back from apparent death. God has not put such a nature within us. If we want to live again, we will need a resurrecting God. Sleep is an appropriate metaphor for death because if you see people sleeping, you expect them to wake up. Think about that the next time you walk through a cemetery. These “sleeping places” are monuments to the fact that we all depend upon God for our future life.

LORD, thank you for the hope of the resurrection.

(this section adapted from my article: Did You Say “Sleep”?)

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proverbs of ashes

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

WesternPark1-20100501 Job 13

Job told his attending friends that their maxims were proverbs of ashes. They look good on paper, but that is all they are good for. Reality is seldom as simple as a choice between a or b. Reality jumps up and confronts our preconceived principles. Job was a reminder to the world that conventional wisdom does not always work. God is sovereign, and he is free to perform miracles, or withhold them. He does not work on our schedule.

LORD, forgive us for our simple expectations. Teach us to trust you when we cannot figure you out.

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down and out

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

2557061250047689748S500x500Q85 Job 12

Job reminds his friends that he had been known as a wise man too, before his calamity came. His response to their insistence that he repent for the sin that obviously brought this disaster upon himself is to remind them that ultimately God does what he wishes, and no king, man, or animal can stop him. God is sovereign. Nothing that he does is unfair, for the universe is his. For now, Job has been removed from the honor that was once his as a wise man. That does not mean he has lost his wisdom. Job is down and out. Our temptation is to ignore and deplore those who have met misfortune. We should not yield to that temptation.

LORD, give us the discernment to listen to your voice, no matter whose mouth it is coming from.

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outward appearance

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

western-park-cropped3 Job 11

Zophar is guilty of only seeing what has happened to Job and assuming that it proved that Job has acted foolishly and brought this tragedy upon himself. He urges Job to repent. Job lived in ignorant times, and there was a lot about God and his plan that Job did not know. But he knew God, and had a relationship with him. God’s grace reached beyond Job’s ignorance and touched him. His sickness, and all the “bad luck” that he had did not change that relationship. Zophar did not see things correctly because he failed to see Job from God’s eyes. “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

LORD, give us insight into the hearts of people. Help us to see them as you do.

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truth collides with truth

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

Auckland Western Ponsonby 2011 Blog Job 9-10

Job affirms that Bildad is right in saying that God is just. But he is also convinced that he has a right relationship with God, so nothing he had done brought this calamity upon him. Truth collides with truth. God is both the problem and the solution, yet Job realizes that there is no arbiter. Whatever happens, God is going to have to do it. In Job’s day – as well as today – many spend their lives looking for ways to manipulate things to their advantage. Some choose science, others demonic magic, others religion, but they are all trying to do the same thing. Job realizes that it cannot be done. Fate cannot be changed on this side of the human/divine divide. Even if Job were able to convince his friends that he is innocent, that would not change things. He is helpless before an omnipotent God.

LORD, we rely upon you. Rescue us from the lie that we can handle things.

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sign or substance?

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

133280-3281-14 Job 8

Bildad uses an excellent argument, which would no doubt have been very successful except for the fact that Job was innocent. Bildad compares Job’s previous fortune to that of a Papyrus plant, which grows quickly and looms above other plants, – a signh of strength –yet it can be easily destroyed. The assumption was that Job was being punished for sin. How often do we see people in sad circumstances and conclude that they must have brought their fate upon themselves? How often do we suffer setbacks and ask God what we did to deserve them? This is the same mindset that caused the rich Pharisees in Jesus’ day to miss God entirely. Personal health and wealth are not barometers of our spiritual condition.

LORD, we seek a relationship with you. We will not settle for the apparent signs. We want the substance.

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a burdensome weight

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

Job 6-7

From the ESV Study Bible:

“The opening line of v. 17 (What is man, that you make so much of him) echoes the thought of Ps. 8:4 (“what is man that you are mindful of him”). However, where Psalm 8 marvels at how humanity has been crowned with glory by God, Job laments what he describes as the burdensome weight of God’s watchful presence crushing him as a mortal being (Job 7:20).”

When we are suffering, God’s presence does sometimes seem a burdensome weight. If we had the ability to see beyond the present crisis, we could see that God’s presence in our situation sustains us, but even righteous Job had trouble keeping that reality before him. Often, the best that we can do is be honest with God about how we feel, and stay with him, even when we do not understand his ways.

LORD, give us the wisdom to vent our frustrations to you, because you care for us.

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impatient and dismayed

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

Job 4-5

Eliphaz accuses Job of being impatient and dismayed. The world that Eliphaz knows about is one in which everything happens according to set rules. He cannot imagine a scenario in which a person who is truly righteous is allowed to suffer as Job has. He therefore concludes that Job has committed some secret sin, and failed God in some way. He urges Job to seek his answer in God, and not to insist on his own righteousness. Ordinarily, that argument makes sense: none of us are perfect, and suffering is often the consequence of our own mistakes. But here, it is Eliphaz who is dismayed. It is Eliphaz who has not been patient enough to find the real answer. It is right to direct our suffering friends to God. But sometimes their suffering will not be because they need to be reconciled to him. Sometimes they just need his restoring touch.

LORD, may we not be so quick to condemn those who are unfortunate. May we see them through your eyes of grace, and bring them to you in love.

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trapped

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

Job 3

Job had only one thing left. He had his life, and he cursed the day of his birth. Life had been precious to him, and now he saw it as a prison. Seeing how much people suffer, it is no surprise that some philosophers envision death as an escape from that prison. Socrates drank the poisin hemlock because he saw it as a means of escape from the trap that his body had become. Job wanted escape as well, but his view of death was different than that of Socrates and Plato. For Job, death was laying down, being quiet, and resting. It was joining the small and the great (everyone) in a place where there is no light, no consciousness. It is easy to see why someone who has suffered as much as Job did would just want it all to end. Yet, God’s will was not death. God’s will was recovery, restoration, resurrection.

This life is not always fair. There will be times of suffering, and we may at times get so low that we wish for it all to end. One of the messages that this story gives us is that God is always there, and he will not give up on us. We should not give up on ourselves. Death is a curse upon humanity because of sin. When life seems a trap, the way out is not death. It is eternal life, through Christ.

“It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed” (1 Corinthians 15:52 NLT).

LORD, give us the wisdom to seek for your rescue, not sins curse.

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