Jesus standing on the dust

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0376Job 19

Moses, describing the creation of Adam, says that God formed him or “of dust from the ground.”  (Gen. 2:7).  The good news of the resurrection is described by Job using the same term that details what we are made of.  Job proclaims “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” But that word “earth” is not the word used in Genesis 1:1.  It is the same word translated dust in Genesis 2:7.  The dust that the Messiah will stand on at the last day will be the dust of Job’s body.  But then something amazing happens. Job continues “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes shall see and not another.” The Messiah stands over the dust of Job’s dead body and brings it back to life!

This is the hope that the Bible gives humanity.  It is not survival after death but rescue from death.  It is not being “found naked” (without a body) in the intermediate state but being “further clothed” with a resurrection body. The Bible says that when Jesus Christ returns “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”  The nature of that change is made clear as well: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” We are dust: that is what we are made of, but our destiny is to be more.

LORD, thank you for the hope of resurrection.

(adapted from my article Formed from the dust – Snips and Snails.)

 

Posted in hope, Job, resurrection, vindication | Tagged | Leave a comment

losers

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0302Job 18

Bildad is irritated with Job’s insistence that he is suffering innocently.  To Bildad, Job is a loser.  He has lost both house and household: everything that he could rely on.  Bildad’s worldview has only one answer for such tragedy. It has to be the judgment of God.  If you and I did not have access to the secret information shared earlier in this book, we would probably be cheering Bildad on.  Can we learn from this ancient book? Can we dare to look beyond the obvious and have compassion on the losers we know?

LORD, give us the compassion to stop branding people, and actually help the needy.

Posted in compassion, Job, ministry | Tagged | 1 Comment

Job’s hope

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0301Job 16-17

Job knew that he was going to die.  If he did not die of his present illness, at least in a few years he would succumb to the inevitable (Job 16:22).  So, he asks a very important question, a question that much of the world still gets wrong.  He asks where his hope is.  Is it in death?  No, death is going to Sheol and darkness and decay (the worm).  Death is not Job’s hope.  Job’s hope is the LORD. 

Martha told Jesus that she knew her dead brother would rise on resurrection day.

“Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”” John 11:24 

Jesus told Martha that he would be the one to raise Lazarus (and every other believer)from the dead on that day:

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.1 Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”” John 11:25-26

Job, by faith looked beyond the reality of his own death, and held to a hope in God.  He did not know Jesus’ name, but he trusted him just the same.

LORD, give us the wisdom to – like Job –put our hope not in death, but in your resurrection.

Posted in confidence, Job, resurrection, sleep of death | Tagged , | Leave a comment

knowing forgiveness

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0300Job 15

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.

Posted in forgiveness, grace, Job | Tagged | Leave a comment

hidden… and remembered

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

IMG_0363Job 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”?)

Posted in hope, Job, resurrection, sleep of death | Tagged | Leave a comment

proverbs of ashes

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

WesternPark1-20100501Job 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.

Posted in discernment, Job, trust | Tagged | Leave a comment

down and out

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

2557061250047689748S500x500Q85Job 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.

Posted in discernment, Job, sovereignty of God, wisdom | Tagged | Leave a comment

outward appearance

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

western-park-cropped3Job 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.

Posted in discernment, Job, judgment, relationship with God | Tagged | Leave a comment

truth collides with truth

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

Auckland Western Ponsonby 2011 BlogJob 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.

Posted in dependence upon God, Job, plan of God, relationship with God | Tagged , | Leave a comment

sign or substance?

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Jefferson Vann

133280-3281-14Job 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.

Posted in genuineness, Job, relationship with God | Tagged | Leave a comment