Guys, it’s late and I’m worn out. I am going to try and keep it short today. The following verse really stood out to me today.
Job 24:15
“The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight,
saying, ‘No eye will see me’;
and he veils his face.”
When we think of adultery we think of a married man having sexual intercourse with a woman who is not his wife. This is physical adultery but adultery doesn’t stop there. Jesus made it clear that adultery included ones thought life.
Matthew 5:27-28
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
We are not only judged by our actions but by our thoughts as well. Guys, let’s get real here. A pretty woman can turn our heads. Our thoughts can often turn to sex and when it does targets of opportunity present themselves even if only targets for our thoughts. Many of us give ourselves a pass on these little passing thoughts; there was a time when I did. Men, it is not easy to keep tight control over our thoughts. In fact I believe it takes a strong man, a spiritually mature man, to succeed in this task.
One of my favorite songs is by Bob Carlisle entitled “We Fall Down”. At the heart of the song is the refrain of a monk who, when asked what the monks do behind the monetary walls, says “we fall down, we get up”. Guys, just because we fail from time to time to reign in our wandering eyes and minds, it is no reason to throw in the towel and surrender to sin. The battle must continually be fought. This is because we will improve our self-discipline in the process. If we surrender we are likely to find ourselves wandering ever further from God.
Pornography is an epidemic. It is claiming many a man who might otherwise be godly. Pornography sinks its hooks into us when we surrender the battle. This is why we must never give up, we must never surrender. When we fall down we must get back up. Understand that sneaking down to the computer in the middle of the night or sneaking a peak at filth on your cell phone or at a library or office computer is a high risk low reward gamble. Even if your wife, your kids, your friends, co-workers, and fellow Christians have no idea, God knows it all and He calls it adultery.
Brothers, I implore you, don’t stay down. When you fall, don’t give yourself a pass; don’t make excuses. Acknowledge the fall to the Father and ask for His forgiveness. Then, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and go and sin no more. Real men get back up!
In today’s reading Zophar expresses the idea that the wicked may do well for a time but they will eventually suffer for their wickedness. Job points out that there are many examples of people that reject God living a wonderfully luxuriant life in which they never experience a bit of trouble. Again, these guys keep expecting blessings and curses based on worldly expectations. They seem to have a minimal understanding of eternity. God’s greatest blessings are to be found in eternity not in this perverted world. That does not mean that God won’t bless us in this world nor that He won’t punish us for wrong doing – He will.
I don’t discipline other people’s children and neither does God. I believe that if one lives contrary to the way God intended human beings to live, they will suffer the inevitable consequences of having done so. This is true in a spiritual and physical sense. God did not intend man to smoke. He did not construct man in such a way as to accommodate smoking. When we smoke we do damage to our lungs. Any number of diseases can arise from smoking. If you are a smoker and you develop one of these diseases is it because God is punishing you? What if you smoked 5 packs of cigarettes a day for 60 years and never developed so much as a cough, did God bless you? I don’t think so.
God may choose to punish those that have rejected Him in this world or He may choose not to. They will face an eternal consequence, but that is of little comfort to those that wish to see the wicked punished and the good blessed NOW. It doesn’t work that way and we should not expect that it will. There are those in this world whom God chose before the foundations of the world to be His adopted children. The remaining human beings are not His adopted children but they are still His creation and as Creator He has every right to do with them as He pleases. He has every right to do as He pleases with you as well for that matter.
The Bible is clear, we are to seek Him first and when we do blessings will come our way. There may or may not be blessing in this world, but there will certainly be blessings in the next. The thing is, when we seek Him first the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. When we seek Him first we seek eternal blessings and what this world has to offer seems meaningless.
Jesus told the story of the fellow who found a treasure of great price in a field. That man reburied the treasure, ran and sold everything he had and then bought that field. Everything he had once held precious was meaningless once he got a look at a real treasure. In Jesus Christ you and I got a glimpse of that kind of treasure. Have we responded the same way? Have the riches of this world dimmed in our eyes? Are we willing to eagerly leave behind all we once held dear to purchase that eternal treasure beyond measure?
Brothers, let us not cling to the junk of our former, wasted lives. Let us let go of the trinkets and grab hold of the treasure! We already possess the greatest of treasures. Let’s start living like it!
Job and his friends continue to argue back and forth in today’s reading. I’m afraid we have a few more days of this in our future. It always amazes me how much truth both sides of this argument can spew forth and yet they miss the ultimate truth. Both parties seem to think that if you do good, by man’s standards, that things will go well with you, and that if things don’t go well with you it must be because you have done something wrong – again, by man’s standards.
Job’s friends think he must have done something horribly wrong to have had such incredible tragedy befall him. They are wrong in this belief. Back at the beginning of Job God says to Satan that Job is a blameless and upright man; that there is none like him on the earth (Job 1:8). This means that Job’s friends cannot condemn Job without condemning themselves. If Job deserved the calamity that befell him as punishment for his behavior then they deserved worse.
Job, on the other hand, thinks that he has done nothing deserving of the trouble he has had and that God is in the wrong to have caused him such trouble. Job, like his friends, is wrong. As good as Job is, he isn’t good enough. Job is still short of God’s perfection. Job still has need for improvement; a truth of which he is unaware.
The truth these guys miss is that they are all guilty before a holy God. God’s standard is perfection, and all of mankind has, and will, fall short of this standard. To be right before God we need a Savior, a Redeemer. What is surprising is that Job seems to know that there is a Redeemer.
Job 19:25-26
“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,”
Have I mentioned that every book of the Bible points to Jesus the Christ? Well, here He is. Job is correct, his Redeemer lives. Does he understand his need for that Redeemer? Does he understand his guilt?
Brothers, what about you? Do you think that just because you’ve accepted Christ you won’t face trouble? This is incorrect. While you have something Job did not, salvation in Christ, you still live in a fallen world. When I read Job’s complaints I think of the trouble Jesus told his followers to expect.
Job 19:13-19
“He has put my brothers far from me,
and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
My relatives have failed me,
my close friends have forgotten me.
The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
My breath is strange to my wife,
and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
Even young children despise me;
when I rise they talk against me.
All my intimate friends abhor me,
and those whom I loved have turned against me.”
Here is one despised by the world. Brothers, that is what it means to be a follower of Christ; He was and is despised by the world and if you belong to Him you will be as well.
John 15:19
“If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
Yes the world will hate you because of the truth – Jesus Christ. This means that anyone, including family, that doesn’t know Jesus, will hate you and reject you. I have experienced that in my own life and I expect all of us to start experiencing more and more of that hate and rejection as time goes on. Brothers, our hope is not in what this world has to offer, but what Jesus has to offer in eternity. Keep that in mind as you live your life for Christ.
I learned a long time ago that you need to be careful of what you ask for of God; you just might get it. In today’s reading Job, who has been working himself into a fury, says that he wishes he could make his case before God.
Job 13:22-23
“Then call, and I will answer;
or let me speak, and you reply to me.
How many are my iniquities and my sins?
Make me know my transgression and my sin.”
Wow! He wasn’t thinking clearly was he? Of course this is exactly what must happen for a person to be saved; they must come face to face with their sin and it is God who shows it to them. A person cannot be saved until they acknowledge their sin and their need to be saved. Job thinks he’s a righteous dude. That is why he wants to speak with God, he is so sure of his righteousness he wants to say “if you think I deserve this trouble in my life prove it – show me my sin”.
As I said, you want to be careful about what you ask of God. Remember that He answers prayers that are consistent with His will. His will is that all who so choose will be saved. Later God will answer Job’s challenge and Job will see his sin. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the first step in the Alcoholics Anonymous program is to admit you have a problem. There is much truth there; you can’t start to get better until you realize you have a problem. Job has a problem and he doesn’t know it. In calling for a face to face with God he walked right into God’s plan.
Guys, God has a plan for you; He is drawing you closer and closer to that plan every day. It is my hope you willingly walk into that plan in great humility; it will be much easier on you that way. In the meantime be careful what you ask for – you just might get it!
I can’t imagine dealing with all that Job has had to deal with. He has lost everything but his wife. He is physically ill. He is suffering emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, financially, and physically. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wrote a book entitled “On Death and Dying” in 1969. In it she described five stages through which a person experiencing grief and tragedy must progress. The Kubler-Ross model of grieving is commonly referred to as “the five stages of grief”. Those stages are:
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
Now these stages are typically associated with those that are dying of a terminal disease but do apply to any form of catastrophic loss. I think we see aspects of all these stages in Job’s response to his tragedy. He has certainly experienced catastrophic loss. Let’s recap for a moment. Job has lost a great deal. Three of his friends came to comfort him as good friends do. These friends quietly sat with him for seven days before Job began to accuse God of un-righteousness. I think these are good friends who truly wanted to help Job in his time of trial. What wisdom they had to sit quietly and comfort him with their presence. They didn’t feel the need for worthless words. They just sat with him in solidarity.
I don’t know about you but I can really get my hackles up when I hear someone lay charges against God; I get quite indignant. Job’s charges against God had the same effect on his friends. Below is yet another passage where Job claim’s his innocence before a holy God. This is a subtle charge against God; if Job is innocent then God is guilty of unrighteousness.
Job 10:5-8
“Are your days as the days of man,
or your years as a man’s years,
that you seek out my iniquity
and search for my sin, although you know that I am not guilty,
and there is none to deliver out of your hand?
Your hands fashioned and made me,
and now you have destroyed me altogether.”
His friend Zophar responds with a statement that is true.
Job 11:6
“…Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.”
We all deserve death and eternal suffering separated from God for all eternity; anything less is grace and mercy. While what Zophar said is true, I believe he was wrong to say it. Context is everything. Job has lost everything and we should expect him to struggle with his loss. There is a point when one should progress to the final stage of grief – acceptance. Considering all that Job went through I don’t think Job had reached that point after only seven days. As I’ve said, I can get indignant myself in such a situation so I understand how Zophar fell but he should have remembered where he was and why he was there.
Of the two of them Zophar had a better shot at controlling his emotions. There is nothing wrong with feeling indignant when someone speaks un-righteously toward God but frankly, He doesn’t really need our help in defending Himself. What He expects of us, however, is to show the hurting and the lost His love. Have you seen that Geico commercial where the announcer asks if drill sergeants would make good therapists? It starts with a military looking guy sitting in a chair asking a fellow lying on a couch “how does that make you fell” and ends with him shouting at the guy and throwing a Kleenex box at him. I laugh every time.
I know I have felt like dealing with people that way from time to time but the truth is that while doing so might make me feel better it does nothing to show the love of God to a hurting person. As I have often quoted here before, Jesus says that His followers must deny themselves (Luke 9:23). Job’s friends probably felt like Job had wallowed in his grief long enough and it was time for him to “snap out of it”. Maybe they thought it was time for “tough love” or perhaps they felt the indignity that I described. Whatever the case his friends were wrong; they should have denied themselves their sense of indignity and focused on Job’s need. Job needed to pass through the five stages of grief and he wasn’t there yet. God intended him to go through those stages of grief as a process of bringing him face to face with his filthiness before a holy God. God Himself would eventually address Job and set Him straight.
I believe that the only thing Job’s friends ended up doing was working him up into a fever pitch; they became a foil against which he could build his anger. I’ve seen such behavior with those who don’t want to face the truth. They start tilting at windmills, taking on all comers in an effort to avoid looking inwardly at the source of their troubles. None of us wants to look in the mirror when we are afraid of what we will see.
You shouldn’t agree with someone who accuses God, but you should look hard and long at the situation before you do respond. I find it hard to believe that a “you had that coming” approach to someone who has experienced what Job experienced is a wise and loving way to respond to someone’s hurt. There are different ways to say the truth and it doesn’t have to include condemnation.
Our job is to glorify God by obediently following where He leads; by doing what He has asked us to do. He has asked us to love one another. Our response to those who are hurting must reflect the love of God. It may be that they need a “snap out of it” kind of response but in most cases they need someone to simply be there, to say “you are not alone”. Brothers I pray that you will always respond with love toward those who are hostile to God. They are already condemned; what they need is love.
How can a good God allow bad things to happen to good people? That is the complaint of many a hurting heart. As I read today’s passages Job’s hurt really jumped out at me. I don’t think any of us could have dealt any better with all that Job had to face. As I read Job’s words, and then counter comments by his friends, I couldn’t help but think that they were both right and both wrong at various points. Of all the players in this drama I feel like Job is the more spiritually mature. His friends seem to think that bad things only happen to you if you have done something wrong.
They are both correct and incorrect in this assumption. They think that you can be blameless before a holy God. That is incorrect, you can’t be. They are correct that bad things only happen to those that have done something wrong, but we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Everyone has done something wrong in their life and there for we aren’t as blameless as we like to think. Bad things happen to people who meet the human standard of good because they live in a perverted world full of self-centered human beings. Even if one could be blameless before God, bad things would happen to you because you live among those who do evil in the sight of God and against their fellow man.
God has the right to punish those in His creation that He deems deserving of punishment. I don’t think, however, that this means God decides you’ve been a bad 10 year old boy so I’m going to give you cancer. Cancer is a creation of the world man perverted. All causes of human suffering find their birth in the fall of man. It wasn’t just mankind that fell that fateful day so long ago; all of creation fell on that day and it has been in a constant state of decay ever since.
Now Job has said, and will say, some things about God that are true, but he will also say some things that are false. Here’s an example of the false:
Job 9:15
“Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;
I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.”
Job thinks he is in the right. This is not true – for all have sinned. He is saying, with his little tantrum, that “I didn’t do anything wrong and God is a big meany for hurting me like this.” Let’s get something straight – God didn’t do anything to Job. It was Satan that brought destruction on Job. Yes, God allowed it but He had His reason. Job needed to understand that he wasn’t blameless, that before a holy God he was filthy. As I said yesterday, God is more interested in Job’s eternity than his here and now.
Job needed to come face to face with his filthiness; he needed to know that he and God were not on good terms. He needed to realize that he needed a savior. If you’ve read this blog long enough you are aware that I contend that one can see Christ in every book of the Bible. As I read today I noticed something that reminded me of a Psalm about the Messiah. Here is what triggered that thought:
Job 7:19-21
“How long will you not look away from me,
nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?
Why have you made me your mark?
Why have I become a burden to you?
Why do you not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
you will seek me, but I shall not be.”
The language here reminds me of the 22nd Psalm. Jesus quoted the first line from this Psalm while on the cross.
Psalm 22:1-2
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.”
Psalm 22:22-24
“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.”
This Psalm is a picture of Christ on the cross. It is why Christ quoted it from the cross. Job thinks he is afflicted and his response is to claim God is being unfair. Job doesn’t think he deserves affliction because he is such a great guy. He thinks “I’m a good person”, “I’ve done all the things you are supposed to do to be blameless before God”. In God’s eyes he isn’t a good person, he isn’t blameless, and this is exactly why he and the rest of us need Christ. Job was not unjustly afflicted, Christ was.
In the passage above Job asks why God doesn’t pardon his transgression and take away his iniquity. On the cross God did just that; He pardoned our transgressions and took away our iniquity – if we accept His sacrifice. Job asked the question and Jesus answered it.
You are not innocent before God but in Christ you can be forgiven.
We Fall Down, We Get Up
