Job's Purpose

Lesson One in the Job series.

The next several blogs will be about the book of Job. It's been a long time coming with a couple hundred hours of research, but well worth the time and effort! Suffering is a common theme in our lives and unjust suffering is something everybody needs help with. So here goes...

The book of Job is best studied after the entire book has been read. It takes so many twists and turns that it can be confusing to interpret if you do it chapter by chapter. The best way to approach the book is by the themes that occur throughout the book, and then tie them together at the end. I will cover these themes in the following order: 

Job's Purpose

Job's Priorities

Job's Persecutors

Job's Prayers and Prophecies

Job's Prosecutor

Job's Protector (in three parts)

Job's Perseverance and Prosperity

Job's Priesthood and God's Greater Purpose

Job's Purpose

For starters, the book of Job is written as a drama with about seven main characters. God is the "mainest" of the main characters. Then there is Satan whose name means adversary. He is also known in the Bible as the serpent, the accuser, the devil, the tempter--you get the idea. The protagonist in the story is man named Job. God says, "My servant Job" five times in this book. So Job is right up there with Moses and all the Old Testament prophets. He was a spokesman for God. God's spokesmen were the men who would write the Old Testament Scriptures. 

As God's servant, Job would take his place in the city gates where he would dispense justice, taking care of the poor and needy and widows and orphans. He would also engage in dispensing wisdom and when he was there, the other princes and noble men would put their hands over their mouths as a sign of respect and honor. It meant that they recognized that someone more important and wiser was in their midst and it was their way of saying that they would keep silent and let him speak. You can see the full list of things Job did in chapter 29. 

Job was the wisest of all the men because he got his wisdom from God. He would tell the people what God told him. There is a whole chapter in the book of Job--chapter 28--where Job talks about this wisdom and where it comes from. In the end, he says that you can't really understand all of God's ways and you can't find wisdom by searching for it, (or by getting old!) but if you want to attain wisdom you have to begin by fearing God. He says, "Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom and to turn away from evil, that is understanding." Does that remind you of another very wise man? I hope it reminds you of King Solomon who wrote the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. 

Job had been God's servant for a long time but now God had a special purpose for him. Job was the one chosen to teach people about God's kindness and comfort when they suffer unjustly. We suffer unjustly when bad things happen to us for no apparent reason. Sometimes we suffer because we sin, but that is not suffering unjustly. The Apostle Peter talks about this in his first letter. He says, For this is a gracious thing, when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, that is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. (I Peter 2:19-22)

So when we suffer unjustly, we follow Christ's example. Christ taught us how to suffer without resorting to sin. But whose example did the Old Testament people follow? They knew nothing about the suffering of Christ and how he suffered unjustly because it hadn't happened yet. You probably know where this is going. Job was selected by God to be the stand-in example for how to suffer unjustly until the time Christ came. Job was the poster boy they could look to for comfort. Job was not suffering because of sin. This does not mean that Job was not a sinner. But Job's suffering had to be seen as completely unjust because God said it was unjust: God said to Satan, "...You incited me against him to destroy him without reason (2:3). Still, God committed to protect Job's soul during this trial. Job was God's example to Old Testament believers of how to suffer unjustly without resorting to sin. 

One of the people who followed Job's example was King David, and he wrote a lot about unjust suffering in the Psalms. He was kept from sin when Saul was trying to kill him, because God's words were in his heart, and even when he had a chance to kill Saul, he wouldn't do it. Many of the Psalms use laments that draw from Job as the original source. Psalm 22 which is a prophecy about the crucifixion is remarkably similar in its description to Job 19 which describes Job's tortured condition. David put many of Job's emotions and prayers into songs of beautiful poetry which the church has used through the ages in worship, and we still sing these songs today. 

Jeremiah also followed Job's example. Jeremiah often quotes Job in both Jeremiah and Lamentations. In fact, Job says nothing in this book that we can't find elsewhere in the Bible. We call that a seminal work--the original source from which the others draw. The book of Job became a source of comfort to everyone who suffered because it helped people see that God is the source of all kindness and comfort and they could see clearly through Job's story how God would be Job's Rock and Shield and Defender. Job's steadfast faithfulness to God during this trial made him a legend in his own time. God was still talking about Job when Ezekiel was a prophet and even the Apostle James draws heavily on Job when teaching about how suffering produces steadfastness. 

In the next lesson we will look at Job's priorities.

When Grace Comes Disguised As A Thorn

No doubt we have all read about the Apostle Paul’s thorn in the flesh. While Paul does not tell us explicitly what the thorn was, there are some things we know about it. We know that it was a gift. He tells us a thorn was given me in the flesh. A messenger of Satan applied the thorn, but the thorn was a gift from Christ. We know this because the thorn was given to him to keep him from being conceited. Satan would have rejoiced to see Paul overcome by conceit.  How it must have galled Satan to be used by God as an instrument in Paul’s sanctification! We do not normally think of demons being used to prevent humans from sinning, but Paul is pretty explicit here “a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”

False apostles in the church at Corinth tried to build up their credentials by falsely reporting spiritual experiences and ecstasies. At the same time, they tried to discredit Paul because Paul had not shared any such experiences. In fact, Paul appeared very weak in person. But Paul did have an experience—a revelation that surpassed anything that the false apostles could even imagine. He had gone to the highest level of heaven and seen things no man had ever seen. We can only imagine the temptation to put these false apostles in their place. They were destroying Paul’s reputation, his ministry, and his message. The church listened to them and refused to commend Paul. From a human standpoint, all Paul had to do was tell about his own revelations and reveal what he was commanded not to reveal and the problem would be solved. He could vindicate himself and put the false apostles in their place by doing this one thing. He could save his ministry. No doubt Satan keeps whispering this in the Apostle’s ear: “You are God’s special boy. Go ahead and tell. It will save your reputation and your ministry. God won’t punish you.” 

The thorn stops Paul from considering this temptation. It is a constant reminder that he does not need to brag about his experiences to build up his ministry.  God and God alone builds the ministry. We know Paul's thorn was both painful and humiliating. We also know this: The false apostles were given no such thorn. Their pride and arrogance would be their undoing. God was letting them go their own way. 

We often think of grace as the beautiful, fragrant, feel-good part of the Christian walk--like a rose. But grace can come disguised as a thorn. We may have problems that are painful or humiliating, problems that seem to never end. We may even convince ourselves that it is the devil himself tormenting us. But every pain and every humiliation comes from the hand of a Redeemer who is far more concerned about our holiness than our happiness. In the end, it is all grace—even the thorns.

Misunderstandings About Grace and Sin

Years of teaching the Bible have brought many women into my classrooms who come from a variety of backgrounds, and some have mistaken ideas about major tenets of the Christian faith. It is amazing how many people misunderstand grace. They have been taught that God loves everybody and that it is his will that everyone should be saved. They have come from churches that focus one hundred per cent on God's love and literally erase the verses about God's wrath and coming judgment. They don't see how God's wrath and grace can co-exist. 

Misunderstanding Grace

As you know, this blog is dedicated to the understanding of radical, life-transforming, outrageous, scandalous grace. Grace is a good thing. It is a positive thing. It is the thing that saves us for all eternity if we are recipients of it. So when you begin to read this blog, you may have expectations of a kind of warm fuzzy grace that makes you feel pretty good about your standing with God. You might expect to hear only of God's love and nothing of his wrath, and certainly no talk about hell. Not in a blog about grace!

Did you know that the Bible talks about God's wrath three times more than about God's love? If you read through the Psalms or the prophets at all, you get a sense of impending doom for those who are wicked. Yet God extends grace to some of them while destroying others. Grace begins with a warning. Grace begins by convicting a sinner of his sin. Grace gives warnings about hell and eternal suffering. 

Well, you might say, "That doesn't sound like grace to me." But God doesn't owe anybody a warning. He could by all rights just send everybody to hell and we would all deserve it. He doesn't have to warn us about the coming wrath at all. The fact that he does is outrageous! Who gives their enemies a warning about what is to come? When you are fighting enemies, part of a good strategy is to take them by surprise. Giving them a warning and telling them what you are about to do, and then giving them a chance to repent is scandalous. If a soldier did that, he could be executed for treason. These warnings fly in the face of human reason.

Misunderstanding Sin

People are also confused about what constitutes sin. We recently heard a sermon in church where the pastor reminded us, "Sin is what God defines as sin in the Bible. If it is not a sin against God, it is not a sin at all." The point is that God defines sin; people do not. A person is not sinning against us if they are not primarily sinning against God. They may not do what we want them to do, but that is not in itself a sin. They may do things differently than we do, but that is not in itself a sin. We do things differently from other people too. We don't obey all their rules either. There is no sin in that. We are not bound to live by other people's rules. There is a great deal of liberty in Christianity. The only rules we are bound to live by are God's rules. That can be really annoying when we are trying to control other people and make them do what we want them to do. But we always have to stop and consider: Are they really breaking God's rules or just my rules?

You not only have to be careful about the demands you place on other people, but on the demands they make of you. Are their demands in conformity with God's commandments? Or are their demands merely an attempt to dominate or control you? Unfortunately, I have known many women who are or have been victims of domestic abuse and who wrongly feel they have to submit to all kinds of abuse by controlling men because they have a wrong concept of submission to husbands. God never demands that you submit to anyone who demands that you submit to abuse in an attempt to control you for their own purposes or that you submit to anyone who tells you to do something wrong. God puts authority figures in our lives for good reason, but we are not to obey or submit to them when they ask us to participate in something that is wrong. Acts 5:29 says, "We are to obey God rather than man." 

Here is a misconception people have about the relationship between grace and sin. They think that grace will cover all their sins even if they don't repent of all their sins. They think that all the good they do will somehow outweigh the bad. They think they can cling to one secret (or not so secret) sin that will be overlooked because they go to church and do a million good works. The lesson of Moses should correct that thinking. Forty years of righteous behavior didn't compensate for the one sin that kept him out of the Promised Land. But nobody says it more plainly than Jesus himself in Matthew 7:22-23. Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'" 

So much for all their good works.  

It only takes the habitual practice of one sin of defiance to keep us out of heaven for all eternity. One sin that we love more than God. One commandment that we refuse to obey. I am not talking here about all the myriad of sins we commit every day without even realizing it. Nor am I talking about common sins that we really struggle with or the sins we truly hate. We all have sins we hate and try to overcome and struggle with because of our weaknesses. I am not talking about those kinds of sins. Just to be clear, I am talking about known sins that we love and that we refuse to repent of. Sins that we try to justify on the grounds that our case is special or that our circumstances demand it. 

Nobody's case is special. It doesn't matter what other people have done to us or what our particular circumstances are. None of those things give us a right to sin against God or our neighbor--as defined above. We never hear God say "Thou shalt not murder...unless somebody really annoys you, and then I would totally understand." No. He says, "Thou shalt not murder. Period. This can be applied to any of the commandments.

If you need more proof that the defiant practice of just one sin can keep you from heaven, read Galatians 5:19-21. 

"Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Or I Corinthians 6:9-11

"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, not thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

Or we can go back to the Garden of Eden. How many sins did Adam and Eve have to commit to lose their standing with God and be deserving of hell? ONE. Or what about the rich young ruler who thought he obeyed every single commandment, but Jesus pointed out the ONE sin that would keep him from heaven? 

Are you beginning to see the point of this? If you are worried about your sins keeping you from heaven, just answer one question: Do you truly hate your sin and repent of it, or do you love your sin, cling to it, and try to justify it? The answer will tell you which path you are on. If you love your sin and refuse to give it up, your only hope is to pray that God will change your heart. If God moves you to pray that prayer, then he will do as you ask. John 6:37 says, "...whoever comes to me I will in no wise cast out." 

So you see, mercy and grace are there for the asking..if we ask with a heart of true repentance. 

Even the warnings are grace. It's all grace. Outrageous. Scandalous. Grace. 

For you. 

Winter Walk in the Woods

For the Storms of Life--Psalm 29

Psalm 29 is meant to be read during a thunderstorm. Maybe that's because a lot of people are afraid during storms and they need to be reminded that God is in control of every single molecule. When I was a little girl, there would sometimes be thunderstorms in the middle of the night. My dad would come into our rooms and get us up and we would all go into the living room and sit on the couch by the picture window to watch the storm. He told us that the thunder was God's voice! I didn't know it at the time, but he got that idea from this Psalm.

Ascribe to the Lord Glory

A Psalm of David.

29 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,[a]
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.[b]

3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
    the God of glory thunders,
    the Lord, over many waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
    the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
    the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
    and Sirion like a young wild ox.

7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
    the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth[c]
    and strips the forests bare,
    and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

¹⁰ The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
    the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
¹¹ May the Lord give strength to his people!
    May the Lord bless^[d] his people with peace!

Did you know that this psalm used to be read to children or to entire congregations during a storm? To appreciate this psalm, you need to get out into field and experience a real storm. The psalm marches to the tune of thunderbolts. You can almost hear the thunder as the psalm is read out loud. Let your imagination run with the imagery in the psalm--cedars are breaking, fire is flashing everywhere, there are earthquakes, and the forests are stripped bare. 

I bet you saw the devastation of the hurricanes on our east coast and saw the fires on the west coast on TV. And the volcanoes in Hawaii. Seeing these things should make us praise God! In this psalm even the angels are petitioned to give glory to God for these wondrous works. 

A lot of people today would not praise God for that kind of stuff. Instead, they get mad at God for sending storms--not even realizing that he is trying to get their attention in order to save them from a worse fate--forever. Sometimes it takes a devastating storm or great loss for people to realize what is really important. 

Did you notice that right in the middle of all the storms, the Lord is still helping the deer give birth? And when you get to the last line--He gives his people peace. God is perfectly calm during the whole storm. Who does that remind you of? It reminds me of Jesus falling asleep in the boat when the poor disciples were going out of their minds during the storm on Galilee. 

The bottom line is this: God gives us storms not only to show his great power, but as a warning of future judgment. The storms of life help to keep us on track and to fear God. 

Here are a couple of pics from a recent snow storm we had:

The Good Shepherd--Psalm 23

Most people know Psalm 23 by heart. I think it is the first Psalm I ever memorized when I was in first grade. But we don't live in a place where we see a lot of sheep and we probably don't even know any shepherds. In Bible times, a shepherd's work was considered the lowest of all work. So when the LORD of the universe takes on the lowest of all work, it is extreme condescension. 

Shepherding was considered the lowest of all work because sheep are so stupid. They can't do a thing for themselves and left on their own, they would make all the wrong choices. They are completely helpless. They can't find their own food. If they fall down, they can't get up. And they can't fend off predators. 

The shepherd has to make sure that four things happen before he can make the sheep lie down: 1) They have to be free from fear, and sheep are fearful creatures, so that is a big undertaking. 2) They have to be free from friction with other sheep and sheep have a way of constantly annoying each other, so that is another hard job for the shepherd. 3) They have to be free from flies and other tormenting parasites. And 4) they have to be free from hunger. A hungry sheep will be on the prowl for food. 

And yet, a good shepherd gets the sheep to lie down and relax. If you haven't figured it out yet, the Bible is comparing us to sheep. People are also full of anxiety and fears and they like to pick fights with each other. But the good shepherd leads them beside still waters and restores their souls. That means he is the one who makes their souls come alive. He leads us to repentance and he has to keep doing it over and over. If a sheep falls on its back, it begins to panic because it can't turn itself over. It starts to paw the air frantically and gases build up in its body cutting off its circulation to its legs. The sheep will die in a few hours if the shepherd doesn't get there in time. Sometimes wolves will get the sheep first. So the shepherd has to be on duty 24/7. No lingering lunches or days off for the holidays. 

The good shepherd takes the sheep through the valley of the shadow of death. They don't stay in the valley and they don't run through the valley. They just keep going through at a steady pace. The valley is scary. There are shadows that freak the sheep out. Of course we know that a shadow can't hurt anybody, right?  But if there is a shadow, we know there must be a monster making the shadow, so we get scared. But we also know that if there is a shadow, there must be a light behind the shadow that is bigger than the shadow. It kind of reminds me of the song, "God is bigger than the bogeyman." 

We are going to walk through a lot of scary places in this life, but God is leading the way and his rod and staff comfort us. He uses his rod against the scary monsters to beat them off, and he uses his staff to pull us back if we start to wander off. He feeds us well, so we never go hungry and he anoints us with oil. Well, that seems kind of weird because we don't do those things anymore, but the anointing with oil just means that he is keeping all those pesky flies and other parasites away from us. He gives us so much that it overflows. 

Finally he is preparing a permanent home for us and we will be able to live with him forever. Here is the whole psalm. If you haven't already memorized it, you probably should. 

The Lord Is My Shepherd

A Psalm of David.

23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2     He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3     He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.