Pay Attention

 

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

“Pay attention to this, Job.  Stop and consider the wonderful miracles of God!  Do you know how God controls the storm and causes the lightning to flash from his clouds?  Do you understand how he moves the clouds with wonderful perfection and skill?  When you are sweltering in your clothes and the south wind dies down and everything is still, he makes the skies reflect the heat like a bronze mirror.  Can you do that?  Job 37:14-18

Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples.   Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.  The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us!  We’re going to drown!”  Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid?  You have so little faith!”  Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.  The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked.  “Even the winds and waves obey him!”  Matthew 8:23-27

The haunting questions here have a focal point on storms, one of the earth’s more awe-inspiring and powerful realities: 

Do you know how God does that with the lightning, controlling the clouds?      

Can YOU do that? 

And the disciples watching the live feed of Jesus doing just that ask:

Who is this man?

Scripture does not go wanting when it comes to the connection between the creation and Creator; that connection is the all-powerful hand of Jesus Christ.  When Jesus was trying to straighten-out the skewed thinking of some Bible scholars among the leaders of Israel, He simply uncluttered the issue; He told them:

“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!  John 5:39

Paying attention to the questions within your heart, mind, and soul, about where you come from, who you really are, and, therefore, where this is all going – where you’re going to wind-up, is more often on the front-burner during times of crisis.  Frankly, considering this pandemic, with all its quarantine, game-changing social distancing, and attention to the case and death tolls…if you are NOT thinking more about your soul and the reality of mortality, I’d be worried about your connection with reality!

And these two passages, one from the oldest text in Scripture (Job), and the other God’s veritable defining answer to life’s basic need, unveil what we need to know about life’s basic questions, those with which we wrestle; namely,

·       Who made me and everything I see?

·       What am I supposed to do?

·       Where will I wind up?

·       Who will guide me?

So, Job, Russell, anyone…pay attention…the answer is Jesus.  And He loves you.

For You Today

It’s okay to place your faith and trust in God, His Son, and His Holy Spirit; it was God who created it all, controls it all, and offers it all to us in His Son.  Don’t be afraid of the waves on today’s seas of storm; you’ve got the answers to the questions…you KNOW who this man is!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title image Pixabay.com ∞  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on Job 37 see The Wisdom of Elihu for Matthew 8:23-27 see Hanging-In There; or Just Hanging?

 

When Job Got It Right

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Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:  “Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.  “Will you discredit my justice and condemn me just to prove you are right?  Are you as strong as God?  Can you thunder with a voice like his?  All right, put on your glory and splendor, your honor and majesty.  Give vent to your anger.  Let it overflow against the proud.  Humiliate the proud with a glance; walk on the wicked where they stand.  Bury them in the dust.  Imprison them in the world of the dead.  Then even I would praise you, for your own strength would save you.  Job 40:6-14

Then Job replied to the Lord:  “I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you.  You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’  It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.  You said, ‘Listen and I will speak!  I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’  I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.  I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”  Job 42:1-6

Somewhere along the way Job forgot his connection to Adam and Eve; Job forgot about original sin and that sin nature we all inherit from our first parents.  Job somehow managed to consign to the back burner that need we all have for God’s grace-filled forgiveness.  Job was a moral, God-fearing man who, as a paragon of virtue in his community, was respected and did the right things.  He was like the good brother in the story of the Prodigal Son, obedient, compliant, useful, and the kind of dependable, unselfish guy every church elects as chairman of the board.

However, when the unfair, tough times came and his life’s train got derailed, Job defended his purity level, demanding an answer from God.  For 39 chapters Job tried to pry an accounting from Heaven.  When God did answer it shook the “good man” to his core.  The only sound heard from him the rest of that day was the clicking of his teeth as his mouth closed its’ complaining.  That was how Job finally got it right.

Many in our day who have ditched “church” in favor of just being good people are making the same mistake Job made.  They assume their goodness is measure enough to pass whatever test God (if He’s really up there) can pass out.  It’s a kind of macho-bravado that dares God to question their freedom to determine their chosen pathway.  And that attitude holds enough truth to get them in as big a dilemma with God as Job experienced.  That’s because God does, indeed, allow us free choice in how we will live our lives; it’s just that the consequences of our choices are just as tied to those choices we make as night is connected to the next morning’s daylight.  It’s like the proverbial domino reality; when you choose to push that first one, the second, third, fourth, and each one thereafter will fall the same way.  Years ago, the Alaskan highway was just a rough, unpaved trail through the wilderness.  During the rainy times the ground was soft and muddy.  A sign was erected at the start of the trail:

Choose your rut carefully; you’ll be in it for the next 200 miles.

We could apply that same wisdom to choosing grace, or our own strength.  God has given us the gift of free will; humility applied to that choosing will go a long way towards losing that arrogance that says its my life, I’ll do what I want.

For You Today

Job’s biggest mistake (before he heard that thundering voice from Heaven cataloging an indictment of his ignorance) was to think he’d been a self-made man, that his popularity, wealth, and “goodness” were enough.  He may have been right in the eyes of his neighbors and friends.  That day’s culture and community elected him man of the year every year, until the bad times and boils made their appearance.  Then all Job had was God.  And when he realized that, he realized he had all he needed!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

 

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[1] Title Image:  By Hult, Adolf, 1869-1943; Via Wikimedia Commons     Unless noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

Job's Story - From Hero to Zero (and Back)

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Thursday, January 3, 2019

To rightly understand the lessons of Job’s life we must consider both the height of his ease as well as the depth of his trouble.  As his story opens, we have the good times:

There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz.  He was blameless—a man of complete integrity.  He feared God and stayed away from evil.  He had seven sons and three daughters.  He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, and 500 female donkeys.  He also had many servants.  He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.  Job 1:1-3(NLT)

Job was a rich man, but also righteous (not perfect, but always remembering God was God, and Job was not).  The Accuser, Satan, wanted Job…for lunch:

One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them.  “Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan.  Satan answered the Lord, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”  Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job?  He is the finest man in all the earth.  He is blameless—a man of complete integrity.  He fears God and stays away from evil.”  Satan replied to the Lord, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God.  You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property.  You have made him prosper in everything he does.  Look how rich he is!  But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”  “All right, you may test him,” the Lord said to Satan.  “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.”  So Satan left the Lord’s presence.  Job 1:6-12(NLT)

The story continues with Job’s children dying in a freak accident, his health, possessions and position in the community being taken from him, and his wife giving up, counselling Job to just curse God and die.  The man went from hero to zero in 25 verses; he’d been the richest, most respected man in the region, enjoying the ease of the good life to a childless beggar, sitting in the misery of dust and ashes, nursing the boils that covered his body, and enduring the snarky harping of his less-than-pleased wife.

The next forty chapters of Job’s story are the meat of humans (Job and his three friends) trying to figure out why bad things happen to good people.  Or, if Job wasn’t a good person underneath, and his life was all a sham, a pretention to Godliness, what, exactly, had this sufferer done to tick God off that bad?

Fast-forwarding to the end of the story, we find God speaking to interrupt heaven’s silence in light of Job and his friend’s questions.  God answers Job with a hard challenge:  Job, if you have it figured out, YOU instruct me; you tell ME how this should end.  And to Job’s credit, he knew when it was time to shut his mouth.  He listened, waited, and kept obedient through the storm of his death valley, and God did what God does – He gave Job a lesson more valuable than his previous riches.  God taught him to look outside the feeling in his gut, to the troubles others face:

When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes.  In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before!  Then all his brothers, sisters, and former friends came and feasted with him in his home.  And they consoled him and comforted him because of all the trials the Lord had brought against him.  And each of them brought him a gift of money and a gold ring.  So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning.  Job 42:10-12(NLT)

Job learned that the response to tragedy and adversity is trusting God.  Truth be told, Satan understood human nature, and went right for the jugular in pushing all the buttons connected to Job’s trust in God.  He knew that this rich man’s dream life hadn’t been tested with a choice between his wealth and his Creator.  Satan had it figured out that the temptation to sell-out for a few pieces of silver can overcome a shaky faith.  After all, Adam and Eve had caved for just a single bite of what God had and they didn’t!

The one thing Satan never figured out (and perhaps still hasn’t) is that God will allow tests of our strength.  He will at times even allow the beating, bruising, battering ordeal of crosses and tombs.  Every bit of it must pass under the scrutiny of a sovereign God!  Our ever-present question, WHY? Is never answered until, in hindsight, and in trust, we see the marks of God’s guiding presence in what we’ve been through. 

For You Today

God’s purposes are our blessing, and they are rarely understood in the ease of being on top of the heap; sometimes it’s got to fall on us to do any good!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com