God is Frightening me

11/18/2011 9:47:23 PM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Three Bitter Complaints

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                  Reference:  Job 23:13-17

            Message of the verses:  In today’s SD we will look at the second “bitter complaint” that Job speaks of, and as we mentioned yesterday the complaints are against God.  This second complaint is “God is frightening me.”

            “13 ¶  "But He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does. 14  "For He performs what is appointed for me, And many such decrees are with Him. 15  "Therefore, I would be dismayed at His presence; When I consider, I am terrified of Him. 16  "It is God who has made my heart faint, And the Almighty who has dismayed me, 17  But I am not silenced by the darkness, Nor deep gloom which covers me.”  (NASB)

            “13 ¶  "But he is singular and sovereign. Who can argue with him? He does what he wants, when he wants to. 14  He’ll complete in detail what he’s decided about me, and whatever else he determines to do. 15  Is it any wonder that I dread meeting him? Whenever I think about it, I get scared all over again. 16  God makes my heart sink! God Almighty gives me the shudders! 17  I’m completely in the dark, I can’t see my hand in front of my face.”  (Message)

            What Job is talking about here and what he is afraid of here is God’s Sovereignty, and he is not the only one who is frightened by it.  Again I wish to quote a paragraph from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary because he explains this in a great way that will help shed some light on the subject of God’s sovereignty:  “Those who resist or deny the sovereignty of God rob themselves of peace and courage.  ‘There is no attribute of God more comforting to His children than the doctrine of divine sovereignty,’ said Charles Haddon Spurgeon. ‘On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings.’  Why?  Because the human heart is proud and does not want to submit to Almighty God.  People want to ‘do their own thing’ and ‘do it their way,’ rather than find delight in doing the will of God.”

            Job is frightened of this doctrine because of his pain, and we must remember that Job did not have a Bible to read during his lifetime, he only had what others older than him had heard and seen.  Job was frightened because he did not know what would come next.  “He’ll complete in detail what he’s decided about me, and whatever else he determines to do.”  This is Job 23:14 and this shows that he is afraid of what may come next from God.

            If Job would have had Jeremiah 29:11 he would probably had a different attitude about the Lord, “’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ’plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There are times in my life when I lack the faith to believe that all things work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.  There are times when I forget the promises that are in His Word that I should be remembering and the fact is that I have the completed Bible, and I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and have the Holy Spirit living in me, so I cannot be hard on Job for being frightened of one of the most difficult things about God.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.      Continue to trust the Lord in all areas of my life.

2.      Continue to learn contentment, even though at this time it is difficult for me.

3.      Give myself to the Lord for worship and for service.

11/18/2011 10:13:11 PM