11/29/2011 8:57:40 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: God is Gracious
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Job chapter 33
Message of the verses: Today’s SD will begin the 33rd chapter of Job, and in this chapter we continue to read the speech of Elihu. Job’s friends were saying that the reason for the problems that Job was having was because of his secret sin that he would not admit, while Job never said that he was sinless he did say that it was not because of sin that these things were happening to him. Elihu says that the reason that Job was having these problems was because God did not want him to fall into sin. Now both of these reasons for believer’s problems can be found in the Scriptures. Hebrews chapter twelve speaks of God disciplining believers while 2Cor.12 7-10 speaks of God giving Paul a thorn in the flesh to keep him from sinning: “7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” What can we say then about Job’s friends and also Elihu then because both of these truth are later found in Scripture? Job’s three friends were wrong, for Job was not being punished because of sin and I don’t believe the Elihu was right either, for there is another reason why believers suffer, probably more than one, but sometimes we suffer because Christ suffered. In the book of 1st Peter he speaks of suffering first century believers who were suffering for the cause of Christ. The book of Revelations speaks of many, many believers who will die for the cause of Christ just because they refuse to take the mark of the beast. I have read that in today’s world that there somewhere around 1000 believer’s today who will die for the cause of Christ and this happens each and every day of the year. As of the fall of 2011 there are now seven billion people on this planet and so 1000 of them each will die just because they believe that Jesus Christ is the Way the Truth and the life. Back to Job chapter 33.
Job 33:1-14: “1 ¶ "However now, Job, please hear my speech, And listen to all my words. 2 "Behold now, I open my mouth, My tongue in my mouth speaks. 3 "My words are from the uprightness of my heart, And my lips speak knowledge sincerely. 4 "The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 5 "Refute me if you can; Array yourselves before me, take your stand. 6 "Behold, I belong to God like you; I too have been formed out of the clay. 7 "Behold, no fear of me should terrify you, Nor should my pressure weigh heavily on you.
“8 ¶ "Surely you have spoken in my hearing, And I have heard the sound of your words: 9 ’I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent and there is no guilt in me. 10 ’Behold, He invents pretexts against me; He counts me as His enemy. 11 ’He puts my feet in the stocks; He watches all my paths.’ 12 "Behold, let me tell you, you are not right in this, For God is greater than man. 13 "Why do you complain against Him That He does not give an account of all His doings?
“14 ¶ "Indeed God speaks once, Or twice, yet no one notices it.” (NASB)
Job 33:1-14: “1 ¶ "So please, Job, hear me out, honor me by listening to me. 2 What I’m about to say has been carefully thought out. 3 I have no ulterior motives in this; I’m speaking honestly from my heart. 4 The Spirit of God made me what I am, the breath of God Almighty gave me life! 5 "And if you think you can prove me wrong, do it. Lay out your arguments. Stand up for yourself! 6 Look, I’m human—no better than you; we’re both made of the same kind of mud. 7 So let’s work this through together; don’t let my aggressiveness overwhelm you.
‘ 8 ¶ "Here’s what you said. I heard you say it with my own ears. 9 You said, ‘I’m pure—I’ve done nothing wrong. Believe me, I’m clean—my conscience is clear. 10 But God keeps picking on me; he treats me like I’m his enemy. 11 He’s thrown me in jail; he keeps me under constant surveillance.’ 12 "But let me tell you, Job, you’re wrong, dead wrong! God is far greater than any human. 13 So how dare you haul him into court, and then complain that he won’t answer your charges?
‘14 ¶ God always answers, one way or another, even when people don’t recognize his presence.’’ (Message)
In verses one through seven Elihu is saying that Job has no reason to fear what he is about to say to him because he was made the same way that Job was made. It was Elihu’s desire not to turn this speech into a monologue, but that is exactly what he is doing.
Now that Elihu shows Job that he wasn’t going to say anything that would hurt him he moves on to quote what Job has already said, but the problem is that it was not what Job had said but Zophar’s interpretation of what Job had said (11:4). Job never said that he was sinless, but that is the way the others interpreted it. Job had always maintained his integrity.
11/29/2011 9:33:23 AM
11/29/2011 1:27:10 PM
Dreams and visions (Job 33:15-18): “15 "In a dream, a vision of the night, When sound sleep falls on men, While they slumber in their beds, 16 Then He opens the ears of men, And seals their instruction, 17 That He may turn man aside from his conduct, And keep man from pride; 18 He keeps back his soul from the pit, And his life from passing over into Sheol.’” (NASB)
“15 "In a dream, for instance, a vision at night, when men and women are deep in sleep, fast asleep in their beds— 16 God opens their ears and impresses them with warnings 17 To turn them back from something bad they’re planning, from some reckless choice, 18 And keep them from an early grave, from the river of no return.’” (Message)
Let’s begin with a quote from the book of Hebrews chapter one and verse one and two: “1 ¶ God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” (NASB) The reason for these verses is to say that dreams are not the regular way that God communicates with people in this age of grace. However with that said we can surely remember that God did use dreams in the OT times, from Joseph’s dreams to Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams in the books of Genesis and Daniel.
Sometimes when you have a bad dream it is because you ate something you should not have eaten before you went to bed. Sometimes you have a dream at night because you were thinking about something that you should not have been thinking about sometime during that day.
Job said that he had bad dreams and so did Eliphaz, but what Elihu is saying is that these could be messages from God.
Suffering (Job 33:19-22): 19 ¶ "Man is also chastened with pain on his bed, And with unceasing complaint in his bones; 20 So that his life loathes bread, And his soul favorite food. 21 "His flesh wastes away from sight, And his bones which were not seen stick out. 22 "Then his soul draws near to the pit, And his life to those who bring death.’” (NASB)
“19 ¶ "Or, God might get their attention through pain, by throwing them on a bed of suffering, 20 So they can’t stand the sight of food, have no appetite for their favorite treats. 21 They lose weight, wasting away to nothing, reduced to a bag of bones. 22 They hang on the cliff-edge of death, knowing the next breath may be their last.’” (Message)
At the beginning of his commentary on this section Dr. Wiersbe quotes C. S. Lewis from his book “The Problem of Pain.” “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” And then Dr. Wiersbe continues “God sometimes uses pain to warn us, humble us, and bring us to the place of submission (Hebrews 12:1-11). Elihu describes a sick man, suffering on his bed, wasting away because he has no appetite. (Is this a picture of Job?) But this man is suffering because God wants to get his attention and prevent him from breaking God’s law.” I suppose that it is possible, maybe even provable that Elihu was alluding to Job.
It would not be right to say that all suffering comes from God for we can do a good job of causing suffering ourselves. We can do some bad driving and get into an accident or we can eat the improper diet or drink the wrong things which can cause our bodies to suffer.
We have already discussed that all suffering is not from God because of sin in an earlier SD.
I think that it is fair to day that nobody really wants to be sick, and all we have to do is look at a churches prayer list and many of the items on it have to do with healing. Here is a good quote from British Congregational theologian P.T. Forsyth: “It is a greater thing to pray for pain’s conversion than its removal.” The Apostle Paul learned this with the thorn in the flesh episode found in 2Cor. 12:7-10. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Had he (Paul) lost that messenger of pain, Paul might have been proud of his spiritual achievements; and that pride might have led him into sin.”
The ministry of the mediating angel (Job 33:23-33): “23 "If there is an angel as mediator for him, One out of a thousand, To remind a man what is right for him, 24 Then let him be gracious to him, and say, ’Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom’; 25 Let his flesh become fresher than in youth, Let him return to the days of his youthful vigor; 26 Then he will pray to God, and He will accept him, That he may see His face with joy, And He may restore His righteousness to man. 27 "He will sing to men and say, ’I have sinned and perverted what is right, And it is not proper for me. 28 ’He has redeemed my soul from going to the pit, And my life shall see the light.’
“29 ¶ "Behold, God does all these oftentimes with men, 30 To bring back his soul from the pit, That he may be enlightened with the light of life. 31 "Pay attention, O Job, listen to me; Keep silent, and let me speak. 32 "Then if you have anything to say, answer me; Speak, for I desire to justify you. 33 "If not, listen to me; Keep silent, and I will teach you wisdom.’” (NASB)
“23 "But even then an angel could come, a champion—there are thousands of them!—to take up your cause, 24 A messenger who would mercifully intervene, canceling the death sentence with the words: ‘I’ve come up with the ransom!’ 25 Before you know it, you’re healed, the very picture of health! 26 "Or, you may fall on your knees and pray—to God’s delight! You’ll see God’s smile and celebrate, finding yourself set right with God. 27 You’ll sing God’s praises to everyone you meet, testifying, ‘I messed up my life—and let me tell you, it wasn’t worth it. 28 But God stepped in and saved me from certain death. I’m alive again! Once more I see the light!’
29 ¶ "This is the way God works. Over and over again 30 He pulls our souls back from certain destruction so we’ll see the light—and live in the light! 31 "Keep listening, Job. Don’t interrupt—I’m not finished yet. 32 But if you think of anything I should know, tell me. There’s nothing I’d like better than to see your name cleared. 33 Meanwhile, keep listening. Don’t distract me with interruptions. I’m going to teach you the basics of wisdom.’” (Message)
Before we tackle this section I want you to take a look at this chapter from the NASB and look at how many times Elihu uses the word pit in this chapter and how he uses that word.
In this section Dr. Wiersbe compares this angel that Elihu is speaking about with the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord in some OT settings was the second person of the godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ who came to earth from time to time in the OT to do different things. We see Him talking to Abraham before destroying Sodom and Gemariah, and we also see Him talking to Joshua before he goes into battle. We see him talking to Samson’s parents before Samson is born. The point is that the Angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ and the way that Elihu describes what this angel is doing here one can picture it as being done by the Lord Jesus Christ.
The picture that he is painting is an awesome picture. “The sinner is warned by dreams and visions and has been chastened by sickness and suffering. He is drawing near to the grave, and ‘the destroyers’ (messengers of death,’ NIV) are about to capture him (33:22). Then a special messenger suddenly stands up (‘one among a thousand’) and pleads his case. The messenger has a twofold ministry: he tells the sufferer what he ought to do (v-23), and he intercedes with God to have the person restored.”
Now we can understand a bit better why this is a picture of Jesus Christ. Job has been looking for a heavenly mediator and now Elihu speaks of one, but Job does not say a word, only waits for the Lord to speak to him.
Job is taking his case to the highest court and after Elihu is done speaking to Job God will be the One who speaks.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I can say that I would have never pictured what Elihu was speaking of as the Angel of the Lord, but it does make sense to me after reading Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary. He again puts the cookies on the shelf where I can reach them.
I have mentioned earlier that my devotions have been somewhat of a struggle for me and I suppose that it could be that it is important for me to continue doing them when the struggle comes. I have not really felt like going to church at times and forced myself to go only to see that the message was something that I needed to hear.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to trust the Lord to enable me to get something out of my devotions and continue to do them through the power of the Lord. My goal for these SD’s is to bring glory to the Lord, to learn things that He is teaching me, to use what I have been learning to encourage others and cause them to grow in the Lord. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2Cor. 3:18) That in a nutshell is why I am doing what I do. Another verse to describe this: “but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
2. Continue to learn contentment from what I do each day.
3. That the Lord would bless our evening with Pastor Odle and his wife and that He will be glorified through this evening.
11/29/2011 3:04:31 PM
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