Read Job 1:6–22
Questions from the Scripture text: What was there in Job 1:6? Who came to do what? Who was among them? What does YHWH ask him (Job 1:7)? What does he answer? Who asks whom about whom (Job 1:8)? What does He call him? What does he say about him (cf. Job 1:1)? What does Satan ask (Job 1:9-10)? What does he imply is the reason for Job’s worship and obedience? What does he suggest doing (Job 1:11)? What does he say that Job would do then? How does YHWH do this (Job 1:12)? What was there in Job 1:13? Whose sons were doing what? Who comes in Job 1:14? What does he tell him about (Job 1:14-15)? What is still happening in Job 1:16? Who comes? What does he tell Job about? What is still happening in Job 1:17? Who comes? What does he tell Job about? What is still happening in Job 1:18? Who comes? What does he tell Job about (Job 1:18-19)? What does Job now do (Job 1:20)? What does he do to his robe and his head? What posture does he take? To do what? How does he say he came from where (Job 1:21)? How does he say he will depart? Who has done what for him? And Who has done what else? And how does Job respond to that? What two things does he not do (Job 1:22)?
How does grace respond to the pressure of trial? Job 1:6–22 prepares us for the opening part of public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these seventeen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that grace responds to trial with worship.
The similarity of “now there was a day” and “the sons” in Job 1:6, Job 1:13 draws a split-frame for us. “Sons of God” in Job 1:6 is likely not being used of the line of believers, as it is in Genesis 6:2. Rather, it is a reminder that in His totally sovereign providence, the Lord does make use of powerful beings. Good angels, doing good, and evil demons, doing evil, are all carrying out the good Lord’s good plan, in which He Himself does only good (cf. Genesis 50:20; 1 Kings 22:19–23).
Job is absolutely correct about Who has “taken away,” although that which the Lord does in ultimate love, the adversary (“the Satan” throughout the passage) does in malice. There are two hands involved (Job 1:11, Job 1:12, where “power” translates “hand.”) The believer knows, and takes comfort, from the fact that even what the wicked do is under the power of the Lord and comes to us in His own goodness.
And the adversary isn’t wrong about the proof of true godliness. While Job was right to recognize the spiritual danger that can come with prosperity (Job 1:5), we often find out the reality of our religion when things are hard upon us. The pressure squeezes out of us what we really are. And the truth about Job is that he is grateful. He knows that YHWH has given him everything. He seems to assume that the Lord is now taking him from this world. The “taken away” is in parallel with “naked shall I return.” For him, YHWH Himself was more than all the world. He could take nothing with him, and he needed nothing else, because he would have the Lord. This is how the true believer, rich or poor, feels about the Lord.
How does it appear, in your life, that the Lord is more to you than anything else? In what situations has it been a comfort to you that the good Lord is always doing you good? What have the pressures of life squeezed out of you?
Sample prayer: Lord, we know that, whether men, angels, or devils do us good or ill, You always do us good. Naked we came into the world. And, when we depart this world, we will take nothing with us. But You are more to us than everything else put together. So, give us to bless Your Name, worshiping You blamelessly and uprightly by Your grace in Christ, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP73C “Yet Constantly, I Am with You” or TPH446 “Be Thou My Vision”
No comments:
Post a Comment