To Fear God Rightly

[This devotion is a shortened and edited version of a sermon preached July 24, 2016 from Job 38:1-42:6. These ideas are especially relevant as we have a hurricane bearing down on us today. You can listen to the audio of that 2016 sermon via this link.]

Do you fear God? Should you fear God? If so: How should you fear God? What does a right fear of God look like?

The closing chapters of the book of Job help answer these questions. Recall that Job was a wealthy man who – according to God Himself – was righteous an upright. Furthermore, God tells us Job fears Him (job 1:1). But then in a matter of minutes, Job loses all his possessions and all his children. A short time later he loses his health. And his pain just continues, day after day. Friends arrive and initially are silent, mourning with him. But at long last Job speaks, cursing the day he was born. His friends begin to argue that Job is suffering because of sinfulness. Job knows that is not right – but he wrongly accuses God of being his enemy, tormenting him. He calls on God to give him the opportunity to present his case, to show that God is not right to make him suffer like this.

But in the midst of his anguish, Job does express confidence that God will vindicate him after his death. And he rightly sees that God’s ways are hidden; furthermore, he sees that wisdom requires us to fear God. Nevertheless, he still longs to present his case before God.

Elihu then appears on the scene (Job 32:1). This young man rebukes both Job and his friends. He makes three points:

  • God is not Job’s enemy, but sends affliction for his good. Indeed, God speaks to use through pain.
  • God always does what is just and right.
  • We must be overwhelmed by the greatness of God’s wondrous works.

In Job 38-42, God Himself speaks, picking up and elaborating on Elihu’s third point, while effectively building on Elihu’s first two points.

These chapters show us that while Job knew he was to fear God, and while God commended Job for fearing Him, Job did not yet fear God rightly. Through God’s speaking, however, he comes to see God for who He is – and thus fears Him rightly and trusts Him fully. We too can learn of a right fear of God through this text.

See God for Who He Is – and So Rightly Fear Him

As Elihu concludes his speech in Job 37, a storm is rolling in. Elihu comments, “God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend” (Job 37:5).

He then concludes:

The Almighty–we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate. Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.” (Job 37:23-24)

Then beginning in chapter 38, God speaks – to display His great power, His justice, His wisdom, and His righteousness, all of which should prompt a right fear in us.

In Job 38:2-3, God effectively says, “If you’re so wise, Job, if you’re so righteous, if you’re so powerful, then answer a few questions for me.”

Job has desired a mediator, so he can present his case and show that God has unjustly sent all this suffering. He wants God to be judged. But we cannot put God on trial. That’s like a two year old putting his parents on trial. God does not answer to us. We answer to Him. God is the one who rightly asks the questions. And this is what God does for most of chapters 38-41.

God’s purpose in these chapters is to show Himself to Job, so that Job might rightly see Him. We know this in part from Job’s response in 42:5: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” Seeing God for Who He is enables Job to realize that he is a dependent creature. Like a little child, he must trust, love, and delight in this great God – not put Him on trial.

What does God say to help Job see Him? He tells Job to see Him in His creative acts; then He tells him to see Him in creation itself – both in the heavens, and in the animals.

See God in His Creative Acts: Job 38:4-21

God asks, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding” (Job 37:4). Echoing Genesis 1, God asks Job questions about separating light from darkness, the waters from the dry land, and day from night. He concludes this section by stating mockingly that Job should know all this, “for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!” (Job 37:21)

The point is that we can’t even begin to comprehend God’s creation – and we’re much too young to have seen it. For we’re part of it! We are His creatures, we are dependent creatures. So how can we stand in judgment over Him?

See God in His Creation: The Heavens Job 38:22-38

God knows how to control snow, wind, rain, lightning, ice, and stars. He understands what they are, where they come from; He uses each for His good and wise purposes. We can do none of that.

See God in His Creation: The Animals Job 38:39-39:30, 40:15-41:34

God speaks much of various animals for Job to look at. With one exception, all the animals mentioned are wild: Lions, ravens, mountain goats, wild donkeys, wild oxen, ostriches, the war horse, the hawk, the eagle, Behemoth, and Leviathan. God asks if Job provides food or homes for these, if he can even see all that they do. He asks if Job can make them serve him  – for they do serve God! He asks if Job can make these animals fast, or wise.

Even the war horse – the one “tame” animal – is not ours by right or even under our complete control. God asks in Job 39:19-25: Did you give the war horse his might? Did you give him his mane? Do you make him leap? The war horse was the most powerful weapon available to armies in Job’s day – but it was not created by humans, and was barely controlled by them.

The last two creatures God mentions are Behemoth and Leviathan. We’re not sure what particular animals God is talking about, but that’s really immaterial. These are powerful creatures, created by Him for His delight. They were not created by us or for us; they are not controllable by us. Indeed, God emphasizes this: “Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you” (Job 40:15). Similarly, we have no hope of controlling or subduing Leviathan, a creature without fear (Job 41:33).

So God asks Job questions, pointing out His creative powers, His rights over His creation, His wise governing of creation, and our smallness. What point is God making through these illustrations?

The Point of Creation

God’s point is not, “I’m mighty so do whatever I say!” In the midst of enabling Job to see Him for Who He is, God does emphasize His power – for it is great! Indeed, He makes clear:

“All is Mine to Do with as I Please”

God created everything; He created us. We don’t exist apart from Him. We are dependent creatures, contingent creatures. God’s delight in His creation is evident in this text. All creation, including these creatures man cannot control, is doing what He planned – except the humans in the story. And God intervenes in order to get them in alignment with His purposes.

And what are His purposes?

“I Please to Display My Glory”

Clearly God’s glory is displayed in the heavens and in the animals He has described. But God also speaks of how His glory is displayed among mankind. He does this in part by humbling the proud and bringing down the wicked. Note what God tells Job to do if he can:

Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him. Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you. (Job 40:11-14)

God says: The world needs a ruler. Mankind needs a ruler – or the proud, the wicked will dominate, harm, destroy, and thrive. So God is not only saying He is mighty; He is also saying that He is the moral authority in the universe. He is the ruler mankind needs. For He destroys the pride of men – and pride before God is our fundamental sin.

So in this section God destroys Job’s pride – to his good.

But He does more than destroy pride. He also leads His people to delight in Him and in His works.

God doesn’t humble us just to bring us low. He humbles us so we can delight in what is truly the source of joy – Himself! When we are so impressed with ourselves, we can’t delight in our dependence on God; we can’t stare in wonder and joy at the greatness of Who He is and what He has done. Job does finally have such wonder and joy in the end:

“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6)

So Job is not simply humiliated. Rather, he sees God and delights in Him, saying, “Wow! Here is majestic joy! Here is overwhelming beauty! Here is overpowering magnificence. I now see You, Lord, for Who You are – why would I rejoice in anything else?”

The Right Fear of God

Look at Job’s responses more fully:

“Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.” (Job 40:4-5)

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.’Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” (Job 42:2-3)

Do you see how Job’s fear of God has changed? Previously, he saw God as his enemy, his adversary, harming him. He feared an arbitrary, capricious God. While he knew that was a wrong understanding of God, his inability to understand what God was doing led him to fear what that mysterious God might do next.

But now he sees God for Who He is: In his glory, in his majesty, in his purposes. God is exalting what should be exalted – Himself! God is humbling what should be humbled – proud men! And so this new fear, this right fear, is not the result of Job anticipating harm from God, but rather an overwhelming sense of God’s grandeur combined with a confidence that God, in His mysterious ways, is working for good purposes.

This is what a right fear of God brings about: A humbling of self, and a deep delight and trust in God.

Furthermore, in consequence we fear nothing else. Indeed, this is why the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is seeing who God is, seeing how He rules world, seeing who we are, and responding rightly. Job now has that wisdom. He has seen God. He has seen Himself. He repents. And He trusts God.

What about you?

Does your suffering seem pointless, harsh, far beyond what you deserve – like Job’s?

  • Do you want to put God on trial?
  • Do you think God needs to explain Himself?
  • Do you think you have a good case against God?
  • Do you question His wisdom, His power, His authority, His love?

God tells you what He told Job: “See Me for Who I am!”

See Him in His revelation in His Word – in Job

See Him as the Creator – and thus as the One who can do what He likes with what is His

See Him as the One who sees all, sustains all, controls all, and delights in all His works

See Him in the heavens, in hurricanes, in the animals

And today see Him most clearly in Jesus Himself – with all authority, all compassion, all power, all humility; see Him risen and reigning, and see Him suffering and dying; see Him overcoming all powers, and see Him washing His disciples feet;  see Him riding on the white horse to conquer, and see Him holding children in His arms.

This majestic, all-powerful God became man, lived in humble circumstances, and died horribly so that you might be reconciled to God, so that you, fearing God, might be embraced by God.

See God for Who He is, and so come to fear God rightly. And having feared God rightly, trust God fully.

Preparing for Suffering

Five days ago Omar Mir Siddique Mateen walked into the Pulse Bar in Orlando and killed 49 people. Not one went to that bar last weekend thinking, “I’m going to die tonight”

Imagine that your brother, your sister, your friend, your classmate, or your next-door neighbor were among those killed. How would you respond?

We rightly shrink in horror from that heinous crime.

But in the four days since the Orlando terrorist attack, about 170 other people have been murdered in the US; about 6400 have died of cancer, about 6700 of heart disease; about 100 were killed by drunk drivers.

Then on Tuesday, also in Orlando, two-year-old Lane Davis was dragged underwater by an alligator and drowned. Lane’s father, wading into the water, didn’t have an inkling that there was any danger to the boy.

Imagine that Lane was your brother, your nephew, your grandson, or your son. How would you respond?

In the days since that tragedy, approximately another 200 little boys and girls under five years of age have died in the US.

In this rich and predominantly peaceful country, we can live under the illusion that death is something strange, something unusual – something we can avoid, we can put off indefinitely if we drive carefully, eat well, and exercise diligently.

But death is all around us. Tragedies happen. All the time.

Furthermore, in the years ahead, unless Jesus returns in the next few decades, every one of us will die. Some will know they are dying. Some won’t. Some will die swiftly and painlessly. Others will die horribly. But we will all face death. It is certain.

So shouldn’t we prepare for it? Shouldn’t we learn how to approach the tragedies that will undoubtedly come in this life – so that we will be prepared both to help others in the midst of such crises, and to endure them biblically ourselves?

This Sunday we begin a short sermon series on the book of Job. We have been making our way through Paul’s letter to the Romans for more than a year, and still have much to cover in that great epistle. We’ve come to one of the best-known verses in all of Scripture:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 NAS

What a promise! What comfort! And how great is the God who can make such a promise!

And yet, a dear friend who had recently suffered horrible tragedy once told me, “If one more person quotes Romans 8:28 to me, I’m going to kill him!”

What led others to misuse this great verse, so that it was not a comfort but a barb?

I believe the problem was a lack of understanding of the lessons of the book of Job – lessons that the Apostle Paul knew well, indeed, that he assumes the readers of Romans know.

In Job, we see a good man – kind, generous, loving, dutiful, pious, and upright – lose his goods, lose his children, and lose his health, all in a few days. Then his friends come and make matters worse. Buffeted by all this tragedy, Job deeply questions the goodness and justice of God.

In this book we learn about some of the causes of pain and suffering in this life; we learn of the hatred of our enemy, Satan; we learn of the majesty and sovereignty of God, even over Satan; we learn some of God’s purposes, as well as the nature of genuine faith.

So through this book, we can gain a solid and necessary foundation for understanding Romans 8:28 and following.

Through this book we can become genuine comforters, instead of the “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2) who tormented Job and my friend.

And through this book, we can prepare for the tragedies that undoubtedly await us in the years ahead.

So join us. And may God’s Word build us up and equip us, so that in the day of trouble we might look to Him in the full confidence of faith.

God Opposes the Proud

James tells us: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

But who is proud?

Consider some obvious biblical examples

  • Haman, rejoicing in the favor of the king and (he thinks) the queen, is full of pride (Esther 5:11-12).
  • Nebuchadnezzar, surveying his domain and exulting in his power, is full of pride (Daniel 4:29-30).
  • The Pharisee, thinking highly of his religiosity while looking down at the tax collector, is full of pride (Luke 18:10-12).
  • Herod, delighting in the people calling him a god, is full of pride (Acts 12:20-23).

But there are also less obvious biblical examples, where pride manifests itself more subtly.

Consider Job. Is Job proud?

Job is a righteous man (Job 1:1). He has avoided sexual immorality, not only in act but also in desire (Job 31:1, 9-12). He has been generous, helping the poor (Job 31:16-22). He was wealthy, but did not trust in his riches (Job 31:24-25).

Yet God allows Satan to afflict him. Job suffers terribly. His friends tell him he suffers because of his sin.

Job knows better. Compared to other men, he is good. He is righteous. God Himself has said so! (Job 1:8). If God were to apportion suffering according to the measure of a man’s sinfulness, Job would not suffer.

When Job protests against his friends’ accusations, he initially echoes God’s statement about himself. But then he goes further – and here pride comes in. He demands from God the opportunity to defend himself. In effect, he asserts that God has done wrong by having him suffer. While his perplexed cries to God in the midst of despair are right, proper, and necessary (for example, Job 30:27-31), his assertion that God would have to give way before the logic of his case is prideful (see, for example, Job 23:3-7).

This truth comes out more clearly in the last several chapters of Job. Elihu – who himself is infected with pride (Job 36:4)! – concludes his speech with these powerful and true words, even as God begins to manifest Himself in thunder and whirlwind:

“God is clothed with awesome majesty.  The Almighty — we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.  Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.” (Job 37:22b-24)

Then God speaks, reprimanding Job – who has indeed been wise in his own conceit:

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:2-4).

After Job says he cannot speak before such majesty (Job 40:4-5), God asks him:

Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?  Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?  Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor.  Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him. Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. (Job 40:8-12)

Note: God says that He is right and just. He is acting from His very nature when He brings low the proud and treads down the wicked.

Job knows that he himself has spoken in prideful ways. He therefore repents. He acknowledges that he has not really understood God’s greatness, power, and righteousness. By despising himself, he is acknowledging his pride:

I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. . . . I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;  therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:3b, 4-6)

Job’s pride is very different from that of Nebuchadnezzar or the Pharisee or Herod or Haman. Indeed, he did not consider himself prideful until God confronted him.

This type of pride is especially dangerous because we so often pretend that it is not pride. This pride manifests itself:

  • Whenever we think we are not getting what we deserve
  • Whenever we think we have been good and righteous and hardworking and God is not coming through
  • Whenever we are upset that someone else got the promotion we thought we deserved
  • Whenever we are hurt that another person – in the school, in the church, in the family, in the workplace – is receiving more recognition or attention than we are
  • Whenever we are jealous of gifts that others have which we do not have

So check your heart. Pride is a subtle, infectious sin. Learn from Job. For God opposes all types of pride – but He gives abundant grace to the humble.

 

 

 

 

Hope in God and Argument with God

Is Christian hope wishful thinking, a fantasy, a pollyannish belief that against all evidence things will turn out well for me?

As we have recently considered (first, second, and third blog posts), Christian confidence rests not on our desires, nor on our intellectual investigations, nor even on our beliefs, but on God’s Word, the revelation that He has spoken, telling us truths we could never discover on our own. We are dependent on Him, and thereby on His revelation, given to us in His Word.

So how do we react when all around us is falling apart?

Such was Job’s situation. In a short time, he lost his wealth, his children, and his health. And his friends – supposedly come to comfort him – just made matters worse.

Job 13:15 summarizes his reaction:

Though he slay me, I will hope in Him; yet I will argue my ways to His face.

Job has a rock solid faith in God’s goodness, in His promises, in His faithfulness to every word He has proclaimed. David expressed the same hope when he was attacked by men:

My hope is from him.  He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.  On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.  Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. (Psalm 62:5b-8)

Yet this hope is consistent with more pain coming upon him in the future. Note that Job acknowledges that he might well die from this affliction. His hope does not consist of a naïve belief that the worst is over. Rather, he says that even if the worst is not over – even if God slays him – he will continue to hope in Him. He does not know the outcome of his suffering; nevertheless, his hope in God does not waver.

Consider now the second half of the verse: In addition to his solid hope in God, Job states, “I will argue my ways to his face.” Indeed, a large portion of the rest of the book consists of Job addressing God directly, asking Him to come and let Job argue his case before Him (see, for example, Job 23:4-7).

Once we have read to the end of the book, we might think such arguments from Job are wrong. For when God does appear, Job is unable to argue. Confronted with God Himself, he sees that he has no case. God overwhelms him with His majesty, power, and authority. So Job is left to say,

I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. . . . I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. . . .  I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:2,3,5,6)

Nevertheless, I suggest that Job’s arguing with God earlier in the book is not wrong, in and of itself. Indeed, Job 13:15 well summarizes the condition of limited, hurting humanity before Him. He is far beyond our ability to understand; He will often act in ways that seem to us inconsistent with His revelation of His character. When He does so, it is right and good for us to cry out in our pain, to express our lack of understanding, to lay before Him the seeming inconsistency of His revelation and what we see around us.

We see men and women of God cry out like this time and again in Scripture. Examples include Psalms 39, 42, 77, and 88, Jeremiah 20, Habakkuk 1, 2 Corinthians 1, and the entire book of Lamentations. Let’s look briefly at selections from chapter 3 of that last book.

Lamentations was written after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC. During a long siege, the city suffered starvation, leading even to cannibalism. Then there was great slaughter when the Judean army tried to escape the siege and the Babylonians swept into the city. The author writes:

He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.  He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.”  Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!  My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. (Lamentations 3:15-20)

The author seems now to be without hope. God Himself is sovereign – the author knows this, and so sees God as the source of his bitterness. He can’t get the images of horror out of his mind.

Yet keep reading:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.  It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;  let him put his mouth in the dust– there may yet be hope;  let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.  For the Lord will not cast off forever,  but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. (Lamentations 3:22-33)

In the midst of the horror, in the midst of the grief which the sovereign Lord has caused (v32), the author reflects on the revealed character of God – the revelation over the centuries of God speaking and acting: the revelation of God at work in the Garden of Eden and at Mt Sinai; the revelation through David and Solomon, through Elijah and Elisha, through Micah and Isaiah. The author’s hope has perished (v18); yet he will hope in Him (v24).  This hope springs not from a Buddhist-like belief that the sorrow he has seen is an illusion, nor from a naive optimism that things have a way of working out for the good, but because “the LORD is my portion.” That is, the author continues to hope in God – as Job continues to hope in God even while he argues with Him – because God has promised an inheritance – He Himself. And He is worth more than all the world has to offer.

With that in mind, consider Job’s arguments with God – and your own arguments. If God Himself is our portion, our inheritance, which, as Peter tells us, is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4), then our inheritance is in and of itself to know Him. So as we struggle to know Him in this life, to understand His ways, we should come to Him with questions, with seeming inconsistencies, with our struggles. We should come humbly, yes; we must come submissively, by all means; we must come knowing, like Job, that in the end we will see God and shut our mouths.  At this moment, in this life, in this age, we see “as in a mirror dimly;’ it is good and right to bring Him our questions and our struggles to understand. But He has told us that the time is coming when we will “see face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). And we will know Him, and have Him as our inheritance.

So may we all say with Job, “Though he slay me, I will hope in Him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.”