God Understands The Way To Wisdom

Job 28-31

Where then does wisdom come from,
and where is understanding located?
It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing
and concealed from the birds of the sky.
Abaddon and Death say,
“We have heard news of it with our ears.”
But God understands the way to wisdom,
and he knows its location.
For he looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
When God fixed the weight of the wind
and distributed the water by measure,
when he established a limit for the rain
and a path for the lightning,
he considered wisdom and evaluated it;
he established it and examined it.
He said to mankind,
“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom.
And to turn from evil is understanding.”
Job 28:20-28

Job’s final claim of innocence in chapters 29-31 were really interesting, but I kept coming back to these verses about wisdom. Yesterday, the Equality Act passed in the House of Representatives and will be pushed through the Senate for a final vote. This piece of legislation is not only deeply concerning as a believer, but also just breaks my heart. I believe all people should be treated with love and compassion, dignity and fairness. But the legislation that will potentially be passed into law is so supportive of things that grieve the heart of God – our Creator. The One Who intricately formed us in the womb to be either male or female. The fact that to affirm that foundational truth could soon land you in court or worse is just so crazy.

Society has denied the truth of God, the design of our Creator, and the loving instruction He has given us in His Word, and as we continue to become more lawless and evil, our world is becoming more and more hostile to truth and wisdom. There is so much deception and and ignorance of truth in this world, even in the church, and it breaks my heart yet causes me to long even more for heaven. If I allow myself, I can become so disheartened about the world that my children will grow up in and fear can start to creep in. They will live in a world where people will constantly be at war to dismantle and deconstruct every truth that God has proclaimed and established – and they will do it in such a way as to convince them that they are in fact the side of virtue and love and compassion. As believing parents, our duty to instill truth in our children has become so much more pressing because we live in a post-truth world.

But God understands the way to wisdom…and He has said to mankind the it begins with the fear (awe, reverence, humility toward) of Him. Not the fear of a “god” we have created and defined, but the One Who has already revealed Himself to us.

Proverbs is full of verses affirming this:

The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Proverb 1:7

To fear the Lord is to hate evil.
I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct,
and perverse speech.
Proverbs 8:13

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Proverbs 9:10

Iniquity is atoned for by loyalty and faithfulness,
and one turns from evil by the fear of the Lord.
Proverbs 16:6

Despite what the world will try to convince us of, whatever “new truths” they attempt to affirm, I know that God is the One Who knows the way to wisdom, because He is the One Who established and defines it. It may lead to persecution to stand firmly in His truth, but, as Paul said to Timothy, “I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.” AMEN!

I Will Emerge As Pure Gold

Job 20-27

If I go east, he is not there,
and if I go west, I cannot perceive him.
When he is at work to the north, I cannot see him;
when he turns south, I cannot find him.
Yet he knows the way I have taken;
when he has tested me, I will emerge as pure gold.
My feet have followed in his tracks;
I have kept to his way and not turned aside.
I have not departed from the commands from his lips;
I have treasured the words from his mouth
more than my daily food.

But he is unchangeable; who can oppose him?
He does what he desires.
He will certainly accomplish what he has decreed for me,
and he has many more things like these in mind.

Therefore I am terrified in his presence;
when I consider this, I am afraid of him.
God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me.

Yet I am not destroyed by the darkness,
by the thick darkness that covers my face.
Job 23:8-17

Man I feel like there is so much to unpack in these 10 verses! It reminds me of a conversation my husband and I had just the other day. We have been going through buying and selling a home and the process has been stressful! We are thankfully now under contract to both sell our home and buy our future home, but the weeks leading up to this point have been hard and refining. My husband joked that when you ask God to grow you in something (such as patience, contentment, peace, etc.) you better be ready to go through something that is going to test that thing that you want to grow in, because seldom does God just impart more spiritual fruit into our lives without allowing us to go through something that will produce it. It can sometimes be a scary thing to ask God for things that produce Christ-likeness and sanctification in us, because it seems more often than not to be preceded by trial rather than triumph.

I think of what James writes in James 1, “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.” Job seemed to understand what David much later would echo in Psalm 138: “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.
Lord, your faithful love endures forever;
do not abandon the work of your hands.”

God’s purpose and will for us will not be thwarted. He knows who are His and He is working all things out to bring us to Him and to sanctify us through His Son. What may not seem “good” from our limited perspective may be exactly the thing that will grow our faith and refine us so that we may become more usable vessels to display God’s glory to the watching world. Paul writes in Philippians 1, “I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Job certainly sat in some bitterness and wrestled with understanding why God had inflicted such suffering on him; yet he realized that even though he didn’t understand, the refining work of the LORD comes through trial, and though the darkness may seem thick and unending, he would not be destroyed by it because he knew the One Who is Light itself.

LORD, thank You for the account of Job and the reminder that You are still at work in our trials. It can be hard for me to see when I feel I am not the one in control, but I know that You constantly know the way I have taken, that my paths are always before You, and that Your will is for my sanctification. This can be a fearful thought, yet I know and trust that whatever You ordain in my life has a purpose and I know that the ultimate purpose is for my good and You glory! Help me not to shun the trial but to trust in You. AMEN!

I Know My Redeemer Lives

Job 15-19

But I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the end he will stand on the dust.
Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet I will see God in my flesh.
I will see him myself;
my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger.
My heart longs within me.
Job 19:25-27

Perhaps God had revealed to Job His future plans of restoration and redemption; His plans to judge the wicked and vindicate the righteous. Spurgeon asserts that Job may not have known the full depth of his words, yet despite all his suffering and the false accusations hurled at him by his companions, Job comes to a point where he declares his believe that somehow, some day in the far off ages, he will be vindicated. Spurgeon says, “[Job] declares that there will be found then, as he believes there is alive even now, a kinsman, an avenger who will stand up for him and set right all this wrong. He cannot conceive that God will permit such gross injustice to be done to a man who has walked as he has walked, to be brought so low and then to be stung with such unfounded accusations. He may but dimly have perceived a future state, but his condition revealed to him the necessity for such a state. He felt that if the righteous suffer so much in this life, often apparently without any just cause, and if the wicked prosper, then there must be another state in which God will set right the wrongs and rectify the apparent inequalities of his providence here.”

I think we can so easily get caught up in the very clear but also the perceived injustices and unfairness of this life. And while we should certainly advocate for equality, justice, and fairness, it is God Who is the ultimate Judge, the only One full of righteous justice and compassionate forgiveness. We will certainly endure hardship in this life – our names may be slanders, we may be falsely accused, we may fall victim to terrible injustices or our bodies may be stricken by a horrible disease. We may gain everything only to lose it. We may suffer persecution and vitriol from those who oppose our beliefs and our faith. But OUR REDEEMER LIVES. No matter what happens to us in this world, we can remain steadfast knowing that our Redeemer has overcome the world. Whatever we endure creates in us a deeper longing for the hope that we have been promised.

I think of Peter’s words of encouragement to believers suffering various trials in 1 Peter 1, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

I think of Paul, who was well-acquainted with earthly suffering, and writes in Romans 8, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” In 2 Corinthians 4, he writes, “For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

And lastly, I think of John, and his encouragement to believers in 1 John 3, that we will see Jesus, our Redeemer, “See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him. Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.”

Job, though he did not have the abundance of scripture that we are so blessed to have, trusted that this life was not the end, and that at some point he would see his Redeemer face to face, the One Who would right every injustice and vindicate him. We have these precious faithful promises, so how much more ought we live our lives with this hope?!

Finally, I love these verses from Revelation 21, “Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away. Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”

What a wonderful picture of the hope we have! My heart longs within me! Come Lord, Jesus, Come! AMEN!

He Deprives The World’s Leaders Of Wisdom

Job 11-14

But ask the animals, and they will instruct you;
ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.
Or speak to the earth, and it will instruct you;
let the fish of the sea inform you.
Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
The life of every living thing is in his hand,
as well as the breath of all humanity.
…
Wisdom and strength belong to God;
counsel and understanding are his.
Whatever he tears down cannot be rebuilt;
whoever he imprisons cannot be released.
When he withholds water, everything dries up,
and when he releases it, it destroys the land.
True wisdom and power belong to him.
The deceived and the deceiver are his.
He leads counselors away barefoot
and makes judges go mad.
He releases the bonds put on by kings
and fastens a belt around their waists.
He leads priests away barefoot
and overthrows established leaders.
He deprives trusted advisers of speech
and takes away the elders’ good judgment.
He pours out contempt on nobles
and disarms the strong.
He reveals mysteries from the darkness
and brings the deepest darkness into the light.
He makes nations great, then destroys them;
he enlarges nations, then leads them away.
He deprives the world’s leaders of reason,
and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
They grope around in darkness without light;
he makes them stagger like a drunkard.
Job 12:7-10 & 13- 25

There are days when I am heavily aware of the times we are living in – what I believe are the days leading up to the return of Christ. I trust and believe that God is working all things out in order to bring about HIs final plans of restoration and redemption and It’s amazing to think that we may be alive to see Him return to the earth! But I am also aware that God has always been at work, for millennia, bringing about His plans. What to us seems like ages, to Him is but a blip in time. The world seems to only be getting crazier and more chaotic, spiraling deeper into darkness and depravity, and while I can certainly hope and pray that we are in fact living in the days before His Second Coming, I still know and trust that He is in control even if He tarries.

So many theologians and scholars have taught that once America is no longer a “Christian nation” that it will signal the imminent return of Christ. Though they may be right, many nations have risen and fallen at the command of the LORD, so America certainly would not be the first. The history of the world has been full of leader’s deprived of wisdom, groping around in darkness without light. It certainly feels like that today. We have leaders who fight for, condone, and celebrate lifestyles, actions, and ideologies that are clearly contrary to the truth found in God’s word, yet they present themselves as being the ones on the virtuous, loving, right side of history. Yet it is exactly what Paul writes about in Romans 1: “For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.”

As bad as things may seem to get, as corrupt as our world leaders and politicians may be, God is still in control. He is still the One Who directs the hearts of kings like streams of water. Nothing happens that is outside His plan.

So there is much advice in Scripture as to how we who have the hope of His Coming should live. We are to be bold and courageous, to live our lives on mission and with purpose, to be sanctified in our faith and our lives, and to stand firm. Even Job, who lived long before their were numerous global kingdoms throughout this vast earth seemed to comprehend and trust in the sovereignty of God as well as the vastness of His holiness that is far beyond our ability to comprehend. Our world so often tries to put God in a box, and we then are likely to fall victim to judging and condemning His actions. But Job understood that even on his best day, before the Almighty God he was unholy and impure. Job certainly questioned God for the troubles and suffering he had experienced, but ultimately he acknowledged God’s sovereignty and holiness as being so far above his finite understanding. When I view the world through this lens, I don’t need to try to figure out what God is doing, but to simply trust that if He is doing it then it is all part of His perfect plan. AMEN!

Yes, I Know What You Say Is True

Job 2-10

One day the sons of God came again to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”

“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited me against him, to destroy him for no good reason.”

“Skin for skin!” Satan answered the Lord. “A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

“Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “he is in your power; only spare his life.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.

His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”

“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.

Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head. Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.
Job 2:1-13

Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

Should anyone try to speak with you
when you are exhausted?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
Indeed, you have instructed many
and have strengthened weak hands.
Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling
and braced the knees that were buckling.
But now that this has happened to you,
you have become exhausted.
It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
Isn’t your piety your confidence,
and the integrity of your life your hope?
Consider: Who has perished when he was innocent?
Where have the honest been destroyed?
…
“Can a mortal be righteous before God?
Can a man be more pure than his Maker?”
Job 4:1-7 & 17

However, if I were you, I would appeal to God
and would present my case to him.
He does great and unsearchable things,
wonders without number.
He gives rain to the earth
and sends water to the fields.
He sets the lowly on high,
and mourners are lifted to safety.
…
He saves the needy from their sharp words
and from the clutches of the powerful.
So the poor have hope,
and injustice shuts its mouth.
See how happy is the person whom God corrects;
so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.
For he wounds but he also bandages;
he strikes, but his hands also heal.
Job 5:8-11 & 15-18

Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

How long will you go on saying these things?
Your words are a blast of wind.
Does God pervert justice?
Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
Since your children sinned against him,
he gave them over to their rebellion.
But if you earnestly seek God
and ask the Almighty for mercy,
if you are pure and upright,
then he will move even now on your behalf
and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.
Then, even if your beginnings were modest,
your final days will be full of prosperity.
…
Such is the destiny of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless will perish.
His source of confidence is fragile;
what he trusts in is a spider’s web.
He leans on his web, but it doesn’t stand firm.
He grabs it, but it does not hold up.
…
Look, God does not reject a person of integrity,
and he will not support evildoers.
Job 8:1-7, 13-15, & 20

Then Job answered:

Yes, I know what you’ve said is true,
but how can a person be justified before God?
If one wanted to take him to court,
he could not answer God once in a thousand times.
God is wise and all-powerful.
Who has opposed him and come out unharmed?
He removes mountains without their knowledge,
overturning them in his anger.
He shakes the earth from its place
so that its pillars tremble.
He commands the sun not to shine
and seals off the stars.
He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads on the waves of the sea.
He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion,
the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky.
He does great and unsearchable things,
wonders without number.
If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him;
if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him.
If he snatches something, who can stop him?
Who can ask him, “What are you doing?”
…
Even if I were in the right, I could not answer.
I could only beg my Judge for mercy.
…
Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.
Job 9:1-12, 15, & 20

Job has always been a difficult book to read. There is truth intermixed with incorrect interpretation or application from Job’s friends who came to give him counsel and comfort. And I think this makes it a good lesson and warning for all of us when we give counsel. While the premise of our counsel may be rooted in truth, we can sometimes either intentionally or unintentionally take God’s Word out of context and attempt to apply it from our feeble, finite perspective. It makes me so much more thankful that we have the written, revealed WORD of God that has stood the test of time!

Job’s friends perspectives condemn him as having some sort of hidden or unrepentant sin which has caused the calamity and suffering to come upon him. They make the claim that God’s goodness toward us is rooted in our own human righteousness. This falls in line with a lot of prosperity teachings – that we can somehow attain more of God’s favor and thus a more prosperous life if we would just live the “right way”. But the truth is, we are not guaranteed a life free of trouble and trial, suffering and sickness, want and need. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble”, and Job is a perfect example of the righteous enduring suffering despite the level of their faith or behavior.

Job acknowledges that much of what his friends are saying is true, yet he counters by saying essentially, “Even if I were blameless, before a holy, righteous God there would still be fault found within me.” And I think that is such an important thing for us to recognize…that even on our best, most pious, righteous days, we are a far far cry from ever attaining the type of holiness that makes us righteous before God – which is exactly why we need Jesus!

There was a phrase that stuck out to me from Eliphaz, “Can a man be more pure than his Maker?” With progressive Christianity, I think we see a lot of this. Somehow people have put God into such a box, that they somehow come out more righteous than God Himself. I heard a podcast recently and the interviewee said that he could see the antichrist as presenting himself as someone more holy and virtuous than Jesus. That seems crazy, yet I can completely see how that could be the case. Which is why it is so important to be rooted in God’s Word. Just like Job’s friends, we too can know the basics of the truth but have poor theology. We must test, discern, and rightly divide the word of God to be equipped for the coming deceptions…many of which are already very prevalent.

LORD, thank You for the reminder to be discerning, even when something sounds mostly true. Help me to lean heavily on Your Word and not my own understanding or feelings. AMEN!

A Man Of Perfect Integrity

Job 1

There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil. He had seven sons and three daughters. His estate included seven thousand sheep and goats, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man among all the people of the east.

His sons used to take turns having banquets at their homes. They would send an invitation to their three sisters to eat and drink with them. Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”

“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”

Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Haven’t you placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

“Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, do not lay a hand on Job himself.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.

One day when Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and reported, “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing nearby, the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported, “God’s fire fell from heaven. It burned the sheep and the servants and devoured them, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

That messenger was still speaking when yet another came and reported, “The Chaldeans formed three bands, made a raid on the camels, and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house. Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people so that they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, saying:

Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will leave this life.
The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.
Job 1:1-22

I started reading Job back in April of 2019. I had just found out we were expecting our second child, and, much like my first pregnancy, I struggled with fear and anxiety in the first several months. Because of that fear, I put of reading through Job – a book that I can often find confusing and hard to understand – and moved on to more uplifting encouraging books, like Psalms.

It’s not lost on me that as I begin this book, almost 2 years later, that I am once again entering into a season of uncertainty – which for me often brings anxiety. After several months of discussion, my husband and I decided to put our house for sale to look for something a bit bigger, something that would suite our family’s current and future needs as my husband is now indefinitely working from home and we are heavily considering homeschooling for our children. We also wanted to be closer to our community group, believing that the way we do “church” may drastically shift in the coming years, and home church may become a new norm.

Our home sold in the first weekend, and even though the first contract fell through, we were back under contract within an evening. Now we are in the very stressful, very emotional process of looking for our new home. Currently, we are in a seller’s market, and houses are going for $40-70K over asking! It’s crazy competitive with homes receiving as many as 60 offers in a weekend! We placed three offers on houses that we really loved, homes we could see staying in long term that would easily suite our family’s needs. But we didn’t even come close to having our offers accepted. It’s so hard to love a house enough to want to make it your own, yet now become so emotionally attached that you are devastated if it doesn’t work out. Over the last couple of days I’ve had to readjust my expectations, apologize to my husband and daughter for my sullen and moody attitude, and remind myself that when I say that I believe God is sovereign, it means IN. ALL. THINGS. Easy words to say, but harder to live by.

I was denied a house (or 3) that I really liked. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’d already begun mentally placing furniture in each room. And I was devastated when things didn’t work out as I’d hoped. And then I read about Job. He lost just about everything. His herds, cattle, source of wealth, but most devastatingly, his ten children. While I moped around all day when I realized our offers weren’t accepted, Job fell to the ground, tore his robe, and WORSHIPPED the LORD. I can assure you there was little to no worship from me a couple days ago, though I wish that that could have been my response. I wish that what my family saw from my reaction to this disappointing news was an attitude of full faith, full trust, full worship, and full integrity.

Because integrity is what set Job apart. God says of him, “No one on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away evil.” I recently wrote about the integrity of Joseph, and perhaps this in an area of my life where God has some pruning to do. The dictionary defines integrity as, “the state of being whole, undivided”. There are a lot of things that can distract us from wholehearted devotion to the LORD…my list would go on for miles. Yet I want to be more like Job in how I approach disappointment and despair. I want to walk in integrity before the LORD no matter my circumstances and worship Him for the abundance of grace that He has already bestowed on me. The past few days have been an amazing reminder of how blessed we truly are. In the middle of the coldest temperatures that Texas has had in more than 70 years, with power outages and rolling blackouts, somehow our home has been spared from having lost any power and have therefore had heat and electricity and comfort. I don’t know why our family has been so fortunate, but maybe my heart just needed a little reminder that God is in control. My challenge may not be someone else’s, their testing of faith may look very different from mine, and yet God is good no matter what. I can’t explain how or why He does what He does, why He allows people to go through various trials and tribulations, but I do know that He is working it all out for the good of those who love Him. And refinement is good. Sanctification is good. Greater dependence on the LORD is good.

I loved Spurgeon’s notes on verses 20-21: “‘The LORD gives and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.’ Some of the rarest pearls have been found in the deepest waters, and some of the choicest utterances of believers have come when God’s waves and billows have been made to roll over them. The fire consumes nothing but the dross and leaves the gold all the purer…Job looked on everything he possessed as the gift of God. He did not complain, ‘I spent many weary days and many anxious nights in accumulating all those flocks and herds that have been stolen from me.’ We must learn the wisdom of never ascribing any earthly comfort to any earthly source. We must worship the Giver and not the gift. And when we know that the LORD takes away our possessions, the knowledge that they are His effectively prevents us from complaining. From the first moment when the love of God is revealed to us, right on to the hour when we will be in the presence of the Father in glory, we may depend on it that there is infinite love in every act of God taking from us, just as much as in giving to us.“ WOW. I mean, that is EXACTLY what I needed to hear! AMEN!

Am I In The Place Of God?

Genesis 49-50

When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said to one another, “If Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the suffering we caused him.”

So they sent this message to Joseph, “Before he died your father gave a command: ‘Say this to Joseph: Please forgive your brothers’ transgression and their sin—the suffering they caused you.’ Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when their message came to him. His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves!”

But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people. Therefore don’t be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
Genesis 50:15-21

Again, in this final look at Joseph’s life we can see a picture of Jesus. Joseph’s brothers had beaten him and betrayed, sold him into slavery and lied about his death to their father. Joseph had many a reason to hold a grudge toward them and to be bitter and vengeful. Yet Joseph, recognizing again God’s sovereignty in all things, sees that God used even the hard, challenging, painful trails of his life to bring about a greater good. He asks whether he is in the place of God, meaning it is not for him to pass judgement or condemn what God Himself has allowed and ordained. And here we get another glimpse into the mercy and compassion and forgiveness of God. Jesus Himself was God, men plotted evil against Him – He was betrayed, beaten, and executed despite His innocence; yet He saw the greater good that God had planned – the survival (salvation) of many! I think about the verse in Hebrews 12 that says, “For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” So often Jesus revealed to His listeners the true nature of God through His parables.

Over and over Jesus reveals God the Father to be the God who is revealed in Exodus 34: “the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.”

On this cold, snowy Valentine’s Day here in Texas, I am so thankful for the love of God, for His mercy and grace, for His compassion and forgiveness, and for the gift of salvation! AMEN!

The Angel Who Has Redeemed Me

Genesis 46-48

Joseph then brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many years have you lived?”

Jacob said to Pharaoh, “My pilgrimage has lasted 130 years. My years have been few and hard, and they have not reached the years of my ancestors during their pilgrimages.” So Jacob blessed Pharaoh and departed from Pharaoh’s presence.
Genesis 47:7-10

Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. He said to me, ‘I will make you fruitful and numerous; I will make many nations come from you, and I will give this land as a permanent possession to your future descendants.’ Your two sons born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are now mine. Ephraim and Manasseh belong to me just as Reuben and Simeon do. Children born to you after them will be yours and will be recorded under the names of their brothers with regard to their inheritance. When I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way, some distance from Ephrath in the land of Canaan. I buried her there along the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).
…
Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, but now God has even let me see your offspring.” 
…
Then he blessed Joseph and said:

The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
the angel who has redeemed me from all harm—
may he bless these boys.
And may they be called by my name
and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they grow to be numerous within the land.
Genesis 48:3-7, 11, & 15-16

Jacob had been through a lot in his life. When Pharaoh asks him his age, he replies that the years of his pilgrimage have been few and hard. But at the end of his life, he looks back on his years with an overwhelming sense of gratitude and recognition of God.

Spurgeon wrote, “At the close of his life, we find Jacob more fully than ever confessing that the Presence of God had been with him…There is his last testimony to the faithfulness of God. He had lost Rachel—oh, how it stung his heart—but he says, ‘God redeemed me from all evil.‘

There had come a great famine in the land, but he says that God had fed him all his life long. He had lost Joseph and that had been a great sorrow. But now, in looking back, he sees that even then God was redeeming him from all evil! He said once, ‘Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and you will take Benjamin away; all these things are against me.’ But now he eats his words and says, ‘The Lord has redeemed me from all evil.’ He now believes that God had been always with him, had fed him always, redeemed him always and blessed him always. Now, mark you, if you trust in God, this shall be your verdict at the close of life.“

I’ve written about the small brushstrokes before, the fact that we often only focus in on the incomprehensible, random swathes of color without taking a step back to view the masterpiece God is painting from a greater perspective. I hope that I would have this greater perspective on God’s sovereignty long before my dying days. I hope that I can look back at every season, every change, every circumstance to see God’s hand at work in ways I never expected or realized.

Control is something I can often struggle with. While it’s easier for me to accept my insufficiency in controlling circumstances outside my realm of control, I tend to become frustrated by the smaller things that, albeit still exist outside my control, I am convinced I can somehow manipulate and manage on my own. Yet it is God alone Who is sovereign and in control, and when I fully surrender to this, I am at such greater peace.

Something else really stuck out to me in Jacob’s testimony about God. He says, “the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all harm…” I thought about the angel that wrestled against him when he was on his way to meet Esau. I also thought about the angel of the LORD who appeared to Abraham before Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. It was also an angel of the LORD who called out to Abraham and stopped him from sacrificing Isaac. Many scholars believe that these were in fact pre-incarnate appearances of Christ. I loved that it spoke of this “angel” being the one who had redeemed him. Turns out, this is the first use of the Hebrew word “redeem” in the bible, “goel” (גָּאַל). The word means “to avenge/avenger, bought back, to redeem, to act as kinsman.” In a sense it can be understood as avenging and restoring one who has been wronged, or to setting free one who has been enslaved. This early picture of Christ as the Redeemer makes me wonder how much more perhaps the Old Testament patriarchs and heroes of our faith understood God’s redemptive plan. Job speaks of his redeemer, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.”(Job 19:25) David spoke of the LORD as his redeemer, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14) And Isaiah frequently refers to the LORD as the Redeemer, “Our Redeemer—the Lord Almighty is his name— is the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 47:4)

And it is Christ who has redeemed us, bought us back from the bondage of sin and death, so that we too may receive the blessings promised through Abraham to all the nations: “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” (Galatians 3:14)

An article from the Institute for Creation Research (icr.org) said, “Jacob’s ‘angel’ of redemption was none other than the second person of the Godhead, before He became incarnate as Son of man, in the person of Jesus Christ. He is now, indeed, our brother, our kinsman, for He was “made like unto His brethren” (Hebrews 2:17) and then paid the awful price to deliver us from sin’s bondage, thereby obtaining “eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12). “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, . . . But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (I Peter 1:18,19).“

It always comes back to Jesus! He is the glory of God, the One for Whom and through Whom all things were created and are held together. As I go through life, I hope and pray that, regardless of my circumstances, I will be able to give thanks and praise God for His tender mercies and His redemption through His Son. AMEN!

God Sent Me Ahead Of You

Genesis 43-45

But the men were afraid because they were taken to Joseph’s house. They said, “We have been brought here because of the silver that was returned in our bags the first time. They intend to overpower us, seize us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys.” So they approached Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the doorway of the house.

They said, “My lord, we really did come down here the first time only to buy food. When we came to the place where we lodged for the night and opened our bags of grain, each one’s silver was at the top of his bag! It was the full amount of our silver, and we have brought it back with us. We have brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in the bags.”

Then the steward said, “May you be well. Don’t be afraid. Your God and the God of your father must have put treasure in your bags. I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them. The steward brought the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet, and got feed for their donkeys. Since the men had heard that they were going to eat a meal there, they prepared their gift for Joseph’s arrival at noon. When Joseph came home, they brought him the gift they had carried into the house, and they bowed to the ground before him.

He asked if they were well, and he said, “How is your elderly father that you told me about? Is he still alive?”

They answered, “Your servant our father is well. He is still alive.” And they knelt low and paid homage to him.

When he looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother that you told me about?” Then he said, “May God be gracious to you, my son.” Joseph hurried out because he was overcome with emotion for his brother, and he was about to weep. He went into an inner room and wept there. Then he washed his face and came out. Regaining his composure, he said, “Serve the meal.”
Genesis 43:18-31

Joseph could no longer keep his composure in front of all his attendants, so he called out, “Send everyone away from me!” No one was with him when he revealed his identity to his brothers. But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and also Pharaoh’s household heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But they could not answer him because they were terrified in his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please, come near me,” and they came near. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt. And now don’t be grieved or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting. God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Genesis 45:1-8

This passage again reminds me of both the integrity of Joseph as well as his closeness with the LORD. Joseph did not just see the small brushstrokes of his circumstances; he viewed it all through the lens of God’s greater masterpiece at work. I can’t help but think that Joseph trusted that one day the dreams of his youth would be fulfilled – that his brothers would bow down before him and he would be reunited with his family. Chapter 43 notes two times where his brothers bow down before him – representative of his two dreams. In those years away from his brothers how he must have played out that moment. Perhaps he would be harsh and dismissive (which he was), perhaps he would teach them a lesson (which he did), but ultimately his eventual response to them was one of mercy, graciousness, forgiveness, and unconditional love – despite all the wrong they had committed against him. Not only does he extend mercy, he pleads with them not to be angry or ashamed, because it was God Who had send him ahead of them to preserve life.

Spurgeon said, “How wonderfully those two things meet in practical harmony,—the free will of man and the predestination of God! Man acts just as freely and just as guiltily as if there were no predestination whatever; and God ordains, arranges, supervises, and over-rules, just as accurately as if there were no free will in the universe. There are some purblind people who only believe one or other of these two truths; yet they are both true, and the one is as true as the other. I believe that much of the theology which is tinged with free will is true, and I know that the teaching which fully proclaims electing love and sovereign grace is also true; and you may find much of both these truths in the Scriptures. The fault lies in trying to compress all truth under either of those two heads. These men were verily guilty for selling their brother, yet God was verily wise in permitting him to be sold. The inference which Joseph draws from their misconduct is, of course, an inference of love. Love may not be always logical, but it is sweetly consoling, as it must have been in this case.”

This conundrum of free will vs divine predestination will always be beyond perplexing. Yet there is peace in knowing that God is ultimately in control and that His plans will not be thwarted. Though sin abounds, His grace abounds even more (Romans 5:20). No sin, no mistake, no global event can ever stop the plans and purposes of God, so though I may not understand, though I may not be able to see past the small brushstrokes at the broader picture, I know God is at work. And I can trust even more, because He has already sent His Son ahead of me to preserve my life. AMEN!

So That We Will Live And Not Die

Genesis 40-42

Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph left Pharaoh’s presence and traveled throughout the land of Egypt.

During the seven years of abundance the land produced outstanding harvests. Joseph gathered all the excess food in the land of Egypt during the seven years and put it in the cities. He put the food in every city from the fields around it. So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance—like the sand of the sea—that he stopped measuring it because it was beyond measure.

Two sons were born to Joseph before the years of famine arrived. Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest at On, bore them to him. Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh and said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and my whole family.” And the second son he named Ephraim and said, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

Then the seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in every land, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food. When the whole land of Egypt was stricken with famine, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh told all Egypt, “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.” Now the famine had spread across the whole region, so Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Every land came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, for the famine was severe in every land.
Genesis 41:46-57

When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you keep looking at each other? Listen,” he went on, “I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us so that we will live and not die.” So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he thought, “Something might happen to him.”

The sons of Israel were among those who came to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. Joseph was in charge of the country; he sold grain to all its people. His brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground. When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them.

“Where do you come from?” he asked.

“From the land of Canaan to buy food,” they replied.

Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. 
…
On the third day Joseph said to them, “I fear God—do this and you will live. If you are honest, let one of you be confined to the guardhouse, while the rest of you go and take grain to relieve the hunger of your households. Bring your youngest brother to me so that your words can be confirmed; then you won’t die.” And they consented to this.
Genesis 42:1-8 & 18-20

Joseph has become one of my favorite characters. Every time I read his account, I see pictures of Jesus. One of my favorite readings through his story was last January, and seeing the connection between Joseph, Jesus, the Jews, and the Gentiles. I thought I’d gleaned just about every little shadow that pointed to Jesus from these passages, and then I came across the words of Jacob that really stuck out to me: “I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us so that we will live and not die.” This reminded me of Jesus’ words in John 6:

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.
…
“Truly I tell you, anyone who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
…
“Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your ancestors ate—and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Just as Jacob and his sons had to go to Joseph in Egypt to get food so that they may live and not die, we must come to Jesus to have true life. His mercy and grace are more abundant than the storehouses of Egypt, more vast than the sand on the seashore, completely beyond measure! It was not until they fully recognized and embraced Joseph that they truly received the abundance and life that brought joy and restoration to their family. When we fully embrace Christ as our Savior, when we feast on Him, we experience the joy and abundance and eternal hope of life with Him that He has promised.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Among all the kinds of literal food and drink there is no food that is worthy to be called ‘true food’, or any drink that is worthy to be called ‘true drink’. But the doctrine of the incarnation of Christ, which is expressed by His flesh, is food to our souls, and the great truth of the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ, which is expressed by His blood, is the most nourishing cordial to our hearts.”

I wonder if these are the types of things that perhaps Jesus pointed out to His disciples after His resurrection, where, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures,” and “he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” (Luke 24 :27 & 45) I love finding these tiny, yet significant shadows of Christ as I read through the Old Testament! It will never get old! (see what I did there?)

LORD, thank You that Your word is so amazing, so wonderful, so full of pictures of the great lengths You went to to reconcile us to Yourself! I love Your Word and I love seeing the Gospel in every story! May the Gospel be as evident in my life as it is in the scriptures and may others see Jesus in me. AMEN!