Wilderness Wonderings

Wilderness Wonderings

Job

The Subtle Seduction of Pride

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“After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.” (Job 3:1)

There is a subtle difference between mourning and self-pity. Whereas mourning is an emotional response to loss, when we wallow in our mourning for too long, it can easily and subtly devolve into self-pity. Self-pity is the subtlest and I dare say the most egregious manifestation of pride that we can experience because the focus of our heart turns inward upon ourselves and our own perceived merits or elevated injustices.

If you recall in Job 2:13, as Job’s friends sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, nobody spoke a word to him. There was silence within the suffering, but a silence that brought comfort. But the silence was broken when “Job opened his mouth.” He didn’t open his heart to receive comfort. He didn’t open his mind to receive instruction. He opened his mouth to “curse the day of his birth.” Not only did he curse the day of his birth, but he cursed the night of his own conception.

In the third chapter of Job, our protagonist uses the first person pronoun 16 times over 26 verses. He only mentions the Lord God Adonai twice, and both times in a self-centered, almost accusative manner, as if God made a mistake in creating him. In essence Job’s eyes and heart moved from blessing God in the midst of his suffering to cursing Him for the sovereign act of creation.

Just as humility is the lens through which we see ourselves and God for who we really are, pride is the lens that blinds and distorts our vision of reality. When our circumstances do not line up with our vision, too often our initial response is to either rebuke / blame Satan or wallow in self-pity instead of opening our hearts and asking God “What will you have me learn from this?” Two principles we should be reminded of are these:

  1. Satan can do nothing to us unless God first permits it. Remember, Satan could do nothing to Job at all until God granted His sovereign permission. So in effect, when we rebuke or blame Satan for our circumstances, we are ultimately accusing God rather than drawing closer to His hand of comfort and rejecting His test of our faithfulness.
  2. We forget that Satan has no influence over us other than what we allow. Satan’s goal is the same as it has always been from the beginning – to separate us from our relationship with our Creator. He will tempt us in many different ways, but ultimately it is his knowledge of our hearts that will determine how he will succeed. Dr. Gary Rosberg once remarked “The enemy will lie in wait for years just to find a small weakness in your armor.” And the most subtle of weaknesses that we all have is pride. It was the sin of pride that was stoked in the Garden with the original sin. It is the sin of pride that ultimately leads to Job’s own downfall.

Instead of wallowing in defeat, live in victory. Sing from the victory that is already won upon the cross of Calvary. The simplicity of the Christian life and the rallying cry to adjust our vision is echoed by the prophet Micah: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8 ESV) To paraphrase in my own feeble words: “Obey God’s Word, treat people with loving kindness, and live in a right relationship with the Lord God Adonai.”

Nowhere in God’s Word does He ever say to live “under the circumstances.” In fact, He is always encouraging us to rise above our circumstances and look to Him for guidance and strength. In the words of the apostle Paul: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'[Psalm 44:22] No, in all these things we are more than conquerers THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US.” (Romans 8:35-37)

Please listen closely to the words of the attached song from Austin Stone Worship “Singing in the Victory”:

“I will not be anxious, Jesus, You are near
The Peace of God surrounding me, and casting out all fears
The hand that holds the heavens, is the mighty hand that saves
The voice that calms the stormy seas
Is calling me by name
I’m singing in the victory, the victory of the cross
I’m resting in the shadow, of Your redeeming love
I’m standing on the promise, the promise of new life
‘Cause I am Yours forever, and Jesus, You are mine
Oh Jesus, You are mine”

The Comfort of Friends

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“Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.” (Job 2:11-13)

Tragedy and suffering are part of life, but does not have to be a way of life. All of us at one time or another have experienced some form of suffering or trajedy that has left us broken, confused, or in mourning. I can account numerous events in my life that have left me shaking my head in disbelief, fear, and sadness. It is in these moments that God will often send a friend as a source of comfort and strength to keep your head held high and your feet on the road. In my own life, one such friend that I have been able to rely on is Edwin.

Edwin and I met in college as partners on our collegiate debate team. Edwin was recruited to our debate team because of his outstanding individual public speaking skills. To this day 25 years later, I still remember one of his speeches that was in effect a eulogy to his beloved grandmother. I guarantee you there wasn’t a dry eye in the room has her “Baby” proudly extolled her virtues for us all. During that season, there were times when we both encountered frustration and disappointment with our individual performances in competition. It was in these times that we both would point each other to our mutual faith to recenter our focus, and set our minds on the task at hand.
Truth be told there were also times that we would grow frustrated with each other and eventually for a time, we actually parted ways – or more appropriately I ran away because of other issues in my own life. Several years later we reconnected and Edwin’s outpouring of grace was astounding and it was as if we had never been apart. Over the more recent years, while we live half a continent apart, Edwin and I have always found a way to reach out to one another at times when we have needed it most.

This past week, my family gathered to lay my grandfather to rest as he entered into the arms of Jesus for eternity. It was no surprise that the night before the funeral service, I received a phone call from this brother offering me love, support, and encouragement. And it wasn’t anything in particular that he said to me during that brief call that was all that important as it was the simple act of picking up the phone and calling. And that was the source of comfort in this time of mourning.

In the case of Job, his friends “sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.” Had they continued to keep their mutual mouths closed, this would have been all that was necessary to keep Job at peace. As Job cried out in mourning, his friends felt the need to respond – and each response was progressively worse the previous as they each ultimately began to speak judgement to upon Job for his circumstances. Eliphaz declares that Job must have committed sin worthy of God’s judgement. Bildad accuses Job of being unrepentent. And Zophar speaks the worst condemnation of all by declaring that Job deserved worse. Each speaking out of their own self-righteousness and ultimately driving Job to arrogantly and accusatively question the sovereignty of God.

The lesson here is that comfort is not found in the words we speak, but rather in the presence we seek. There is peace in the proximity of those whom we know care and express their love by simply being there in the midst of trial. It is when we open our mouths to try to inject our own feeble wisdom into God’s design that things go awry and comfort dissipates into discontent.

Remember, the whole point of the trials that Job experienced was to test his faithfulness – a trial that he passed. That is until his trusted friends opened their mouths and led him astray with unwise thinking. There is a fine line between accountability and judgement. Yes, we are called to be accountable to one another to be obedient to God’s Word restore one another to a right relationship with God, but judgement does not seek to restore but rather to separate and punish.

“Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.” (Romans 14:10-13)

Thank you, Edwin, for your faithfulness and kindness – as well as to all who have reached out to our family over the last week as we said goodbye to a beloved father, grandfather, cousin, and friend. You comfort has indeed been felt and your heart has been well received. Blessings to you all.

Hope Through Suffering

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“Then Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.'” (Job 1:9-10)

Conditional faithfulness is one of the purest of oxymorons. If your faithfulness to God is conditional upon His blessings to you, then you have turned Him into nothing more than a wish-granting genie. We reduce Him to an impersonal “force” to be manipulated and used to further our own will. And when we do not get our way, we cry out like a petulant, rebellious child and cast blame.

More often than not, we initially tend to cast blame upon Satan for the negative experiences of our lives. Meanwhile we coyly acknowledging the faithfulness of God, while silently harboring resentment towards Him for allowing such circumstances to occur. All too often, the refrain echoes, “If God is so good, why does He allow suffering to occur in this world.” If we don’t express the words verbally, I would venture to say we easily harbor the resentment deep without our psyche until it eventually corrupts our spirit and quenches the Word of God in our hearts. Eventually it becomes evident in our actions as we withdraw from the body of believers and ultimately from God Himself. And that is what Satan is wagering upon.

The apostle Paul was intimately familiar with suffering. Many times through his missionary journey’s he was assaulted, beaten, cast into prison, shipwrecked, and all forms of other maladies until he was ultimately beheaded in Rome for his faithfulness. But it is through these trials and tribulations he was able to write:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)

We do not always know why suffering exists in this world. Each situation is different. For some, the simple reality is that we have brought suffering upon ourselves through our own sin (Job 5:17). For others, it is God testing our faithfulness in an effort to develop and grow the fruit of the Spirit in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23). Still other situations are God’s way of drawing us closer to Himself so that we might experience His comfort (1 Peter 5:10). “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” (Romans 5:3-4)

Let suffering have its perfect end in hope. Hope is that singular quality that produces life, even in the midst of death. In the words of Christ Himself, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)

The Faithfulness of a Father

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“His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said ‘It may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.’ Thus Job did continually.” (Job 1:4,5 – ESV)

Innumerable studies have been conducted to ascertain the effects of fatherlessness on the growth and development of children to adulthood. Perhaps the most well-known, albeit accidental, observation was demonstrated by an event sponsored by Hallmark. A number of years ago, Hallmark decided to go to a local prison on Mother’s Day and give away free Mother’s Day cards to the prisoners. All of the cards ran out in a matter of minutes. Excited by the response, Hallmark decided to reproduce the event for Father’s Day. The results couldn’t have been more different. Not a single card was taken when offered. Not even one. When asked why, each prisoner expressed grief and anger over the absenteeism or abuse of their father – either as a child, or while in prison, or both.

The lack of parental investment in the life of a child can be devastating. The lack of Godly paternal investment in the life of their child is particularly devastating, with lasting effects that extend far into adulthood. It has been shown to result in repressed or expressed feelings of anger, depression, and resentment. Left unaddressed, these emotions give way to actions such as abuse, criminality, and wantonness – far more so than when the same happens from the mother. For some reason, mothers tend to be more easily forgiven for their shortcomings than fathers.

And rightfully so, because fathers are charged by their Creator with the greater responsibility and burden for protecting and growing the next generation. Too often, too many men shirk this responsibility and all too often the results are destructive. Fortunately for us, we see in Job an example that we can live by:

  1. His children were productive. The fact that each of his children had their own homes and would hold a feast in each of their own homes on a continual, cyclical basis speaks to their own wealth. Contextually, you could extrapolate that their wealth was the result of their work, replicating the example of their father.
  2. His children were bonded together. The relationship shared between his children facilitated a periodic camaraderie that extended to the breaking of bread together on a continual basis. What you may not realize is that it is unusual that their sisters would be invited to these feasts, in light of the historical position of women in society. However, it is likely that this is illustrative of a different perspective of Hebrew society at the time of the writing before the laws of Moses became distorted by patriarchal traditions that lessened the place of women in the home.
  3. Job blessed his children continually. Each feast marked a time for Job to make it a priority to bless his children as they were together, even into adulthood. In fact, it was such a priority that he would make the effort to rise early in the morning to do so.
  4. Job sacrificed for his children. I’ve often heard this passage interpreted to mean that Job’s children were hedonistic, thus requiring sacrifices by proxy on their behalf by the father. However, nowhere in the text is this implied. In fact, the text does imply that Job’s sacrifices were intended to cover any sins that were unknown. Job is seeking to protect his children’s integrity before the living God Adonai.

As we approach this Mother’s Day weekend, it is right that we honor our moms. The number one expressed need that a mother has is the security of her children. One of the greatest, eternal gifts a father can give to his bride is the Godly investment in the life of their children. In so doing, we model God’s investment in His Bride by how He cares for His children and sacrificed Himself for us so that we might have a deep, rich, and growing relationship with Him.

The Value of Character

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“There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people in the east.” (Job 1:1-3)

It is worth noting that in Hebrew writing, the way a person is described is important and the order of which different characteristics are described is equally important, with the most critical traits listed first and then in decreasing importance because this gives a sense of the character’s self-identity. In Biblical writing, it gives a sense of how God views the person in His own eyes.

For Job, there are three character traits that are worth noting:

  1. He was “blameless and upright.” “Blameless” is a reference to his faithfulness to obedience to God’s word. “Upright” means that Job had no need to hang his head in shame, but could walk knowing that he was safe and secure in the hand of God.
  2. He “feared God.” This not only means that he had a healthy respect for God’s law, but He feared the consequences of disobedience to His word. The consequences of a broken relationship with God is the devastating loneliness apart from Him – that gnawing, aching thing that tugs at that soul and grieves the human spirit and can only be satisfied by a repentance and humble submission to Him.
  3. He “turned away from evil.” This implies the deliberate choice to walk in obedience to God’s word as a habit of life. By God’s definition, “evil” is anything that is contrary to God’s commands. In his case, Job made the choice to work in the light of God’s commands.

How do you define your value in the world? Is it in terms of wealth and possession? Size of your family? Level of personal influence? Or is it the strength of your character and faithfulness? If you continue reading the story of Job, you discover that very soon all of his children are killed in a storm, along with all of his possessions lost. He then lost his servants. He lost everything, including his influence as “the greatest of all the people in the east.” By the world’s standards, he was now worthless. But the one thing he did not lose in the midst of his suffering and tragedy – was his character.

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped. And he said ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” (Job 1:20-22)

When things go “wrong” in this life, do we immediately look for someone to blame? Do we blame our political leaders? Do you blame your neighbor? Do you blame “the devil”? Do you shake your fist to the heavens and blame God? While in the course of the story, it is true that Satan did the work that God allowed. It would be natural to blame the devil or even God for allowing the tragedy like it was some sick totalitarian celestial game.

But God will put our faith to the test in order to build our character. “Count it all joy, my brothers, WHEN you meet trails of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4) It’s not a question of IF you will meet trails and suffering in this life; it’s a matter of WHEN. The test is our response. And Job passed the test. Not only did Job mourn the loss of his children, he fell down in worship to the providence of Adonai. As a result, Job is remembered as a man “blameless and upright” who “did not sin or charge God with wrong.”

How do you want to be remembered when your season of trial and suffering has passed? How do you want to be remembered when you life reaches its close? Do you want to be remembered for having a fickle attitude that wavers every time the wind blows? Do you want to be remembered for having great power and influence that can easily be taken away with the wind of natural disaster? Do you want to be remembered for having a large family – even if those family members curse God and live wanton, selfishly hedonistic lives?

Or do you want to be remembered as someone who was faithful? Someone faithful to God, to your spouse, and to your children? A person who faithfully serves those that you do influence? For me, it’s simple. I want to be remembered as a “disciple who Jesus loved…reclining at the table at Jesus’ side.” (John 13:23) And when this life is through, the only words that will make this life worth living are the simple words “well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23)

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