The Joy of Glory

Discovering endless joy in the boundless glory of God…

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April 14, 2014

Lent Devotional: Job 36-37

Job 36-37 (click here)
Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf. 3 I will get my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my Maker. 4 For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you. (Job 36:2-4)

Reflection
Elihu claims to speak on behalf of God. We all do this from time to time. If we ever try to teach someone anything about God then we are, in a way, claiming to speak on God’s behalf. We have been commissioned to do this very thing! We are ambassadors representatives of the Lord, and we are to proclaim him to the world.

Yet…teaching people about the Lord is a mission that should be approached with humility, holy fear, and much trembling.

James 3:1 warns, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” As someone who regularly teaches and preaches, warnings like this often cause me to lie awake at night, thinking back through everything I’ve taught…searching to see if I can find any error in need of correction.

Elihu has a good goal that we also should seek… he wants to ascribe righteousness to his Maker. He wants to proclaim the glory of God and show his greatness to the world! Our heart should beat with this kind of passion and our lips should proclaim it! Yet, Elihu’s approach is anything but humble…he claims to be perfect in knowledge…a claim that can be made by God alone.

Don’t get me wrong… we should teach truth with conviction and confidence. Uncertainty is not the same thing as humility. The difference in an arrogant or humble approach to teaching the truth about God is found in the source of our confidence. Elihu’s confidence is in himself and his own knowledge. Our confidence needs to be in Christ and his Word.

We humbly, confidently teach people the truth about Christ on the basis of his Word…striving to be as faithful as possible to what he has said about himself.

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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April 13, 2014

Lent Devotional: Job 34-35

Job 34-35 (click here)
Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. (Job 34:10)

Reflection
Is it ever “right” to accuse God of wrong? Is it ok for us to be angry with God?

We must answer these questions carefully and not be overly simplistic. Scripture tells us that God is never in the wrong, he never acts wickedly, he never sins, etc. Therefore, it IS sin to accuse God or be angry with him. There is no such thing as justified anger at God, for he never does anything wrong…he never does anything worthy of our wrath.

Yet…as soon as I say that, people begin to get upset because there are many times in their life they have “felt” wronged by God. Perhaps you have felt this way. Anger towards the Lord has festered in your heart. Are we just supposed to suppress that anger and put on a hypocritical face of love towards the Lord? No.

If we are angry with God, we should be honest about it. He knows anyway. Confess it, pray for comfort, and help… and eventually… repent. He is faithful and just to forgive. When we sin by being angry with the Lord, we don’t sin again by hypocritically hiding that anger.

Ultimately, we need to see that our anger is pointed in the wrong direction. Typically when we are angry at the Lord, it IS because some injustice has taken place, but such injustice should make us angry at sin, death, and Satan! We should not be angry with the only solution to those problems! The Lord is the solution! He has promised to deal, in a real/final way, with sin, death, and Satan. When we are angered by injustices, let us not aim that anger at the only one who has promised to bring us the justice we desire.

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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April 12, 2014

Lent Devotional: Job 32-33

Job 32-33 (click here)
So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. 2 Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God. 3 He burned with anger also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong. 4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he. 5 And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, he burned with anger. (Job 32:1-5)

Reflection
Finally… Job’s three “friends” give up. However, before we can rejoice that this seemingly endless debate has come to an end, a fourth “friend” enters the picture. Here comes Elihu. He may be the strangest character in the whole book.

Elihu comes out of nowhere. He has not been mentioned up to this point and, after his long speeches end, he will not be mentioned again. No one even acknowledges anything he has to say! No one affirms his words, but no one denies his words. Even when God finally speaks he will ignore this young man. Who is this and why is he even in the story?

I think Elihu is there for us. Don’t get me wrong, I believe he is a real person and is really a part of this story, but I think he is there for all the readers of the story. Like us, he has been sitting back and simply listening. Like us, he has grown weary with all this talk. Like us, he has a few things of his own he would like to say. Like us, he has been willing to listen because, surely, these other men were wiser than he.

Right about the time Elihu can’t stand to be silent anymore is also right about the time we want to start screaming at Job and his “friends.” We want to rebuke everybody and that is exactly what Elihu does… but it does nothing. Elihu’s voice is not the one that Job or his friends need… they need to hear from God. Our voice is not the one that Job or his friends need… they need to hear from God.

God can and does speak through his people, but all too often we want to jump into situations and speak our own wisdom. People don’t need our wisdom… they need a word from God. Elihu is the final person that proves all human wisdom falls short… all our wisdom falls short. The only one left to speak is the only one that Job (and us) needs to hear speak… God.

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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