The Joy of Glory

Discovering endless joy in the boundless glory of God…

Category: View All

March 26, 2014

Lent Devotional: Job 11

Job 11 (click here)
If you prepare your heart, you will stretch out your hands toward him. 14 If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and let not injustice dwell in your tents. 15 Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish; you will be secure and will not fear. 16 You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away. (Job 11:13-16)

Reflection
Zophar solution to Job’s plight is pretty simple…do right and good things will happen…continue to do wrong and things won’t work out so well. This is the heart of prosperity theology and it is so dangerous for it destroys any relationship of faith that one might share with the Lord.

Prosperity theology treats God like “the great vending machine in the sky.” If you put in the right change you can pick your heavenly “snack.” So…put in the right deeds of prayer, church attendance, Bible reading, and some general “niceness” and then pick your blessings. This removes any semblance of a real relationship, turns everything into something more akin to business transactions.

According to Zophar, Job isn’t using the right currency. He has obviously sinned and is being punished. If he’ll simply swap back to the right money via repentance, he’ll get back anything he wants and all this misery will be forgotten. The irony is that if Job actually pursued this type of action, it would prove Satan’s original point in chapters 1-2, namely, that Job doesn’t really love God, but just God’s gifts and is willing to do anything (even repent when he doesn’t need to) in order to get the gifts back.

Unknowingly, Zophar is helping us look deeper at the heart of Job (both the person and the book). Job is showing us that the real value in a relationship with God is not the blessings, but simply knowing and being known by God himself. Do we treasure God himself? Do we treasure him more than the gifts of possessions, family, and health?

May the only “prosperity” in our Gospel be the infinitely prosperous treasure of knowing God in Christ Jesus!

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Leave a comment
March 24, 2014

Lent Devotional: Job 8

Job 8 (click here)
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: 2 “How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind? 3 Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? 4 If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.” (Job 8:1-4)

Reflection
Bildad’s problem is that he is right! God does not pervert justice! The Almighty does not pervert the right! Bildad’s theology is correct…but he makes the grave mistake of assuming that he can see the whole picture of what is going on with Job and that leads him to horribly, wrongly apply his right beliefs!

Bildad cannot imagine a universe beyond what he can see…a world in which God has more information and wisdom than he does. In his mind Job’s suffering must be direct punishment for some sin or that would make God unjust. This leads him to say foolish things to his suffering friend…such as, “Your kids must have sinned and received what they deserved!”

Could a worse thing be said to this bereaved father? All too often, we have correct beliefs that lead us to say foolish things amidst suffering because we believe we have the full picture when we simply do not. We must always remember there is a heavenly perspective that goes beyond us and we cannot possibly know all that God is doing in any given situation.

Before we attempt to advise anyone who is suffering, we would do well to recall Paul’s words in Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Leave a comment
March 22, 2014

Lent Devotional: Job 4-5

Job 4-5 (click here)
Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? 8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. (Job 4:7-8)

Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. 18 For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal. (Job 5:17-18)

Reflection
Flat, overly-simplified theology is dangerous. The world is complex, we are complex, situations are complex…things are not as simple as they seem. All too often we take something that is true and apply it in a very flat/rigid manner that Scripture simply will not allow.

This is the fault of Eliphaz (and the rest of Job’s friends). The basic truth he latches onto is that God punishes the wicked and upholds the righteous. We know that to be true, but the way in which that truth plays out in life is very complex. Eliphaz attempts to apply it in a very flat, overly-simplified way. Job is suffering…God punishes the wicked…therefore Job must have done something wrong and is being punished as a result.

Eliphaz offers an equally simple solution. Job needs to repent and God will bind up his wounds and heal him…restore him. The situation seems very cut and dry. Yet, we know that Job is not suffering as a result of sin. There is no punishment present. This is innocent suffering. Eliphaz has no category for that.

Innocent suffering does not undo the truth that God punishes the wicked and upholds the righteous…for God will uphold his justice, but in his time and his way. He works from an eternal perspective that we simply cannot see.

This is why we, like Job, must walk by faith…trusting God. When it comes to our pain and the pain of others…we must avoid simple diagnoses and prescriptions.  Job knows that he does not “deserve” his present suffering. God must be doing something other than “punishing” him. God must have a deeper purpose, for he does not allow any of our pain to be meaningless no matter how senseless it feels to us (2 Cor 4:17).


*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Leave a comment