The Joy of Glory

Discovering endless joy in the boundless glory of God…

Tag: Devotional

March 30, 2014

Lent Devotional: Job 16-17

Job 16-17 (click here)
My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness, 17 although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. 18 O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. 19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. (Job 16:16-19)

Reflection
Job is no stoic! Often, when we read the opening two chapters and see Job’s response to his immense suffering, we ignore how he tears his robe and shaves his head, we only see his worship and conclude that he must not “feel” things like we do in order to be able to respond like that.

False.

Job weeps. He weeps continuously… until his face is swollen and red from all his tears. His eyes have sunk into dark circles from sleeplessness and sickness. This man has experienced the deepest pain and has not bottled it up. He is broken and it is obvious… and that is ok.

All too often we think we need to “have it all together,” but brokenness, tears, grief… all of these things are right and good expressions of pain. Sure, there is a way to express grief that does not honor God (Job will eventually do that too and need to repent), but that does not mean that grief itself is sinful… far from it!

We are a people who weep and hurt and cry with one another. We are a people who mourn! The difference is that we do not mourn as if there is no hope! Even amidst his weeping and deep darkness Job has hope… hope that there is a witness in heaven who can testify on his behalf… hope that God himself will vindicate him before God. Job doesn’t know how that works (we do… through Christ), but he knows God is good and so he hopes in him.

We weep… but we also hope.


*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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March 29, 2014

Lent Devotional: Job 15

Job 15 (click here)
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: 2 “Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind? 3 Should he argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which he can do no good? (Job 15:1-3)

Reflection
Eliphaz begins round two of this debate over Job’s condition by throwing caution to the wind and outright questioning Job’s character. It’s almost as if he has not even been listening to Job. As soon as Job claimed to be innocent of any wrongdoing, Eliphaz’s ears closed and his mind kicked into gear formulating a response. This type of “listening” is not rooted in a desire to offer comfort, but in a cockiness that desires to prove its own correctness!

Job’s words are “windy knowledge” and “unprofitable talk” to Eliphaz! And this assessment is not based on actually thinking Job’s words through, but on the simple fact that they are at odd’s with Eliphaz’s own words.

How often do we “listen” to people this way. We come into their situation knowing all the answers to what they should do, how they should react, or the way in which they should go forward…and as a result, we do not listen to anything they have to say unless they are agreeing with what we have already decided is right. Such an approach cannot ultimately bring comfort.

Job needs friends that will listen to him, sit with him, cry with him, and wrestle through difficult questions with him. Many things they have to say are true, but misapplied. Many things they have to say are true, but inappropriate to speak to the bereaved man as he sits in ashes scraping his boils. Job is not in need of solutions right now (which is what they are offering)… he is in need of a safe place to speak and be heard.

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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March 28, 2014

Lent Devotional: Job 13-14

Job 13-14 (click here)
Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face. (Job 13:15)

For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. (Job 14:7)

But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he? (Job 14:10)

Reflection
Job wants his day in court! He wants to stand before God and argue his case. Have you ever desired the same thing? Yet, even though Job feels wronged in his current suffering, he does not abandon his hope in God. In fact, even if God should bring his death… Job says he will still hope in God. Why?

It is because Job knows that God is sovereignly in control… that is a truth he expresses again and again. Further, Job never lets go of his belief that God is ultimately good. Even amidst all his pain and confusion… even as he would like to share his thoughts with God and argue his case… even through all of that, Job still believes that God is good. Therefore, even if God should bring death, Job hopes in him as the only one who has the power over all his suffering. God is the only one that can redeem and vindicate Job… even beyond the grave.

Like a tree that is cut down, there is still hope that it will sprout again. In that proverb, Job speaks more than he knows or understands. He can see hope for the tree, but not for himself. If he is cut down (dies), then he can no longer be vindicated this side of the grave… or can he?

Job is lamenting how hopeless his situation feels… that even a cut down tree has more hope than he… but even Job knows this is not reality… it just feels like reality. He will later express a deeper truth, namely, that God can redeem him beyond any hopelessness. God can vindicate him, even beyond the grave. Job has just as much hope as the cut down tree…actually…he has more hope. You have more hope! For a tree that is cut down may sprout again, but to what end?… to be cut down again and again and again? Yet, this is not our fate! In Christ, we have the promise that though we may be cut down by death we shall be raised unto eternal life (1 Cor 15)!

For this reason, I can say… I can even sing with joy… though he slay me, I will hope in him!

*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

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