Job 4-7 With Friends Like This ...

The first of three friends listens to Job’s complaints and then responds.  Eliphaz bases his entire theology on his experiences and on a dream he once had in which a spirit scared him.  He basically believes that punishment and hard times are a result of God’s chastening of sin in one’s life.  His bedside manner is appalling.

 

My commentary had a good observation:  In 5:17-27, Eliphaz is saying, “Confess your sins and God will restore all that you have lost.”  In other words, bargain with God.  “But this is Satan’s philosophy said in different words!  ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? … Skin for skin!  Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.”

 

Job knew he hadn’t sinned and maintained his integrity as he responded.  He felt targeted by God for no reason.  Of course, he couldn’t see the reason that we are given in chapter 1 as we are given a glimpse into the throne room of heaven.  Job needed illumination, not accusation.  He wanted to know what God was doing.  Job even said in 7:20-21, “If I have sinned, then forgive me.  Why should I be a burden to You and to myself.”  My commentary said this wasn’t a confession of sin, but an opportunity for God to deal with areas in Job’s life that he knew nothing about.

 

The entire problem here came from a limited perspective.  “The friends’ theology was not vital and vibrant but dead and rigid, and the God they tried to defend was small enough to be understood and explained,” my commentary said.

 

Job will learn that God was revealing more of Himself through these experiences.  But it’s hard to see the forest for the trees when we’re in distress.

 

Father, help me to know how little I do know about You when I don’t understand.  Help me to trust Your love for me in those times.  When I can’t feel You hand, help me to trust Your heart.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 2-3 Job Knows

God kind of “rubs it in” to Satan that Job didn’t cave with all the calamities Satan had brought upon him.  This just stokes Satan up for another round.  Evidently, God is confident in how Job will fare and gives Satan permission to inflict him with physical suffering but not death.  Job’s wife can’t stand it all and begs Job to just curse God so his misery will end in death.  She is unwittingly being used by the tempter to get Job to do the one thing God forbade Satan to do.  Job answered, “Should we take only good things from God and not trouble?”  Amazing!

 

His three friends arrived hardly recognized him.  For seven days they simply sat with him and shared his misery – what good friends should do.  Job finally spoke, not wishing for death, but in a very Jewish way cursing the day of his birth.  It’s almost as if he believes that in doing so, God might go back in time and undo the event itself.

 

Job asked a lot of “why” questions.  My commentary noted:  “There is nothing wrong with asking why, as long as we don’t get the idea that God owes us an answer.  Even our Lord asked, “Why have You forsaken Me?”  But if the Lord did tell us why things happen as they do, would that ease our pain or heal our broken hearts? … We live on promises, not explanations; so we shouldn’t spend too much time asking God why.”

 

I also read, “In times of severe testing, our first question must not be, “How can I get out of this?” but “What can I get out of this?” … Faith is living without scheming.  It is obeying God in spite of feelings, circumstances, or consequences, knowing that He is working out His perfect plan in His way and in His time.  The two things Job would not give up were his faith in God and his integrity.”

 

One final thing I noted, in verses 25-26, Job saying, “Everything I feared and dreaded has happened to me.  I have no peace or quietness.  I have no rest, only trouble.”  Job feared and dreaded at some point in his life.  Did Satan read his thoughts and produce these very things to torment him?  If so, then it would be all the better for us to have no fear of things in this life because we know God is in complete control.

 

Father, just yesterday I was reflecting over events at work over the previous two years.  You assured me at that time that You had it all under control, so I believed you and didn’t fret over it.  I’ve lived on promises and I’ve watched as You’ve worked to bring about their fruition.  How differently those years have played out without fear than they could have.  How great it has been to be assured that You are at the helm, Your hands steady on the wheel, guiding us through it all.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Thank you for what You’ve shown me.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 1 -- Seeing The Truth

My commentary brought out something really important:  As God and Satan were discussing Job in heaven, “God found no fault with Job, but Satan did … The word ‘Satan’ means ‘adversary, one who opposes the law.’  This is a courtroom scene, and God and Satan each deliver different verdicts about Job.  As you study this book, keep in mind that God said, ‘Not Guilty!’ … But Satan said, ‘Guilty!’ because he is the accuser of God’s people and finds nothing good in them.  Satan’s accusation against Job was really an attack on God … he was saying ‘The only reason Job fears You is because You pay him to do it… You are not a God worthy of worship!  You have to pay people to honor You.’ “

 

After Job lost everything, he looked back, remembering that he’d had nothing at birth.  He looked forward, knowing that he’d take nothing with him in death.  Finally, he looked up … “Instead of cursing God, as Satan said Job would do, Job blessed the Lord!  Anybody can say, “The Lord gave” or “The Lord has taken away”, but it takes real faith to say in the midst of sorrow and suffering, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

 

Satan is absolutely rotten.  Miserable himself, he tries to get us to be miserable with him.  That seems to be the only thing he takes joy in!  Yet he tries his very best to make us think that God is cheating us out of our joy with His rules.  Why do we listen to such drivel?  The only reason would seem to be that he sows doubt in our hearts about just how much God really loves us.  We don’t have to be a sucker for that line, for Jesus stretched out His arms on the cross and answered, “This much!”  And He died for us.

 

Father, this whole chapter was a battle in the heavenlies that You could win with both hands tied behind Your back.  As my commentary said, the fundamental reason for Job’s suffering was to silence the blasphemous accusations of Satan and prove that a man would honor God even though he had lost everything.  Satan needed to learn that You are a God worthy of man’s worship.  You knew Job’s heart, and it wasn’t mean of You to single him out for attack – You actually honored him by selecting him.  Help me to not fall for Satan’s lies.  Remind me that in Christ You call me “not guilty”.  Help me to respond in a manner worth of such grace!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Timothy 4 -- Important Words

“Preach the Good News.  Be ready at all times, and tell the people what they need to do.  Tell them when they are wrong.  Encourage them with great patience and careful teaching … Control yourself at all times, accept troubles, do the work of telling the Good News, and complete all the duties of a servant of God.”  Paul was giving Timothy his final message.  It was more than a pep talk.  It was a word from God.

 

The world would read this and scream that no self-righteous preacher was going to tell them what to do!  But people have to hear or they won’t know.  My commentary said, “A preacher should afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted.  If there is conviction but no remedy, we add to people’s burdens.  And if we encourage those who ought to be rebuked, WE ARE ASSISTING THEM TO SIN.”

 

Paul had told Timothy to be ready at all times.  I loved what I found in my commentary:  “It is easy to make excuses [for not speaking about the Gospel] when we ought to be making opportunities.”

 

It’s easy to not want to make people uncomfortable, but it’s discomfort that moves us.  Once in a management seminar, I was told that it was easy to teach an elephant to tap-dance.  You simply have to find a sharp stick and start poking!  God provides the sharp stick of His word and the opportunities for us to move people to a point where He can work in their lives.

 

Father, let me never miss an opportunity that You have engineered to change a life simply because I might be fearful of what that person or others might say.  Let me worry less about my own temporary discomfort and more about their eternal discomfort.  Finally, remind me often of the words You gave Timothy here – to control MYSELF at all times, to accept troubles, to do the work of telling the Good News, and to complete all of my duties as a servant of God.  Let my life be an offering to You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Timothy 3 -- Unable To Think Straight

It’s hard to remember as we read these first verses that Paul is talking about people who seem to be religious:  They love themselves; they love money; they brag; they’re proud; they say evil things against others; they don’t obey their parents or act thankful toward them.  They even refuse to be the kind of people God wants.  They won’t love others; they refuse to forgive; they gossip; and they practice no self-control.  They’re cruel and hate what’s good; they turn against their friends.  They do foolish things without thinking.  They’re conceited and love pleasure more than God.

 

The problem, Paul says, is that their thinking has been ruined.  They are fooling themselves.

 

Last night I saw a note I’d written in my Bible in Ephesians 4 that said:  “Lost people don’t think the way we do because they can’t.”  A person of the world would look at Paul’s list and say, “So what??”  That’s because they walk in spiritual and moral callousness.  It takes the grace of a loving God to reach under the callousness to illuminate the fact that they’ve bought into a lie from Satan.  Until that happens, we’re all so sold on the lie that what matters most is our own pleasure and happiness.  We aren’t able to see through our ruined thinking.

 

Father, I was so absolutely wrong-headed and so sure I was right that I know now how absolutely true Your words are here.  I was sincere in my beliefs, but I was sincerely wrong.  That’s how badly Satan can blind us when we ever begin to doubt Your love for us.  Thank You for opening my eyes and for correcting my thinking.  Do so for others I love, too, Father.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Timothy 2 -- Separated, Not Isolated

“Everyone who wants to belong to the Lord must stop doing wrong … All who make themselves clean from evil will be used for special purposes.  They will be made holy, useful to the Master, ready to do any good work.  But run away from the evil young people like to do.”

 

My commentary noted the importance of staying involved in the world but remaining holy, separated from everything that would defile us.  “This includes the sins of the flesh as well … True Biblical separation is balanced:  we flee sin, but we follow after righteousness.  If we are not balanced, then we will be isolated instead of separated … It is sad when true believers are isolated because of a false view of separation.”

 

I think this goes back to “in the world but not of the world.”  We lose our effectiveness if we are not out among unbelievers, helping to point them to Christ.  Isolation won’t get the job done.  We balance all of this by fellowship, and we can use fellowship to draw in unbelievers, showing them particularly that they aren’t facing a life of isolation by becoming believers.

 

Father, I’ve felt isolation before – when I pulled myself away from my former worldly life in order to not be tempted by what my friends were doing.  But thankfully You brought me alongside friends who were believers, who You used to grow me spiritually.  Help me to do the same for others.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Timothy 1 -- UnderArmour's Motto

Timothy was far away from his mentor, Paul.  “He was timid ... and was tempted to let other people take advantage of him and not assert his authority as pastor,” my commentary said of Timothy.

 

Paul, writing from a Roman prison and knowing that his death sentence would soon be carried out, was writing to fan the spiritual flame in Timothy before that time.  “God did not give us a spirit that makes us afraid but a spirit of power and love and self-control.”

 

Paul also addressed Timothy’s natural shyness, saying, “I am not ashamed because I know Jesus.” 

 

The church at Ephesus had abandoned Paul while he’d been imprisoned, but Timothy hadn’t.  Paul wanted to make sure that Timothy stayed the course.  So he added, “Protect the truth that you were given; protect it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.”

 

I think Paul’s words are just as important to us today.  The Holy Spirit resides IN our hearts, all the time.  Even so, we can make up our minds to willfully sin.  When we do, we are making a choice for that spirit that makes us afraid (which comes not from God but from Satan) rather than that spirit of power and love and self-control.  We are choosing fear rather than power!  Sin follows stupidity.

 

Father, I too know Jesus.  I too have been given that spirit of power and love and self-control.  When I’m tempted to sin, remind me of that.  Fan the flame of self-control particularly, Father, with that spirit of power.  Use them to protect the truth I’ve been given, for my body is Your temple.  Protect this house.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford