Jump Start # 2782

Job 42:5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eyes see You.”

Job has learned some lessons. Throughout the book of Job, he has been talkative. Long, long speeches. Arguing with his friends. Back and forth verbal jabs, trying to figure out the “whys” of life. Then God speaks. Two chapters filled with questions. God doesn’t explain Himself. He doesn’t tell Job about Satan. He doesn’t promise him that things will turn around and get better. Just questions. And, not deep moral questions, but questions about nature. God is showing Job something with these questions. If you don’t understand these things, how can you understand the deeper things such as Satan’s power, suffering or allowing the wicked to thrive.

By the final chapter of this long book, Job wants to put his hand over his mouth. He’s talked too much and now he is beginning to see things. We are not in the position to question God. He knows what He is doing. He is always right. A lesson our generation would do well to learn. Blaming God, shouting “Why” to God, accusing God comes from hearts that do not understand the Lord. A walk through those two chapters of questions would make most of us be quiet.

All of this leads to our verse today, “I have heard of You by learning…but now my eye sees You.” In many ways, Job is expressing the path of faith that we all take. We begin by being taught things about the Lord and His way. We sit in children’s Bible classes and learn things. We can sing songs that list the books of the Bible and the apostles. We hear sermons about the goodness of God. This is an intellectual faith. It is a faith based upon the word of God. But there’s more.

For some, that is as far as their faith ever gets. And, when challenged, especially in college, that intellectual faith butts up against intellectual skepticism. For many, what faith they had crumbles. They leave the university with a diploma in their hand and no faith in their heart. Their choices and path in life no longer includes God. They outgrew God and left Him in those simple children’s Bible classes long ago.

However, with Job, what he heard and learned, that intellectual faith, transitioned into a personal faith. Now, it was no longer what I had been taught, but what I see. I have heard, but now I know. And, when faith gets to this deeper level, it’s hard to move it, shake it or destroy it.

Job declared, “Now my eye sees You.” Did Job actually see God? Possible, but more likely, having gone through all of those questions God asked him, his eyes opened up. He realized that he was not on equal ground with God. He was no longer talking to one of his friends. He was talking to the Lord. And, through those questions he saw that God was the creator. He saw God’s power in how things came to be. He saw the Lord’s nurture and care for the animals. He saw how God has the whole world in His hands. Job saw nature like he had never seen it before.

And, for you and I this is the journey our faith must travel as well. Unless our faith becomes real and personal, it will remain facts on a page and that page can look a lot like a dictionary, encyclopedia or other book of information. True as they are, but not changing us much. It is when we see with our eyes that faith becomes genuine, real, alive and personal. How does that happen? God is not going to ask us a series of questions.

First, we see God through answered prayers. You have prayed and prayed hard for something and the Lord blessed you with answered prayers. God heard. God answered. God is real. You can sit through a whole quarter of Bible classes studying the ins and the outs of prayer, but nothing beats what you have seen in your own life. You have heard, but now you see with your eyes.

Second, we see God through changed lives. It begins with our own life. Look over the past few years and you’ll see changes. Just as the mirror shows us outward changes, our character reveals inward changes. More patient. More kind. More loving. More thoughtful. More spiritual. Less chasing the rabbits of success and popularity as you once did. Worship has become more meaningful to you. Those hymns seem to touch the very cords of your heart.

But it’s not just in you, it’s in others who are walking with the Lord. You see it in your children. Those selfish, fussing kids have grown up to be spiritual giants in their own way. You see kindness and the heart of a servant in them. Sure you had a hand in molding them, but it was the Lord’s way. You see this in others. Through the years you notice some people opening their hearts and being less stingy and grumpy and complaining. You see the Lord’s hand in all these things. Oh, you’ve heard dozens of sermons about the heart of a Christian, but seeing them with your own eyes makes you know that all of this is true. You have heard, but now you have seen.

Third, and likely, the greatest way you have seen God is when you see two people who have hurt each other, hugging and forgiving each other. The tears flow. What was said and what was done has been laid aside and now together, unity, joy and fellowship is restored. You’ve seen God when you witness that broken prodigal coming back. Years he has been away from the Lord. He has made some terrible mistakes in his life, but now he seeks the love and grace of the Lord. He’s back. He’s forgiven. He wants to do better and be better. And, the church celebrates with great joy and happiness. A sinner has returned home to God.

Yes, like Job, you and I have heard many things about the Lord. But, it is when we have seen things with our own eyes that we have seen God. It is then that our faith becomes more than intellectual. It becomes personal. We know, because we have seen.

My eyes have seen the glory of the Lord…

Roger

Jump Start # 2235

Job 42:5 “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”

Monday with Job. We continue this Monday morning series based upon the book of Job. Our verse today comes from the final chapter. God has asked Job a series of questions about nature. Job has been unable to answer them. Twice as this chapter begins, Job quotes God and instead of answering God, he apologizes. He says that he has spoken things that he did not understand. What follows is Job retracting his words and repenting. The suffering and this journey has allowed him to see God in a way that he never has before. It also allowed Job to see himself in ways he never has before. His suffering not only changed him on the outside, but it changed him on the inside.

And, here in the final chapter, God still never explains why He allowed Job to suffer. He never mentions Satan, faith or apologizes for putting Job through all this pain. Job may have never understood what you and I know about his story.

One sad take away from this final chapter is the conclusions that some seem to reach that are not supported by the text and are not characteristic of Job. Popular writers, such as Philip Yancey, has used the Job events to declare that we can say anything to God when we are hurting. Throw your anger, your grief, your disappointment, your bitterness at Him. He can take it, we are told. Such false conclusions would allow a person to blame God. It would allow someone to scream at God. It would allow someone to even cuss at God. You feel this way, these authors tell us, you might as well express it to God.

And with such conclusions, it seems that they missed the point of this book. It’s not about Job’s suffering, but rather, Job’s faith. Satan was proven wrong. Job never cursed God to His face.

Consider these thoughts:

• Right after the deaths of Aaron’s sons for offering a strange fire to God in worship, the Lord said, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy and before all the people I will be honored” (Lev 10:3). The next verse states that Aaron held his peace. He kept his mouth shut. He didn’t explode on God. His two sons just died a sudden, tragic death as a form of punishment. How easily Aaron could have declared, “that’s not fair.” Or, “You didn’t give them a chance.” Aaron held his peace. God will be treated as holy.

• Jesus showed the disciples how to pray by the example, “Our Father, who art in Heaven. Hallowed be Thy name” (Mt 6:9). Hallowed means “holy.” Not only is God’s name holy, but God Himself is holy. He’s not one of us. He’s not on par with us. I may say something to you that I cannot and will not say to God. We might critique, criticize, complain and even offer suggestions on how to do things better. However, we should never, and must never, do that to God. The Lord is the Almighty. His position, His holiness, His eternal nature, His authority demands that we not only respect Him and reverence Him, but that we treat Him differently than we do each other. Among us, we are peers and equals. We are never that way with the Lord.

• All the questions that God asked Job was to get him to see that he was not God and that he didn’t understand the ways of God. Why did God ask all those questions if Job was able to chew God out and say anything to Him? The very fact of these questions was to get Job to see God and to see himself as they should be.

• We can forget that God never answered any of Job’s questions or complaints. He ignored them. God took the issue to a different level. Who are you Job to question God? That applies to us. Who are we to question God? When tragedy happens, and in sorrow someone shouts out, “Why God?” they are not thinking out what they are doing. God does not owe us an explanation. He doesn’t have to run His plans by us first to get our approval. God doesn’t work for us. That’s all backwards.

This thinking trickles down to moderns changing worship to please and satisfy an entertainment driven crowd that is thirsty for happiness rather than righteousness. How dare anyone change what God has established? How can anyone change what the Bible says? How can anyone change the organization, the pattern of worship or even the plan of salvation? What right do we have to do these things? The answer to all of these things begins with the idea that I can say anything to God and He will have to listen and answer me. We start thinking that we can improve upon what God has established and we can alter and make changes here and there and there will be no divine consequences to that, off we go.

The book of Job reminds us that God is God. There are things that you and I will never understand. There are things that happens and we don’t know if it’s a test, a trial, Satan, bad luck, or misfortune. We want to know the cause of all things, and we can’t. We want to put a label on all things and we can’t. We want to put everything in a nice category but we can’t. There will be days that we sit like Job and we just don’t know. Rather than trying to look backwards and trace the origin of our problems, God is more concerned about what the problems do to us. Will that simple problem crush your faith? Will you look beyond it to see Heaven’s perspective of things? Will you grow stronger because of these things? You and I ask, “Why, why, why?” And, God is looking to see if we are going to still worship Him, follow Him and trust Him.

The book of Job ends well for Job. It is as if God has returned the hedges around Job once again. The number of animals doubles from the first chapter. Job has exactly the same number of children and the same combination, seven boys and three girls. Unique to that time period and Biblical history, the names of the girls are listed.

But not everyone has a happily ever after endings. Some never recover from their trials and sufferings. Some never get back on their feet again. The book of Job does not promise a happy ending to everyone’s suffering story. That’s not a promise in the book. The restoration of Job’s things were temporary. The true treasure is found in Christ and in Heaven. The conclusion is not about what I get, but what have I become. That’s the message. That’s the story for us.

Are our problems greater than God? Is our faith limited to sunny days and health in our bodies? Is God worthy to be followed even when the hedges around our lives are removed?

It is a whole lot easier to read, study and teach Job, than it is to walk in the shoes of Job. Troublesome times are here, filling men’s hearts with fear. But our Lord is great. We are more than conquerors through faith in the Lord.

This we must always remember.

Roger