Ensign: Job At The Manger
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 23 December 2016
I concede the book of Job is not the ideal text to preach from for Christmas.
But as I started my study of it yesterday, it came across as a reverse Christmas story. I mean, it starts out with Job as the richest man of Uz, both materially with the sheep and camels and oxen and familially (hey, this is my post, I make it a word!) with his wife, seven sons, and three daughters. And his sons must have been well-off enough to invite their sisters in to feast with them also. Then you come to chapter one verse five and see Job sanctifying his children and blessing them. I read that verse right now and it occurs to me that it says nothing about Job's blessings, implying that the animals and the servants who tend them -- see chapter two on that -- ARE his blessing from God, and seeking any further from Him would be the height of selfishness.
By the way, Job here is pronounced with a long o.
So what DO you get for the man who has everything? If you're God and Satan in this story, you take it all away and see how Job responds. After God extols his servant Job (important: we're all servants of God, but we have to choose it) as "a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil", Satan replies that he can't deny that, but is he motivated solely by God's blessings on his life? Take away what he's got, and Job will turn his back on You like a lot of people we both know. So God permits (important: Satan our adversary can not do anything against us that God does not let him! It doesn't absolve us from sin when we commit it, but it does tell us we're never so far away from God we can't come back to Him. In fact, He wants to meet us!) Satan to test Job on that score.
So the man who had everything lost everything.
But even with just his wife and three servants (the ones who came back to back to back and told him all the animals were lost to raiders and all his children were all dead where their house collapsed with them in it) left to his name, Job still worshiped God. And that's just chapter one. I don't know if any of us could handle losing ... not quite everything, but close enough. But you know, the remaining cast almost sounds like the grouping at the stable thousands of years later. We don't know how long Job and his friends (often called "Job's comforters" disparagingly, and they were up to that job until they opened their mouths) took to speak the speeches that cover chapters three through thirty-seven, but you could say that in them are all the questions we have about God.
The questions it's hard to imagine Joseph, Mary, and everyone at the manger didn't have.
Why me, God? Why am I the one who you've called to bear Your Son into the world? Do I do what is right by the Law, or do I do what God is telling me to do? I think everyone's got some form of these questions, and that's ok. Nowhere in Scripture does God forbid you the use of your active and working brain -- why would He have created them and us otherwise? -- but when He does CALL you, are you willing to do what He asks? Can we with Job say "blessed be the name of the Lord"? Can we with Mary say "be it unto me according to thy word"? Can we with Joseph not say anything (at least in Scripture he doesn't, check it out for yourselves) but just do what we know is God's call on us in each and every moment? For often we will be required to do all three with patience.
And with God's help we will.
Merry Christmas,
David
P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages us too! If it's not or you want me to get lost, please let me know. Thank you!
Thank YOU, Lord, that we can come to You in prayer and that we can come to You to provide for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. And let us come to You in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and all over the world.
Thank You as well, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You by Your Son Our Brother, Jesus the Christ.
And I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 23 December 2016
I concede the book of Job is not the ideal text to preach from for Christmas.
But as I started my study of it yesterday, it came across as a reverse Christmas story. I mean, it starts out with Job as the richest man of Uz, both materially with the sheep and camels and oxen and familially (hey, this is my post, I make it a word!) with his wife, seven sons, and three daughters. And his sons must have been well-off enough to invite their sisters in to feast with them also. Then you come to chapter one verse five and see Job sanctifying his children and blessing them. I read that verse right now and it occurs to me that it says nothing about Job's blessings, implying that the animals and the servants who tend them -- see chapter two on that -- ARE his blessing from God, and seeking any further from Him would be the height of selfishness.
By the way, Job here is pronounced with a long o.
So what DO you get for the man who has everything? If you're God and Satan in this story, you take it all away and see how Job responds. After God extols his servant Job (important: we're all servants of God, but we have to choose it) as "a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil", Satan replies that he can't deny that, but is he motivated solely by God's blessings on his life? Take away what he's got, and Job will turn his back on You like a lot of people we both know. So God permits (important: Satan our adversary can not do anything against us that God does not let him! It doesn't absolve us from sin when we commit it, but it does tell us we're never so far away from God we can't come back to Him. In fact, He wants to meet us!) Satan to test Job on that score.
So the man who had everything lost everything.
But even with just his wife and three servants (the ones who came back to back to back and told him all the animals were lost to raiders and all his children were all dead where their house collapsed with them in it) left to his name, Job still worshiped God. And that's just chapter one. I don't know if any of us could handle losing ... not quite everything, but close enough. But you know, the remaining cast almost sounds like the grouping at the stable thousands of years later. We don't know how long Job and his friends (often called "Job's comforters" disparagingly, and they were up to that job until they opened their mouths) took to speak the speeches that cover chapters three through thirty-seven, but you could say that in them are all the questions we have about God.
The questions it's hard to imagine Joseph, Mary, and everyone at the manger didn't have.
Why me, God? Why am I the one who you've called to bear Your Son into the world? Do I do what is right by the Law, or do I do what God is telling me to do? I think everyone's got some form of these questions, and that's ok. Nowhere in Scripture does God forbid you the use of your active and working brain -- why would He have created them and us otherwise? -- but when He does CALL you, are you willing to do what He asks? Can we with Job say "blessed be the name of the Lord"? Can we with Mary say "be it unto me according to thy word"? Can we with Joseph not say anything (at least in Scripture he doesn't, check it out for yourselves) but just do what we know is God's call on us in each and every moment? For often we will be required to do all three with patience.
And with God's help we will.
Merry Christmas,
David
P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages us too! If it's not or you want me to get lost, please let me know. Thank you!
Thank YOU, Lord, that we can come to You in prayer and that we can come to You to provide for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. And let us come to You in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and all over the world.
Thank You as well, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You by Your Son Our Brother, Jesus the Christ.
And I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.
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