Abide and Obey

Posted on November 5, 2021 by Pete

Short thought this morning. Something out of 1 John. Not overly complicated but a source of great confidence. A to do which, John says, will have a directly connect “to be.” A purposeful pursuit which will have a practical payout. I think, if I’m picking up what John’s laying down, when we abide we’ll obey.

And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.

(1John 2:28-29 ESV)

Seems there were forces at play trying to destabilize the believers John was writing to (2:26). What a surprise. Not. Plethora are the ways the enemy can deploy to try and get us off our game. To distract us from the prize. To confuse us as to our purpose. To deflect us from the power.

But we have an anointing (2:27). An anointing we’ve received from Jesus. An anointing that abides in us. An anointing that is true and can keep us straight. An anointing from Him through which we can abide in Him.

And if abide in Him, we’ll walk like Him. Not in perfection, but in persistent purpose, palpable power, and perceptible practice.

If He abides in us through the anointing, and we abide in Him through the anointing, then if He is righteous (and He is), then we’ll be marked as those who practice righteousness. We’ll walk as He walked because our walk will be sourced fully in remaining in Him and not in reliance upon our best efforts at remaking ourselves. To tarry with Jesus will result in taking on Jesus. To remain in Him will be to have Him reflected through us. Our abiding will result in our obeying as His indwelling has it’s outworking.

Simple. But not a gimme. Foundational. So worth pursuing.

If trust and obey is the what of following Christ, I’m thinking that abide and obey is the how.

Only by His grace. Only for His glory.

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Speaking for Him Who is Manifold in Understanding

Posted on November 4, 2021 by Pete

They were triple-teaming him. Eliphaz has tried to make sense of Job’s trouble, “As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same” (Job 4:8) — Job, you musta’ done something wrong! After Job defends himself, Eliphaz then tags in Bildad, “How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind? Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?” But Job’s having none of it. He doubles down . . . literally — “I am in the right . . I am in the right” (Job 9:15, 20). So his buddies bring in the clean-up hitter, Zophar, “Should a multitude of words go unanswered, and a man full of talk be judged right? Should your babble silence men, and when you mock, shall no one shame you?” (Job 11:1-2)

But here’s the thing that’s got me thinking this morning. It’s not like these “friends” are totally off base. In the midst of their “comforting,” they will speak truth concerning God. Seems to me the problem lies in their arrogance in thinking they know exactly how to apply that truth in Job’s case.

Here’s an example of some truth spoken by Zophar:

“But oh, that God would speak and open His lips to you, and that He would tell you the secrets of wisdom! For He is manifold in understanding. . . . Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?”

(Job 11:5-6a, 7 ESV)

God holds the secrets of wisdom. Check! God is manifold in understanding. Check! The deep things of God are beyond finding out. Check! The Almighty is without limits, not gonna fit in a box of our own making. Check! It sure would be helpful if God were to break heaven’s sound barrier, right here and right now, and let you in on what’s happening behind the scenes. True statement.

But here’s where I think Z and friends go off the rails. Given that God isn’t speaking from heaven, they’re going to do His speaking for Him. Even though God’s wisdom is secret, His understanding manifold, and His deep things are without limit, they’re pretty sure they know what’s going down — so they’ll speak for Him.

Rather than knowing what they know about God causing them to be humbled before God, they think they know enough about an incomprehensible God to speak for Him. Job can’t figure it out, what makes them think they can? Pride, perhaps?

Not saying that we can’t speak with authority and conviction about the things of God. But that should be in matters where God has already clearly spoken through His word. In other matters, matters of applying principles, discerning situations, and wondering as to root cause, I’m thinking a measure of humility is appropriate when trying to speak for Him who is manifold in understanding. That in discerning the mind of God, the heart of God — a heart which is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex. 34:6) — should temper our application of the word of God in matters that clearly have not been spoken to directly by God.

Just thinking that if Zophar & Co. listened to their own correct assessment of who God is they wouldn’t have been so quick to assert that they knew what only God knows. That there’s some care to be taken when speaking for Him who is manifold in understanding.

We’re all gonna draw alongside someone at some point who’s going through something that doesn’t make sense. I wanna be a true friend and real comforter. Seems to me putting on humility and acknowledging mystery might come into play.

Trusting in God’s grace. Wanting only God’s glory.

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Free Utterance

Posted on November 3, 2021 by Pete

Reading in Job 10 this morning and wondering if I didn’t just observe the point where Job, had he thought to look back over his shoulder, would have seen the line he had crossed.

The loss is unfathomable. The physical pain, unimaginable. And the sorrow, it seems, increasingly unbearable. Add to all that the engagement with his so called comforters, and the situation is becoming more and more insufferable. So Job verbally vents his confusion and frustration concerning a situation which would seem inconsistent for a life lived, by God’s own declaration, blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil (Job 1:8, 2:3).

I have heard some say that God is big enough to handle the honest expressions of our souls, and I buy that. But based on the response of God to Job’s venting that I’ll encounter later, I do wonder if, while God will not refuse the honest cries of the heart, He will hold to account those who would think to stand up to him face-to-face and demand an answer from the Almighty. That’s the line I think I’m seeing Job cross.

“I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. . . Why did You bring me out from the womb? . . . Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer . . .

(Job 10:1, 18a, 20 ESV)

I’m wondering if, when Job abandoned restraint, deciding to give free utterance to his complaint and questioning of God, he took a step too far. When, opting to forsake the constraint of the fear of God, and free-wheeling it before the Creator out of the bitterness of his soul, he traded standing on holy ground for stumbling in rocky territory.

Free utterance. Full vent (NASB). Free reign (NIV). Putting it all on the table (MSG). Speaking with abandon. Freely complaining without regard for who he’s complaining too. I believe God can handle transparent prayer, but I don’t think, for our good, He will tolerate reckless disrespect. Why am I thinking that? Because of a connection I made with something I recalled in Romans as I hovered over this passage.

Your hands fashioned and made me, and now You have destroyed me altogether. Remember that You have made me like clay; and will You return me to the dust?

(Job 10:8-9 ESV)

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have You made me like this?”

(Romans 9:20 ESV)

It’s a step gone too far, it seems to me, when free utterance ignores the Creator / creature distinction. Though Job knew God as Maker, Job addresses him increasingly as though that doesn’t matter. His overwhelming despair casts off the fear of God and results in over-the-top rhetoric. Rhetoric for which God will eventually hold him to account.

Not judging Job. Trying to learn from him. Not comparing our season of wearying confusion with Job’s severe suffering. But, in trying to make sense of stuff that doesn’t make sense, I think I’m picking up a caution this morning about free utterance and the need to maintain, as much as lies within us, the fear of God.

Something to chew on.

As we walk in grace for His glory.

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Another Thing I Can Know

Posted on November 2, 2021 by Pete

Yesterday, reading John’s gospel, I was reminded that, while there are many things I don’t know when it comes to the things of God, one thing I do know is that while I was once blind now I see. But reading in John’s first epistle this morning the question posed is, “Yeah, but how do you know you see?”

If blind from birth, then how do you even know what seeing is? You could still be blind yet have someone tell you that everyone walks in darkness, that’s what seeing is. Or, you could hit your head, rattle the optic nerve or the part of the brain that processes the optic nerve, and start perceiving shades of gray, shimmers of light, and movement of shadows. Would that be seeing? A seemingly authoritative voice might try to convince you so. So how do you know you know you once were blind but now you see? Here’s John’s simple litmus test:

And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. Whoever says “I know Him” but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him, but whoever keeps His word, in Him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him: whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.

(1John 2:3-6 ESV)

Not to be overly simplistic, not to deny that figuring out the Christian walk can be messy, not saying that the process of sanctification isn’t nuanced at times, but when it comes to knowing that our spiritual blindness has really given way to true spiritual sight, obedience seems to be a pretty good indicator.

Not talking perfection, John’s dealt with that — “if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (2:1b). But we are talking visible practice. We are talking verifiable persistence. We are talking about evidence of the love of God perfected in those who keep His word.

. . . we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments . . .

Obedience, not that we should boast in our righteousness, but that we would marvel in the outward manifestation of having been clothed in His righteousness (Php. 3:9). Walking as Jesus walked — not to brag how much we are like Jesus, but to be amazed at the tangible reality that we really have been crucified with Christ and that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so. I now love Him this I know for my obedience tells me so.

Again, not talking perfection. More trip ups, slip ups, and mess ups than I care to admit — though, praise God, all of which I can confess and be cleansed of because of the cross (1Jn. 1:8-9). But, if I’m picking up what John’s laying down, a heartfelt desire to follow Jesus and a holy determination to walk like Jesus are pretty good indicators that I am no longer blind but really have seen Jesus.

That’s another thing I can know.

Only by His grace. Only for His glory.

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One Thing I Do Know

Posted on November 1, 2021 by Pete

We’ve been stretching our brains considering the incommunicable attributes of God during our mid-week study. Incommunicable — 14 letters, 6 syllables — and that’s but one of the big words we’ve added to our vocabulary.

Another is God’s incomprehensibility — God is beyond fully understanding. If you think you’ve got your arms wrapped around who God is, then you’ve got the wrong God. If you think He’s just a bigger, better, more super-sized and perfect version of you, then you’re starting at the wrong reference point. In our quest to know God deeper, I’m being reminded, again and again, how much I don’t know.

Maybe that’s why a familiar passage in John’s gospel penetrates deeply this morning. Because it affirms one thing I do know.

John doesn’t reveal his name. He’s identified initially as “a man blind from birth” (9:1), and then is renamed “the man who had formerly been blind” (9:13). How come? Sunday School 101 answer: Jesus! And boy, does he cause a stir among the religious elite of the day.

Another miracle of Jesus that they have to deal with. They first try to deny it. Was he really born blind? Yup. So then they have to discredit it. But these eyes that have never worked started to work on the Sabbath. “Work!” . . . on the Sabbath . . . this man Jesus can’t be of God.

For all their 14 letter, 6 syllable words, the religious brain trust of the Jews refused to believe. And so they call the man who had formerly been blind back to the stand to testify. And testify he does!

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this Man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether He is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

(John 9:24-25 ESV)

The man who had formerly been blind wasn’t all that interested in whether making mud on the Sabbath was a violation of the Sabbath. Didn’t care a lot about whether or not placing mud on the eyes crossed the theological t’s of the Pharisees. When it came to giving glory to God, what He was certain of was this, “Though I was blind, now I see.” Period. Full stop. Drop the mic.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am not saying we shouldn’t be studying theology or the high things of God. I wouldn’t be investing hours (and treading water in an ocean of awe) with such things as aseity, infinity, simplicity, and immutability, if I didn’t think that to know God deeply is to love God deeply. If I wasn’t convinced that the more expanded our belief about God, the greater our desire to walk in obedience with God.

But what I am saying is that of all things I’m realizing I still don’t know, one thing I do know. I too was blind, but not anymore. I was in bondage to sin but now am free. I once lived in fear of death but now to live is Christ and die is gain. I once was an enemy of God, but now I’m a son.

How come? Sunday School 101 answer: Jesus! He touched me and made me whole (thanx again Billy G.).

One thing I do know. I once was blind but now I see. And I walk in the light — though not perfectly, still very much dependently, and in need of cleansing blood constantly.

Incomprehensible.

But oh, so wonderful!

By God’s grace. For God’s glory.

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Last Words among Last Words

Posted on October 29, 2021 by Pete

Wrapped up about 20 days in 1 and 2 Peter. Peter’s last letters to those taking it in the teeth for Jesus. Peter’s final exhortations for those in the pressure cooker of oppression, dispersion, and some confusion about the end times. Though they are stressed and tempted to waver, Peter wants to stir them up and encourage them to keep walking in the Way (2Peter 1:12-13, 3:1-2).

And as I conclude Peter’s second letter, seems to me that Peter’s last words among his last words, for those feeling like they’re in the end times of the end times, are worth chewing on.

You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

(2Peter 3:17-18 ESV)

If there’s anything God’s people should be focused on in seasons that feel like the end times of the end times, it’s this:

  • They should double down on what they know to be true in the Scriptures
  • They need to battle against forces that would carry them away with error
  • They must take care not to lose their footing on Christ which they have in Christ, and thus become destabilized.
  • They should increase both their grace intake, relying on Jesus as they never have before, as well as their grace output, letting Jesus live through them as He never has before.
  • They are to view the season of stress and suffering as a means to go deeper and deeper in their experiential knowledge of Jesus.

Said differently, we can know that we’re responding to the end times in a spiritually healthy way if: we’ve never been more into our Bibles; never been more aware of the world’s deception; never been more confident in the finished work of Christ; never been more aware of His imminent return; never appropriated more His grace; never wanted more to be conduits of His grace; and, if we are continually thanking God for the tough times because our walk with Jesus is as real, renewing, and reviving as it’s ever been.

Not that there’s not a bunch of other things that exiles in dispersion need to be aware of, obedient to, and engaged in. But I think Peter’s closing lines are a pretty good bottom line.

When we sense things are about to be “dissolved”, it should compel us to be the sort of people we ought to be “in lives of holiness and godliness” as we wait for and hasten the “the coming day” (3:11-12). Holding fast to what we know. Standing fast on Who we know. Growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior. And while that may not do much to turn around the mess we’re in, it’s exactly what God will use to carry on the mission we’re in — that of making Him known to a world that is “stored up for fire” (3:7).

Only by His grace alone. Always for His glory alone.

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The Gift of Repentance

Posted on October 28, 2021 by Pete

Would I be off-base in thinking that, in general, repentance isn’t something that most of us — believer or not — view too favorably? While some may see no reason for it at all, is it a stretch that even for those who know repentance needs to be a thing, it’s more likely grudgingly viewed as something I have to do rather than gratefully viewed as something I get to do? That too often it’s more like being forced to bow the knee rather than the freedom to run to the cross? I’m thinkin’ . . .

Two words in my 2 Peter reading this morning have me thinking about repentance. A unique translation to the ESV, not found in the other versions. But a translation that has me in awe and adoration for the gift of repentance.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

(2Peter 3:9 ESV)

Reach repentance. That’s what I’m chewing on this morning. The other translations render it “come to repentance.” Same idea, but isn’t there a nuance presented by the ESV? I think “come to” as in “come to my senses.” Truth in that. After all that’s the wording used for the prodigal son (Lk. 15:17). But reaching repentance sounds a little less like me finally being broken and dealing with the undeniable reality of my sin, and little more like actualizing the gift provided of being able to align my mind with God’s and appropriate the remedy for my rebellion. Does that make sense?

I think repentance can be so hard because pride continues to so prevail. If nothing else, when the Spirit does daily battle with the flesh (Gal. 5:17) the way of the kingdom is at war with the way of the ego. The Seal of God in our lives, guaranteeing what is to come (Eph. 1:13b-14), is guarding the throne of our lives, to be occupied by Jesus only, against the pull of our lives to exalt self and re-take the throne. It’s our pride which justifies our temptations. It’s our pride which compares ourselves to others around us who are “less holy” so that we can view ourselves more highly than we ought. It’s our pride that so often needs to be battled, turned back, and forced to its knees before we’ll concede we need to repent. Thank God, for the battle.

But as the mind of Christ grows in us, shouldn’t our awareness of the ever-present assault by the flesh also increase? As we abide in His presence more and more, our imperfections are exposed more and more. As we abide in God’s living word, the sword which pierces and divides soul and spirit discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12), it reveals the lingering sin which continues to rear its ugly head in our lives. But we know how to deal with the sin. We get to repent. The Spirit of Christ imparting the mind of Christ compelling us to run to the cross of Christ confessing our transgression before Christ and desire to turn again and embrace the way of Christ for the glory of Christ. That’s reaching repentance. Or, as Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) puts it, passing on to reformation.

Repentance is a gift. The gift that leads, again and again and as often as necessary, to the finished work of Christ. The gift that unlocks the door of forgiveness and restoration when we’re once more tripped up by transgression. The key that unlocks the fountain of the blood of Christ, sufficient to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Repentance is a gift, because God’s word says it’s a gift.

We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man — you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself — that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

(Romans 2:2-4 ESV)

In my flesh, I have to repent. In the Spirit, praise God, I get to repent.

For my good. By His grace. All to God’s glory.

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Ain’t Necessarily a Duck

Posted on October 27, 2021 by Pete

It has got to be one of the scariest verses in all of Scripture. Thus, one that is worth wrestling with and one that needs to be cataloged within the filter of holy discernment. Because, according to the Spirit, despite the fact that it might look like a duck, swim like a duck, and quack like a duck, it ain’t necessarily a duck.

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

(2Peter 2:20-22 ESV)

Saved or not saved? That is the question.

Too much context within Scripture for me not to hook my anchor on the solid rock that once a person is redeemed and regenerated they are forever a child of God and secure in their salvation. I believe that those God begins a good work in, He will complete that work in (Php. 1:6). I believe that those the Father gives to the Son the Son will never cast out, nor should the Son lose anything of all that has been given Him. I believe that the will of the Father is that whoever believes in the Son will have eternal life, and the Son will raise each one up on the last day (Jn. 6:37-40).

So, if that’s the truth to which my anchor’s fixed, how do I make sense of those who have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and yet are again entangled in them and overcome?

We know that there are many religions which produce “good people.” Many tenets, beliefs, and isms that provoke outward reform and moral behavior. To think that someone could know about Jesus, could be enticed by Jesus, and even try and live like Jesus without actually believing in Jesus as the Son of God, the Savior of all creation, perhaps isn’t that big a stretch. That they could be drawn to Sermon on the Mount types of teaching without confessing and repenting of their sinful hearts before the Servant on the cross is a possibility. And so, in that sense, men and women could in fact be outwardly righteous before others, could have a form of godliness, yet be destitute of the grace of God in their lives. They may have heard enough to escape, but not be prepared to believe enough to be rescued.

So when they are again entangled in the defilements of the world it’s not that they have been un-saved or dis-regenerated, but it’s an indication that they had never been born again. They had never stopped being a dog so it’s natural they’d return to their own vomit. Were never converted from being a sow and so, after washing themselves, returned eventually to what they do naturally, wallow in the mire.

How could they have heard enough to change their lives but not to redeem their souls? Through the false teachers among them (2Pet. 2:1). Enough gospel to clean up, but not enough to fess up. Enough gospel to tithe to the preacher, not enough gospel to die to the Savior. “Waterless springs” appealing to parched souls, “enticing by sensual passions of the flesh,” resulting in moral people never converted by God’s power (2Pet. 2:17-19).

Thus, a scary verse not because my salvation could be short-lived, but because another’s might be superficial. And while I’m not responsible, nor able to determine whether someone is really saved, in caring for others who call themselves a brother or sister, I can be discerning. At least aware that one who seems again entangled in the defilements of the world may not need a call to stop backsliding but might actually need an introduction to the One in whom they need to start believing. That they might benefit more from hearing again the gospel than from being given a pass because “none of us are perfect.”

Hmm. Something to chew on.

By His grace. For His glory.

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Idols and Stumbling Blocks

Posted on October 26, 2021 by Pete

One of the “advantages” of reading through the Old Testament prophets, I find, is the language the Spirit gives through them for identifying and describing sin. If you want to expand your vocabulary regarding transgression against God, just hang out with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Not that I enjoy meandering in the muck of iniquity, but honestly it’s kind of helpful to have some context for recognizing it when you see it. Can’t repent of what you don’t recognize.

Case in point? A thrice repeated characterization of a particular type of sin from Ezekiel 14 this morning.

Background? Certain elders of the Israel have come to Ezekiel wanting him to bring them a word from the Lord. Men of standing. I’m thinking reputable men. Perhaps self-professed holy men. But, as quickly becomes apparent, severely compromised men.

“Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let Myself be consulted by them?”

(Ezekiel 14:3 ESV)

Though they present themselves as devout and religious, though they approach Ezekiel with a façade of apparent sincerity and seeking, these leaders among the peoples had taken idols into their hearts and had put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. (To emphasize the point, the LORD will repeat His assessment of their condition two more times in verses 4 and 7.)

Before any graven image had been set on the mantel in their home, it had already found residence within their thoughts and desires. Before starting to divert their energies towards that physical carving overlaid with silver and gold, they had already placed pursuing the creation above the Creator at the top of their spiritual priorities list. The idols were at first thoughts, and intents, and values, and desires in their inner being before they ever manifested themselves as physical stumbling blocks set before their eyes.

Beware of idols taken into the heart. That’s what I’m picking up this morning.

Taken into the heart. Literally, allowed to ascend, caused to go up. The battle against the material idol in our house begins with what we entertain in our hearts. It’s there that we can grow weary of seeking first the things of the kingdom and thus opt to divert first energies to the things of the world. Before material possessions ever fill our spaces, setting fleshing desires above our God overtakes our affections.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. For any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from Me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult Me through him, I the LORD will answer him Myself.”

(Ezekiel 14:6-7 EV)

To allow idols to ascend within the seat of our being is to separate ourselves from the One who demands the throne of our lives alone. When the external evidence of stumbling blocks appear, which distract us from following in the Spirit, it’s but a tangible indicator of a battle which has already been ceded internally to follow after the flesh. Guard your heart.

O, that Christ would so fill my heart there is no room for anything else. That my face would be so fixed on things above that I would not trip over things below.

Only through the cross. Only by His grace. Always for His glory.

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Can’t Wait to Get to the End

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Pete

Just finished reading Job 3. Job’s delivered up the first volley in what will be a long back-and-forth match — him against his so-called comforters. A match which for millennia has been replayed over and over as many who have shared to some degree with Job’s experience try to make sense of their own experience. And Job’s opening serve is anything but an ace. Rather, it’s a “why?”

“Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire? . . . Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, . . . Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?”

(Job 3:11, 20, 23 ESV)

Everything Job has worked for, everything he has cherished, everything for which he has given thanks to God, everything which he consistently consecrated to God (1:5), it’s all gone. Health, wealth, and family — “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken way” (1:20b). So, wonders aloud the man covered “with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (2:7), Why?

Why did God give if God knew it would be taken away? Why so much suffering and sorrow when God is wholly sovereign? Why, Job cries, did God let me even start the race if He knew the train wreck it would lead to? Why is light given? Why, if it’s only to be enveloped in such darkness?

And the thing about reading Job for the umpteenth time is that you can’t help but process these opening questions in light of the closing chapters. You know how the story ends and so you want to jump in at the beginning and get in on the action, “Job, I know why!” Sort of . . .

“Why is light given?” What hits me this morning is the Ecclesiastes nature of the question.

Job’s focus is being born into natural light, the light we find here on earth. The same context in which the ancient Preacher of Ecclesiastes concluded that everything that is done “under the sun” is but “vanity and a striving after wind” (Eccl. 1:14). If that’s the only light there is to see, then in the end — regardless of when the end comes or how well life goes until the end — it’s all meaningless.

And while there’s a long back-and-forth debate to come between Job and his friends, his opening disregard for the value of seeing the light of life will give way to an experience and understanding of encountering the Light of eternity. His eyes eventually redirected from the flickering light given “under the sun” to the unapproachable light emitted from the throne of his Creator.

Misery and bitterness of soul, meandering down unmapped roads and boxed in by uncontrollable circumstances, all giving way eventually to beholding the light of the glory of God. An encounter of the divine kind emerging from the despair of his present season of suffering under the sun.

There’s a long way to go in Job before the questions get answered. But the answers won’t come in nice tidy explanations of the why’s of his suffering and sorrow. Instead, the answer will be found in a Who. Resolved through revelation. Light here and now reset in the context of light there and then.

The answer’s coming. Can’t wait to get to the end.

By His grace. For His glory.

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