JOB 31:1 - 33:33
IF I TRUST IN ANYTHING other than GOD: If money made me happy, if the natural elements thrilled me more than God, if I were secretly tempted to lust, if I secretly wanted to avenge myself, if I covered my sins, or hid iniquity in my heart, if I refused to help someone, if I ever cheated anyone, then God should tell me. Job understands that his suffering was not the consequences of sin or disobedience, but by the WILL OF GOD. That God was developing his faith, that he would come forth as refined and pure gold.
MAD AT EVERYONE! Elihu is mad at Job because Job knows he is justified and righteous. He's mad at the first three friends because they couldn't hold up their end of the argument and they hadn't helped Job. Elihu is younger than the other three and younger than Job, too, so he waited his turn to speak. But, apparently, he thinks old men are not always wise, nor do they have understanding!
I JUST HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING! Elihu's main contention is that suffering is always CORRECTIVE. It teaches us something. Suffering chastens and is actually a work of grace that prepares us to serve others, as it develops compassion. Suffering actually comes to kill the flesh and wean us from independence from God. Yes, God humbles us, but Elihu doesn't need to add to it! There are times when God uses affliction to withdraw us from our own purposes and goals, and cut off the pride that gave me my own purpose, at the root. It is there that God reveals HIS will. Elihu is deeply taught in God's ways, but obviously had never experienced it, and so lacked compassion and patience. And so, in his immaturity and youth, he loses restraint and ceases to speak for God. When Job doesn't answer, Elihu tells him, "be quiet, and I will teach you wisdom."
GOD SPEAKS IN TWO WAYS: (1) In dreams, visions or inner instructions by the Holy Spirit to heart. (2) Through suffering and chastening with pain. The servant of God must learn to rejoice in the will of God, rather than the service of God.....and to glory in weakness as a condition for knowing the Divine strength and power in us.
RESPONSE: Elihu has good things to say. Some of it is true, and some is half-true, just not true about JOB. God said in Job 2:3, to Satan, " thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause." Added to that, Elihu was impatient and easily offended when Job didn't answer him. My mother would have called Elihu a "young whipper-snapper". He misquotes Job and reads things into Job's words that weren't intended. He thinks he knows Job's motives and what he was thinking. My, my! I have tried to talk with people like that! It's probably best to just let them talk until they are done. I think I understand why Job didn't answer him or even comment on what Elihu said. Elihu, the youngster, even thought he was speaking for God! Maybe this is what James 5:11 was referring to as "the patience of Job".
1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-18
LIFE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND EVERLASTING GLORY: "Ministers of a New Covenant" - The Gospel that exists in men, not in books. It is living and life-giving, and "of the Spirit". In fact, there is no "Spirit" in the old covenant at all! There was just DEATH and condemnation, based on what I do and don't do. Whereas the new Covenant makes alive and is based on His righteousness. Even though the old covenant ministered death, it still had a glory of its own, but that glory was PASSING. Our new Covenant has a glory that is PERMANENT.
MOSES HAS A SECRET: And some have NEVER discovered what Moses was hiding beneath that veil....that the Old Covenant was transitory and its glory was to be lost --- swallowed up --- in the New. Even though they read the OT, they still don't see behind the veil.
RESPONSE: James calls Scripture the mirror. When we look into that mirror, we see ourselves, but we see our INNER MAN - like in an X-ray. And there, inside us, we see Jesus - walking up and down our affections and shining Light wherever He goes. And that mirror is what was used to form the OT laver (washbasin) for the Tabernacle (Exo 38:8). So, these mirrors have WATER IN THEM - for washing. That is how the Word and Spirit work together to clean us and form the glorious image in us. We are "changed": (Gr: "metamorphoo" -see Rom 12:2). We become constitutionally different. We no longer carry the stigma of being born "in Adam", but are now "in Christ". ALL things change. Mom said this morning, "With every breath, we get a clean slate".
PSALM 43:1-5
"GOD, MY EXCEEDING JOY": God is my source of joy. He is the God of "my leaping for gladness". Because God is righteous, merciful and mighty, I want Him to "judge me", "plead my cause", "deliver me". And so I instruct my heart to trust God, to believe God, to love God, to rejoice in God.
PROVERBS 22:8-9
Those who make trouble for others end up with nothing but disappointment. Getting angry or abusing his power won't make him feel any better.
When we commit acts of self-denying love, it brings God's blessing on us.
RESPONSE: Why should I allow my enemies to make me feel MAD, SAD OR BAD? When other people try to sow their MAD, SAD OR BAD thoughts into my brain, I overcome them with good (Rom 12:21) - by immediately "putting my hope in the Lord" by giving Him praise and thanks for His greatness and His goodness. It roots out the depressing thoughts and gets rid of self-pity and a critical spirit that wants to answer back. God is "my exceeding joy".
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