Would He contend with me in His great power?
No! But He would take note of me.
There the upright could reason with Him,
And I would be delivered forever from my Judge.
Job 23:6–7
It is amazing that, even at this point in his ordeal, Job continues to hope in grace. This continuing hope in grace is itself a work of God's grace.
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous?
Or is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless?
Job 22:3
Eliphaz is in error because he has no concept of God's grace. This puts him in a category with the devil. It is true that we cannot profit God at all, but one of the wonders of the gospel is that when we are righteous, it is by His grace. It is by His own righteousness. And He is genuinely delighted with our righteousness, because He Himself is our righteousness. Read the Song of Songs, and other passages like Zeph 3:17. It is one of the glories of the gospel that the Lord does genuinely delight in His people. While the friends say many true things about right and wrong, and blessing and curse, their view of God is abbreviated, their view of blessing is abbreviated, and their view of grace is abbreviated.
Therefore my anxious thoughts make me answer,
Because of the turmoil within me.
Job 20:2
These are very poor reasons to open our mouths. If we are full of anxiety and inner turmoil, it is not the time for opening our mouths but keeping them shut.
But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Luke 10:29
The desire to justify oneself, and therefore to vindicate one's actions, blinds one to his utter need of Christ. Let us be watchful against every wish to justify ourselves.
Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem
Luke 9:51
It is interesting to note that for which the time had come: "for Him to be received up." Yes, it must come by way of His crucifixion and resurrection. And these are the things that are proclaimed about His work for us to believe (cf. 1Cor 15:3–4). But, the Lord has a more ongoing focus here: His ascension and enthronement, the eternal ministry of His priestly intercession.
But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the LORD had said.
Exodus 7:11–13
If indeed you exalt yourselves against me,
And plead my disgrace against me,
Know then that God has upended me,
And has surrounded me with His net.
Job 19:5–6
Pride debilitates us as helpers, because it invests us in feeling superior to those we are helping. Rather than firstly, finding ourselves before the face of God, then secondly, helping them before the face of God by the grace of God... we are hindered from the necessary humility before God's face, because we are too busy being exalted, in our own eyes, in comparison to those whom we are "helping."
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
1Corinthians 6:12
Here are two, simple considerations to temper our expression of Christian liberty.
The abuser of Christian liberty has a refrain: "All things are lawful for me!"
But the genuinely liberated Christian is more concerned with what is beneficial: what glorifies God in Christ, and what does good to his brother and neighbor and self.
And the genuinely liberated Christian is more concerned with what master He is serving: am I here serving the flesh or the Spirit, my lusts or my Lord?
However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.
Luke 5:15
It was a few days ago that I left myself a memo to jot something down about this text. But, now it is the Lord's Day, and it is all the more appropriate: would that we would come together to Christ, first and foremost to hear Him.
Yes, let us draw near to be healed by Him of our infirmities. By this He is glorified. This He loves to do for us. But, let the first and great reason that we gather to Him be... He Himself. That we might hear the words of His mouth, because they are His words and His mouth... because it is He.
There is much of which we need healing. But, let us give Him the prerogative in our meeting with Him: Lord, speak, for Your servants are listening.
But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”
Luke 5:5
It was precisely in the area of Simon's expertise that the Lord humbled him (and blessed him, at the same time). Whatever we think we are experts at, let us remember that our knowledge is infinitesimal, by comparison to Christ's. He not only knew where every fish was, and would be, in that lake; but, He knew what He would be doing in His extraordinary providence. Peter knew none of those things. So it is with all of our apparent and purported knowledge.
So, let us learn from Peter this excellent way of life: "Nevertheless, at Your Word, I will."
Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.
Luke 7:47
There is a subtle, but enormous, problem for Simon the Pharisee in these words of Jesus to him. And that is that he has more than a little to forgive. If "little" has been forgiven him, then that is to say that nothing has been forgiven him at all.
Dear reader, we have much of which to be forgiven. We should love much. We should be full of affection to Christ. Our service should pour out to Him, even just onto His feet (the least admired or pleasant service), if that is what is available to us. Because the warmth of our hearts should pour out to Him Who has forgiven us so very much, and Who has endured so very much for that forgiveness.
We can also take caution from Simon's conduct. Here, he had holy conference with Jesus Christ. But his heart was so engaged in despising and judging the woman, and even in judging of Christ on her account, that he had no inclinations of admiration or affection toward Christ at the time. This says something to how we might conduct ourselves in the public worship, where we have holy conference with Jesus Christ, and with God in Jesus Christ. If we have so little warmth of affection for Him that it is easily snuffed out by our thoughts of others, we ought to be alarmed that we love so little.
For, if we are forgiven little, then that is to say that we are not forgiven at all.
"Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God."
1Co 4:5
For many, it ought to be quite a frightful thing that the Lord will reveal the counsel that they kept in their hearts. You may be careful about how you keep your tongue. But, how do you maintain the counsel that you keep in your own heart? Would you be mortified for others to hear it out in the open? Then you had better mortify your sin, and even in your secret thoughts, keep only godly counsel in your heart.
"the son of Melea, the son of Menan, the son of Mattathah, the son of Nathan, the son of David"
Luke 3:31
Through Solomon (cf. Mt 1:6), came Joseph the husband of Mary (cf. Mt 1:16). The roundabout way of Luk 3:23 implies that this genealogy is actually through Mary, perhaps out of a desire to show forth Jesus as the seed of the woman. Luke also traces all the way back to Adam, indeed God.
So, in Luk 3:31, we learn that both genetically (Luk 3), and legally (Mat 1), Jesus is a son of David. This brings my thoughts to Nathan in Luk 3:31. Until this point, this Nathan is almost a footnote in 2Sam 5:14, 1Chr 3:5, 1Chr 14:4. He is the full brother of Solomon, born of Bathsheba. That's as much as we know.
It was a reminder to me of how significantly the Lord may use the less obvious child, or the less obvious saint. We ought to bless the wisdom of His inscrutable providence, as we pour ourselves into even those children and saints of whom, it seems to our nearly-blind eyes, little can be expected to come. Indeed, it is often His pleasure to use the weak and unlikely (cf. 1Co 1:26–29).
Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil”
Gen 50:19–20a
I often think of Gen 50:20, regarding the intentions of men and the superintending of God. But it was helpful to me to meditate upon the first part of v19 today: "Do not be afraid [of me]." The "of me" is implied, especially because of the rest of the sentence. "For, am I in the place of God?"
It was silly, and out of proportion, for the brothers were afraid of what Joseph might do to them. Joseph was not in a place to do to them according to what they actually deserved. But how often, when thinking about our situations, or even about our sins, are we more concerned about men than we are about God? We're often fearing the wrong ones (cf. Mt 10:28).
"As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God, as a righteous Judge, for former sins, does blind and harden, from them He not only withholds His grace whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings, and wrought upon in their hearts; but sometimes also withdraws the gifts which they had, and exposes them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin; and, withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan, whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God uses for the softening of others."
WCF 5.6—a fearful truth for those who outwardly profess faith, but inwardly obtain no spiritual profit in the means of grace, even while those around them are drawing near to God, enjoying His glory, and being edified.
And he blessed Joseph, and said:
“God, before Whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
The God Who has fed me all my life long to this day,
The Angel Who has redeemed me from all evil,
Bless the lads;
Let my name be named upon them,
And the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
And let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
Genesis 48:15–16
When Jacob describes his God at the end of his life, he refers specifically to the "Angel" (messenger/Ambassador) Who has redeemed him from all evil. The messenger/ambassador. This is the One Whom he identifies as:
the One before Whom Abraham and Isaac walked,
the One Who fed him all his life long to that day,
the One Who had redeemed him from all evil,
and the One Who would bless Ephraim and Manasseh and their offspring
Very briefly, it is evident that Jacob had at least knowledge of the Father and of the Son. And there is no reason to believe that he wasn't trinitarian. But, more than that, it is further evident that he knew the Son, in the several Christophanies of his life, to be the One in Whom the triune God had most revealed Himself to him.
Gentle reader, let us be at least as Trinitarian, with at least the Christology, of Jacob, knowing:
Jesus as the One before Whom we walk
Jesus as the One Who feeds us every day
Jesus as the One Who redeems us from all evil
Jesus as the One Who blesses us and our children
Then the LORD your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
Deut 30:5–6
In v5, the Lord says that He will prosper and multiply His people more, after the exile, than He had before the exile. But, historically, we did not see this until the grafting in of those elect from among the nations.
It is helpful for our understanding of God's dealing with covenant children, in the administration under Moses, that His promises to them were not only visible/externally covenantal, but internal and spiritual: "YHWH your God will circumcise the heart of your offspring, to love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul."
And it is helpful for our understanding of God's dealing with covenant children, under Christ, is that this "and the heart of your descendants" aspect of the promise has a focus especially on the time in which the visible church would be prospered and multiplied "more than your fathers."
When it included children, under Moses, it was the covenant of grace.
And under Christ, the covenant of grace still includes children!
When the apostle says, "For the promise is to you and your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call," (Ac 2:39), he is saying exactly what Deut 30:5–6 says.
Spirit-baptism includes this circumcision of the heart. It corresponds to water baptism, just as the Lord's gracious work of heart-circumcision corresponded to the covenant sign that He had commanded upon covenant children.
Deut 30:5–6 was solving the problem of a people who could not circumcise their own hearts, as commanded in Deut 10:16. And, on the day of Pentecost, there was this wonderful proclamation that Jesus provides, by His Spirit, the repentance that the baptism of John could only announce to us that we need it. Christian baptism announces that Jesus actually gives it.
This hope He gives us for ourself. This hope He gives us for our children.
How many are my iniquities and sins?
Make me know my transgression and my sin.
Why do You hide Your face,
And regard me as Your enemy?
Job 13:23–24
Almost certainly, v15 is more well-known, from this chapter, than v23–24. But, here we have important insight into "how God treats His friends" (to borrow from the title of an excellent little commentary on Job by Bob Fyall).
When God makes you to know your iniquities, sins, and transgressions, He is treating you as friends. (And Hebrews 12 would remind us that it is when He afflicts us for them, in service of bringing us to repentance, that He treats us as sons!)
But, when God allows you to feel justified in your own eyes—when He permits you to continue in blindness to particular sins—that He is treating you as an enemy.
Job was distressed that he was being treated according to unmediated justice, rather than according to grace in the Mediator. He had confessed what he knew of, and repented of it, but still affliction was coming. He was learning more about how God treats His friends. But he was worried that he was being treated as an enemy: that the Lord was permitting him to be hardened in his sins by blindness to them.
So I wonder, gentle reader, if this is one of your and my great desires of the Lord: that He would not hide His face from us as an enemy, but that, as a Friend and Father, He would make us know our transgression and sin.
v4 is very interesting, in that the bit about Joseph closing his eyes makes it plain that the promise to "bring you up again" is still personal and particular to Jacob himself. However, Jacob would only return as a corpse, as he will remain until the resurrection. The Lord is faithful, so He surely kept His promise. But, is it such a promise-keeping as we would find faithful and true? For it only to happen to us after our death? If not, then the problem is that we are so worldly and short-sighted as to "insist upon our good things in this life" (cf. Luk 16:25). But God's promises are not just for better, fuller, more enduring things. They are also for teaching us to prioritize and value those better, fuller, more enduring things.So He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.”
Genesis 46:3–4
The tents of robbers prosper,
And those who provoke God are secure—
In what God provides by His hand.
Job 12:6
Job's friends are in the midst of saying that he must have some secret, unconfessed sin, and if he would just confess it and repent of it, his affliction would be eliminated.
But, here, Job makes an important observation: it is dangerous to assess one's spiritual condition by his prosperity and security in this world. God, in His common grace, often gives prosperity and security to those who truly love neither their neighbor, nor the Lord.
But this is a pitfall into which we may easily fall: feeling like things are well with us spiritually, so long as they seem well to us temporally. But just because things are well with me temporally does not mean that I am justified in my treatment of men, nor that I am not provoking God.
So, riches may deceitfully promise blessing in this world, but they perpetrate a more subtle and dangerous deception: they may deceive us that we are spiritually well, when we are currently provoking God.
