What God does and what I must do

In Deuteronomy 1, we see the balance between what God does and what I must do. As I read through that chapter, I noted all the things God had done for His people. He had set the land before them (vv. 8, 21); He had given the land to them (vv. 20, 25, 36, 39); He went before the people, fought for them, carried them and showed them the way (vv. 30-33). But in order to actually possess the land the...

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Job - Religion to Relationship

To me the book of Job is not primarily about suffering. It is more about how Job moves from being very religious to having a relationship with God. That journey is summarized near the end of the book: I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;(Job 42:5 ESV) I want to be able to say that in my life. I want to go from just hearing about God to seeing Him with my spiritual...

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How being self-focused clouds our ideas about God.

In Job 32, Elihu speaks for the first time in the book. What strikes me about his words is how self-focused he is. The words "I" and "me" dominate his words. And twice he even admits that what he is about to speak is "my opinion". Even though he is young, he is impressed with his own wisdom. While it is true that Job's three friends who have already spoken often had wrong ideas about God, Elihu certainly...

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Be careful with how we view our circumstances.

In Job 29:1-5, Job looks at his circumstances and concludes, wrongly, that God is no longer with him. Our present conditions - good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, easy or hard - are a very poor barometer of God's love and concern for us.  God had allowed Satan to test Job because God knew that this process was going to result in Job's relationship with God being take to a whole new level. The...

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Sometimes fewer words are better

In Job 25, Bildad's words are few and for a change, what he says is actually true. God is sovereign and holy and no man is capable of being righteous before God based on what he does. Man is indeed a maggot. But what Bibldad fails to see is God's mercy that is extended to man through His Son, Jesus. This seems to be a common mistake that Job's friends make. They understand that God is holy and righteous...

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