Job Chapter 40. Restoration!
Good morning Everyone! A new milestone. We have now finished the book of Job.
In the last chapter of Job, Job hears all that God has to say as he is confronted by God.
Job has an awareness of his sin, he humbly approaches God and he confesses his sin before God and repents. Let us also remember 1st John 1:9 where we are encouraged to humbly approach God and confess our sins because when we do, God is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
But let's not stop there. God is Not Just desiring to forgive us but also to transform our lives into Holiness. In other words, He's also interested in seeing us repent and turn away from sin. He wants to empower us so we get victory over sin even those we are struggling with.
So don't stop confessing sins, even those we are struggling with. Keep confessing but also, don't stop striving for victory over struggling sin areas. Keep pursuing the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for the ability to repent of sins.
We also see God speaking to the three comforters or friends of Job. God is angry and tells them what they need to do in order to find forgiveness. We don't see any awareness on their part. Nor did they go before God saying hey I messed up. It's God going to them and making it clear that they messed up and now they have to go before the very person they belittled, and sacrifice and receive prayer from the very person they put below themselves. They are humbled by God versus humbly coming before God as Job did.
It would be easy to kind of smile and say how humbling that must be, but appropriate, for the three men who wrongly spoke to Job, to now have to go before him and be prayed for by him before they can be forgiven. But I can't help but feel that God sent the three men to Job, not just so they could realize their sin and be forgiven, but also so Job could pray for his enemies and also experience healing from any bitterness and unforgiveness he may have held against them. In this way, all could be restored with each other and with God. I hope that makes sense.
So God's blessings came after restoration came.
So the questions are:
1. What sins are keeping us from God's blessings? What sins are we struggling with? Do we have enough self-awareness to humbly confess the sin to God and with His help repent from the sins?
2. Has someone hurt us with words or actions that we have not yet forgiven them? Don't wait for God to humble us as He did the three men so they could be restored. Have the awareness that Job had and go before God now so you can be restored with the one that you have unforgiving feelings towards. In fact, pray for them!
I wonder if Job lived sometime when the events in Genesis were unfolding. We read that Job lived 140 years after all these things took place in his life. Lifespans were much longer before the world was flooded back in the days of Noah so that is one reason why I think this may have been the case.
This last chapter made me think about the importance of not looking down on, judging or trying to compare ourselves with others as it reminded me of a parable that Jesus told in Luke 18:9-14.
“He (Jesus) also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”