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READ: Job 14:14
CHALLENGE: Trust God for Deliverance
We are coming into our 40 Days of Seeking God. The concepts of Christianity have been around for a long time with some themes even showing up in the book of Job. Here we find thoughts on divine forgiveness, divine friendship, and divine redemption.
None of us can build a ladder to heaven so we must rely on God. Divine dependence is as old as time. We were never built to live independently of heaven smiling on us. I need ALL the help I can get to navigate this life.
- NEED OF DIVINE FORGIVENESS
Job 14:14-17 – If someone dies, will they live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. 15 You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made. 16 Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin. 17 My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin.
This is what mankind needs.
- Forgiveness Includes Spiritual Renewal
What an outstanding question in verse 14. If someone dies, will they live again? The answer to this question is profoundly relevant to us all. If the answer is no, we have no hope. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, if there’s no resurrection, you might as well eat, drink, and be merry as they say because this is all you’ve got. YOLO!! If the answer is yes, we have hope in the darkest night.
He said that he was waiting for his “renewal”. This word means, “a new vigorous life in a restored body”. The Hebrew root is the same one translated will sprout again in reference to a tree in v7b”. “Returned to life, Job would have left his old, diseased body and be given a body full of vitality”.
Job had pointed out that if a tree is cut down, it will put up a new sprout and continue living. We cut down a couple of locust trees and they sprouted up all over the lawn. Little tree after little tree. That carpet of little trees would have turned into a forest except they were in the lawn. It’s amazing how tenacious life is. Job sees an opportunity to have a “second growth”. If a tree will sprout again, then so will we. He’s waiting for RENEWAL!
Hope in God is a consistent theme within this book. One of the great truths of Christianity is the concept of renewal. I believe in two things through Jesus. I believe in new life today and eternal life when I die. Jesus Christ came to earth so that you have life and have it to the full. There is clearly hope in Christianity for a changed life. Your bad patterns can be replaced with great character!
The Bible gives a spectacular description of this new life when Jesus spoke about being “born again”. Rebirth – it’s like spring for the soul. The dead world begins springing to life and we can have that spiritually. I like all seasons but there is no comparison between January and July. Job was shattered but he was trusting in God to rebuild Him.
Titus 3:3-5 – At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
We are renewed by the Holy Spirit. We are re-born. And the hope is that we are something different than what we were. We’re in a bathroom remodel and it doesn’t even look like the same place! It’s being completely renewed and it’s a process and we move along tile by tile.
There are bad patterns that need replaced in us. It might be anger to patience. Hatred to love. Depression to happiness. Meanness to kindness. Immorality to purity. God can make you new.
What characterizes you? Death or life? The Bible teaches that we were dead in sin but become alive in Christ. The concept of a new life is deeply hopeful and God allows for that.
- Forgiveness Does Not Keep Track
God will count steps in watching over Job’s life but not keep track of sin. That’s a lovely concept and isn’t this a part of forgiveness? You don’t keep track. I’ve lost track of the wrongs! The Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins.
When I hear someone speak of how upset you are with someone and I ask you “when did that happen” and you say, “15 years ago”. My question is this? Why is that still on your radar? Shouldn’t things be moving across our radar screen? Let’s not freeze a person in their worst moment. You keep track of all things and it’s going to lead to some serious unhappiness.
The word for sin here means to “miss the way. You miss the mark. You’re off aim”. When I was young I was showing off my fast pitch to my brothers. Watch this man! My brother was down and ready for it. Bring the heat, right?! My fast pitch was a wild pitch and I hit my neighbor in chest as he was minding his own business in his front yard. Sin is the wild pitch. It misses the mark of God’s standards and may very well sting someone else.
Job looks forward to God not keeping track of his sins. Don’t keep track. None of us are perfect. We’ve all sinned so we all need forgiveness. Jesus taught us to pray, forgive me of my sins as I forgive those who sin against me. He later taught that if we don’t forgive, we won’t be forgiven. So don’t keep track of the sins of other people. Pay attention to how you’re driving.
Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Illustration:
- Forgiveness Covers Over
This word means to smear or plaster over it. When you actually plaster something, you no longer see what’s beneath. We had a lot of old plaster over lath in our home. The lath was made of old split boards with plaster covering over it to make the walls. All the cracks and splits were covered with plaster to never be seen again.
The beauty of forgiveness is that our crooked things and infractions are covered and that’s what forgiveness looks like. The sin is covered and we’re not staring at it all the time. We’re not concealing it as if we’re covering up a crime or sweeping it under the rug. We’re just saying that at some point we’re not looking at all the time.
Forgiveness isn’t condoning it. And it’s not about them deserving it. God covers over our sins with the blood of Jesus Christ. I also cover over the sins of others as I forgive them. It would then be like they never did it.
Illustration
The concept is ultra important when it comes to forgiveness. You forgive to the point that you no longer look at it or really think about it. It’s covered. I’m not looking at it. I can let it go. There is something beautiful about plastering over sins and seeing them no more. Forgiveness!
One of the great promises of God is that he will forgive us of our sins if we confess them to Him.
1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
B. NEED OF DIVINE FRIENDSHIP
Job 16:18-21 – “Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest! 19 Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. 20 My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; 21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.
May my cry never be laid to rest. Earth, don’t cover my blood. I want the witness and the cry screaming out to God. He’s the innocent murder victim in this perspective. The ancients believed that the shed blood of a slain victim was crying out for revenge. Job wants his case reaching heaven for resolution.
What or who is this witness? His pain? His hurt? Is it what he thinks? It’s actually someone outside of himself. This is the principle of the third party. It’s the person who stands between the two parties and intercedes. I’ve often called it “going to bat” for someone.
Where is this intercessor? On high. On high is where? Heaven. He wants God to defend him and testify on his behalf that he is innocent. The intercessor is an intermediary beween people or an interpreter. Remember when Joseph encountered his brothers but they did not recognize him and he spoke to them through an interpreter. That person communicated between the two parties.
He is asking God to act like a go between. That person who will explain Job’s case to God which is really interesting. As if God is on both sides of the equation. It seems odd that He’d be asking God to explain the case to God. I like how the one commentary put it. “Job is pushing through the screen of his troubles to the real God”. Despite how it looks, he truly believes that God cares about him and that God is the answer. God gives and God takes away.
In v20 Job is confident that the “interpreter” is his friend. His earthly friends don’t intercede but God does. God will take their place by defending his accused friend, Job. “No wonder these great thoughts cause Job’s eyes to flow with tears”.
We all need someone to plead for us. We should also make intercession for people. And the way to do that is to pray for them as a friend would. What would you want prayed for you if you were in that very situation? You’d want to be healed.
Divine intercession is also brought up in the New Testament. Jesus said that we are his friends. We are to pray in His name. He is the sympathetic high priest that we come to in time of need.
1 Timothy 2:5-6 – For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.
To think that Jesus is going to bat for you. That Jesus prays for us. That he is the one setting the record straight in heaven. It’s an amazing truth. You want someone pleading your case? You have that friend in Jesus.
C. THE NEED OF DIVINE REDEMPTION
Chapter 19:25-27 – I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. 26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; 27 I myself will see him with my own eyes — I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me.
- Redemption
Who is the redeemer? And what is the importance of redemption? A redeemer is someone who frees us from that place of bondage. In the Old Testament there was a kinsman-redeemer. If a near relative were sold into slavery, you would redeem them or buy them back and free up their lives from indebtedness. You might free up their property as well by redeeming that. Buy it back and set it free.
“The primary meaning of this root is to do the part of a kinsman and thus to redeem his kin from difficulty or danger”. The kinsman would pay a price to gain your freedom. God is also known as a redeemer.
Job knows that His redeemer lives. Job was in a terrible situation and in tremendous pain but he knew something important. He had a living rescuer. Therefore his situation was not hopeless. My redeemer lives!!
Exodus 6:6 – “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.
The children of Israel were in bondage and enslaved. They were literally owned by the Egyptians but God sent Moses and with the 10 famous plagues, God set the people free. It’s a concrete parallel to our bondage to sin. We are stuck in it and without divine assistance we will remain stuck. And when you’re stuck, you need rescued.
We need help. God says, “I will free you from being slaves to them”. God wants to free people. And we need to believe that our rescuer lives and in His love wants to redeem us.
What is our spiritual state? We have all sinned. We’re all slaves to sin making sin bricks like the Jewish people slaving for Pharaoh. We are stuck! God helps us to be unstuck. We need that.
Illustration
When it comes to sin, we need redeemed. Ephesians 1:7 – In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
Israel was a slave nation. Once turned lose they were a free nation. This meant that there were slaves no more. Their task masters couldn’t tell them to make bricks any longer. We are freed of our sins. Sin isn’t our boss!
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 – Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
What was the price for our freedom? Mark 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus died to set us free!
When Israel left Egypt, they may have had skill at making bricks and building walls. How many bricks did they make when they left? They were DONE with that! Goodbye bricks! For we as Christians it’s goodbye addiction. Goodbye immorality. Goodbye drunkenness. Goodbye cheating – we are truly redeemed!
He laid down his life as a ransom for us all. He paid the price and YOU ARE FREE! Who needs this message right now? Who needs to hear that they have redemption? When you’ve made mistakes. When you’ve blown it. You need to know that there’s the hope of redemption. And you have redemption because God loves you!
- Resurrection
What a description of the resurrection. Even after I’m destroyed, in my flesh I will see God. I will live again. And that’s an important part.
I’m fascinated to see such important themes in the book of Job! First biblical book written! We need divine forgiveness, divine friendship, and divine redemption. Avail yourself of these things!
As we enter 40 Days of Seeking God may we contemplate these great spiritual truths! If you’re in a tough straight you have a friend. You have a redeemer. Job was talking about things that had not happened yet and that’s the crux of faith. Faith is looking for God to be working in the future and it’s a complete dependence on Him. As such, it’s a beautiful concept.