11-21-14, Job 37:1-24. God Does Not Oppress-Therefore Revere Him- my devotional

Job 37:1-24                                                                                                             Kevin E. Jesmer

Key verse 37:23, 24                                                                                                 11-21-14

“23 The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress. 24 Therefore, people revere him, for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?”

Lord, open my heart and mind and soul to your word. Guide me in the light of your truth. I thank you and I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Part 1: Stop Your Labor For A Time And Behold The Glory of God (1-13 )

Verses 1-13, “At this my heart pounds and leaps from its place. 2 Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth. 3 He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth. 4 After that comes the sound of his roar; he thunders with his majestic voice. When his voice resounds, he holds nothing back. 5 God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. 6 He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ 7 So that everyone he has made may know his work, he stops all people from their labor. 8 The animals take cover; they remain in their dens. 9 The tempest comes out from its chamber, the cold from the driving winds. 10 The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen. 11 He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them. 12 At his direction they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever he commands them. 13 He brings the clouds to punish people, or to water his earth and show his love.” (NIV)

In Job 37:1-13, Elihu leads Job to behold the glory of God even while he sits in his suffering. In this, he is going in the right direction, with his counseling of Job. (But later he veers off in the wrong direction.) When Elihu thinks about God, his soul responds. “At this my heart pounds and leaps from its place.” (1) Elihu is basically preparing Job to listen to God’s voice out of the storm. “Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth.” (2) Elihu is awestruck when he sees God’s mighty hand in nature. God hurls lightning to the earth. He tells the rain to become a downpour which makes men stop work and run for cover. Nothing can compare to God. His power and presence are awesome and when he speaks, we must give him thanks and praise and most importantly…listen to him, even when we are sitting in the midst of a storm of life.

Why does God send great natural storms? Elihu states in verse 7,”So that everyone he has made may know his work, he stops all people from their labor.” I am OK with this. A thunder storm or a polar vortex is a good opportunity to stop what we are doing, look to the heavens and behold the glory of God.

I am reminded how King David responded when he beheld the glory of God in 1 Chronicles 29:10-13, “ David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, “Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. 11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. 12 Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. 13 Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.” (NIV)

Our awesome and mighty God speaks. God cares. God is not absent or unconcerned when we are hunkered down in the storms of our lives. He is in control of all creation and he will speak to us. We need to be ready to hear his message. There are many ways that God speaks. He speaks to us the Bible; in your life events; through the whisperings of the Holy Spirit within our hearts; and through our circumstances and relationships; and also in nature.

I am excited about Job 37.  I am excited because a portion of this passage is about God and his glory and how he speaks to us in our storms of life.  How easy it is for us to just focus on the does and don’t of Christian living in our meditations about God and take our eyes off of the One whom we love and adore, Jesus Christ. It seems that Christians are consumed with making their own Midrish and Talmud, a set of proper interpretations and responses, instead of extolling God and his glory. If this is all we are doing, then we are forfeiting a lot of the life God has for us. In him is life. (Jn 1:4) We need to have the right proportions of both, but definitely more so beholding the glory of Jesus. We need to definitely get back to praising the Lord wherever we are at and not exclusively constructing a Christian self-help book or moral rules.

I pray to have that same response as Elihu. I pray that my heart may leap and pound to hear the voice of God and behold his glory. I am once again reminded of King David in Psalm 42:1-3, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” (NIV)

Elihu started out so well in this Job 37, leading Job to behold the glory of God. (1-12) But then he veered off in the wrong direction with his counseling. Job 37:13 reads, “He brings the clouds to punish people, or to water his earth and show his love.” God does not bring storms to punish people. Yet he does bring storms to take care of creation and show his love.

How can I interpret storms of life coming my way? I would first of all draw near to the Lord and try to find my answers in Christ. Maybe God is calling be to deeper repentance and faith. Maybe he intends to mature and strengthen my faith. Maybe, through the storm, God is leading me and my family into a very difficult mission to reveal the glory of God and the beauty of the Gospel, through living by faith in the midst of the storm. Whatever the case, God is not punishing me by allowing me to be drawn into suffering. God is love. He works through storms to “water the earth and show his love.” He does not subject us to storms to punish us.

Part 2: Have The Wisdom To Revere a Gracious God.  (15-24)

Verses 15-24, “Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders. 15 Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash? 16 Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who has perfect knowledge? 17 You who swelter in your clothes when the land lies hushed under the south wind, 18 can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze? 19 “Tell us what we should say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness. 20 Should he be told that I want to speak? Would anyone ask to be swallowed up? 21 Now no one can look at the sun, bright as it is in the skies after the wind has swept them clean. 22 Out of the north he comes in golden splendor; God comes in awesome majesty. 23 The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress. 24 Therefore, people revere him, for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?” (NIV)

There are glimpses of the Gospel, even in Elihu’s speech in Job 37:15-24. He may not have even known what he was saying, but it is there. Elihu asks Job to stop to consider two things; his own human limitations and the mighty works of God (14). The end result of such reflection is to know how helpless we are to reach God on our own. Then he draws the conclusion that God does not oppress and that we are to revere God and in true wisdom come before him. Let’s see…

First, consider your human condition. Job is like any other person, very limited. Look at verses 15-18, “15 Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash? 16 Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who has perfect knowledge? 17 You who swelter in your clothes when the land lies hushed under the south wind, 18 can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze?”  God’s controls natural elements. He has perfect knowledge. But we are steeped in weakness. When it is hot outside, we swelter in our clothes, subject to the elements. On our own volition we can not join God in his wonderful works. However he does draw us alongside him as he des his work. This is by his grace alone. Knowing our human condition prepares our heart to meet Jesus personally.

Second, consider the separation that exists between people and God Almighty. Look at verses 19-23, “Tell us what we should say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness. 20 Should he be told that I want to speak? Would anyone ask to be swallowed up? 21 Now no one can look at the sun, bright as it is in the skies after the wind has swept them clean. 22 Out of the north he comes in golden splendor; God comes in awesome majesty. 23 The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.” There is a huge separation between us and God. God is almighty. In our fallen state, we are mired in the darkness and therefore helpless to draw up our case before the great king. God is extremely holy, so holy that he lives in unapproachable light. God is so majestic, so awesome so splendorous. Indeed, God is beyond our human attempts to reach him.

Is there any way to connect with this majestic and awesome God? Yes there is. Elihu, unknowingly alludes to it in verses 23, “The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.”  Yes, God is beyond our reach. Yes, God is exalted in power and we are struggling in our weaknesses and our sins. Yes his is just and righteous. He is all of these things. Normally these qualities would separate us from God for eternity. But Elihu says,…..”he does not oppress.”  (23)

God could oppress us. In fact, before meeting Jesus, we were heading towards the judgment seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:10 reads, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”  We were separated from God because of our sins and like separated (cut) branches, we would wither and die only to be gathered and burned. (John 15:6) In all of this we could not blame God. It is because of our sin.

But this is not the end for those who have faith in Jesus. For such people, God “does not oppress.” He does not oppress because he forgives. He overlooks our offenses. He deals with us with grace. God is still just and righteous and awesome, even though he forgives and accepts sinners. He can do this because of Jesus. John 3:16 reads, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus is the ransom sacrifice sent to this world to be sacrificed on the cross and procure for us the complete forgiveness of sins. That is why John the Baptist cries out in John 1:29, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”  God does not oppress sinners because of Jesus our Redeemer, our Savior. His shed blood opened all people, who were lost in the darkness of sin to come to God and taste his salvation. God is good. He does not oppress.

Because God does not oppress sinners, we can come to him and revere him (24). Without this grace we would only be living in fear, despair and condemnation. But Jesus sets us free indeed! We can worship him and love him and admire him. God will accept us as we come before the thrown of God.

      God recognizes and rewards true wisdom. Look at verse 24b,“…Does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?” (24b)  The truly wise in heart seek the Lord. There is a saying, concerning the Magi, who sought Jesus in a manger. The saying goes, “Wise men still seek him.”  Those who seek the Lord, early find him. Proverbs 8:17 reads, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” One verse that I hold onto is Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  God is gracious. He is forgiving. He has a regard for the wise in heart, especially for those with wisdom to seek his face and his kingdom as top priority in their lives. God is the one who imparts even this “mustard seed” of wisdom. All this is made possible because if Jesus and the Gospel. Thank you Lord. We revere you!

Prayer: “Lord, thank you for stopping me and helping me to behold your glory. Help me always to look to Jesus, beholding his majesty and knowing of his grace to not oppress.”

One Word: God is the Almighty Creator. Seek his face in our struggles of life.