Category: Bible (Page 261 of 360)

We’ve all spoken without thinking. As the saying goes, more than once I’ve opened my mouth and inserted my foot. Job’s friends proved pretty good at this as well.

I like Job’s response to their commentary: If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom.

Silence = Wisdom.

I find this to be true. I’m better off listening before speaking, and sometimes listening and not speaking at all. When people are in pain, like Job, advice falls flat. Timing matters, and frequently I’m not ready to hear opinions even if offered in good faith. Presence, with silence, makes for better consolation.

For seven days and seven nights Job’s friends sat with him in silence. They watched him suffer and stayed by his side. Their presence helped. Then, they started to speak, which annoyed Job to no end.

Words kill, word give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose (Proverbs 18:21 in The Message).

I choose how and when I use my words. Often the best choice is not to use them at all.

Job 13 in week fifty-one of reading the Bible cover to cover

Job and His Friends (1869) by Ilya Repin

Without our permission, 2021 draws to a close. After the rush and joy of Christmas, we naturally turn toward the new year. Many of us start to wonder, what might I do different next year?

Here’s a suggestion—join me in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022. While it’s challenging, and the payoff arrives slowly, a newfound depth of understanding God and your place in his world makes the investment worthwhile. Nothing substitutes for reading the scriptures.

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).

When you read and consider the word of God you introduce a mysterious, smoldering presence into your life. Like a virus, God’s values infect your soul. Using thick roots burrowing deep and wide, the Holy Spirit directs your mind and heart in new directions. You gain handholds for both the difficult, and enjoyable, times of life.

Here’s a thought as you evaluate your old year and now consider 2022—if you spend 30 minutes a day on social media, you can read through the Bible in a year.

Infuse your root system with the word of God. I’ll do it with you.

Photo by James Wheeler

Warfare in heaven. The images that pop in my head involve superhero movies, with massive explosions, bizarre creatures zipping through the galaxy, and worlds melting—a fun bit of entertainment.

In Revelation we read of the real thing. Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. The battle turned against the rebellious ones. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.

Satan’s enters the story of humanity at the beginning and remains to the end. In the book of Job, we see Satan manipulating circumstances to entice a good man to curse God and die. In our day, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, look for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Satan left the heavens to wage war against those who keep God’s commands and hold fast to their testimony about Jesus.

Satan comes after believers. Hard to imagine such evil exists until, of course, you take a close look around the world. I find it hard to believe in demons, but if I believe in angels, then belief in devils must follow. The Bible clearly speaks of both.

To our salvation, Satan melts before the living God. Jesus showed his power over demons again and again. As believers we are told we should resist the devil, by standing firm in the faith (1 Peter 5:9). Martin Luther claimed to have fended off the devil by throwing a handful of his feces at him. I cannot recommend this practice, but resist in whatever way works for you.

A career that began in the heavens eventually ends in a pit. But in the meantime Satan, the patron saint of psychopaths, walks our world enraged and effective. Let us resist him, stand firm in our faith, and hold fast to our testimony about Jesus.

Revelation 12 in week fifty in reading the Bible cover to cover.

Photo by Austrian National Library of World War One destruction to the altar in the church of Segusino

Job, in his anguish and pain, felt deeply separated from God. He saw no hope for himself, for anyone really, in the hands of a distant and unhearing God. Perhaps you’ve felt the same? I know I have. Job shares these thoughts:

He (God) is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.

Sound familiar? Job, in some of the earliest words written in our Bible, asked for a mediator between God and man. He called for Jesus, without knowing anything about Jesus or hearing a prophecy of a messiah.

Job didn’t know of Jesus, but Job knew he needed someone like Jesus.

Someone to bring us together. I can’t think of better words, a more beautiful phrase, to describe what Jesus accomplished. Jesus brings us together with God. Jesus removes God’s rod from us and God’s terror need frighten us no more. Now we may speak with the Lord, through our mediator, who sits at God’s right hand and makes intercession for us.

It helps me to imagine Job, sitting in the dark, experiencing unbelievable loss, scraping skin eruptions all over his body with a broken shard of pottery, and wishing to die. Hopeless. Yet still believing, and desperately calling for someone to bridge the gap between him and God.

Job’s not the only one who’s sat in that place. You and I have as well. We all face pain and heartache and disappointment and tragedy. The only difference? The mediator waits for you and me to come, to speak and approach the Lord.

This incredible privilege, denied to Job, waits available to me and you and all who come together with Jesus.

Job 9 in week fifty of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Daniel Lerman