Prospects and Promises

   The news challenges our confidence about the future concerning our families, our friends, our communities, our nation, and ourselves.  Fear sells, and the fear mongers possess modern tools to keep images and ideas of impending danger ever before us, 24/7.

   The Good News, conversely, comforts and encourages our confidence in the God who awaits us at every destination and contingency to come.  "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (II Timothy 1:7).

   Who knows what awaits us in the future, whether personally or corporately?  Ah yes, there is Someone who knows!  "His understanding is infinite" (Psalm 147:5).  Moreover, the God who perfectly sees the future as clearly as the present promises to be with His trusting children come what may, and to be everything -and more -  we will need Him to be.  "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.  My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth" (Psalm 121:1-2).  

   Facing today and tomorrow apart from such Truth makes for an uncertain heart at best, and a fearful one at worst.  No need exists for such a dark life of trepidation.  Every troubling prospect offers the opportunity to embrace God's triumphant promises in Christ.  Does He know what is coming of both blessedness and challenge?  Yes.  Will He be with us in all, filling our blessings with glory, and our challenges with grace? Yes.  Thus, no need exists for dread because the Good News transcends any and all prospects of trouble.  As David declared, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee" (Psalm 56:3).  Troubling prospects?  Triumphant promises!  Our Heavenly Father offers hope and help in all things, calling us to overcome fear and the fear mongers in the assurance of His power, love, and sound mind.

I don't know what tomorrow holds,

but I know Who holds tomorrow

in the palm of His hand, His nail-pierced hand,

Yes, I know Who holds tomorrow.

And this is peace, this is peace.

I don't know how the road will bend,

but I know I will not go without my Friend.

For deep in my spirit, His Spirit lives,

and grace for each journey I've learned that He gives.

And this is peace, this is peace.

I know this, that wherever I go,

I'll find Him there for yes it's true, tomorrow He holds.

And though I can't tell the path that lies ahead of me,

I gaze into the darkness and the Way I plainly see.

And this is peace, this is peace.

"He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid."

(Psalm 112:7-8)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

(Psalm 150:6)

Job - The Foreshadowing Part 15

    "So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning" (Job 42:12).  

    "Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:8-11).

    The book of Job ends happily after the sad chronicle of heartbreak, loss, and pain.  Doubtless Job bore scars on his body and in his heart from the trial, particularly regarding the loss of his children.  He experienced vindication and blessing, however, because he faithfully overcame the devil's attempt to prod Job into cursing God to His face.  Thus, Job's "latter end" transcended by far the blessedness he had previously known (Job 42:11-17).

    We vividly behold the foreshadowing of the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in Job's experience of bounty, loss, and the gain of greater bounty.  Glorious beyond words as God the Son before His human incarnation, our Savior shines even more brightly as the God who is man, and the man who is God.  The wounds of Calvary upon His glorified hands, feet, and side bear witness to the very essence of the Divine nature, character, and way: "God is love" (I John 4:8).  He overcame every temptation in a lifetime of ongoing challenge.  Thus, "God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36).  As with Job, His latter end is more blessed than His previous glory, a wondrous thing to suggest about an infinite Being - "Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh" (I Timothy 3:16).

   Had we known Job before his trial, we would have considered him a man greatly blessed.  After his trial, however, we would have been far more impressed by a man not only blessed, but also illuminated by an inner glory that only comes through great challenge.  As Job himself confessed to the Lord, "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seethe Thee" (Job 42:5).    In similar manner, the Lord so glorious before His earthly life, death, and resurrection now thrills us far more because He will forever reign as the crucified, risen, and ascended Christ.  Yes, the glory of "the latter end" transcended Job's beginning, and in the mystery of godliness, it transcends even the glory of He who had no beginning.

"And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for ever and ever."

(Revelation 5:11-14)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

(Psalm 150:6)

Job - The Foreshadowing Part 14

    "The Lord turned the captivity of Job when He prayed for His friends" (Job 42:10).  

    "Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).

    Both Job and the Lord Jesus Christ prayed for those responsible for much of their misery.  In Job's case, his friends, "miserable comforters" that they were, required intercession in order to escape the wrath of God for their foolish condemnation of a godly man (Job 16:2).  The Lord Jesus interceded both in prayer and in death for those who made no pretense to friendship.  "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Romans 5:7-10).

    Job foreshadowed such Divinely unselfish grace and mercy, as revealed in humanity.  The Lord Jesus fulfilled and perfectly exemplified it.  Now, His Spirit lives in us to "aftershadow", as it were, the same quality of character whereby God displays His loving heart in our particular sphere of influence.  "Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Ephesians 4:32).  "He delighteth in mercy" declared the prophet Micah (Micah 7:18).  God loves to forgive - "joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth" (Luke 15:7).  Moreover, He loves to motivate and enable mercy in us, revealing the love of Christ not only to and for us, but within and through us.  "The love of God is shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).

    Mercy, of course, does not comprise our natural reaction to offense.  We rather mope and perhaps even strike back at others who wrong us.  The sad chronicle of human history, both corporately and personally, confirms unto this hour the foreign nature of mercy to the flow of our humanity.  Only the Spirit of God can motivate and enable the forgiveness that perhaps most glorifies and reveals the Lord Jesus in us.  Indeed, the same body of Christ that proclaims the forgiveness of God most confirms its reality by our practice thereof, as enabled by the indwelling Spirit of the Lord Jesus.  His delight becomes our delight when we recognize that the character of our Savior inhabits us for the love of mercy.  "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us" (Ephesians 5:2).

   A final thought.   We cannot escape the fact that Job's trial ended "when he prayed for his friends."   Somehow the welfare of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had much to do with Job's sufferings, and with their end.  Obviously, these men knew little of God and His ways before the trial, and before they so savagely and unjustly attacked their friend.  Scripture does not record the aftermath of Job's intercession for his accusers, but we can only suppose that the episode must have been life changing to Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, even as it was to Job.  Certainly, the same effects of mercy will ensue in those for whom we pray rather than enact vengeance.  Indeed, ongoing difficulties in dealing with the wrongs of others call us to the same altar Job visited for his offenders.  Such trials will end for us as they did for Job, at least within our hearts from which the issues of life proceed, when we realize our blessed opportunity to serve as the aftershadowing of our merciful Savior.

"I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."

(Matthew 5:44-45)

Weekly Memory Verse

    And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

(II Thessalonians 3:5)