Job 42: 5-6
My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."
God in the Bible speaks of Job as a righteous man and in more than one passage is highly recommended for being an upright man. However in this passage we read, Job is seen repenting in dust and ashes. Which leads us to ask - if Job was a righteous man, what did he need to repent of? And also, what led to this repentance?
The answer to the first question can be obtained if we read the first few verses of chapter 32. We find that Job had stubbornly held on to his position of being righteous in his own eyes. Also, at various points he had questioned the judgement of God in permitting him to go through suffering in spite of being righteous. Yes, he did not sin against God in deliberately breaking the laws of God, but his weakness was his claim to a self-righteousness which to his point of view should have exempted him from suffering which befalls ordinary humans. However there comes a point when God questions this assumption of his and asks - does Job know everything in the world to be able to claim that God wa unjust to him? Job had to humbly admit that he did not. He had to repent of his attitude which sought to justify himself in God's sight.
The answer to the second question is enlightening - all the while God had a knowledge of God based on what he heard but at this point he has a personal revelation of God. And when he does have that, he had to admit that he did not have any right to ask the questions he did. And also compared to the holiness of God, his own righteousness was as nothing. And this led to repentance. We see a similar situation with the prophet Isaiah who had a vision of God. Also Peter in the gospel of Luke, when he realised who Jesus was had nothing left to say besides- "Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man".
The moment Job repented, he had a proper perspective of where he stood in the overall plan of God. And then God goes ahead and blesses him with twice as much as he had before.
Let's examine our own hearts. Do we have a righteousness that comes from our claims or do come to God in humility and admit that we need his forgiveness and Grace that he offers in Christ Jesus? When we do that, we will experience the fullness of the blessing that God offers.
God Bless!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Pre-requisites to an offering
Lev 2:11 Every grain offering you bring to the LORD must be made without yeast, for you are not to burn any yeast or honey in an offering made to the LORD by fire
Lev 2: 13 Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings
We are sometimes confused by the rituals and offerings mentioned in the Old Testament. While it is true that the OT sacrifices were temporal in nature till the coming of the promised sacrifice i.e Christ, they also served as a shadow of the things to come.
Today as the new testament church, we no longer have any animal/grain sacrifices as we see in the Old Testament. But we do have certain sacrifices that we offer whenever we come to the presence of the Lord to worship him.
Romans 12:1 mentions that we are to offer ourselves as living and holy sacrifices. Heb 13:15 says that we are to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
In the passage we read from Leviticus, we see two specialities of the grain offering. Firstly, they were not to have any yeast and secondly, they were always to have salt.
1 Cor 5:8 refers to the presence of yeast in bread to indicate impurity in our worship and goes on to say that our sacrifices of praise to God must be offered in sincerity and truth.
Mark 9:50 refers to salt to indicate peace with our fellow believers. Also we understand that salt by its nature flavors the food/environment that it is present in.
In other words, the old testament sacrifices indicated two key pre-requisites which we do well to adopt into our modern day worship of God i.e sincerity to God and peace with one another. When that is present, we can be sure that the Lord is pleased with our offering to Him.
God Bless!
Lev 2: 13 Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings
We are sometimes confused by the rituals and offerings mentioned in the Old Testament. While it is true that the OT sacrifices were temporal in nature till the coming of the promised sacrifice i.e Christ, they also served as a shadow of the things to come.
Today as the new testament church, we no longer have any animal/grain sacrifices as we see in the Old Testament. But we do have certain sacrifices that we offer whenever we come to the presence of the Lord to worship him.
Romans 12:1 mentions that we are to offer ourselves as living and holy sacrifices. Heb 13:15 says that we are to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
In the passage we read from Leviticus, we see two specialities of the grain offering. Firstly, they were not to have any yeast and secondly, they were always to have salt.
1 Cor 5:8 refers to the presence of yeast in bread to indicate impurity in our worship and goes on to say that our sacrifices of praise to God must be offered in sincerity and truth.
Mark 9:50 refers to salt to indicate peace with our fellow believers. Also we understand that salt by its nature flavors the food/environment that it is present in.
In other words, the old testament sacrifices indicated two key pre-requisites which we do well to adopt into our modern day worship of God i.e sincerity to God and peace with one another. When that is present, we can be sure that the Lord is pleased with our offering to Him.
God Bless!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
