Our Natural Blind Spot

“He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.” (Ps 10:11 AV)

David is speaking of those who would treat him with wickedness and injustice.  He is speaking of the nature of sinful mankind.  He is speaking of the basic nature of those who do not have a relationship with the LORD is any fashion.  They tend to go about their wicked lives without any cognition of the reality of God.  If God does exist (in their way of thinking), then He does not see and/or does not care of their actions.  They see no immediate justice or, if they do suffer, it is attributed to something other than God himself.  Fate or luck has been unkind.  A natural consequence of a choice.  So forth.  What we should consider is this tendency to forget God in all that we do or experience is not limited to just the wicked.  Those who claim the name of Christ can also get into this mode of forgetting that God sees everything.  Even if we cannot sense it.

I have just read that London, England is the most surveyed city of the world.  Literally, there is no place that is accessible by the public where a camera somewhere isn’t watching.  A particular crime was underway and the authorities located and could track every move the perpetrators made from the time the left their place of organization until they returned.  Footage was even provided of the crime in progress.  Some most of the cameras used were not easily visible.  Hidden in light fixture, behind or in articles on a shelf, or molded into a nick-knack, these cameras could see everything from every angle.  In today’s world, it is impossible to go anywhere without being seen.  How many of us are aware of those cameras?  We go into a large store and we are aware of the dark round objects installed in the ceiling.  Few, if any, knowing they are cameras, altar their behavior because of their presence.  A few years back, I had frozen shoulder syndrome.  This caused me to have my left hand in my jacket pocket all the time.  This attracted the attention of the loss prevention officers.  The tailed me whenever I was shopping.  How did they find me and single me out?  Cameras.

God’s eyes are far more perceptive than man-made cameras.  The eyes of the LORD are literally in every place.  Not only does He see what we do, but His eyes can go right to the depths of our hearts.  He knows what we intend to do, how we feel, and what we are thinking.  Just because God chooses not to exercise chastisement right away does not mean He failed to see.  Or, it could be the thing we are suffering is the correcting hand of God but we fail to attribute is as such because we think God cannot or did not see what we did.

Only One Opportunity

“For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?” (Ps 6:5 AV)

The old-time preachers used to use the phrase, “keep short accounts with God.”  I don’t know who originated that phrase or in exactly what context it was originally was used, but it came to mean that we were to confess our sin before the LORD quickly and often.  The idea was that if we were to meet God this very moment, what sin would we have gone to our graves unresolved and unconfessed.  One of the most impressionable moments I experienced was a message preached by my good friend, Hal Roscoe.  I cannot remember the text or the who theme of the message, but towards the end of his sermon, he drew a word picture that has stuck with me for almost thirty years.  He asked the question:  if we could remove ourselves from our flesh and sit next to ourselves, how would our souls appear?  Would they be white and pure with the righteousness of Christ, or would they appear gray or blackish with unresolved sin?  Then he followed up that question with another.  If we could imagine our true souls’ condition, how would we feel if we immediately appeared in the presence of Christ in glory having not confessed or striven against our wickedness?

The point of our Psalmist is that we have only one life and one opportunity in which we can please the Father in the context of overcoming.  Once that trumpet blows or God requires our souls. All opportunity of sacrifice and self-denial comes to an end.  All the doors that were placed before us are closed.  No longer will we have the opportunity to praise the LORD and testify of Him in the face of opposition.  No longer will be able to come to His throne and seek His forgiveness, promising to strive harder each day to do that which is pleasing in His eyes.  Sure, we will have opportunity to serve the LORD in glory.  But it will not be the same.  There will be no old man to overcome.  There will be no sin nature to chasten and defeat.  There we be no adversary to conquer.  Once this life is gone, there will be no more fight.

We may look at the struggles of life as a hindrance.  But actually, they are opportunities.  They are opportunities to exercise the mind of Christ and we are instructed to put on in the book of Philippians.  That mind of Christ which prefers sacrifice and self-denial is the mind that brings the opportunity to show our love for Christ in a way that eternity cannot.  When we struggle with sin and strive against it, we show our love for Christ.  When we serve in the midst of great obstacles, we are showing our love for Christ.  When we trust Him implicitly even in the midst of hardship, it is an opportunity to show our love for Christ.  These will one day be gone.  In one sense, glory to God.  In another, a missed opportunity.

No Apology Coming

“Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.” (Job 41:11 AV)

God doesn’t owe His creation anything because He owns everything.  The true statement of a Creator! Mankind would be wise to consider this truth.  In a generation that is trained to define life as it individually affects them, this verse is a stab at the heart.  God is addressing Job.  Job questions his purpose for existence.  He questions why the LORD would have created him to begin with.  Job wishes he could pass from this world into eternity.  Job wonders why God would do with him what he did since he sees no benefit.  The statement above is God’s response.

We can get to feeling bad about our situation pretty easy.  What has always astounded me is God’s response to Job when He was the one who allowed it all to happen.  God brought up to Satan the faithfulness of Job.  It wasn’t Satan who desired to try Job.  It was the LORD who allowed Satan to steal from him all his material wealth.  It was Satan who brought invaders to kill his children.  It was Satan who inflicted Job with boils.  But God allowed all this.  The only thing God spared was the one thing Job did not want.  His life.  One would think that God would feel some empathy.  Instead, God chastens Job for his reaction to the trial.  God has every right to bring on us what He will.  He does not have to justify himself.  Besides, to empathize would mean God was apologizing for allowing it all to happen in the first place. 

God does not have to answer for what He causes or allows.  As Creator, He has the right to do that which He pleases with that which He has made.  We will not sit here and find fault with Job because given the same set of circumstances, it is highly doubtful we would fare any better.  What we can do is look at Job’s circumstances, see his complaints, then compare our situation against his.  If God did not tolerate Job’s musing over far worse, then certainly He will not tolerate our musings over the comparatively far less.  He owns us.  Whether we accept this or not.  It really doesn’t matter.  He will do as He wishes and we have no right to question or judge!

No Knowledge, No Answer

“Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.” (Job 37:19 AV)

Elihu was the only honest one.  He correctly states there is a lack of sound logic in finding the cause of Job’s problems.  The reason he gives is stated above.  They are walking in darkness.  They do not have enough information to determine God’s intent or cause for such circumstances.  They have failed to find fault with Job.  They assume there is fault, or will be fault, and that alone justifies God’s actions towards Job.  But they cannot find and specific cause or sin of which Job is guilty.  Elihu takes it upon himself to defend the LORD.  He does not directly accuse Job of any specific sin nor does he condemn Job in any specific statement as being wicked.  What he does do is clarify statements which Job made because he misinterpreted Job’s statements.  His utterance above is an honest one.  One that concludes all of man’s wisdom before God speaks.

There is a time to admit that we don’t know as much as we think we know.  There are times to separate fact from opinion.  Elihu was the only honest one here.  Probably because of his youth and being surrounded by elderly and wiser men, he admits his limitations.  In doing so, he also admits these same limitations on the others.  This statement above is also a prayer which Elihu offers up to the LORD.  He is admitting this on behalf of all assembled to the LORD because they cannot make sense of, what seems to be, senseless events.  He is admitting to the LORD they have exhausted all human reasoning and cannot come to a sound explanation.  He is being transparent before the LORD for all of them.  This is why God’s answer follows Elihu’s prayer.

Admitting that we don’t have the answer of solution is hard.  Specially for men.  We are wired to fix things.  We are programmed to find a solution and advance.  Life is a challenge, not an experience.  We see obstacles and we want to overcome them.  Our ego and pride will not accept defeat.  If there is a discussion, we have a point of view that needs to be considered.  One of the great practical truths that we learned in Bible College is how to say, “I don’t know, but I can get back to you on that.”  Ignorance may be a weakness, but admitting ignorance is not.  It shows humility and dependency.  Both towards the One who has all the answers!

Owning Your Utterances

“For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.” (Job 34:9 AV)

If we are going to utter all that is on our hearts in times of deep duress, we have to be prepared, at some point, to own the words that we say.  The above statement was Elihu, the youngest of Job’s counselors, recalling two statements that Job had uttered.  To give Job the benefit of the doubt, the first was in comparison to the wicked.  If the wicked and the just both suffer the same, then what profit is there in serving and fearing the LORD.  The second statement was in the context of what he had lost.  If he feared and served the LORD, he would never regain what he had lost.  His family was gone forever.  Job was not making a statement of totality that serving the LORD or delighting himself in the LORD brings no blessings at all.  However, he did say it.  And for saying it, Elihu was justified in clearing up the simplest meaning of what Job was believed to have suggested.

We all say things under duress that are oversimplified representations of a truth.  We utter things that are not completely thought out and articulated in the best way possible.  We know what we meant.  Stress had led us to say it in such a way that it was misrepresented and had the potential of being misunderstood.  We have all been there.  We have even gone so far as to utter things about the LORD that may not have been completely correct.  We were simply venting off stress built up by severe trial and expressing more how we felt that what we truly think.  If we could, we would take it back.  Venting is part of the process.  If we cannot vent and release the emotion tied to our situation, then we cannot begin the process of thinking clearly.  We must remember, however, the statements which we make while venting may indeed come back to us and need correcting, explanation, or down right rebuke.

Elihu was correct in making an observation about these two statements Job made.  He misunderstood the emotions behind them and missed the obscure context in which they were uttered, but he was correct is righting the misconception that delighting in God has no profit.  Elihu may have been full of himself.  But what he was attempting to do was to further expound on the statements of Job to put them in the better light of God’s sovereignty.  Elihu brought the discussion down from high emotional utterances to perhaps trying to think more theologically.  God never rebukes Elihu.  Not because Elihu was totally right in everything that was said.  Because he clearly was not.  Rather, perhaps he got a pass because he was trying to calm the emotions down as refocus on God rather than on Job.

The Trap of Ethical Profitability

“This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.” (Job 31:28 AV)

That to which Job is referring is a reliance on the wealth and means that he has attained.  What needs to be remembered is the wealth and means he has, was attained by disciplined and ethical industry.  The means he has was not gained by violating his conscience nor taking advantage of others.  His gains were legitimate and a testimony to his character.  Yet, even being an honest and successful businessman can be a stumbling block to a relationship with the LORD.  To rely upon one’s own success as the source of one’s faith is to deny the LORD that is above.

Over the years, I have known many successful people and several very wealthy businessmen.  Going way back to my childhood, I was good friends with a boy whose family owned four lumber yards.  I was also friends with the son of one of the wealthiest families in our little town.  I never was allowed to go over to his home or met his family.  We were good school chums.  Then there were the countless very wealthy clients for whom I caddied several summers ago.  I have even known several wealthy Christian businessmen down through the years.  A rare thing to see is a wealthy individual who walks with both fear and humility towards the LORD above.  Not that they were outwardly and obnoxiously arrogant.  Not at all.  They were self-assured.  As any of us would be.  But very few realized their means were fleeting and at any time, the LORD above could take it all away.  Very few had a vision far enough ahead that eternity was their greatest concern.  Very few were faithfully religious, let alone, saved.  Their means, although ethically and honestly earned, still became the source of security and assurance rather than the God who created them all.

Job, by all standards, one of the wealthiest men at the time, still feared God and eschewed evil.  He still walked with God and saw his material gains for what they were.  Temporary and for the use of God’s glory.  Many have heard of the testimony of R. G. LeTourneau, a businessman who used his success for the glory of God.  Vowing to live off ten percent of his wealth and using ninety percent for the work of God, his fingerprint is all over our nation.  That was a man of character who understood who God is and what his relationship with God needed to be.  Perhaps one of the reasons we do not have all that we desire is that in having those things, we might deny the God above.

Falsely Fessing Up Finds Fault

“God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.” (Job 27:5-7 AV)

It appears here Job is stating that to agree with his three friends that his situation was caused by sin; past, present, or future; would be akin to reproaching himself, justifying them, and would be a failure of integrity.  When he states his righteousness he holds fast, he could be saying that he maintains that he is righteous and not suffering the chastening of God.  He also states that he will not remove his integrity for the remainder of his life, thus I believe, suggesting that copping to something of which he is not guilty, would indeed be akin to a lapse of that integrity.

There are several ways to look at this.  There is the angel of obstruction of justice.  Someone claims responsibility for a crime which he did not commit to take the heat of the one who actually stands guilty.  Confessing to a crime which one did not commit can be seen as a crime in and of itself.  Then there is confessing to a crime out of ignorance.  One thinks he is guilty, but upon further investigation, his actions were not wrong.  Then there is confession simply to relieve the pressure of interrogation.  One feels overwhelmed by the accusation and cannot escape the pressure, so he confesses to something he did not do simply because the process was too hard to bear.  Or, perhaps there is a threat to someone he cares for unless he confesses to a crime in which he did not commit.

No matter how we look at it, it is wrong to take responsibility for sin which we did not commit.  I have made this error is judgment in the past.  I have made a decision in good faith, only to have it bite me down the road.  Thinking it was punishment for a sinful choice, after meditation, realized that indeed it was actions in good faith with integrity intact, yet unforeseen circumstances made the decision look as though it was more than misguided.  Sometimes we deal with guilt that is not ours to accept.  Sometimes we are in the wrong when indeed we are not.  Sometimes we allow the devil to succeed in his objective of being the accuser of the brethren.  To accept blame for sins not committed is a sin in and of itself!