Majestic Yet Meek

An Overwhelming Mystery

This past week I've been reflecting and meditating a lot on Job 38-41. Basically, God established His sovereignty over Job -- in my opinion, he's the last person I'd feel would need this revelation -- but regardless of how strong an individual's faith may be, everyone needs to understand just how sovereign and majestic God is.
These four chapters at the end of the book of Job really do that wonderfully. Reading through them opened my eyes to the reality of who this God is that I've been praying to for the past 14 years of my life. The wonder of what my relationship with God has been like and how it really should be brought me to tears in utter humility. 

Here's just an excerpt of some of the most powerful parts of this section in Job:

"Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
Can you set their dominion over the earth?

Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
That an abundance of water may cover you?
Can you send out lightnings, that they may go,
And say to you, "Here we are!"?
Who has put wisdom in the mind? 
Or who has given understanding to the heart?
Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven,
When the dust hardens in clumps,
And the clods cling together?
...

Would you indeed annul My judgement?
Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?
Have you an arm like God?
Or can you thunder with a voice like His?
Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor,
And array yourself with glory and beauty.
Disperse the rage of your wrath;
Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him.
Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low;
Tread down the wicked in their place.
Hide them in the dust together,
Bind their faces in hidden darkness.
Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand
can save you." (Job 38:33-38; 40:7-14)

This is just the tip of the iceberg of God establishing His sovereignty to Job. But what I loved was Job's response to God:

"Behold, I am vile;
What shall I answer You? 
I lay my hand over my mouth.
Once I have spoken, but I will not answer;
Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further." (Job 40:4-5)

This was exactly my response before God after I read this account. I am absolutely humbled before the presence of this Almighty God. My whole being marvels at the awesomeness of this majestic God and YET this God chooses to have a relationship with me! It's utterly overwhelming and I have never felt so precious and loved in my life as I do knowing just how GREAT God is; that David can say in Psalm 139 "Lord, You have searched me and known me."

This takes me into the hymn we sang this morning during the Lord's Supper: Meekness and Majesty.
My heart, having meditated on the majesty of God all week, was overcome and baffled by the truth of the crucifixion of Christ. Putting that song into the context of Job 38-41 makes the sacrifice of Christ so much more meaningful than it has ever been in my life.

"Meekness and majesty

Manhood and deity
In perfect harmony, the man who is God
Lord of eternity dwells in humanity
Kneels in humility and washes our feet"

Before I get to the other verses, let's just take a pause here. The majestic God who establishes His great sovereignty in Job 38-41 dwells within me and washed the feet of sinners like me. 

Oh what an act of humility! My mind cannot comprehend this! 
How He loves us so to be made lower than the angels although He is the One who commands the lightning bolt and tells it where to go; He is the One who tells the sea "this far you may go, but no further"; He is the One who can shut up the Leviathan and make him serve Him! 

"Oh what a mystery! Meekness and Majesty!"

Truly a mystery! Utterly mind-boggling. 

The next verse of the hymn goes like this:

"Father's pure radiance,
Perfect in innocence
Yet learns obedience to death on a cross
Suffering to give us life
Conquering through sacrifice
And as they crucify prays, 'Father forgive'"

This sovereign Christ came down in the form of man and learned obedience by subjecting to His Father's will by dying on the cross. Why does He need to learn obedience? Shouldn't He be commanding us to be obedient and serve Him instead of taking our punishment upon Himself? 

We do not have any right or reason to feel like we deserve anything good from God based on the account of Job 38-41 and the reality of our sinful nature. Yet, God chooses not only to give us a chance to have eternal life and our debt paid for, but also to bless us daily! This brings tears of thanksgiving to my eyes. I do not deserve the blessings that God has showered upon me since the day of my birth. 

I have digressed however, from the hymn. So going back to this second verse, the last line shows the depth of God's love for us. As the men were crucifying Him -- still being sovereign and Lord over all -- He prays intercession for His murderers! His love for them is unshaken despite their horrendous actions towards Him. This was the Man who created them! Yet they rejected Him -- not understanding just how majestic and awesome He is -- while he responded in forgiveness. 

If this is not the ultimate act of love, I don't know what is. 

And this is the way the Lord is with us as well! I am absolutely disgusted at the lack of obedience I give God on a daily basis; how I overlook and ignore some of His commandments for me because I want to submit to my own fleshly desires; how I do not give Him enough of my time in worship and getting to know Him better through His Word; how I quench His Spirit when He wants me to act out in love and faith to a needy stranger or friend. Oh how I don't deserve the constant love and forgiveness He has shown me!!
"I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene; and wonder how He could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean."

Since this post is already long enough, what I'll do is post the last verse of the hymn below and I encourage you to reflect on it considering what you have read about the sovereignty and majesty of God from the account in Job. 

"Wisdom unsearchable,
God the invisible
Love indestructible in frailty appears
Lord of infinity stooping so tenderly
Lifts our humanity to the heights of His throne."

God bless,
Anny

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Prayer for Courage

Father, give us the strength and courage 

to stand up for our faith against all odds 

when the world seems to be screaming hatred towards your teachings.

 Let us not find shame in your precepts but to stand up firmly

in favour of them without hesitation and doubt. 

Give us the wisdom to discern between wrong and right in

 a world where "wrong" and "right" are interchangeable. 

We just pray that you fill us with your Spirit 

so that we can be holy just like Noah. 

You called him the only pure and holy man of his age. 

Oh God, we pray earnestly that you give us the strength in this day to be like him 

and to continuously be reminded of what is truly important.

 Keep our eyes focused on eternity. 

Amen

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Peace From Obedience

"And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him:and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together." (1 Kings 5:12)

Solomon lived the beginning of his reign over Israel according to God's commands. He carried on David's alliances and lived up to the name of being his father's son. Because Solomon obeyed God, he had prosperity and peace. 

I find that whenever I'm doing the right thing and living the right way, my life seems peaceful and perfect. Even when I'm faced with trials, I'm not shaken as much as I would have been if I had been living sinfully.

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Conviction of the Intention

2 Samuel 23:15-17
"And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem,

which is by the gate! And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David:nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord. And he said, Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this:is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men."

This ties in with the previous devotion. Here, David had just been in battle with the Philistines and he becomes thirsty. 

His flesh has a desire and it specifically desires the water from the well of Bethlehem. He could have asked for water from any well but it had to be from that well. 

So 3 devoted men went out to get the water. However, they had to go through Philistine territory in order to get it for David. 

No doubt they had to fight their way to the well. They risked their lives because of David's fleshly desires. 

When they return from their "quest", David discovers the struggle they went through and he feels so guilty for the risk he had put these men in, just for water. 

Now his spirit is kicks in and convicts him. David allows the spirit to overpower his flesh. 

The Matthew Henry commentary brings up a very interesting point: the potential for the blood of these 3 devoted men to be on the hands of David because of a desire of the flesh might have brought up the tormenting memory of what he did to Uriah because he wanted Uriah's wife, Bathsheba. So the thought of possibly repeating that scenario disgusted David that he didn't want anything to do with that water and offered to to the Lord and instantly repented for what he did. 

So what happened here was he recognized the danger of his flesh and countered it with his spiritual conviction and repented for the sin that could have happened but didn't. He still felt responsible for the unshed blood of these men because there was potential for them to get harmed.

What he did was the right thing. So often I find myself thinking that if I didn't commit the sin then I haven't done anything wrong. But even the potential for the sin to happen is bad enough. 

Jesus warns us about our thoughts in the book of Matthew. He says how if we even think hateful thoughts, it's as if we committed murder against that person. If we have sexual thoughts towards an unavailable person, then that is just as bad as committing adultery. Thoughts and intentions are just as bad as the actions themselves. 

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Repentance After Conviction

2 Samuel 24:10
"And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done:and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly."

This was after David ordered his men to randomly number the people in his kingdom. No one knows for sure what the sin was in numbering the people.

Some believe that he did it illegally. 

Most people believe that it was his pride that was the great sin; He wanted to know how great he was by the number of those under his rule. 

Nonetheless, there is something we can learn from David: Once he was convicted of his sin, he confessed it to God and repented.

How often do we ignore the convictions of our sins just so that we can claim ignorance when questioned about them?

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