Milo

JOB’S CONDEMNATION
Job 22–27

“Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?” (Job 22:5)

Job’s defense of himself and his disturbing questions about God’s justice upset his friends. In their eyes such impious thoughts proved that Job must be numbered with the wicked.

Overview
Eliphaz was shocked at Job’s apparent attack on God’s justice (22:1–18), and urged Job to repent (vv. 19–30). Job complained bitterly that he was unable to meet with God or understand His purposes (23:1–17). Yet despite evidence to the contrary, Job remained convinced that God is a just Judge (24:1–25). Bildad affirmed the friends’ belief that God is inaccessible to sinful man and so vindication is impossible (25:1–6). Job rejected this (26:1–4), and celebrated God’s omnipotence (vv. 5–14). Taking his stand as a person falsely accused (27:1–12), Job affirmed his belief that God is just (vv. 13–23).

Understanding the Text
“Can a man be of benefit to God?” Job 22:1–18 Eliphaz was now convinced of Job’s utter wickedness. How could Job even suggest that God might not immediately punish the wicked? Job could not possibly be vindicated by God, for the very fact that Job now suffered proved he had been a great sinner (cf. vv. 6–11). Job may have hidden his wickedness from men, but God saw what was happening even though He is veiled from our sight.
It is true that in his anguish Job had challenged his understanding of God’s ways. But Eliphaz was wrong to take this as a rejection of God Himself. We too need to be careful not to take questioning for rejection, even when the questions seem as heretical to us as Job’s questioning of God’s justice did to Eliphaz.

“Submit to God and be at peace with Him” Job 22:19–30. Eliphaz was not without compassion. He still showed concern for his old friend, even though he was now convinced Job had always been a secret sinner. Eliphaz’s solution was simple: Get right with God. If Job repented, “Then the Almighty will be your God.” If Job repented, “You will pray to Him, and He will hear you.”
How frustrating this advice must have been to Job, who knew that he was right with God! And how wrong Eliphaz was. Later Eliphaz himself would be forgiven only because God accepted the prayers of righteous Job on his behalf!
Eliphaz, who believed so firmly that God is a just Judge, missed one important point. If God truly is Judge, then human beings must leave judgment to the Lord. Eliphaz’s complete misinterpretation of Job’s suffering reminds us that we must withhold judgment when those around us go through trying times.

“If only I knew where to find Him” Job 23:1–17. Despite his anguish and doubts, Job wanted to find God, not run from Him! Job was convinced that God had been unfair to him, for, “My feet have closely followed His steps; I have kept to His way without turning aside.” The blows that had struck Job had terrified him, and “made my heart faint.” Yet despite his fear, Job actively searched for God.
Perhaps this is the greatest evidence of Job’s godliness. Despite everything, Job wanted to draw close to God. Despite his fears, despite his conviction that God had not been fair, Job trusted God enough to want to know Him better, and was convinced that “when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”
How wise Job was in this. Our one best response to trials is to draw closer to the Lord.

“God charges no one with wrongdoing” Job 24:1–25. In contrast to Eliphaz, who saw God bound by necessity to impose balanced punishment on sinners now, Job realized that God is free to act as He chooses. What Job did not understand was “Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment?” What principles does God follow in exacting punishment? Job agreed with his friends that God does judge. But experience proved that He does not always judge now.
It’s important when questioning our beliefs to be clear about what we challenge. “God is Judge” is unmistakably affirmed in Scripture. How and when God judges may well be in doubt. To question the how and when of things isn’t to challenge the basic truth. And, even if we find no answer to questions of how and when, there is no reason to discard the basic biblical truth.

“How then can a man be righteous before God?” Job 25:1–6 Bildad did not respond to Job, but made a significant statement. God was so pure that He can really have nothing to do with man, “who is but a maggot.”
His statement was true, but distorted. Man is fallen, and in his sinful state “only a worm.” Yet man was made in God’s image, and God’s grace reaches down to transform worms into the very image of God’s own Son.
Job’s view of himself as a righteous man, who has carefully obeyed God’s laws and been committed to doing God’s will, is in closer harmony with Scripture than the view of Job’s friends that man is a maggot. God does not view us as worthless. And He does care when we honor Him by doing what is right.

“My tongue will utter no deceit. I will never admit that you are in the right” Job 26:1–27:23. Job’s friends had spoken as if they took Job for a fool (26:1–4). Yet he knew fully the greatness of God (vv. 5–14). At the same time Job insisted that God had “denied me justice.”
Job’s friends believed he deserved all that had happened to him, and argued that Job’s denials were an affront to the Lord. Job totally rejected this interpretation. To confess sin never committed would “deny my integrity.” As long as he lived Job would “maintain my righteousness.”
Job then eloquently affirmed God as a God of justice, the very theme that his friends had emphasized again and again. There is, however, a fascinating turn here. In Old Testament times, a person who falsely accused another of a crime was subject to the penalty for that crime. Job, the innocent, had been accused of wickedness by his friends. As God is a God of justice, wouldn’t He impose on the friends the penalty for wickedness that they assumed was Job’s due?
God does not hold guiltless the person who falsely accuses another, even when his or her motives may be the best.

DEVOTIONAL
Man, the Maggot
(Job 25–27)
There’s something dreadfully wrong when the pregnant teen says, “I’m no good. I’m worthless. I’m no good at all.”
There’s something wrong when the drug addict shakes and quivers and mutters, “I’m nothin’, man. Nothin’.”
There’s even something wrong when we open our hymnals and sing the familiar words, “Oh sacred head, now wounded . . . did He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I.”
Oh, I know. We are sinners, every one. As Paul wrote in Romans, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature” (Rom. 7:18). But this doctrine is very different from popular “maggot theology.” Maggot theology says that because man is sinful, God doesn’t really care what happens to us. Maggot theology insists that nothing a person can do can please God, or make any contribution to His glory. Maggot theology, exemplified by Eliphaz and Bildad, seeks to exalt God by demeaning man.
What’s wrong with maggot theology? Just this. God made man in His own image, so every human being has worth and value in His sight. Because we are important to God, we human beings are intrinsically important! To view man as a maggot is to deny Scripture’s revelation that man is the crown of creation.
Even more, to dismiss man as maggot is to trivialize the death of Christ. Jesus died to save individual human beings and to transform our race. If we were not vitally important in God’s sight He would not have given up His Son for us.
Job did not accept maggot theology. Without understanding why, Job knew that it was important for him to maintain his integrity. Job could not have known about the contest in heaven, or that his stand made a contribution to the glory of God. Yet Job knew that he was important—so important that unfair treatment was wrong, and that denying himself would be as wrong as denying God Himself.
Today you and I need to realize that we truly are important to the Lord. He made us. Christ died for us. The way we live will either bring glory to God, or cause others to ridicule Him. Yes, we are sinners. But sinners or not, we are human beings, and every member of our race has value in the sight of our God.

Personal Application
Don’t let a sense of sin destroy your awareness that you truly are important to God.

Quotable
“Our condition is most noble, being so beloved of the Most High God that He was willing to die for our sake, which He would not have done if man had not been a most noble creature and of great worth.”—Angela of Foligno

DO THE WICKED PAY?
Job 15–21

“How often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? How often does calamity come upon them, the fate God allots in His anger?” (Job 21:17)

Though Job’s friends insisted differently, we all know, as Job knew, that every wicked man is not repayed in this life for his evil deeds.

Background
The fate of the wicked. Both Testaments describe God as a moral Judge who punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous. Job and his friends shared this view of God. But Job’s friends assumed God must punish the wicked in this life. Thus it seemed to them that since Job was suffering so greatly, he must have sinned greatly.
Job knew he was innocent. And he had observed wicked people who prospered in this life. Their theology was nonsense, for it was contradicted by evidence they refused to even consider.
As the New Testament emphasizes, God does punish the wicked and reward the righteous. But not necessarily in this life. Yes, the books will be balanced. But this will take place only at history’s end.
In this dialogue only Job seems to have eternity in view as he said, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” (19:25–26).
How tragic that some Christians adopt the simplistic view of Job’s friends, and see all suffering as punishment for sin. God does permit innocent saints to suffer at times, and at times the wicked do prosper. The day of judgment, when all will be made clear, lies in the future. Until then we need to comfort, not accuse, our suffering brothers and sisters.

Overview
Eliphaz insisted that the wicked suffer terror and distress in this life, implying that Job must be wicked (15:1–35). Job replied that he had been upright, yet was assailed by God (16:1–17:16). Bildad picked up Eliphaz’s theme, graphically describing the fate of the wicked (18:1–21). Job, upset by his friends’ attacks, again shared feelings of abandonment (19:1–20). Yet he concluded with a magnificent affirmation of faith (vv. 23–27). Zophar added his own poem describing the ghastly fate of the wicked (20:1–29).
Job, after quoting his accusers, argued that in fact the wicked often prosper. The clichés his counselors used to imply Job is wicked were nonsence (21:1–34).

Understanding the Text
“Man, who is vile and corrupt” Job 15:1–35. Eliphaz was angry at Job for what he saw as arrogant self-defense. Eliphaz viewed man as sinful, while God acted as if bound by some fixed law, forced invariably to punish the rebel. There was no room in Eliphaz’s theology for the notion that flawed human beings have value to God, or that God is moved by love rather than by a mechanical sense of justice which forces Him to react to each sin with appropriate, measured punishment.
Eliphaz’s dialogue was filled with barbs hurled directly at Job. Again and again he brought up things that had happened to Job to illustrate punishments God directs against the wicked (cf. vv. 21; 1:17; 15:30, 34; 1:16; 15:28; 1:19; 15:29; 1:17).
Nothing causes us to rethink our concept of God like suffering. When suffering comes to us or to loved ones, we need to remember that our God is a God of love.

“Even now my witness is in heaven” Job 16:1–17:16. Job feared that he would die before his friends acknowledged his innocence. Thus he begged the earth not to cover his blood. Yet he was confident that witnesses in heaven knew he was right. Even though he felt devastated that “God assails me and tears me in His anger,” he had hope that a heavenly friend and intercessor would testify to his righteousness and that he would be vindicated.
It’s hard when friends wrongfully accuse us or misunderstand us. Then our hope, like Job’s, is that ultimately we will be vindicated by the God who seems to attack us when we suffer.

“The lamp of the wicked is snuffed out” Job 18:1–21. Bildad continued the friends’ effort to impose their views of God on Job. Once Job accepted their premise, that God only and always punishes the wicked, Job’s defenses would crumble. He would doubt his own innocence, and no longer hold to what he considered his “integrity.”
The image here is a powerful one. In Old Testament times a small lamp was kept burning in even the poorest homes all night long. A house with a snuffed-out lamp was an abandoned, empty house. Building on this image of desolation, Bildad described the calamities that befall the wicked.
We too are often tempted to use our theology—or a Bible verse—as a club to beat down the defenses of others. Surely Job’s friends were wrong to attack Job in this way, rather than encouraging him with reminders of the love of God. Let’s not err as they did in our use of God’s Word.

“Those I love have turned against me” Job 19:19. Job’s suffering, and his insistence that he had been wronged, had alienated not only his friends but even his loved ones.
Rather than treat Job with respect, even little children ridiculed him. His servants paid no attention to him, and his intimate friends detested him.
One of the most painful aspects of an illness or any other personal disaster is the impact it has on others’ attitudes. The very time supportive love is most needed, friends and acquaintances back away.
It may be uncomfortable for us to spend time with persons like Job. But, as Job cried out, it is while people suffer that they have the greatest need for friends who will “have pity on me.”
Again we’re reminded that when another person is hurting is no time for theological discussion. What a hurting person needs is a hand to hold, a caring voice to listen to, and some evidence from friends that he or she is still loved and valued.
It is striking that Job, deserted by his friends, continued to have a strong faith in the God he felt has misused him. “I know that my Redeemer lives,” Job affirmed. One day, long after this life was over, Job expected that “in my flesh I will see God.”

DEVOTIONAL
The Blessed Bad Guy
(Job 21)
Just now our newspaper is filled with reports of a battle between a man and his ex-wife over a multimillion dollar Lotto win. Scan the reports, and the impression grows that both these winners are “bad guys.” From what each one says about the other—and I suspect both are right—each is a moral loser, selfish, and sinful.
It’s just one more illustration of the bad guy striking it rich, while the poor, deserving Christian has to keep on struggling.
Of course, if Eliphaz or Bildad or Zophar read our local paper, they’d never see that article. All three were careful to reject any evidence that might call their theology into question.
That’s what exasperated Job in the end, and led him to confront his friends. God always punishes the wicked? Honestly, “How often is the lamp of the wicked [really] snuffed out?” God crush the evil man? Be honest now! “Have you paid no attention” to the fact that the world over “the evil man is spared from the day of calamity”?
What Job finally shouted was, in effect, “Why don’t you get real! Why don’t you face facts? Why don’t you consider what we all know, that sometimes bad guys actually are blessed? That the bad guys often hit the Lotto jackpot, while God’s good guys struggle to make a living?”
Job’s point was a good one. His friends preferred to distort reality in order to hold on to a flawed theology.
Later God would speak to Job’s friends, and condemn them because “you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has” (42:7). Job, who struggled to understand God despite confusing and even contradictory evidence, had “spoken of Me what is right.” Job had been willing to challenge, not God, but his beliefs about God. Job’s three friends took their beliefs for God Himself, and refused to reexamine them, even when clear evidence in their society called those beliefs into question.
This too is a lesson for you and me. Our trust is to be in God, not in our theology. Life constantly calls us to reexamine our beliefs about God, while holding firmly to the conviction that God exists, loves us, and is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Heb. 11:6). We can trust God completely. We should not have that same trust in our understanding of God’s ways.
As Job’s friends finally learned, the bad guy sometimes is blessed in this life, while the good guy suffers. When facts like these don’t fit our theological pigeonholes, it’s time to discard the holes and develop a better understanding of our Lord.

Personal Application
Don’t be afraid to question your beliefs. God won’t be upset. Really.

Quotable
“He permits His friends to suffer much in this world that instead He may crown them all the more gloriously in heaven, and make them more like His only begotten Son, who never ceased to do good and to suffer injury while He was on earth that He might teach us patience by His example.”—Robert Bellarmine

Job

INTRODUCTION
Set in the second millennium B.C., when wealth was measured in cattle and the patriarch served as family priest, the epic of Job explores the relationship between human suffering and divine justice. Job, a righteous man, was crushed by sudden disasters. His three friends argued that God was punishing him for some hidden sin. Job resisted, but could find no alternate explanation for what had happened to him. In a lengthy poetic dialogue marked by the most difficult Hebrew in the Old Testament, Job and his friends struggled to understand the ways of God and the meaning of human suffering.
Though there are many examples of similar literature in the ancient East, Job is set off from them by its vision of God and its in-depth exploration of the issue of suffering. It is impossible to establish a date for the writing of this epic or to know its author.

OUTLINE OF CONTENTS
I.
Disasters Strike Righteous Job
Job 1–3
II.
Job Dialogues with Three Friends
Job 4–31
A. Did God cause Job’s suffering?
Job 4–14
B. Do the wicked really suffer?
Job 15–21
C. Had Job committed hidden sins?
Job 22–31
III.
Elihu Breaks the Impasse
Job 32–37
IV.
God Speaks Out
Job 38–42

JOB’S ANGUISH
Job 1–14

“I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil” (Job 3:26).

Job’s inner anguish mirrors our own when we are struck by some unexpected tragedy and struggle to understand why.

Background
The Structure of the book. Job begins and ends with brief prose sections. The opening portrays God giving Satan permission to attack Job in an effort to make Job curse the Lord. Satan stripped Job of his possessions, family, and health, but failed the challenge as Job worshiped rather than cursed God.
The book then moves to an extended poetic exploration of God’s role in human suffering. Job and his three friends believed God punishes sin. Job’s friends concluded that Job had sinned. But Job was sure he had not knowingly done wrong. As the dialogues probed the question of suffering, Job found himself confronting not only his three friends but his own assumptions about God.
The dialogue ended in an impasse, which was broken by a younger listener, Elihu. He pointed out that God sometimes uses suffering to instruct, not to punish. Thus Job’s suffering did not necessarily mean he had sinned, nor did it mean God is unjust.
God Himself then spoke, not to explain what He had done, but to point out that His nature is beyond human comprehension.
Job then repented and was commended by God. The Lord restored Job’s health, doubled his wealth, and blessed him with a new family and lengthened life.
While the outline of this story is simple, the contents of the book are profound, probing as they do one of the most basic issues in human experience.

Overview
The setting is established: God permitted Satan to take Job’s wealth, his family, and his health (1:1–2:10). Job shared his feelings with three friends (v. 11–3:26). In a cycle of attacks and defenses, each friend proclaimed God’s justice, and suggested that Job deserved what had happened to him (4:1–5:27; 8:1–22; 11:1–20). Job defended himself against all of their charges (6:1–7:21; 9:1–10:22; 12:1–14:22).

Understanding the Text
“This man was blameless and upright” Job 1:1–5. The phrase does not mean Job was sinless. The Hebrew word for “blameless,” tamim, indicates a person whose motives are pure and who lives a good moral life. Job’s wealth may have impressed his neighbors. But his reverent awe for God and his decision to shun evil are keys to his character.
What shocks us is that terrible trouble could strike such a godly man. We feel that if Job is vulnerable, surely each of us is.
This is one of the important messages of Job. Relationship with God does not guarantee an easy life. Our relationship with God is more significant than that!

“Have you considered My servant Job?” Job 1:6–2:11 God is the One who drew Satan’s attention to Job, and gave him permission to cause the devastating series of tragedies that struck Job on a single day.
Satan contended that Job honored God only because God had given him material blessings. Satan claimed Job would “curse You to Your face” if God permitted Satan to take those blessings away.
Job did not act as Satan expected, but instead worshiped, acknowledging God’s right to take what He had given (1:20–21).
Satan then claimed Job would curse God if his own life were threatened. So God permitted Satan to afflict Job with a painful and loathsome disease. Again Job refused to curse God, saying, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (2:10)
At this point Satan passed from the scene, defeated, and is not mentioned again. But Job’s suffering continued, showing us that God had His own purposes in permitting the satanic attack on Job.
One reason that God permits Christians to suffer is to display the reality of relationship with the Lord. Believers suffer when hurt, as other human beings do. But our continuing faith in God’s goodness testifies to all that God does make a difference. God is glorified as Christians continue to hope in the Lord despite suffering. Like Christ, at this stage of the story Job has “entrusted himself to Him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).

“Why did I not perish at birth?” Job 3:1–26 Three friends who visited Job were so shocked at his condition that they sat, silent, for seven days. At last Job opened the dialogue.
Job’s earlier words had expressed his beliefs. Now he shared his feelings, and we discern an anguish so great that Job wished he had never been born.
It’s not wrong for a gap to exist between what we believe and our emotions. Intellectually Job realized that God is free to act as He chooses. Emotionally Job was in the grip of anguish and fear.
When suffering strikes us, we often respond as Job did. We do trust in God. But our emotions are in turmoil, and we have “no peace, no quietness, no rest” (see v. 26). Such emotion is natural, for at best we human beings are finite, limited, and weak. How encouraging to realize through Job’s experience that faith and fear can be present at the same time. Emotional turmoil is not evidence of a lack of faith, but rather an opportunity for us to affirm the reality of what we believe despite our feelings.

“Who, being innocent, has ever perished?” Job 4:1–5:27 Eliphaz, one of the three friends, was unable to respond to the powerful emotions Job had shared. Instead he brought up a point of theology. It’s not the upright who are destroyed, but those who “plow evil” (4:7–8). Job must appeal to the God who corrects, and who can heal (5:17–18). If Job were right with God, the Lord would have protected him from disaster and Job would know peace (vv. 20–27).
Many of us, like Eliphaz, listen for concepts and not feelings. Eliphaz did not respond to Job’s feelings or even acknowledge them. He might have said, “Job, I know you’re hurting. I hear how devastating this is to you, and I do care.” Instead Eliphaz jumped in with an oblique accusation, suggesting that Job’s suffering must be his own fault.
When you or I respond to a person who is suffering with a theological statement, even with pious reassurance that “God must have a purpose in something so terrible,” we miss our opportunity to minister. What a sufferer needs to know is that someone cares. An experience of the love of God through a caring friend is the first and greatest need of those who suffer.

“If only my anguish could be weighed” Job 6:1–7:21. Job tried again to share his feelings and his tormented thoughts. He felt cut off from God, and crushed by Him (6:8–10). As a despairing man Job had hoped for a sign of devotion from his friends, not accusations.
Job continued to focus on his feelings, speaking out “in the anguish of my spirit” and complaining in the “bitterness of my soul” (7:11). Life had lost all meaning for Job. He could not understand what he had done to God to deserve what had happened, or why, if he had sinned, God did not simply forgive him (vv. 17–21).
In this speech, part of which is directed to the Lord, Job expressed the doubts and uncertainties which tormented him even more than the loss and pain. Job’s experience again helps us identify what happens within us when tragedy strikes. The very foundation of our existence—our conviction that God is good—is brought into question.
If we understand this we can accept our own doubts and uncertainty without feelings of guilt. And we can empathize with others who experience tragedy.

“How long will you say such things?” Job 8:1–22 Bildad was uncomfortable with Job’s self-revelation. To protect himself from the flood of emotions, he too turned to theology. Bildad was unwilling to accept what Job felt because those emotions seemed to imply that the Almighty “pervert[s] what is right” (v. 3).
Bildad’s solution? “Surely God does not reject a blameless man” (v. 20). If Job got right with God, the Lord would “yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy” (v. 21).
Bildad’s error was a common one. He assumed that he knew so much about God he could speak for Him! “God doesn’t reject the blameless” is transformed from a general truth to an unbreakable rule, binding God’s own freedom of action. Bildad never once imagined that he might not know God well enough to explain the Lord’s purposes in Job’s life!
When you and I know others who suffer, we must avoid Bildad’s error. We can’t explain “why” because we are not wise enough to grasp God’s purposes in another person’s life. All we know for sure is that God loves all human beings, and that He does have a purpose in what happens to each one.

“I know that this is true” Job 9:1–10:21. Job was aware that what his friends had said was true. But this only made his torment greater. Job believed himself blameless (9:21), and thus had no explanation for what had happened to him. It was this that made his anguish so bitter! He couldn’t even plead his case with God, for God had not brought any charges against him.
Again Job was forced to question the meaning of life itself. Why had he even been born? How much better it would have been if Job had died in infancy!

“Will no one rebuke you?” Job 11:1–20 Job’s third friend was outraged by this talk. God must not be questioned!
But Zophar couldn’t resist suggesting that Job must have sinned to suffer so, and that if Job would only “put away the sin that is in your hand” life would be brighter, for God would relieve his suffering.
Again, be warned. The person who assumes that he knows another individual’s heart, much less understands all of God’s ways, is almost certain to be wrong. To take such a position is spiritual pride, surely as great a sin as any we accuse others of committing.

“What you know, I also know” Job 12:1–14:22. Job responded with sarcasm. Job too knew the general truths about God that his friends had used against him. But Job also knew that in his case suffering could not be punishment for some known sin. Again Job addressed his complaint to God. Human beings are so weak. Why did God do this to him? Why not just permit Job to die and so avoid the brunt of what he experienced as the anger of God?
Again we sense the anguish that any believer experiences when his or her suffering cannot be explained. We know general truths about God. But we cannot know the specific reasons for what is happening to us. And suffering feels like God’s anger, directed against us, rather than feeling like love.
How important to remember at such times that God does love us still.

DEVOTIONAL
God’s Hedge
(Job 1–2)
The doctor happened to look in on her as she lay in the labor room. What he saw brought a half dozen people on the run. My wife had suffered a massive placental separation, and only quick action by the doctor saved her and our daughter Joy.
There was only one problem. Joy had been without oxygen for several minutes. When she was born her face was blue, and the doctor warned that there might be brain damage.
There was. Today Joy, at 28, lives in a community for retarded adults in Arizona’s Verde Valley. She will live there or in a similar facility all her life.
It’s hard to express the bittersweet experience of bringing up a daughter who is strong and healthy, and yet suffers from irreversible retardation. Each visit is a reminder of what might have been, but can never be.
Yet at the same time each visit is a reminder that Joy is who God intended her to be. A young, strong, loving girl, who laughs and cries, rejoices and complains, who prays and sings and works up to her limited capabilities. Each visit is a reminder of Satan’s complaint, recorded in Job 1:9. “Have You not put a hedge around him [Job]?” Haven’t You protected him from me, so that I can’t touch him or anything that he owns?
Satan’s complaint portrays an important reality. God has put a hedge around every believer. He actively protects us from the dangers that threaten on every side. Only if God lowers the hedge—and that for His own purposes—can disaster strike.
When Joy was born, God lowered the hedge. I don’t know why. But I believe He had His own good purpose. And I know that God raised the hedge again. God has protected our Joy, and given her as blessed a life as she could expect to live.
I can identify other times when God lowered the hedge around me. But each time the hedge has gone up again, and blessing has followed. Each time the hedge has gone down, I’ve become more aware of how often God’s hedge has surrounded me and guarded me from harm.

Personal Application
When God lowers the hedge around you, consider the many more times you have had His protection.

Quotable
“How desperately people brush up their little faith in times of sorrow. It is quite easy to see that religious faith prospers because of, and not in spite of, the tribulations of this world. It is because this mortal life is felt as an irrelevancy to the main purpose in life that men achieve the courage to hope for immortality.”—Reinhold Niebuhr

HONORABLE LIVES
Hebrews 13

“We are sure that we have a clear conscience and a desire to live honorably in every way” (Heb. 13:18).

Exhortations to honorable living grow naturally out of the most exalted doctrine.

Overview
The writer closes with exhortations (13:1–19), with one of the most powerful doxologies in Scripture (vv. 20–21), and with personal greetings (vv. 22–25).

Understanding the Text
“Keep on loving each other as brothers” Heb. 13:1. Nearly every New Testament letter contains an exhortation to love. This is only appropriate, as the night before His crucifixion Jesus emphasized his “new commandment” (John 13:33–34). Christ’s followers are to love one another as Jesus loved them.
This verse, however, has a distinctive emphasis. “Keep on” loving. The emphasis is important. As we come to know others better and better, more and more of their flaws are likely to appear. How many a gal has come home, excited over meeting “the” man, only to become disenchanted a few weeks or months later.
We Christians, however, don’t have the liberty of disenchantment. Or of disengagement. Someone born to my parents is my sister or my brother, not by my choice, but by virtue of shared parentage. We may choose our mates, but we don’t choose brothers and sisters. And somehow, despite everything, in most families siblings learn not only to get along, but to love each other as well.
It’s like this in God’s family. We are family, not by our choice, but by God’s. We have the same Father, and so we all belong. Period. We can become disenchanted. But we can’t withdraw, or reject someone whom God has accepted.
And so Hebrews 13:1 sets a distinctive challenge before us. “Keep on” loving.
How good to know that, as we keep on loving, love will find a way. Through love we will be a blessing, and find blessing.

“Do not forget to entertain strangers” Heb. 13:2–3. Hospitality was one of the most important of ancient virtues. No hotels or motels dotted the first-century countryside. Tired and hungry people often appeared in town or at one’s door, hoping for a place to stay.
There are distinct aspects to the Christian’s relationships with others. We are to keep on loving Christian brothers. And we are to entertain strangers. Whether the people we meet are in or out of God’s family, we are to show loving concern.
The writer went even further. The believer is to “remember those in prison.” A person in prison isn’t free to come to your church. He’s not free to knock on your door. You have to take the initiative and search out the person in jail.
What’s more, it is uncomfortable to take that initiative. When someone comes to your house, you’re on your own turf. You are relatively secure. When you go beyond the places you normally frequent, you feel uncertain and unsure. There you can’t insulate yourself from others’ suffering. It’s unpleasant at the very least.
But if we remember all that Hebrews tells about what God has done for us in Christ, we understand why we need to relate to brothers, strangers, and prisoners. Christ’s gift of redemption is a love gift offered to every man. Christ’s blood was shed for the stranger and the outcast as well as the brother. We need to go where Christ would go if He were here.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money” Heb. 13:4–6. It’s easy to say. But how do we find contentment, when everything in our society shouts at us, insisting that we desire more?
The answer is, remember that in God you already possess everything.
The stock market can fall, and you will lose everything. Thieves can break in, and your possessions will disappear. The economy can crash and interest rates rise. In this world there simply is no security in wealth, or the things that money can buy. But when God is with you, and when you have His promise, “Never will I leave you,” you enjoy the ultimate security.
God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Owner of the cattle on a thousand hills, is your helper. There is nothing that can threaten the man or woman who walks hand in hand with the Lord.

“Remember your leaders” Heb. 13:7. What a fascinating way to put this. The writer didn’t say, “Remember what your leaders taught.” He didn’t say “Remember what your leaders told you to do,” even though they “spoke the Word of God to you.” What the writer said was, “Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.”
We are to remember them, for their example teaches us something that their words cannot. As we consider the faith they live by, we learn to live by faith.

“Our hearts to be strengthened by grace” Heb. 13:9–14. The ceremonial foods on Old Testament altars symbolized God’s sustaining grace. You and I, however, have no need of symbols. We have Christ Himself, who suffered to make us holy.
Going “outside the camp” indicates breaking out of Old Testament faith and ritual. There is nothing left for us inside them, for with their symbolism fulfilled in Christ, they are now empty shells. And so the author said, “Let us then go to Him.”
If you want your heart to be strengthened by grace, follow this prescription. Go directly to Him.

“A sacrifice of praise” Heb. 13:15. Let’s not come empty-handed to the Lord. And let’s not rush into His presence, shouting out our needs and demanding attention without first paying attention to Him.
What we bring Christ as our sacrifice today is praise. And He is worthy to be praised.
Perhaps it’s not surprising, but even in this we find that God thinks of us, even as He asks us to consider Him. When we do focus our attention on the Lord, and praise Him for His great attributes, we pray with much greater confidence. Rehearsing His praises strengthens our faith, and faith is essential to answered prayer.

“We have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way” Heb. 13:18. If this is true of us, and reflects our heart’s desire, we will do more than praise God. Our lives will bring Him praises.

“The God of peace” Heb. 13:20–21. These verses contain one of the most beautiful benedictions in the Old or New Testaments. It is a “must memorize”: a passage that can bring confidence as well as focus to your life.

DEVOTIONAL
Let Yourself Be Led
(Heb. 13:17)
It’s almost hidden, tucked in with a number of other exhortations that the writer of Hebrews hurried to add as he closed his epistle. Most who do notice it seem to take it wrongly, as if the writer were encouraging a hierarchy of leaders, who had the right to demand obedience.
I don’t believe the first readers had that impression for several reasons. In the Greek the phrase reads peithesthe tois hegoumenois hyman kain hypeikete. The Greek work peithesthe means, “Let yourselves be persuaded, or convinced.” A fair English paraphrase would be, “Open your hearts to the persuasion of your leaders.”
The word translated “leaders” here is used for rulers and princes, but originally meant “to lead or guide.” The idea seems to be that spiritual leaders are to be those who have traveled the road of faith (see v. 7), and thus can serve as guides for others.
The single word hypeikete is rendered by the English phrase, “Submit to their authority.” Originally it was used in classical Greek to describe soft and yielding substances. The root idea is not “give in,” but “be disposed to yielding.”
Putting this together the instruction focuses on the attitude that you and I are to maintain as we travel the Jesus road, led by others who have traveled on farther than we. What the first readers would have understood is this charge: “In your relationship with those who are your leaders and guides to godliness, be sure you maintain a yielding disposition, and remain open to their persuasion.”
It’s an approprirate exhortation here at the close of Hebrews. In Jesus we have a superior revelation, a superior High Priest, a better covenant, and a better faith. And we are called by God to experience, through faith, every blessing provided by the Son of God. How important, as we travel the Jesus road with others, to choose as leaders those who have gone on ahead—and to let ourselves be led.

Personal Application
Though responsible for your own choices in life, remain open, and let yourself be led by godly men and women.

Quotable
“The question, ‘Who ought to be the boss?’ is like asking, ‘Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?’ Obviously, the man who can sing tenor.”—Henry Ford

DIVINE DISCIPLINE
Hebrews 12

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11).

To benefit from discipline we must respond to it.

Overview
The example of Jesus stimulates us to struggle against sin (12:1–4). We are to view hardship as God’s discipline of dearly loved sons (vv. 5–11), and strengthen our resolve to live holy lives (vv. 12–17). For God has not spoken to us in a distant law, but in a nearby Christ (vv. 18–24), whose kingdom is not to be despised (vv. 25–29).

Understanding the Text
“A great cloud of witnesses” Heb. 12:1–3. Some consider this a reference to saints and angels observing us, as the crowd in a great stadium cheers on those on the playing field. Others see us observing the saints of ages past, taking heart from their consistent testimony (witness) to God’s faithfulness.
Either understanding motivates us to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.”
What a great responsibility, to know that what we do impacts others’ commitment to Jesus Christ.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” Heb. 12:2–3. Jesus is the “pioneer” (author) of our faith, in that He followed the path of faith all the way to its end. He trusted all the way to death, and then broke out of the grave to open the way to glory.
Jesus is also the perfecter of faith. In Jesus we see faith’s ultimate nature perfectly expressed. Perfect faith is complete trust in God, however awesomely death and destruction crowd in around us.
No wonder the writer said, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.” When we are frightened, seeing Jesus will enourage us to keep on trusting. When we are tired, seeing Jesus will give us strength to go on. When we want to turn back, focusing on Jesus will reassure us that the glory ahead is well worth the present pain.

“In your struggle against sin” Heb. 12:4. One of history’s great saints, John Chrysostom, whose exile inA.D 403 was caused by his denunciation of powerful churchmen for their pretentions and lack of charity, wrote from exile: “there is only one thing to be feared, Olympias, only one trial, and that is sin.”
Jesus as faith’s pioneer and perfecter reminds us that we are better off to choose suffering rather than to choose sin. Christ resisted choosing sin “to the point of shedding His blood.” You and I are most unlikely to have so grim a choice to make.
So let’s not feel sorry for ourselves when suffering comes. Let’s rejoice that whatever our suffering, we have not and will not choose sin in order to avoid it.

“The Lord’s discipline” Heb. 12:7. As the early decades of the Church Age passed, Christians found themselves under increasing pressure. There was often hostility from neighbors. In some localities there was unofficial persecution. In others there was official persecution by Roman authorities. So the Book of Hebrews, written as it seems to have been toward the end of the 60s, speaks as do other later New Testament epistles, of suffering and pain.
Here the writer of Hebrews asks us to view hardship and suffering as discipline. God has not abandoned Christ’s followers. God is simply treating them as any wise father treats dearly loved sons.
It may seem strange, but this perspective makes any hardship we face so much easier. We no longer have to cringe away, wondering what we’ve done that God should punish us so. Instead we reach up in our pain, convinced that even our suffering is an expression of the love of God.
If you know God loves you, you can endure almost anything.
And if you ever doubt that God could permit His loved ones to suffer, consider Jesus. The pioneer and perfecter of our faith suffered the ultimate anguish, though He is God’s dearly beloved Son.

“God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness” Heb. 12:7–13. Two things reassure us when God disciplines. We remember that Jesus suffered first. And we remember that God has graciously explained His motive for discipline.
One thing that bothers us is not knowing “why.” We lose our job, and in our fears about the future cry out, “Why?” We lose a loved one, and agonize, “Why him, and why not me?” We suffer from a lingering illness and, try as we may, we can find nothing “good” in it. We begin to doubt Romans 8:28, and again we ask, “Why?”
God doesn’t give us reasons for specific hardships. But He does explain, carefully, what He is doing. God is treating us as any good parent treats his own children. God is disciplining us “for our good, that we may share in His holiness.”
Don’t expect an economic benefit from the loss of a job, an emotional benefit from the loss of a loved one, or a health benefit from a serious illness. But do expect a spiritual benefit from any hardship. If you and I submit to God (v. 9), He will work in our lives, and through suffering we will grow in holiness. Even more, we will reap a rich “harvest of righteousness and peace” from the training hardship is intended to provide.

“See to it that no one misses the grace of God” Heb. 12:14–17. The very hardship which is intended to bless can ruin us.
Whether suffering strengthens or weakens us depends on our response to it. If we look at suffering only as an evil, and become bitter, the discipline God intended as a love gift will become a burden and a thorn.
Such people miss the grace of God. No, not the grace expressed in bringing the specific trial. But the grace that marks our entire relationship with God, and the grace that is available to strengthen us in our difficulties. A focus on God’s grace will lead to an experience of God’s grace in our situation, and that will free us from bitterness, and we will grow.

“You have not come to a mountain that can be touched” Heb. 12:18–24. When the people of Israel gathered at Mount Sinai to receive the Law, lightning flashed and thunder grumbled threateningly. The people drew back in fear, and Moses alone approached the Lord. It was hard to sense the grace of God there.
But we Christians come not to Sinai but to Zion. There we meet Jesus Himself, as thousands of angels sing for joy. We come to God through Jesus, and experience an intimacy that was only dreamed of in Old Testament times.
Let’s be careful that we do not refuse the God we know so well when He speaks. If those who knew Him less well suffered for ignoring His Word, how much more will we lose; we who know Him so intimately?

“A kingdom that cannot be shaken” Heb. 12:25–28. God shakes the earth. The image reminds us how insubstantial and unstable the material universe is. Out of all that is, only human beings will exist out beyond time and into eternity. Everything else will disappear.
How good God is, then, to permit us to suffer in this world, if the benefits of holiness and righteousness that divine discipline develops will persist long beyond time.
God is good. And when He disciplines us, it is for our good as well.

DEVOTIONAL
Child Abuse!
(Heb. 12:5–11)
Kids pick up on things so quickly. I suspect that’s why one parent we know was threatened by her 11-year-old. “Make me do it,” he said to his mother, “and I’ll call 911 and tell them child abuse.”
Mom kept cool. “Go ahead. I may spend a couple of days in jail. But they’ll put you in a foster home. No Nintendo. No color TV in your room. No stereo. No tapes or CDs. No room of your own.” The boy thought for a moment and then said, “OK, Mom.”
It wasn’t like that when I was a boy. I suspect some of the things that happened to me would have raised cries of concern today. Like the time Dad took me out in the garage and whipped me with a leather belt. Or the time I ran away, again, and my disgusted father took the collar off my dog Ezra and put it around my neck! “I can trust Ezra more than I can trust you,” he told me, and drove away.
I sat outside that warm summer morning, totally crushed, until Dad returned from his mail route and let me go. But even then I would never have cried, “child abuse.” Even then I was perfectly aware that Dad loved me, and that what he did was not so much an expression of his anger as it was an expression of his concern. Dad disciplined me, not for his pleasure, but for my benefit. And somehow I knew.
How wonderful it is for you and me, when tragedy strikes, to be able in our misery to look up and know that we are loved. How wonderful it is, when we can’t understand “why,” to know we’re not the victims of child abuse, but the recipients of love.
Children today who shout “child abuse” when loving parents discipline them reject one of Mom’s and Dad’s greatest love gifts. They will surely be the poorer for it. And Christians today, who utter that same shout when troubles come, have forgotten the depths of God’s love, and miss out on one of life’s greatest gifts: the certainty that God is with us, always. And that He cares.

Personal Application
Let God’s discipline of believers serve as a model for your nurture of your boys and girls.

Quotable
“Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.”—Henry Ward Beecher