Job 8
Bildad the Shuhite enters the conversation verse 1
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite
and said
Bildad accuses Job verse 2- 7
How long will you speak these things?
How long shall the words of your mouth
be like a strong wind?
Does God pervert judgment?
or does the Almighty pervert justice?
IF your children had sinned against HIM
and HE have cast them away for their transgressions
IF you would seek to God betimes
and make thy supplication to the Almighty
IF you were pure and upright
surely now HE would awake for you
and make the habitation of
your righteousness prosperous
Though your beginning was small
yet your latter end should greatly increase
Bildad uses history to judge Job verse 8- 10
For inquire – I pray you of the former age
and prepare yourself to the search of their fathers
(for we are but of yesterday – and know nothing
because our days upon earth are a shadow)
Shall not they teach you – and tell you
and utter words out of their heart?
Bildad gives examples from nature verse 11- 19
Can the rush grow up without mire?
Can the flag grow without water?
while it is yet in his greenness – and not cut down
it withers before any other herb
So are the paths of all that forget God
and the HYPOCRITE’S HOPE shall perish
whose hope shall be cut off
whose trust shall be a spider’s web
he shall lean upon his house – but it shall not stand
he shall hold it fast – but it shall not endure
he is green before the sun
and his branch shoots forth in his garden
his roots are wrapped about the heap
and sees the place of stones
IF he destroy him for his place
THEN it shall deny him – saying
I have not seen you
BEHOLD – this is the joy of his way
and out of the earth shall others grow
Bildad believes in the theology of retribution verse 20- 22
BEHOLD – God will not cast away a perfect man
neither will HE help the evildoers
till HE fill your mouth with laughing
and your lips with rejoicing
They that hate you shall be clothed with shame
and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 2 How long will you speak these things? And how long shall the words of your mouth be like a strong wind? (4448 “speak” [malal] means utter, say, announce, to express in words, proclaim, or say something out loud to another)
DEVOTION: Have you ever been accused of talking too much and not really saying anything important? Has anyone ever told you are full of hot air? Well, this was what Bildad was accusing Job of when he gave his speech in response to Eliphaz’s accusations.
So, we have this second “friend” giving Job his application of truth regarding what was happening to him. It was because of sin in the lives of his sons and even in the live of Job. Notice that I put “friend” ins quotation marks because they are not really good friends because they come with the attitude that they know Job’s problem and the reason for all these bad things happening in his life. They have the answers that Job is waiting for but in reality they have no correct answer. They don’t understand the LORD and they don’t know where Job is spiritually. They just think they know it all.
So we can learn from these firs two friends that they are not good counselors. They don’t know the facts and they are giving canned advice that is not helping their friend Job. They are speaking without knowing the facts. We need to learn from these men that we need to go to help individuals by listening and learning what is really going on before we speak without coming with preconceived ideas of what is going on in the lives of those we are trying to comfort and help.
Our ministry is to help not hurt more those we love. Calling Job a wind bag is not helping him and it would not help those we come to help as well. Our attitude should always be one of love and encouragement to get closer to the LORD to find out the genuine cause of the trial that is in the lives of those we love.
CHALLENGE: Let them talk and find out what they are thinking without calling them a windbag. Also make sure they talk more than you do.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 3 Does God pervert judgment? Or does the Almighty pervert
justice? (5791 “pervert” [‘avath] means crooked, falsify, bend,
subvert, suppress, or turn upside down)
DEVOTION: The facts in the eyes of Bildad were that the only reason that bad things happen to people is because they have sinned. Bad things don’t happen to good people. This is where he was coming from and there was no other answer to what was happening in the life of Job and his sons. His sons sinned and therefore they lost their lives and now it was Job’s turn to confess what they had done and the LORD would restore him to a place of blessing.
Job didn’t believe that God would turn his world upside down for no reason but he knew the reason was not the sin of his sons or himself. This made Bildad think that Job was full of hot air when he was speaking.
We know that there is more than one reason for bad things to happen to good people. We know that the LORD allows trials and temptations to come into the lives of all HIS people for their personal maturity. HE wants HIS children to continue to grow and this only happens when they are faced with trials. HE wants them to turn to HIM for guidance and strength through all of their trials.
Now we find that Bildad didn’t understand how God works very well. He thought he was right when he didn’t know all the facts of the first chapter of the book of Job. This was a test that the LORD allowed in Job’s life to cause him to grow in his relationship with HIM.
We need to realize that God has more than one reason to have bad times come into the lives of believers. We have stated before that there are at least two reasons: chastening and pruning. This was a pruning experience in the life of Job. The LORD wanted him to understand HIM and how HE deals with all of HIS children. HE wanted the three “friends” to realize that they had limited knowledge as to how HE worked in the world in the lives of believers.
CHALLENGE: We have to watch what we say to those who are suffering. We have to learn from the “friends” of Job on the wrong way to help fellow believers.
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: 6 If you were pure and upright; surely now he would awake for
you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.(5782 “awake” [‘uwr] means to wake, lift up, stir up, or to rouse oneself)
DEVOTION: The theology of retribution states that God only causes bad things to people who are sinners. Good people don’t fact bad circumstances. The friends of Job believed this as truth. It is a lie of Satan.
Here we have the second “friend” giving counsel to Job. Bildad thought, like Job’s other “friend,” that if he were right with the LORD, the LORD would prosper him now. The common thought is that the righteous will always prosper and the evildoers will have evil things happen to them. Bildad expresses his thoughts by saying that the LORD never makes a mistake. Which is true.
He states that all those who are righteous will prosper. He says that all they have to do is look at the past and see how God works. He wants Job to realize that those who forget God will be punished. He wants Job to realize that God will not help an evildoer.
We know that some people get away with sin now, but we know that the LORD is the one who has the final say regarding what happens now and in the hereafter. Sometimes judgment is given in the future. Remember vengeance belongs to the LORD in HIS time and in HIS way.
Can we live a pure and upright life and still have troubles come our way? YES! In one of the books I have read it states: “God can send us to jail for the rest of our life for a crime we didn’t commit and still be just.” That is a hard statement to understand.
We know that without Christ we deserve eternity in the lake of fire. Praise the LORD we can come to Christ and HE will give us eternal life in heaven with HIM. There are times in each of our lives that we would like to stir up the LORD for our defense.
The theology of retribution is wrong. It enters into the thinking of many Christians when they see people going through hard times. However, it is not true. Our responsibility when we see someone going through hard times is to be encouragers. If they have sinned, we are to encourage them to repent. If it is a time when the LORD is purging a person’s life we need to come along side and encourage them through help in the form of counsel, gifts and love.
CHALLENGE: It is hard to know the reason people are going through hard times. We are not judges. If we know of willful sin in a person’s life that is one thing. If we don’t know we need to give the benefit of the doubt and come to their aid)
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 13 So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite’s
hope shall perish. (734 “paths” [‘orach] means highway,
wayfaring man, behavior, course of living and acting,
mode, manner)
DEVOTION: Accusations never help those we are trying to help. If we know the facts than we are try to help those we are counseling to understand them but if we don’t know the facts and are just guessing we need to wait before we say anything.
So, we find Bilbad, coming into the conversation with two more accusations against Job.
First, he says that he has forgotten who God is and how HE acts in the lives of people. There is a path that is right for those who are genuine followers of Jesus Christ and there is a wrong path. The wrong path is the one that those who are not followers of Jesus Christ are traveling and the New Testament states there are many or a majority of human beings that are on that path. There are only a few that are on the right path.
Bildad tells Job he is on the wrong path and needs to get back on the right path if he expects the LORD to bless his live again. He states that if he gets on the right path things will get better right away.
Secondly, they he accuses Job of being a hypocrite. A hypocrite here is a Pharisee in the days of Christ. They looked good on the outside but inwardly they were like whitewashed sepulchers. They were individuals whose outward appearance looked like they were genuine followers of the LORD because they could say all the right words when they were in church. They were individuals who gave their money to the church and served in an office in a church but inside they were fakers.
God doesn’t want us to be fakers but genuine followers of HIM. This can only happen if our inside is totally dedicated to the LORD and then our outside actions will honor the LORD as well.
Job was accused of not having his inner life right with the LORD which was not true. So we need to make sure that we are not falsely accusing a genuine follower of the LORD before we know all the facts and sometimes we will never know all the facts.
In this case no one was present in the first chapter except the LORD and Satan. This can happen today as well. We need to be sensitive to the fact that we might never know all the facts about what is happening in someone else’s life.
CHALLENGE: Our responsibility is always to be one who will encourage growth in those who are going through a hard time at present. Don’t call them names!!!
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: 20 Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will HE
help the evil doers. (8535 “perfect” [tam] means person of
integrity, free of guilt, upright, whole, orderly, guiltless,
complete, or wholesome)
DEVOTION: Here is Bildad giving Job advice. He informs Job that God only punishes sinners and blesses the righteous. If there is something wrong going on in the life of someone who claims to be a believer then there must be sin in the life that needs to be corrected.
This in not only his thinking but the thinking of many today who believe that if you live right than nothing bad will happen to you. This is not what the Bible teaches. The LORD sends trials into the lives of all believers. These trials are to drive them to a closer relationship with HIM.
The ones the LORD loves HE chastens to make them stronger in their relationship with HIM. The LORD has a plan for all those who are genuine believers. Each one has trials that help them grow in their knowledge of HIM.
No one likes the trials the LORD sends our way but we know that those HE loves HE causes them to mature and the only way they mature is through trials. HE wants those who are following HIM to be strong.
Bildad is a man who thinks he has the answers and is sharing them with Job. We will all meet a Bildad in our life. We will have them in the church. We will have them in our Sunday School class.
The problem is that sometimes we will have them in the pulpit. There are some that think they have all the answers but in reality, they have no answer.
CHALLENGE: Only through the study of the Word of God and our personal relationship with the LORD can we find out what God is doing with us. Keep close touch with HIM.
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DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Supplication to the Almighty verse 5
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
God – Elohim (Creator, Sovereign) verse 3, 5, 6, 13, 20,
21
Cast children away for their transgression
Awakes for the pure and upright
Will not cast away a perfect man
HE will not help the evil doers
HE fills mouth with laughing and lips with
rejoicing
Almighty verse 3, 5
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Bildad the Shuhite (first speech) verse 1- 22
Told Job he is speaking a strong wind
Asks “Does God pervert judgment?
Tells Job to seek the LORD
Days as a shadow
Utter words out of your heart
Hypocrites hope shall perish or is cut off
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Pervert judgment verse 3
Pervert justice verse 3
Sinned verse 4
Transgression verse 4
Forget God verse 13
Hypocrite’s hope verse 13
Evildoers verse 20
Hate verse 22
Wicked verse 22
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Seek God verse 5
Supplication [prayer] verse 5
Pure verse 6
Upright verse 6
Righteousness verse 6
Prosperous verse 6
Increase verse 7
Learn from the past verse 10
Hope verse 13, 14
Trust verse 14
Joy verse 19
Perfect verse 20
Laughing verse 21
Rejoicing verse 21
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
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QUOTES regarding passage
In Job this word is involved in the basic contention of the dialogues. Bildad (Job 8:3) and Elihu (Job 34:12) contend that Job has sinned and hence he deserves his sufferings. They argue, to contend, as does Job, that he is innocent, is to accuse God of perverting justice. Job concurs that his suffering is from God (he is unaware of Satan’s involvement) but since he is convinced of his innocence, he concludes that God has perverted his rights (Job 19:6). There simply is no justice (Job 19:7), he contends. (Schultz, C. (1999). 1591 עָוַת. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 657). Chicago: Moody Press.)
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8:3 For all his lack of polish, Bildad did, in this verse, come to the heart of the issue. His two questions remarkably approximate God’s questions of Job in 40:8, both verses including the widely used pair of roots, mišpāṭ and ṣedeq, “justice” and “right.” They also sound like Abraham’s question about the destruction of Sodom in Gen 18:25: “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right [mišpāṭ]?” (Alden, R. L. (1993). Job (Vol. 11, p. 116). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
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1–3. The disagreement between Job and his friends becomes wider in this first speech of Bildad. He does not begin as courteously as Eliphaz, but accuses Job bluntly of being a windbag, vehement but empty (verse 2b). Moffatt’s translation—‘wild and whirling words’—is very effective.
Bildad is objective and analytical in his speech about God and man. As a result he is a neat but superficial thinker. He is a moralist, and in his simple theology everything can be explained in terms of two kinds of men—the blameless (tām, verse 20a; used of Job in 1:1) and the secretly wicked (ḥānēp, verse 13b). Outwardly the same, God distinguishes them by prospering the one and destroying the other. To suggest that it ever happens otherwise is to throw doubt on God’s justice. And this, according to Bildad, is what Job is doing. So he asks:
Does El twist justice,
Or does Shadday twist right?
This bicolon illustrates the poetic device of spreading over two parallel lines words which make up a single phrase. This is not synonymous parallelism, since God’s name is ‘El Shadday’ and what he does is ‘genuine justice’ (mišpaṭ ṣedeq). The verb is identical in both lines, so the whole amounts to a single sentence: ‘Does El Shadday twist true judgment?’ (Andersen, F. I. (1976). Job: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 14, pp. 150–151). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
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3. Bildad (8:1–22)
Bildad’s speech contains an important negative lesson about human nature in general and about the qualities of a good counselor. He heard Job’s words with his ears, but his heart heard nothing. This truth should be viewed in the light of Job’s plea for compassion in chapter 6. All people under the most ordinary circumstances need compassion; how much more Job in his extremity! Repeatedly in chapter 6 Job called himself a helpless (v.13) and despairing man (vv.14, 26) in need of the devotion of his friends. It seems almost incredible that Bildad would reply so callously. There is not only steely indifference to Job’s plight but an arrogant certainty that Job’s children got just what they deserved and that Job was well on his way to the same fate. The lesson we must learn is that there are such people in the world and that they do their heartless disservice to mankind under the guise of being the special friend of God.
As he appears in the Dialogue, Job becomes a man whose frame of mind is not totally conducive to loving relationships with others. Anyone who curses the day of his birth and looks on death as preferable to life is in need of help. His three friends were there for that purpose, but Job came to view them as part of his problem rather than as those who offer therapy. Their view that people do suffer for their sins and need to be brought face to face with that reality was not wholly wrong. The assumption that Job was one of these is what led them astray as counselors.
The lessons we learn from Job’s friends about counseling are negative, but the three are not alike. The book presents three counselors instead of one because each had his own approach and message for Job. Eliphaz began somewhat sensitive to Job’s needs but eventually lost patience (ch. 22). The other two were aloof and superior. None of them was able to accept Job unconditionally. It is true that Job was a stubborn patient, but they were unable or unwilling—or both—to become involved with him. Their advice was well-meant and often accurately and artistically stated, but it succeeded in making Job even more stubborn and resistive to them. No doubt a large part of the problem was their academic commitment to a viewpoint they refused to alter, namely, that sin brings suffering and suffering is evidence of sin.
Job forced his counselors to accept or reject his contention that he was not suffering for his sins. In 6:24 he said, “Teach me, and I will be quiet;/ show me where I have been wrong.” That they did not accept Job’s contention made them unwilling to listen and hence miserable as counselors. Bildad could only reply, “God does not reject a blameless man” (v.20). However, had they accepted Job’s contention the book would have lost a major part of its message, a message that centers around the mystery of God’s purposes in dealing with his creatures. An important lesson to be learned from the book is that counselors must not be sacrosanct. They must be willing to listen, become involved, and have respect for the integrity of the human personality they are trying to help. And they must always bear in mind that they may not fully understand the nature of the case. (Smick, E. B. (1988). Job. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job (Vol. 4, pp. 905–906). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
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8:3–4. Bildad argued that to complain against God meant that Job was accusing Him of injustice (cf. comments on mišpoṭ in 9:19). Since God never does pervert (“distort,” used twice in 8:3) justice, He certainly would not be punishing Job for nothing. If Job had not sinned, then his suffering would mean that God had perverted His ways. And to Bildad that was unthinkable! Obviously, then, Job had sinned. (Zuck, R. B. (1985). Job. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, pp. 729–730). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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There is a reason for Bildad’s approach: he was so concerned about defending the justice of God that he forgot the needs of his friend. “Does God subvert judgment? Or does the Almighty pervert justice?” (8:3, NKJV) Bildad preached a sermon on God’s justice, and his text was taken from the “vision” of Eliphaz: “Shall mortal man be more just than God?” (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be Patient (p. 34). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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“Tradition” and “traditionalism” are two different things. Historian Jeroslav Pelikan expresses this difference accurately when he says, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be Patient (p. 36). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books)
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8:3 Almighty pervert what is right. Bildad took Job’s claims for innocence and applied them to his simplistic notion of retribution. He concluded that Job was accusing God of injustice when God must be meting out justice to Job. Job tried to avoid outright accusations of this sort, but the evidence led Bildad to this conclusion because he had no knowledge of the heavenly facts. (MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Job 8:3). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
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FROM MY READING:
(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)
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Peter is living and reassuring proof that “grace is greater than all our sin.” We struggle, at one time or another, with things in our lives that ought to be corrected but aren’t. We fear that our lives bring a stench to God’s nostrils because we have failed Him so often. But Peter began to curse and swear and deny that he ever knew Jesus. What a colossal sin! Yet, just a few days later (in John 21), Peter is eating with the Lord in perfect fellowship and harmony. For the Christian, there is no sin so great that God will not forgive. (Quiet Walk)
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Seeing Parents as People
Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it. PROVERBS 16:22
Not everyone has fond memories of their relationship with their parents. Perhaps even now, the relationship you share with your parents is strained and distant. You may even find yourself avoiding them, weary of being hurt by the things they say or do . . . or don’t do.
But one of the great opportunities of being an adult is to step back and look at your parents in a fresh way—as real people, with needs and challenges. By looking at your parents more objectively—by seeing them through the eyes of Christ— you may be able to understand them and your relationship with them. And you may also experience what happens when His grace transforms the hard edges of a strained relationship into something that bears His redemptive fingerprints. Consider taking a fresh, careful look at your parents today. What do you see? Do you see people who experience worry, insecurity, fear, disappointment and anger—just like you? People who’ve made wrong and unwise choices in life— just like you? People who struggle—just like you? I remember how, when my parents were alive, I had to grow out of my childish self-centeredness and my desire for them to meet my needs. As I began to understand what their needs were, I was prompted to move toward them and want to help meet those needs.
Most adult children do not know their parents as well as they think they do. By seeking to understand them, you also honor them in obedience to God’s clear command (see Exodus 20:12). You can tell when it’s happening, too, because even though their behavior toward you may not change, you find that you don’t react to them like before. You find it easier to extend grace and patience. You don’t always agree with them, but at least you understand them. (Moments with You Couples by Dennis and Barbara Rainey)
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THE OFFENSE OF THE CROSS
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1:23
The test of whether someone is teaching the cross rightly or wrongly is whether it is an offense to the natural man or not. If my preaching of this cross is not an offense to the natural man, I am misrepresenting it. If it is something that makes him say “how beautiful,” “how wonderful,” “what a tragedy,” “what a shame,” I have not been preaching the cross truly. The preaching of the cross is an offense to the natural man. So it becomes the test of any man’s preaching.
Or let me put it in terms of the congregation. If this element of offense in the cross has never appeared to you, or if you have never felt it, then I say that you likewise have never known the truth about the cross of Christ. If you have never reacted against it and felt that it is an offense for you, I say you have never known it. It is always an offense to the natural man. Invariably, there is no exception. So if you have never felt it, you have never seen it because you are a natural man. Nobody is born a Christian into this world. We have to be born again to become Christians, and as long as we are natural men and women, the cross is an offense.
So if we have never known this element of offense, either we have not seen it or we have had some misrepresentation of it. The cross is an offense to the mind of the natural man. It cuts across all his preconceived notions and ideas. It was a stumbling block to the Jews for this reason. They were expecting a Messiah to destroy the Roman conquerors. So when they found the One who claimed to be the Messiah dying in apparent weakness upon the cross, they were deeply wounded and offended.
A Thought to Ponder: As long as we are natural men and women, the cross is an offense. (From The Cross, pp. 45-46, by Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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Daily Hope
Today’s Scripture
Acts 22:30-23:10
How do you respond when your integrity as a person is challenged? I can remember standing at attention and a sergeant telling the entire squad how pathetic and useless we were at that point in our military career! His intent was to wear us down and then build us back up as soldiers ready to serve our country. We were ignorant of his intentions and he enjoyed the process.
Paul was a prisoner and the Roman commander was determined to find out what the accusations were that had caused the riot and created the incident in the temple. He brought Paul out of the jail and called for the High Priest and all his council to come before him that he might understand what crime should be charged against Paul.
Paul was prepared to give a defense of his rights and lifestyle as a Jew and a believer. As he began to speak, the High Priest ordered his servant to strike Paul on the mouth to silence him. This consequently broke the Jewish law in the process of how to treat a prisoner. Paul is incensed by the act and speaks bluntly to the High priest, not knowing who he is in his anger. It appears that Paul is either unable to see or does not recognize the official clothing the high priest wore. Regardless of Paul’s condition, when it was revealed to whom he spoke to, he retracted his statement and showed respect for leadership even if it was not deserved.
When Paul recognized who made up the council that was investigating him, he shouted out a statement of fact that divided the council in half. His statement was a core doctrinal truth that kept the two parties (Sadducees and Pharisees) distinct and at odds. This statement had to do with the element of the supernatural which the Sadducees did not agree with and the Pharisees held strongly. His statement of being a Pharisee and believing in the “…hope and resurrection of the dead…” (v.6), created such a stir that the Roman commander grew fearful that Paul would be killed so he had Paul removed.
There are times when knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent can be beneficial. Paul’s understanding of the key elements that would divide the council and allow him to speak another day was invaluable. As a result, Paul was protected in the Roman dungeon from the Jewish people.
Standing up for our rights or presenting a viewpoint contrary to popular opinion will create controversy. When standing on biblical truth, we can trust God is in control regardless of the immediate outcome. Paul states in I Corinthians 16:13, “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.” We are assured of Christ’s power through any unsettled time.
With an Expectant Hope, by Pastor Miller (Board member of SCM)
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THE TWO DISPENSATIONS UNITED
The just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4
My fifth proof of there being one covenant is that clearly, according to the Scriptures, there is only one way of obtaining salvation and all those blessings, and that is the way of faith. All the Old Testament saints believed explicitly in God, and they exercised faith. In Habakkuk 2:4 we read, “The just shall live by his faith.” This is the theme and the message of the Old Testament from beginning to end; and–for example, in Hebrews 11–it is reiterated in the New Testament. Paul, quoting from Habakkuk, says in Romans 1:17, “The just shall live by faith,” and this is the theme of all his epistles.
But Paul puts it still more clearly and specifically in Romans 4:23-25, where, referring to Abraham, he says, “Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” It is clear that we receive justification by faith, exactly as Abraham received it by faith. For one more example under this heading, read again from the end of Hebrews 10 through chapter 11 to the beginning of chapter 12. It is the same truth, elaborated at length.
The sixth proof is that there is only one mediator under the two dispensations–the same mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ–“the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Take the promise made to Adam about the seed of the woman. God says that salvation is going to happen in that way, and other Scriptures prove that the seed of the woman is no other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the mediator in the Old Testament types–they all point to Him; also the prophecies all point to Him. It is always the Lord Himself.
A Thought to Ponder: It is clear that we receive justification by faith, exactly as Abraham received it by faith.
(From God the Father, God the Son, p. 239, by Dr, Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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Early Risers
“And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” (Mark 1:35)
One of the best ways to meet the Lord is to rise up early in the morning, before activities of the day can interfere. This apparently was the practice of Jesus Himself.
There are also many other occurrences in the Bible: “Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD” (Genesis 19:27). In order to set up an altar, “Jacob rose up early in the morning” (Genesis 28:18). When Moses gave the people the laws of God, he “wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill” (Exodus 24:4). Later, when he was to receive the commandments a second time, “Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto Mount Sinai” (Exodus 34:4). “Joshua rose early in the morning” to lead Israel over the Jordan, and then to capture Jericho; and to take Ai, “Joshua rose up early in the morning” (Joshua 3:1; 6:12; 8:10).
During the time of the Judges, Gideon “rose up early on the morrow” to prove God’s will through putting out the fleece (Judges 6:38). Hannah and Elkanah, in praying for the son who would later become Samuel, “rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the LORD” (1 Samuel 1:19).
No doubt there are justifiable exceptions, but late sleeping is in general not a good thing. “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?…he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame” (Proverbs 6:9; 10:5). It is good to seek the Lord early each day. “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me” (Proverbs 8:17). “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up” (Psalm 5:3).
(HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
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