Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Jun 8 2019 - Job 3 – Job's complaint

It's not Job's friends who speak first but Job himself as he lifts up his voice in lamentation. Job had refused to curse God and die, and here also his complaint is not so much against God, though he does feel that God has hedged him in (v. 23); his complaint is against his lot in life.

The opening verse describes the lament which follows saying, Job curses the day he was born. As is true of most of us, Job's family had been in the habit of celebrating birthdays (see 1:4). But Job can celebrate his birthday no longer. He bemoans the fact that he was not stillborn or that he had died as he came from the womb (vv. 11, 16), or failed to thrive and had died before he was conscious of his own existence (v. 12). So black has that day become in his thinking that he wishes it to be entirely expunged from the calendar (v.6); he would like the sun to refuse to shine on that day so that an extended night skips over that day, reflecting his own dark feelings (vv. 4-6, 9).

Job's feels that his life has become one long catalogue of misery. The good days he enjoyed in the past (and threw back at his wife in response to her suggestion that he curse God and die, see 2:10), are now all forgotten. He thinks that death would have been preferable to life, for in death he would have rested in sleep, beyond the reach of all pain and distress (v. 13). He would have shared the common lot of mankind, the great (vv. 14-15), the wicked (v. 17) and the slave (vv. 18-19).

But note that while Job longs for death and the release he believes it will bring him (vv. 21-22), he does not contemplate bringing about his own death. Though he has no peace, he cannot destroy the life that God has given. In 1:20-21 we read that when Job had lost possessions and family he had worshiped God saying:

Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I shall depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.

Now that he has lost his health and his whole life is a misery to him he still knows that it is the Lord who gave him life and it must be the Lord who takes it away.

So what are we to make of this chapter – how does this chapter minister to us?

I suppose in one sense it should make us thankful that we are not suffering as Job suffered; it should make us count our blessings. But there are many people, including many Christians, who suffer terrible pain and loss, who can identify with Job and who feel as he felt. There are many others who go through times of deep depression and who feel as he felt. What does this chapter say to them, or maybe rather, what does it say to us as we seek to come alongside them?

The first thing to say is that such feelings are genuine and honest. To tell anyone that they should not think like this is to make light of what they feel rather than seeking to be a help to them. We need, like Job's friends at the end of the last chapter, to mourn with those who mourn and to feel their pain with them – even if we have no idea what to say.

But secondly, the mystery of unjust suffering always takes us back to the Lord Jesus Christ. As he hung upon the cross the sun refused to shine and day became night. Just before he died, he called out in the agony of despair, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (see Matthew 27:46). Jesus also felt what we feel at the lowest point of our despair. He is able to help and comfort us in our time of need (see Hebrews 4:15-16).

Lord Jesus, we bring our pain and even our despair to you knowing that you love and care for us. Minister to us by your Spirit, and by your Spirit help us then to minister your strength and comfort to one another.

Jun 8 2020 - Romans 6:1-23 – Whom will you serve?

We live in an age of overlapping kingdoms. Sin claims dominion over the lives of many, promising so much but paying out wages of destruction and death. Jesus came to set us free from sin’s dominion. He entered into personal combat with the powers of sin and death and seemed to be destroyed by them; but by his resurrection from the dead he has broken their powers and has gained freedom for those previously held captive by them. He reigns over a kingdom of life and righteousness.

Paul reminds the Christians at Rome that their baptism signified that they had died with Christ to their old life under the dominion of sin and have been raised with Christ to live a new life under his gracious reign. This has comprehensive implications for daily living.

For the last two years of his life my Dad was living with us. After he had gone to be with the Lord we continued to receive occasional mail for him – some of it from companies trying to sell him stuff. I had to write on the envelope, “Deceased. Return to sender”, and put it back in the post. They would get no further business from my Dad because he is no longer here. He is dead.

In the same way, when temptation comes calling with the offer of self-gratifying sins, we need to ‘return to sender,’ unopened and without contemplation of its content. We have died to sin. The person it has come seeking does not live here anymore.

That’s what Paul is saying in these verses, but it’s not always quite that easy. As I mentioned, we live in an age of overlapping kingdoms and that ‘already but not yet’ cuts right through our own hearts and lives. We are dead to sin in that the cross has delivered the death certificate on our old life, but there is still some life in the old dog yet. We have not yet been fully freed from sin’s attraction and snare. We are not yet all that we shall be.

How will it be on that day? What will then keep us back from sin in the world to come? We shall then see Christ in all his glory and we shall share communion with God in all its fullness. We shall be so fully satisfied in that day that we shall want nothing else, nor could we dream of wanting what we have then left utterly behind. So we need to cultivate this view now so that we may be fully satisfied with Christ and keep ourselves from anything that would grieve his Spirit who has made his home with us.

We need to remember who we really are. We have been freed from the cruel dominion of sin and brought under the gracious reign of King Jesus. We need constantly to remind ourselves whose we are and whom we serve; we are not our own, we have been bought with a price. How are we going to respond to the many situations we meet today? Let’s make sure that we do not give in to the illegitimate claims of sin but rather send them packing. In all we think or say or do, let us gladly live as servants of Jesus Christ. He has given us the desire to please him; he will also provide us with the power to serve him.

Lord Jesus, you rejected the temptations of the evil one and lived in continual obedience to the will of the Father; it was your daily food and drink. Help me by your Spirit to follow and serve you this day. Help me to die to sin and live to righteousness.

Peter Misselbrook