Power in the WORD today - January 4, A Recap and Answers to Big Questions! 

Job 1-4

In the first 3 chapters of Genesis, God creates all good—especially the human race for which all else is made. He hands it over to the first family. Weirdly, humans pull away from God and hook up with a cunning “beautiful” snake that appears in the story. It seems assumed we know all about him, where he came from, what he’s up to, etc., but none of that has been explained, yet. The man and woman don’t seem surprised or put off by hanging out with him/it on any given day, though he is the consummate interloper set on destroying their relationships with God and each other. 

In a generation man invents his own way of worship (Cain’s "offering"—rejected!), madness, mayhem, and murder, ensues. God keeps giving grace: “At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord ”( Gen. 1:25:). We are reminded  “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them” (Gen. 5:1-2). God creates. God blesses. The only “cursed” thing is the direct result of man’s joining himself with the destroyer! “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life” (Gen. 3:17). But there are those who hold on to hope and true faith: “When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah (Rest, Comfort), saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands” (Gen. 1:28). That’s a stunning prophetic decree of confident faith in God and His goodness even though things are falling apart in society. Noah is the great grandson of Enoch, a man who walked with God, literally. Noah is a sign God’s assurance of deliverance from evil, renewal of life, and the promise of established covenant blessing. 

 If you do the math you find that these men of faith and witness to God’s hand in their day are alive and telling the story to their children and grandchildren from Noah to Abram. Never discount the power your prayers and example will have on your family! Like his great grandfather before him, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (Gen. 6). As man becomes increasingly joined to the destroyer, they destroy one another, “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). God’s heart is “grieved”— it depicts someone sighing in deep, heartfelt, pain and regret. “The earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth” (Gen. 6:11). “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8). Looking at Noah, God beholds a thing of beauty, pleasant to His eyes and a relief to His heart, a vessel through whom God can redeem and fulfill His good intentions for man’s family. 

Imagine the patient perseverance of Noah for many years culminating in a terrifying life threatening disaster during which “God remembered Noah” and those he brought with him (Gen. 8:1). God reestablishes His original blessing: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…have dominion” (Gen. 9:1). “Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything… “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you”…” I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth…I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.” A reminder of the incredible entrustment God has given to man, the foreshadowing of the our rebirth through the cross, the life of the Son in exchange for our lives as the covenant of life God establishes: “you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning” (Gen. 9:4). 

Human history unfolds. Generations are born, develop and multiply, increase in knowledge and skill, but not necessarily in companionship and purpose with God. “Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves” (Gen.11:4). Babel is built and disrupted and we are reminded that Noah lives on for 350 years after the flood. Through his faithful son Shem, he is building a legacy different from the rest of society. Sons, grandsons, and great grandsons, are born, including one named Abram who would be grown to a young man before Noah dies. That brings us to the next chapter of God establishing an eternal covenant with mankind and creation, the covenant with Abraham. 

In the interim, we discover as we read chronologically, another righteous man lives and prospers. “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1). We might wonder if Job’s kids were ancient Kardashians. Their father apparently gave them everything kids of a powerful man could want and they enjoyed it. Nothing tells us they kept their father’s faith or feared God. In contrast, Abram is specifically chosen because God knew Abram would “command his sons after him.” Importantly, Job’s story unveils who, what, why, how, of evil and human suffering. God’s blessing is seen as creating “a hedge” though not an inviolable one, around those who serve God. At the same time, the adversary of all God’s good intention, the “cunning serpent” from the Beginning has a name: Satan. This character is the perpetual interloper, murdering, thieving, and destroying as far as he is able, relationship between man and God, human life and creation. Amidst increasing darkness on earth, a light shines: Job. Darkness is intent on snuffing out that light as Satan, in a time when he had legal access to appear before god and accuse man, plays the card of power he held prior to Christ’s intervention through His incarnation. “And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that [Job] has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”(Job 1:12). Satan has been given power in earth realm, not by God, but by Adam, to whom God had given that dominion. (see Jesus’ testing in Luke 4:5-7). Ensuing natural disasters and the acts of evil persons perpetuate death and destruction on Job’s family. None of these events are “from God.” Both sources of suffering are inspired, influenced, and enforced, by Satan from within the realms of power he had been given in Adam’s abdication. That authority would stand until a Second Man came who would legally and effectively destroy the devil and his works. The Last Adam would reunite the human race with His Father. Would strip Satan of his power. Would redeem man from evil and its judgments. And would exile Satan and his angels from appearing before God to accuse and attack mankind. 

Meeting Job at the point of human history unfolding in the early days leading up to Abram is helpful in understanding the cosmic event of Christ’s incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension. In Job’s story, good and evil, human suffering, religious superstition, fallacy, and hypocrisy, the underbelly of spiritual warfare, God’s faithfulness, the challenge and reward of persevering faith, the prophetic assurance of life after death through Christ, and insight on how to deal with unhelpful friends and family members during times of testing will all be shown us! A long time later, God will have Ezekiel remind us of Job in the same breath with Noah and Daniel (Ezekiel 14:20). Keep reading. Keep listening. Keep meditating and be EMPOWERED IN THE WORD this year!