when it just gets worse

But when I hoped for good, evil came,

and when I waited for light, darkness came.

Job 30:26

This is the simplest description of the most personal part of Job’s suffering. He kept hoping to turn a corner on his pain. He was waiting for it to get better. It had not done so, in fact, whose who came to offer their comfort in his losses only made it worse. There was no good news for the moment. There was no breaking light of dawn. There was only pain and suffering.

And this is a feeling that was more than just emotion. It was the reality of Job’s pain. It just got worse. And there wasn’t a lot of light in his dark days. There was no comfort coming from his friends and Job has resigned himself to that. It was a really bad time in his life. The pain had settled in. The realization that this experience was his new normal was Job’s painful expression. There isn’t anything a human can do to change that kind of reality. It must be accepted and then God must be trusted despite all parts of life seeming to be incongruous with grace.

Sometimes life just gets worse. There is no other way to see it. It is best to accept this becuase given the decay of mortality and the curse on sin, that is every person’s destiny. There is hope beyond this only in Jesus. He died so death would end its finality. He rose so that hope would be our actuality. We know that God is making it all new and better eventually, but things must get dark before that dawn. The only hope for good is the gospel. That can sustain us as life gets harder and suffering dominates our days.

God will have His day.

Alas for the day!

For the day of the Lord is near,

and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

Joel 1:15

The prophecy in Joel focuses on a future day in which God will judge the earth. Joel uses the devastation from a plague of locusts to call Israel to consider this greater judgment to come in the Day of the Lord. Just as the locusts left no food in the fields, so the Day of the LORD will be complete in its destruction. Just as the nation was powerless against the insect onslaught, so no one would be able to stop the Day of the LORD in its coming to destroy.

God will have His day. In the story of humanity and God recorded in the Bible, we know that before the universe is restored to its created “goodness”, a day of destruction will occur. The earth and all the elements of the universe will be burned up and remade as creation is restored to its original state of sinless perfection and the glory of God is known universally in the new creation. But before this renewal of all things, there must be a destruction of what has been cursed by sin. The curse has to be real. The destruction must happen. That is the Day of the LORD.

All the beauty of the earth and the heavens right now is marred by the curse of Adam’s fall. But that will not stand forever. God will redeem us from this mess through Christ, He will judge the world of humanity, bring an end to sin’s curses forever, and then magnificently restore all the universe to His original intention as Creator. It will be glorious. And it is that hope that is a source of confidence for our future, even as we live in present difficulties, struggling against sin and brokenness. The Day of the LORD will change it.

hated

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

John 15:18

My only offense to others

Should be the cross

My only “fault” to watchers

Should just be Jesus

My Savior, my Master, My King

Should be known in me

And if folks don’t like Jesus watching

They won’t care to look at me

Some people hate Jesus Christ

Because they know they must change

And the gospel calls them to another life

That they reject as strange

They refuse the gospel, refusing God

And don’t want to hear it ever

They look at Christians as somewhat odd

When we say we can live forever

If some today hat Jesus our Master

Then we may be hated as well

But Jesus is judge, rejection is their disaster

When the hate and rejection end in hell

My aspiration is to let Jesus live in me

Showing His love to people all around

No mater what others might think of me

I am Jesus’ disciple, pilgrim here, heaven-bound

overcoming the second death

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

Revelation 2:11

By the grace of God, no Christian will taste the agony of the second death. Jesus has overcome for us. We will though Him overcome the second death (see Revelation 20:4-6 for what this is).  By faith in Jesus, Who took our sin’s punishment upon Himself so that we might know His gift of eternal life, we are not condemned. Because Jesus has overcome hell, we can know life forever with Him!

Death is real for all of us. We are mortal. But the sting of death and the terrors of hell are gone in Christ! He has redeemed us from sin’s curse. It has no power over our eternity. We have won in Jesus’ victory.

O Lord Jesus,

Thank You for having such love and for conquering the curse of sin so that I might know eternal life! And in Your death and resurrection is my strength and security. I am Yours for eternity. And though this mortal life will end, it will open up for me to eternal joy with You!

Amen

God is bigger than you think.

With whose help have you uttered words,

and whose breath has come out from you?

Job 26:4

This two part question is a response from Job to Bildad’s contention that since it is impossible for sinful humans to match the majesty of a holy God, Job must be in the wrong and thus he is suffering under God’s retributive judgment. Bildad’s words are lean and direct: man is just a maggot... a disgusting worm in comparison to the majestic God (Job 25:6).

Job’s reply to Bildad’s observation is filled with strong sarcasm as it begins, thanking his friend for the great “help” such an observation is for the humiliated sufferer (Job 26:2-3). But then Job transitions to agreeing that God is majestic and powerful, but not without reminding Bildad that God is the source of the very breath by which men utter their words. God is sovereign and gracious to even allow Job and his friends to be having this strange theological free-for-all in the midst of Job’s staggering pain. Job recognizes the very breath that allows them speech to debate as coming from the Lord.

Then Job begins to preach about the power of God. God controls the fate of those now living, and relates to souls of those now dead who are in their eternity. Hell and death are open to His control and knowledge. He hangs all the stars and planets in space and controls everything about the earth. He sends weather, both pleasant and stormy at His will and command. All the natural forces that can make men tremble are under God’s direct control, and these are just the bare edge of what God does and Who He is (Job 26:14). Job’s reply to Bildad’s is summed up with this vivid reminder: God is bigger than you think!

Since that is true, we should be very careful what we attribute to Him and how we do so. We are only looking at the outskirts of His ways, and there is so much we do not know about an infinite, holy God. It is better to keep our theology humble and our submission to understanding God’s words and His works in check. He is bigger than we think. I’m in trouble once I’m sure I have God figured out! He is bigger than I can know.

wrapped in the wings of the whirlwind

A wind has wrapped them in its wings,

and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Hosea 4:19

Idolatry is a devastating destruction, and generally those who worship what isn’t God, will find the results to come whipping into their lives like a storm wind without shelter when they need it the most. God, through His prophet Hosea, is laying out the case for Israel’s spiritual adultery. They have forsaken the faithful covenant love of God and gone after the worship of idols with an outrageous lusting abandon. And the awfulness of that idolatry adultery has so caught up the culture, that the nation is carried along in a whirlwind of unfaithfulness. It will eventually end in destruction and shame as survivors are led away captive from their nation.

God makes it clear that this was a destructive spiritual force that was ruining His people, but it was fueled by their choice to abandon God and seek the idols of the nations around them. The Lord was going to let them continue in this painful direction with their willful spiritual adultery only because the crash at the end of the whirlwind would be what it would take for the nation to repent, trust, and again return in covenant with God.

God will let those who find no shame in their sin continue in their unfaithfulness. But that is in itself a strong judgment meant to bring them to their senses. Wrapped in the dizzyingly dangerous swirling tornado of sinful choices, they will be carried along until it all comes tumbling down. And when it does, His mercy, grace, and forgiveness will again be offered to the repentant, broken nation. It is better though to avoid the blowing wind, to fear and obey the Lord, and to find His blessing in obedience.

Prince of my peace

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

John 14:1

Jesus makes this promise/command right after He informs Peter that he would deny Jesus three times. I’m sure this caused a stir among the disciples and a sinking feeling in Peter. And yet Jesus makes this call to faith and promise of peace. The path to a calm heart is the peace of Christ. And that is found in faith in Him.

The disciples picked up on this truth and spread it through the church. They knew that believing the grace of Jesus brought the peace of Jesus into lives. Seventeen times in the New Testament writings, the church is greeted with “grace and peace”. It is practically an apostolic signature. Paul used it. Peter wrote it in his epistles. John proclaimed it. So this call to believe Jesus and thus calm troubled hearts certainly sunk in to become a hallmark of early Christianity. They believed and found peace. We believe God’s grace and find peace.

It is now December, and we are celebrating the gift of salvation in our Prince of Peace, Jesus. Despite the chaos in the world, Jesus reigns. Jesus brings peace... peace with God through the forgiveness of sins by His death... peace with our future by the hope of eternal life through His resurrection... peace in our present by interceding with us now before the Father. Jesus also brings peace with other people through the creation and growth of His Church as His people of peace. Jesus brings peace to our troubled hearts as we trust His sufficiency and then surrender our sorrows and weaknesses to His great healing and sustaining grace.

Lord Jesus,

Prince of my peace, I will not let me heart be troubled by the cares and worries around me. I will believe in You and find peace.

Amen