Consumed by the Past and the Future

 Job 14:1-6

 

“Man, who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.  He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.  And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you?  Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?  There is not one. Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.”

As a person who made a living in sales, it was imperative to know whom I was addressing, for my message to the warehouse or counter person was very different from the manager or owner.  Who is Job addressing, is it not his Creator, and how important is it when the created talks to their Creator?  I am fearful that often we the Church of the Living God enter into those conversations in the same way I talked with the person stocking the warehouse.  I have heard men in leadership say let us have a quick word of prayer as if to say let’s get this out of the way so we can do the important thing.  What a dangerous and foolish thing to say.

 

I believe Job gave a lot of thought to his words, for he had a fear of addressing a Holy God.  Now we are on this side of the Cross and Jesus has made it crystal clear that in this world we will have trouble.  The wonderful news is Jesus also told us He has overcome the world (John 16:33).  But Job before the Cross has insight into that truth.  

 

I visited my employer of over 40 years, and I’ve been gone only 13 years and only a handful of people knew who I was, yes we show up like a flower and soon wither, Job said like a shadow.  In verse four Job wonders why God would waste His time with mankind in that we are here today and gone tomorrow.  Why bring him to judgment, Job never claimed he was without sin, no his question was why am I in this mess?  Job had no clue what was taking place in heaven, but it would be rare for you or me to not know the why.  Blaise Pascal lived in the 1600s and gave us many insights, this is one of them; “Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.”

 

Job understood that God has set a date for life on earth to end, and that is an absolute, but then eternity, and that is why one must seek Jesus in this life so that eternity is with God.

 

Let us end today with this quote from Blaise Pascal, “If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.”  The past is history, and yes we can learn from it.  The future has not been promised and we have little control over it.  Wise people will put their hope in Christ and ask for guidance from the Holy Spirit.

 

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Job's request for a time of Silence

 Job 13:13-28

 

“Let me have silence, and I will speak, and let come on me what may.  Why should I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in my hand? Though he slays me, I will hope in him;  yet I will argue my ways to his face. This will be my salvation, that the godless shall not come before him.  Keep listening to my words, and let my declaration be in your ears.  Behold, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be in the right.  Who is there who will contend with me?  For then I would be silent and die.  Only grant me two things, then I will not hide myself from your face: withdraw your hand far from me and let not dread of you terrify me.  Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me.  How many are my iniquities and my sins?  Make me know my transgression and my sin.  Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy?
Will you frighten a driven leaf and pursue dry chaff?  For you write bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.  You put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths; you set a limit for the soles of my feet.  Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.”

 

Many a person has pulled a con on another person, but God cannot be conned, and Job is asking for a time of quiet from his so-called friends.  I have had a few friends at any time in my life.  So that you understand my definition of a friend: “it is someone I can call at 3:00 in the morning, and they will answer the phone and listen to what I’m saying.  They will give me counsel and I will listen because I’m aware they have my best interest at heart.”  What they will not do is attack my person, and I have faith that they will be there for me, Job’s so-called friends were there, but they became his prosecutors and judges and showed little mercy or respect for his loss.

 

Job told them that he understands he is in a very dangerous place asking for a one on one with God.  He was willing to risk his life because he is confident of his integrity and uprightness, so he is asking God to allow him to defend himself.  Job states, “Even if He kills me, I will hope in Him.”  A mere man who is not upright cannot say, nor will he put it on the line, especially at the cost of his life.  In verse 16, Job is declaring that if God allows him to come into His presence that will be proof of his uprightness.  But Job also knew that God had to allow it and that’s why he asked God to remove His hand from him.

 

Often, in times of trials, we feel as if God cannot be found, but that is a lie from the pit of hell, we are told in Act 7:27, “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”  Never forget you are on this side of the Cross, and the Spirit of God lives in you if you pass the test. (2Corinthians 13:5)  Job longed for the fellowship he had with God; many a follower of Christ has let the world and its desires steal the joy and peace that is ours as God has promised.

 

Aren’t you glad, that when you entered into Christ and He entered into you,  His blood cleans all your sins from birth till death, all one has to do is confess?  Job is asking God not to hold him guilty for the sins of his youth.  This side of the cross, we who have Christ living in us are righteous because of the blood Jesus shed on the Cross for our sins.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice

 

 

 

 

I would tell you the truth, but you cannot handle it

 

Job 13:1-12

 

“Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it.  What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.  But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God.  As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all.  Oh, that you would keep silent,  and it would be your wisdom!
Hear now my argument and listen to the pleadings of my lips.  Will you speak falsely for God and speak deceitfully for him?  Will you show partiality toward him?  Will you plead the case for God?  Will it be well with you when he searches you out?  Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man?  He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality.  Will not his majesty terrify you, and the dread of him fall upon you?  Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.”

 

On this side of the Cross, we have many promises that the Holy Spirit will give us the words to say, such as Luke 12:12, “For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what must be said."  You will also see this teaching in Luke 21:15, and Acts 4:8.  If one is walking in the flesh and not in the Spirit they will give council like Job’s friends.  Be very careful not to do as Job’s friends and talk down or come across as if the one you are addressing is ignorant, though they may be.

 

I have heard men say, I would tell you the truth, but you cannot handle it, in fact, Jesus said that in John 16:12, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”  In verses 4-5, Job had his fill of his friends condemnation and he tells them you are not all that smart, a long way from being wise men.  He implied they were more like unskilled physicians that had missed the true diagnoses.  He tells them they would not have shown their lack of intelligence if they had been silent.  Proverbs 17:28, “Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.”  How many times I’ve exposed my ignorance by opening my mouth and speaking.

 

In verses 7-12, Job is warning his so-called friends to be very careful when you imply your speaking for God.  This side of the Cross, if you have a personal relationship with the LORD, not by an act of goodness on your part, but accepting by grace and faith that God gives you, to believe in what Jesus did for you on the cross, then you have the Spirit living in you.  One must be very careful to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh, or they will speak as mere men and not under the authority of the Spirit.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob  

Rice

Ignorance and apathy are common to mankind

 

Job 12:13-29

 

“With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding.  If he tears down, none can rebuild; if he shuts a man in, none can open.  If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.  With him are strength and sound wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his.  He leads counselors away stripped, and judges he makes fools.  He loses the bonds of kings and binds a waistcloth on their hips. He leads priests away stripped and overthrows the mighty.  He deprives of speech those who are trusted and takes away the discernment of the elders.  He pours contempt on princes and loosens the belt of the strong.  He uncovers the deeps out of darkness and brings deep darkness to light.
 He makes nations great, and he destroys them; he enlarges nations and leads them away.  He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth and makes them wander in a trackless waste. They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.”

 

Ignorance and apathy are common to mankind and often stupidly is the reason, in most cases, something can be done for the stupid if they are willing to drop apathy and do something about the area they are ignorant about.  My counsel is going to the only one that is all-knowing, has true wisdom, and that is the Creator of everything that has been made.  God is omniscient and omnipotent, has all knowledge, and all strength. 

 

As seen from the beginning of mankind we observe ignorance leading to foolishness in man’s desire to be a god or look to a god that is neither omniscient nor omnipotent.  If you are willing to look at Romans 1:18-25, you will have a better understanding of how ignorance and apathy lead to stupidity.  As one who is a follower of Christ we would be wise to often go back to Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

 

Many of us who have a few years behind us often forget God is in charge of the political situation and all the world leaders will try to have their way but God, that’s just the way it is, but God!  He alone is sovereign and is working all things for the good of those who love Him.  If you have any doubt, go to Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

 

Have you paid attention to the Birds

 

Job 12:7-12

 

“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;  the birds of the heavens and they will tell you, or the bushes of the earth and they will teach you, and the fish of the sea will declare to you.  Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?  In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.  Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?  Wisdom is with the aged and understanding in length of days.”

 

Job is making clear that all things even the birds and the animals understand that they are in the hand of an all-mighty God.  In fact, he goes even farther and states all things have that understanding.

 

Do not forget this is taking place before the cross, but in this case, it also applies to you and me.  In the book of Jeremiah 8:7,  “Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD.

 Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift, and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD.”

The New Testament give us insight into how we can learn from the birds of the air? “Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!”  (Luke 12:24)  In the Psalms 104:21, “The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.”  Now look at Proverbs 6:6-8,  “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!  It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,  yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”

Often and I do mean very often we put trust in ourselves and do not learn from Scripture or nature.  In the Book of Romans 1:18-23, makes it clear that we are without excuse for it is clear to us in the creation.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

 

Court Docs Reveal

 

How often has a nation honored a dope addicted?  Drug his body all over a country having full media coverage for a full month as if he was a president or great humanitarian, but he was not, he was a criminal and a bad man. The media made him look like a choir boy.  But this is the truth, 

Medical Examiner Concluded George Floyd Likely Died Of Fentanyl Overdose, Court Docs Reveal​.

 

If you're one that was taken in by what you saw on a videotape and rushed to judgment, or got caught up in the Black Lives Matter inc. an evil Marxist group that is well funded by corporations you buy their products, shame on you. ​

 

I'm not even talking about the well-funded Marxist or the paid community organizer that is destroying most democrat run cities.  

 

​No, I am addressing this to people who are law-abiding, who are putting signs in their yards, "Black life’s matter" or defund the police, have you lost your minds?​

 

Bob Rice

 

PS Since the Media made him, do you believe they will now tell you the truth?  

 

 ____

 

What If Job knew what was taking palace in heaven?

 Job 12:1-6

 

Then Job answered and said: “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.  But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you.  Who does not know such things as these?  I am a laughingstock to my friends;  I, who called to God and he answered me,  a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.  In the thought of one who is at ease, there is contempt for misfortune; it is ready for those whose feet slip.  The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hand.”

Sarcasm when talking to someone that has all the answers may be the best reply, that is the approach Job has taken, with his three friends.  Verse one, “Then Job answered  and said: “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.”  But in verse two we see Job following up with a large dose of truth for the three friends.  “But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you.  Who does not know such things as these?”  Did you notice Job has moved from sarcasm to confrontation?  

 

He reminds his friends that he also has been exposed to the same traditional wisdom as they have, that his body may be under attack, but his mind is still working.  Unlike his three friends, he weighs the information before coming to a judgment.

 

Verses five and six, “In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune; it is ready for those whose feet slip.  The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hand.”  Job cannot wrap his mind around why a man of integrity is being tested as he is, and the wicked are living lives of comfort and peace.

I keep wondering if Job knew what was taking place in heaven between God and the devil, would it be easier to deal with?  If you were the person God was talking about, when He said to the devil, “have you seen Job, no one on earth is like him.”  How would you have acted, prideful, arrogant, or humble and meek?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice