Job 1: 1-12
The book of Job tells us about a man called Job who lived in Uz. Job lived an exceedingly exemplary life of uprightness and avoiding evil.
He was the most prosperous man of the east being blessed with abundant numbers of sheep, camels, oxen, asses and a great household including 7 sons and 3 daughters.
We are told that Job continually made sacrifice to God for the sins that his family may have committed when meeting together and feasting.
Satan is aware of Job's exemplary life, and on coming before God from his roaming through the earth claims that Job only fears God because God had protected him and made him prosperous.
He said that if God were to allow all his abundance to be 'touched' then Job would curse God.
God gives him permission to do so but forbids him from harming Job himself.
My attention was caught by these first verses telling us of Job's continual (or regular) sacrifices for his children 'in case' they had sinned.
He said, 'It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts' (verse 5).
It made me think about ourselves and how conscious we are of sins that we may have committed.
I sometimes come to the end of the day and as I pray to the Lord I am not really conscious of particular sins I have committed, so just generally ask for forgiveness for sins for that day - but they haven't really bothered me. Do you experience this?
I know that some of us are brought to feel sins more than others, and there are times in our lives when they are more apparent to us too, but there are times when things are going along nicely and perhaps we are not so conscious of what we are in God's sight and how we need continual cleansing and forgiveness.
I think of King David, who after committing adultery and murder, doesn't appear to have been bothered by what he had done for some months, until God sent his prophet Nathan to him to tell him.
Psalm 51 then demonstrates to us how the realisation of his sin affected him - he prayed, 'have mercy upon me...wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me...purge me...wash me...hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities...create in me a clean heart...' and much more.
A recent illustration by a minister* brought home to me how we are through and through sinners. He referred to clothing which is made dirty, perhaps after gardening, and we put in the washing machine to clean it. The soil is washed away and we are left with a clean garment. In our cases though, if we were to wash away our 'dirt' - our 'sins', there would be nothing left because that is what we are! Sin!
Perhaps we should pray to be made more aware of our sins? - as David wrote in another Psalm, 'Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins' Psalm 19 vs 12-13.
But I think we have to be careful what we pray for - if we were to see our sins as God sees them I don't think we could bear it, could we?
Might it be better to pray that the Lord teach us what we should pray for and show us what he wants us to know and confess?
Perhaps you have heard the story of the little Scottish girl who years ago was instructed by a minster to pray to God to show herself to her? You can read about it here and the effect it had on her.
Well, Job seemed to be particularly conscious of our nature as sinners and have a desire to be cleansed from sin by sacrifice. It says he did this continually - regularly.
Does this remind you of how Jesus is continually before God - the sacrifice of his life permanently cleansing and reconciling his people to God - even before they have committed their sins?
Thankfully we do not now have to continually make sacrifices to God for our sins because Jesus' life was the ultimate and totally satisfactory sacrifice, but we need to continually come to him in prayer and confession.
Another things that stood out to me was how Job sacrificed 'according to the number of them all' . This seemed to beautifully speak to me of how each of the Lord's people are counted and personally known and saved by the Lord.
To be continued ...
*Edmund Buss
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