Watching or Sleeping?

Psalm 121 versus Mark 14:32-42

The Lord never sleeps nor slumbers, says the Psalmist. That is true...even anticipating His darkest hour, the Lord ascended the mountain to pray while His disciples fell asleep.

While the pilgrims prayed through song for God's protection, they praised Him and glorified Him; for, He is only God who endlessly pours out His love and care upon His children. Only He is worthy of the people's trust.

Jesus also looked to His Father for help. He knew the power of prayer. He knew the depths of His need. Yet can we express as Jesus did, our confidence in God, "Your will, not mine?" Are we sleeping? or Are we watching? Are we trusting in God for our own needs, protection, and deliverance from evil? Are we interceding on behalf of those dearest to our hearts?

He always watches over us. The Maker of Heaven and Earth, Jesus, is our Help.

Lessons from Job: God's Goodness and Justice

We are familiar with Job's story. We know that to suffer like Job, means to suffer terribly. Maybe you know the expression, "the patience of Job." Do we know why he was patient or how to emulate his patience? I confess that when I think about Job, I say to myself, "I hope I am not tested like he was." There is more to the record of his story than his plight. We must try to remember the wisdom learned from his life too. There are blessed principles to learn about God. Job's story occurred possibly as far back in time as the story of Abraham. Whoever wrote this tale also did with literary finesse, using poetry and prose to weave a well-told story.

The first lesson I see from Job pertains to what we are most familiar with...his despair. He has gone from great riches to rags and by Job 3:1-10 he has cursed the day he was born. We find a human response of grief and pain. When we suffer from the loss of a loved one or failing health, the grief and pain that comes with it is natural and human. It is not a sin to feel those pangs of sorrow. It is how we handle those feelings that reveal our character. We can become bitter and angry or we can follow Job's example and learn to trust God in spite of such evil in this present life.

But we have 37 more chapters from which to glean wisdom.

The second lesson is one about faith. By chapter 19:25-26 Job has already demonstrated a growth in faith. Not because of his inner strength, but God has revealed more about Himself in order for Job to respond in greater faith. After hearing his three friends reasoning for why he suffered and hearing their advice for getting out of suffering, Job espouses what he understands to be true about his circumstances. It is not because he has sinned that God has allowed such suffering. He will not fake repentance in order to simply gain back his wealth and comfortable living. He begins to discern the justice of God. He declares His faith in God, not yet acknowledge God's perfect justice, but His grace....He believes God will redeem Him from death and misery. He will be redeemed because of God's goodness not his own.

Thirdly, we learn about gaining wisdom. Job knows that humans produce knowledge and that only from God can we find wisdom. In chapter 28 Job reflects on God's omnipotence and how that the beginning of gaining the wisdom of God is in fearing God and turning from evil.

Fourthly, Job learns through his circumstance that God is unchangeable and forever worthy of worship, honor, and glory. In the ensuing chapters, we find beautiful descriptions of the magnificence of God. It is God Himself who declares His Majesty. Listen to some of them: 38:4-24; 38:25-39:30

after hearing God's self-revelation, Job can no longer claim that God is unfair and has treated him unjustly in His loss of family, possessions, and wealth. He learns that all evil only occurs inside God's limits and that God has the power to turn evil for good. 38:8-11 Who are we as humans with so little understanding able to tell God, what is just? In 42:1-6 Job finally declares that God is just whether we experience blessings or sufferings, knowing God and having His promises surpass all sorrow. With complete faith in God's goodness and justice, God then restores Job's family and wealth. 42:10, 12-15. IT is now that Job can appreciate all that He has. Because of God's goodness, not because of Job's own righteousness, or because God owes it to him. God is just and God is good - in all circumstances.

Job's story teaches us how to trust and to praise God in the good times and the bad. Paul echoes this in his letter to the Philippians. That in any circumstance He is content, because of Christ's strength.

(Consulted LaSor, Hubbard, and Bush's Chapter on Job 471-496 in their work Old Testament Survey.)

Grace Rather than Tradition or Law

Matthew 15:1-20

Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches his familiar sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. In it, He commands us to "Be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect." I struggled with these words when I first read them. "I am definitely not perfect." "How can I be perfect?" "Nobody is perfect!" Then I realized I was thinking in terms of law and not grace. According to the law, I am imperfect and that is the purpose of the law, to help me realize that I need Christ -- I need grace. Christ's sacrifice on the cross was a gift of grace so that I might have His perfection, His righteousness.

Christ taught the difference of law and grace later to his disciples in terms of the external and internal. External laws have little power to change a person. Only with the power of Christ's Holy Spirit working in our hearts, internally, can we make progress and become more perfect, more like Christ. That is, until the day we enter Heaven and receive a new, perfect body.

Much of what Matthew wrote was to help the Jewish people embrace Christ. Matthew writes in a way for Jews to grasp the impotence of the law and their traditions, and rather, apprehend the power of Christ's grace. Let us read as Jesus dialogues with the Pharisees, the Jewish rulers of the day to rebuke them and to instruct His disciples as to the real path to purity.

The older we get, the more set in our ways we get. Only Christ can transform us and help us break the patterns that prevent us from being more like Him.

READ Matthew 15:1-20

Does washing our hands, if it obeys a law, make our hearts clean? Does dirty hands mean an impure heart?

Does being a good citizen or following traditions make us pure? No! We can be very obedient to external laws and very obliging to the traditions we have learned to follow throughout our years, and still be impure in our hearts.

Jesus tells us that what comes out of hearts demonstrates our purity. In order to enter Heaven, we must be pure. Not on the basis of the good deeds that we have done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:5-7). By believing in the righteousness of Jesus and His taking the punishment for our sin, we are declared pure, righteous in God's eyes, and we can enter Heaven. By His Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we can learn to walk righteously here and now. Although we will falter from time to time, we can ask for forgiveness and continue walking down the straight and narrow path with the help of Christ. Praise the Lord, that this struggle between flesh and spirit will end when we enter Paradise.

Do not be fooled that being a good person or keeping up traditions is a ticket to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is only by His grace that we are saved.