The
First Sunday in Advent
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY
God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us
the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son
Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he
shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee
and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.
¶
This Collect is to be repeated every day, after the other Collects in Advent,
until Christmas Day.
Please read and meditate on the Fifth Chapter of the Book of Job along with
your study of this devotion.
Job 5
King James Version (KJV)
5 Call now, if there be
any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?
2 For wrath killeth the foolish man, and
envy slayeth the silly one.
3 I have seen the foolish taking root: but
suddenly I cursed his habitation.
4 His children are far from safety, and
they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.
5 Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and
taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.
6 Although affliction cometh not forth of
the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;
7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the
sparks fly upward.
8 I would seek unto God, and unto God would
I commit my cause:
9 Which doeth great things and
unsearchable; marvellous things without number:
10 Who giveth rain upon the earth, and
sendeth waters upon the fields:
11 To set up on high those that be low; that
those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
12 He disappointeth the devices of the
crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
13 He taketh the wise in their own
craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.
14 They meet with darkness in the day time,
and grope in the noonday as in the night.
15 But he saveth the poor from the sword,
from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.
16 So the poor hath hope, and iniquity
stoppeth her mouth.
17 Behold, happy is the man whom God
correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
18 For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he
woundeth, and his hands make whole.
19 He shall deliver thee in six troubles:
yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
20 In famine he shall redeem thee from
death: and in war from the power of the sword.
21 Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the
tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
22 At destruction and famine thou shalt
laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
23 For thou shalt be in league with the
stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
24 And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle
shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.
25 Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall
be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.
26 Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full
age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.
27 Lo this, we have searched it, so it is;
hear it, and know thou it for thy good.
This chapter (5) opens with Eliphaz essentially calling Job a fool. 1 Call
now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt
thou turn? No wise man will answer the ranting of a fool, and
certainly will no saint of God deal with a fool. This sets Job apart in the
mind of Eliphaz from the wise and the saintly. Obviously, to Eliphaze, Job has
sinned and brought all of this evil upon himself. As I stated yesterday, the
vision of Eliphaz does not seem to have come from God because it has no claim
to be from God, and it also concludes that Job is not blameless. Moreover, the
Lord Himself renounces the counsel of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar in the last
chapter of this Book: And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these
words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled
against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the
thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. (Job 42:7)
So easy is it to see the blemishes on the face of another for the carnal mind,
but our eyes are fleshly and not made for looking inwardly. The eyes must be
opened in a spiritual way to clearly perceive, from outside our own selves,
those horrible marks and disgusting boils on our own hearts. Eliphaz so very
clearly believes that he is above the plight of Job in his own
self-righteousness. The accusations and insinuations he levels against Job come
as readily to his mind as the bulging waters of the sea at high tide. Eliphaz,
like so many judgmental pretenders to the faith, is quite gifted at the
improper application of truth to the plight of others. ¡°If you are not rich
and happy (Osteen), you are definitely out of the will of God,¡± claim the
proponents of the wealth-and-health gospel. These ¡®miracles’ of stupidity and
ignorance simply cannot behold the filthy rags and repugnant odors of their own
persons. Being built up in pride and silken robes, they fail to see their own
utter nakedness before God. But to the world, all unrighteousness is forever
OUTWARD and never INWARD! Eliphaz even goes so far as to blame the demise of Job’s
children on Job’s foolishness. Again, this is a subtle implication that God has
disarmed Job while, truly, God is on the side of Job in all of his misery. Happy
is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but
they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. (Psalms 127:5) In actual
fact, Job’s children are not judged (crushed) in the gate for crime, but died
of natural calamity induced by Satan. So the judgment of Eliphaz is directly
contrary to the Will of God.
Eliphaz further implies that Job has not sought the solace of God in his
affliction which, according to Eliphaz, may have arisen from foolishness and
craftiness. His words are wise, but applied improperly like a good medicine for
headache applied to heal a rash. Here is a sterling example of the
misdiagnosis of Eliphaz of Job’s circumstances: 17 Behold,
happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the
chastening of the Almighty. Job is not suffering as a result of God’s
correction â€" he is not being chastened by
the Lord. The rational and non-spiritual mind tries to justify hardship and
pain by blaming them on some logical cause such as sin or misconduct. But pain
and suffering come upon the righteous as well as the unrighteous. We can see
the point clearly because we have the explanation of the cause (Satan) in the first
two chapters of Job, but Eliphaz does not have the benefit of that knowledge,
so he uses human logic. Do we not do the same in judging others before we know
the facts? Though we are commanded of Christ to judge, we are counseled to use
an equal balance informed of righteousness: Judge not according to the
appearance, but judge righteous judgment. (John 7:24) How do we know
what is righteous judgment? It is when we do not use our own judgment, but that
of God, in judging a matter. I can of
mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because
I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
(John 5:30) If we judge, seeking those merits of Christ which He heard of His
Father, it is God that judges the matter and not we ourselves.
Though the judgment of Eliphaz is wrong, his words are full of the wisdom of
the Lord. As we can see, Eliphaz takes the ¡°appearance¡± of Job’s condition to
prove unrighteousness and foolishness. So he takes the true teachings of
God, but judges by appearance and not with righteous judgment. Whether we admit
it or not, we do the same to the hurt of our own souls almost daily. Even in
our worship, we attempt to present ourselves as pious and possessed of strong
faith. We dress to make a show of our piety. We adopt rituals and practices in
worship which are not prescribed by God’s Word (Roman Catholicism). We worship
the creature (dogs and other animals) more than the Creator. We prefer to bless
the animals before we petition to bless the children. But if we simply follow
the Godly principles and doctrines of the Reformed Church, we shall be on good
ground biblically, and men such as Eliphaz cannot turn God’s Word against us.
Do we keep holy in the things commanded of God, or do we seek to find holiness
outside His True Word?
