The First Sunday in Lent.
The
Collect.
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O
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LORD who for our sake didst fast
forty days and forty nights; Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our
flesh being subdued to the Spirit we may ever obey thy godly motions in
righteousness, and true holiness, to thy honour and glory, who livest and
reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
The first day of Lent, commonly
called
Ash Wednesday.
The Collect.
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A
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LMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost
forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and
contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our
wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and
forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
¶ This Collect is to be said every day in Lent, after the Collect appointed for the day, until Palm Sunday.
1 Then
the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 2 Who is this
that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up now
thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 4 Where
wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast
understanding. 5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou
knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? 6 Whereupon are
the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; 7 When
the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8 Or
who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of
the womb? 9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick
darkness a swaddlingband for it, 10 And brake up for it my decreed
place, and set bars and doors, 11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou
come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed? 12 Hast
thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his
place; 13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that
the wicked might be shaken out of it? 14 It is turned as clay to
the seal; and they stand as a garment. 15 And from the wicked their
light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken. 16 Hast thou
entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the
depth? (Job 38:1-16)
We begin today perhaps the most beautiful poetic utterings and prosaic writings
of all of the Holy Bible. The next five verses contain the DIRECT Word of God.
It is a humbling and awesome challenge to even attempt to explain these
wonderful words for they speak for themselves in ways that are above the
comprehension of any man in fullness of meaning and beauty. Due to the
unquestionable import of these remaining chapters, I will divided each chapter
into two separate devotions. This devotion will cover verses 1-16.
We were surprised, after hearing the drawn out dialogue between Job , Eliphaz,
Bildad and Zophar to have suddenly appear a fifth person whom we had not known
was present and listening to every word – Elihu. Elihu stands up at the moment
of greatest import and prepares the ears of the four (including Job) for
another and far greater voice – a Voice we did not expect to hear at all, or
even realized was constantly present and listening to all sides of the
argument. This formidable Personage is God Himself! Being omnipresent and
omniscient, he has heard all of the exchange between Job and his three friends,
and then of His servant, Elihu, as he clarifies the reality of God's power and
majesty. Elihu serves almost in the role of a court bailiff who prepares
the courtroom to stand at the entry of the Judge. God has watched as his
righteous man, Job, is assailed by his friends, and He has watched as Job makes
claims of his own righteousness that fail the test of a son of God. God has
actually wanted Job to answer better, yet He also knows that Job, like us, is
mortal and made of the dust of the earth.
We will observe that God's appeal to Job's ignorance of His NATURAL
government which is also attributable to his gross ignorance of God's
incomprehensible and mysterious MORAL government. In fact, no man
is entitled to claim a perfect knowledge of God's ways and means of government
in affairs of the heart. God has told us sufficiently in His Word the truths we
need to claim our security in Him, but many mysteries remain of which we have
little intuition.
We see our first sixteen verses divided into the following heads:
1.
Job 1:38:4-7 God's Creation of the
Universe.
2.
Job 38:8-11 God's Creation and
sovereignty over the Sea
3.
Job 38:12-15 God's Bringing forth of
the dawning Morning
A storm has just arisen on the landscape, and out of the storm a terrible
whirlwind. 1. Then the LORD answered Job out of the
whirlwind, and said To most observers, this may have seemed as a really
unfortunate omen, but it is not, for God is in the tornado like wind.
Sometimes, we are so slow of heart and ears to hear God's Word and counsel; so
much so that He must raise a tornado in our face to draw our attention away
from things of pleasure and lust. God is as simple as can be in His approach.
If a raised voice does not draw our attention, perhaps the proverbial
two-by-four between the eyes will cause us to give attention. Had God simply
have spoken from a green tree to Moses, Moses would have rationalized away the
presence of God: however, when God spoke from a Burning Bush that was not
consumed by fire, Moses was drawn to the Voice, the Fire, and the place of Holy
Ground. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of
fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned
with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the
LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of
the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said,
Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place
whereon thou standest is holy ground. (Ex 3:2-5)
Please note verse 5 of this quote from Exodus. Why do we observe quiet
reverence before, during, and after our worship services in the AOC? Because we
stand on Holy Ground in the presence of God. "Where two or three are gathered together in my Name,
there I am in the midst them." (Matt 18:20) He is not
standing around the edges of our assembly, but in the very midst.
Will you dishonor Christ by gossiping to a friend THROUGH His Holy Presence?
Will God need to send a Whirlwind to enjoy your silent attention in worship?
Who is
this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? 3.
Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou
me. I will warn you now: God asks no questions for which He
does not already have the answers! Who, indeed, darkens counsel
without knowledge? You and I, and Job and his friends, and all who presume to
speak for God. Rather than speaking FOR God, perhaps we should
speak BY His own WORD! Wrap you loins tightly as
for battle like a man (God uses man in this instance to refer to both genders
(there is NOT a third gender) – man AND womb-man). All Christians
must have backbones made strong by the steel fabric of the Gospel. We shall ALL
answer to God and, if we will hear His voice, we must be courageous in faith.
4. Where
wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast
understanding. 5. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest?
or who hath stretched the line upon it? 6. Whereupon are the
foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; 7.
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy? Do you remember, friend, where you stood
on the day that God laid the foundation of the world? If not, best to rely on
God's Genesis account when expounding on it. Darwin thought he knew and spoke
his foolish words some six thousand years after the event. An eye witness
should have a more timely presence. Does Job, his friends, or you have a
first-hand account about the Great Architect that drew the blue prints and
measured the dimensions of the world? Maybe not? By the way, by what force is
the world held in place. The Hindus claim it was held up by four great
elephants. They fail to mention what footing the elephants had in holding up
the globe. The ancient Greek mythologists claim it was Atlas who held the world
on his apparently very broad shoulders. But only God has told us the truth – that
the world is suspended in space upon NOTHING! He stretcheth
out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.
(Job 26:7) Now when did these things occur?
At the
morning of Creation, there was a great and glorious shaking throughout all the
newborn Universe. The stars shedding their first light from light-years distant
across the tremendous stretches of space actually vibrated in ace as they
settled into their spatial orbits. They inanimate, they appeared in their
pristine shining to be as a heavenly chorus. These heavenly and shining bodies
were not primary, but secondary creations for the benefit of God's Bright, Blue
Earth. They celebrated the Creation of that Earth. Joining these Creation
echoes were the very Angels of God singing in joyful exultation at the moment
of the birth of all things that had never been until this moment. What a chorus
that must have been! Since we were not there to see it, we are privileged to
have God's description of the event!
8. Or
who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had
issued out of the womb? 9. When I made the cloud the garment thereof,
and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, 10. And brake up for it
my decreed place, and set bars and doors, 11. And said,
Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be
stayed? If you, Mr. Scientist, have now
learned all of the secrets of God, please answer these questions along with Job
and others. Both Newton and Copernicus would gladly confess that they have no answer
to these questions. If Einstein were still living, he would be even more
bewildered since he did not believe in God as described in Holy Writ. What
engineer could devise locks and valves to regulate the tides of the sea, and to
confine the sea to its designated home? What meteorologist could develop a
system for creating and regulating clouds so that they cover the whole earth? I
listen to the weather forecast almost daily and have come to the conclusion
that those who forecast the weather must not be the ones who MAKE it! God has,
in this section of verses, gone from the dry earth of Job's knowledge to the
sea and its mysteries. It would take quite a tremendous wall to hold the sea
tides back to a certain limit, but God does so at the simple Utterance of His
Voice. The proud and boiling sea is subject to His command, and will never defy
that Voice. Next time a hurricane strikes the southern coast, go early and
stand in the sea up to your knees and order the waves back. We will be reading
of your foolish failure in the evening news.
12. Hast
thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to
know his place; 13. That it might take hold of the ends of the
earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? 14. It is turned
as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment. 15. And
from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken.
16. Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked
in the search of the depth? Job seems to be minding his
manners in remaining silent. First of all, who can speak in the face of the
presence of God? Secondly, what answer can Job give to these grave questions?
Job seemed at one point to have all the answers – even suggesting that God was
oblivious to him and just treatment. Please, never challenge God on any point!
The beauty of these lines of God parallel, or, in my assessment, exceed the
beauty of Genesis 1 though I find those early verses of rich beauty and
majesty, remember? In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the
light,
that it was good: and God divided the light from
the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called
Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (Gen 1:1-5)
Who can call the sunrise up on time, or the dawning into the glorious colors
and beauty of that sunrise? Man cannot create even a living flea, nor define
light – but only describe its known behavior. The wicked shun the rising sun
because their deeds are evil and they fear, as the snail, exposure to the light
of the sun. (Psalms 58:8). The snail neither labors nor plants, but lives on
the labors of others which he devours during the hours of darkness; but at the
rising of the sun, the snail seeks the covert of the rock or some other shelter
of darkness for it will melt in the light of the sun. Two things a sinner hates
– salt and light. It is turned as clay to the seal; and they
stand as a garment The seals of the ancient Persians were composed
of formless clay until the artisan turned the clay into a cylinder with into
intricate design features that could be rolled on the parchment or wax to mark
the king's seal. So the rotating earth is turned as a cylinder to reveal the
King's Seal thereon. And from the wicked their light is
withholden, and the high arm shall be broken. The `light' of the
wicked is darkness, but God's brilliant sunlight breaks upon them and expose
their evil with the coming of God's Daystar. The proud wicked are revealed and
their power in darkness broken by the dawn. 16. Hast thou
entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the
depth? Geologists still seek to know, no MAKE, the springs of the
sea. We know now that there are indeed great springs that feed into the sea at
great depths. But man cannot fathom these great springs for their depth and
origin are past our finding out. Man cannot walk upon the greatest depths of
the sea at its extreme point, more than six miles in depth.
Such questions from the
mysteries of God's fact book cannot be answered by man. We are stricken with
silence in the face of such questions. Why are we so slow to realize the
wonders and mysteries of God one moment, and challenge His wisdom and justice
the second. I once read of a bunch of grubs that lived in the mud and slime of
the bottom of the swamp. They were actually happy and comfortable in the slime.
From time to time, one of their fellows would climb a reed up into the waters
above and disappear forever. He never returned. So they at the bottom
felt sorry for their `departed' friend. One day the wind blew the shallow
waters from their slimy mud. The air above exposed many beautiful dragonflies
darting about with a freedom and beauty the slime dwellers had never known. One
of the slime-bound grubs garnered the courage to inquire of one dragonfly of
his origin and how he came to have such beautiful wings to which the dragonfly
responded, "Oh, my friend, I was once a mud-grub just as you are now,
but God called me to a higher existence and I climbed to the sunlight and grew
wonderful wings and flew away to a wider and more beautiful world."
We grow in spirit and wisdom as we respond to the Voice of God, but we shall
never attain to the full mysteries of His Being. Do not ever presume upon the
wisdom or purpose of God – only obey and follow.
