Unfathomable Grace

Job Remembered His Blessing

In the 29th chapter of Job, the great sufferer reminisced about his former glorious days. He mused on the communion he experienced and enjoyed with the Lord. Those were the best of days when sensed God watching over him. The Almighty was with him; the friendship of God was upon him. He gave thanks for the wisdom and insight he was granted. God’s lamp shown on his head, and by God’s light he walked through darkness. In regards to his family, those were days of delight, and in almost every other area of his life, it was if he were walking on sunshine. He described it as if his steps were washed in butter, and rich oil was provided him from God’s rock. And as he walked about town, he was so highly esteemed and revered. Job occupied the honorable seats of government at the city gate and in the town square. Deferential respect was shown him by young men, and when he spoke, elders, princes, and nobles gave him honor. Those were the best of days, and he missed them. He remembered with fondness the blessing of the Lord.

Job Remembered His Being a Blessing

However, Job did not merely rehearse and rejoice in the blessings granted him by the Lord. He also remembered how he loved to be a blessing to his neighbors. Serving the needy was something near and dear to him; it was one of the former things that he missed most:

When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved, because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him. The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth. (Job 29:11-17)

Recalling the Law

Christian friends, as we look back at the past year, are we able to recognize our sympathy, empathy, charity, philanthropy, and sacrifice and give praise to God for his working in and through us? If this were the mark of a successful year, did we do well? Can we say with a clean conscience and straight face that we were our “Brothers’ Keeper“, or we were “Good Samaritans?” Were we lawfully moved with compassion just like Jesus Christ?

Rejoicing in the Gospel

Well my Gospel-cherishing brothers and sisters, aren’t we glad our relationship with God is not dependent upon how much of a blessing we are, but instead, how much of a blessing God is? Let’s give thanks one more time that the Holy Judge saw our apathy, indifference, sloth, selfishness, materialism, coldness, and philanthropic sin, and determined to place all of it on the shoulders of Jesus Christ? Let’s rejoice that his charitable righteousness was granted to us who deserved it not? Oh, thanks be to God for his social justice and his social injustice. Thanks be to God for the Gospel — that he lived, served, and died for people like you and me who deserve nothing but horrible consequences and his judicial hammer.

Repenting and Worshiping

Now then, after worshiping in our hearts, it is time to worship with our hands. It is time for us to live and love in accordance with the holy, philanthropic, new heart we have received.

Therefore, in this day of bantering about law, justice, immigration, walls, opioids, guns, health care, prison reform, and women’s rights, let us not forget that the God of Justice is also the God of Mercy. He is the one who honorably and justly gives some what they deserve. He is also the God who gives others that which they do not deserve and cannot earn. And why does he choose to do so?

He grants mercy, grace, and undeserved blessings to men and women that they might grant the same to others.

So, in this day of much national conversation regarding law, justice, immigration, walls, opioids, school choice, health care, welfare, prison reform, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, women’s rights, children’s rights, and lives in the womb, let us not forget our Christianity in the midst of our politics. Whether we find ourselves on the left, the right, in the center, or nowhere in the conversation (which is not good), let us remember Job and the needy. Let us remember how Gods affected David, and how he poured out compassion upon the son of his enemy — Mephibosheth. Let us remember the story of the Good Samaritan, and how he sacrificed greatly for the Jewish traveler. But even more importantly, let us remember the Gospel story of the rich God who poured out sympathy, empathy, sacrificial love, mercy, and grace towards we who were suffering so. We have been blessed that we might be a blessing to others. To whom much has been given, much is expected. So let us worship well by caring best for those about us who are:

• The Poor
• The Fatherless
• The Ones about to Perish
• The Widowed
• The Blind and Lame
• The Needy
• The Stranger
• The Preyed Upon

Come on Christian! Come on Church! Let’s be the best at looking like Job and Jesus. Let’s figure out how to share Gods’s love and our love with the many who are hurting all around us. This may not be a Christian Nation any longer, but we can still be Christians.