Can you identify with Job? Have you lost your job? Is there a hole in your heart because you have lost a dear loved one or family member? Do you have a body that is falling apart? Are your emotions getting the best of you? Is your marriage horrible? Is PTSD a real thing for you? Are you buffeted by Satan? Have your reached out for comfort from your friends and only found counselors who point out your transgressions? Do you curse the day of your birth and long for the day of your death? If so, then Job speaks your language:
Oh that you would hide me in Sheol …. (Job 14:13)
However, in the next few verses, Job shows a glimmer of hope. It is as if he says, “But what if there is a reversal of fortune?” Or, “What if a dead man could be born again.” Hear his own words:
If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come. You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands. For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin; my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity. (Job 14:10-17)
Like Job, in our natural condition, following the course of this world, we are dead men walking. But …
What if there could be a day of renewal?
What if there could be a communal relationship between us and God where he called out and we responded?
What if there could be that special day when God performed for us; where he desired to do his work for, in, and through us?
What if there was such intimacy between us and God that he numbered our steps and diligently watched us all our days?
And what if the Sovereign Judge of all men intentionally forgot our sins? What if he took our transgressions and buried them in a bag? What if he put them behind his back and failed to ever turn around again? What if he truly loved and kept no record of wrongs? What if he cast our sins into the deepest part of the sea? What if he separated us from our wickedness — as far as the east is from the west? What if he covered our transgressions by placing them on the account of a suitable priest? And what if, instead of declaring us sinful, he proclaimed us to be blameless, holy, perfect, sinless, righteous, just, and saintly?
Oh friends, this is not a fantasy. This is Gospel reality for anyone who desires such. So, here is my final thought: What if we really believed this good news today? How would that change our perspective and encourage our hearts?
Unfathomable Grace 