Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Can you fathom the mystery of God?
    Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
They are high as heaven. What can you do?
    They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?
Its measure is longer than the earth,
    and broader than the sea.
If he passes by, or confines,
    or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?
For he knows false men.
    He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn’t consider it.
An empty-headed man becomes wise
    when a man is born as a wild donkey’s colt.”
(Job 11:7-12)

“Now, Lord, what do I wait for?
    My hope is in you.
Deliver me from all my transgressions.
    Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish.
I was mute.
    I didn’t open my mouth,
    because you did it.
Remove your scourge away from me.
    I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity,
    you consume his wealth like a moth.
Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.
“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry.
    Don’t be silent at my tears.
For I am a stranger with you,
    a foreigner, as all my fathers were.
Oh spare me, that I may recover strength,
    before I go away and exist no more.”“
(Psalm 39:7-13)

Zophar was convinced that since God is sovereign, Job’s condition must be Job’s fault. There was no room in Zophar’s thinking for true sovereign thinking. Yes, God is sovereign. Absolutely. But He isn’t RESPONSIBLE for everything that happens because He gave us free will. He gave us a choice. And – spoiler alert – we don’t always make the right choice. God clearly told us, the reader, that Job did NOTHING WHATSOEVER wrong. Nothing that was happening to Job was because of Job’s actions, words, or thoughts. But God WAS sovereign and God WAS allowing it. There is a hint in both what God says to the devil and what Job asks for in many of his speeches that points to one reason why it might have happened. This wasn’t a cosmic bet. This wasn’t something the devil was making God do. The fact is that Job says he needs an intercessor. Someone to mediate between him and God. Job needs Messiah. The reason he does is that the devil had the dominion of authority on the Earth. He weaseled it out of Adam’s hands and had become the ruler of this world. Until Messiah showed up, everyone outside of covenant with God was in his power. He could affect them. He could afflict them. Yes, only as far as God allowed, but it was the devil’s legal right. God was sovereign and humanity needed a mediator. We needed Jesus.

David was afflicted and David knew God was sovereign. But David always appealed to God to remember their covenant. David never blamed God. David never begged God. David appealed to the covenant and left it in God’s hands. David knew God was the only helper he had. David brought his case before the Lord on the basis of their covenant because that was the only proper response. David knew Messiah was coming and also knew Messiah was not yet come. So David went to the Word of God. The promises of God. That was the basis of his appeal. David never focused on his enemies or circumstances. David always focused on God’s response to those enemies or circumstances based on their covenant. He needed God.

Summary

We have a covenant too. Our covenant is the one we enter when we are saved because we enter into Jesus and Jesus forged the covenant with His Father. We enter God’s covenant. A better covenant built on better promises. Instead of a covenant that covered our sin and iniquities, we have one where sin is done away with. Where we are restored and transformed. Where we have a Mediator. We have Messiah standing in the gap for us. We have a Saviour who helps us, restores us, renews us, protects us, and enables us to do what we were meant to because in Him we again have the dominion of authority in this world – Jesus took it back from the devil. We walk in Him. We live in Him. And He lives in us. Circumstances cannot get the better of us. Enemies cannot get the better of us. We are in Jesus and Jesus is in us.