Fear No Fear

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

““If there is beside him an angel,
    an interpreter, one among a thousand,
    to show to man what is right for him,
then God is gracious to him, and says,
    ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit,
    I have found a ransom.’
His flesh will be fresher than a child’s.
    He returns to the days of his youth.
He prays to God, and he is favorable to him,
    so that he sees his face with joy.
    He restores to man his righteousness.
He sings before men, and says,
    ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right,
    and it didn’t profit me.
He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit.
    My life will see the light.’
“Behold, God does all these things,
    twice, yes three times, with a man,
to bring back his soul from the pit,
    that he may be enlightened with the light of the living.”
(Job 33:23-30)

“Praise Yahweh, my soul!
    All that is within me, praise his holy name!
Praise Yahweh, my soul,
    and don’t forget all his benefits,
who forgives all your sins,
    who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from destruction,
    who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies,
who satisfies your desire with good things,
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Yahweh executes righteous acts,
    and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
    his deeds to the children of Israel.
Yahweh is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness.
He will not always accuse;
    neither will he stay angry forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
    nor repaid us for our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
    so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Like a father has compassion on his children,
    so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear him.”
(Psalm 103:1-13)

“For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he would be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. For the law produces wrath; for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience. For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. Against hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.” Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.” Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.”
(Romans 4:13-25)

Elihu was not one of Job’s three friends. He knew them all, but was not part of the inner circle. He had come along and had been with them the whole time, but had so far bowed to their experience and position in life. But they had been talking such nonsense, such not-quite-right views of God that Elihu could not stay quiet any longer. He speaks, and he speaks in exact accord with the Lord. Nothing that Elihu says is in any way out of sync with what God says when He shows up. They had given no answers to Job, they had just accused and condemned. Job was filled with self-righteousness, but only God can proclaim one righteous. God was right. ALWAYS right. Job was in the wrong in his thinking. Elihu was establishing God’s nature, His character, and in relation to Him, exactly where humanity stood. God was GOOD. He is not beholden to us for answers. He doesn’t owe us ANYTHING. But we owe Him worship and obedience. God doesn’t always appear before us like He did with Moses, but He sends His angels. He sends Holy Spirit. He sent Jesus. We are constantly being communicated with by God. Because He is GOOD, not because we deserve it.

God is merciful and gracious. Our attitude toward a given situation might be confusion. We might want to know why and wherefore. But God is God. He is GOOD. We owe Him nothing but worship and obedience. If we get told the whys, great. If we don’t, great. We don’t NEED to know why. He is operating at levels we can barely comprehend, much less understand. We will eventually know everything we need to know, but knowing at the beginning is not the deal. It is not required. Trusting in God because we believe He is merciful and gracious is all that is required. It is our rightful place. He is GOD.

Abraham did a lot of things not quite right, he was human after all. But Abraham, right from when we first are introduced to him, did one thing correctly. He believed God. Since He believed God, he obeyed God. He didn’t always obey perfectly, but he didn’t let go until he had. He kept to the words spoken to him. He thought about them, repeated them, believed them, and trusted they would come to pass. He didn’t trust a series of rules or behaviours, he trusted God. We are to do the same. The Law wasn’t meant to save us. It was meant to show us what we needed to be saved: God. Rules can’t save us. God saves. When we follow Him we tend to obey the rules, but we aren’t trusting in the rules. We aren’t trusting in our efforts. We are trusting in God. God saves. God is GOOD. He is WORTH trusting. He is WORTH believing.

Summary

We all think we are the star of life. It’s because life happens to us. We aren’t first-hand witnessing it happening to anyone else. We are with ourselves 24?7 and front and centre for all of it. We can be empathetic toward others, but we are still the main show. It is easy to get lost in that. To think that what we DO or don’t do is what determines our relationship with God. It isn’t. God is merciful and gracious and doesn’t give us what we deserve. He gives us what Jesus deserves. He brings us into His family and treats us like sons and daughters. Our place is to believe Him when He says it. To obey when He speaks. To submit to what we find in the Word and align ourselves with His point of view. To get His mind on things and renew our mind to His thinking. To BE what HE says we can be. To realise that HE is the star and we are the supporting cast. To give Him his rightful place. Our lord. Our king. Our God.