THE LORD SPOKE (July 28)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: Job 17-20

Though Job seems to have taken a wrong turn in his interpretation of the events of his life, his description of them (Job 19:6-22) is truly distressing:

• I’m stripped of my honor (Job 19:9)
• everything around me is crumbling and falling down (Job 19:10)
• I’m under attack from every direction - even God himself (Job 19:11-12)
• all my family and friends have abandoned me (Job 19:13-17)
• my wife won’t let me kiss her (Job 19:17)
• even little kids won’t have anything to do with me (Job 19:18)

Sometimes the best thing you can do in such a situation is to return to one rock-solid truth and start all over again. Sometimes it’s the only thing you can do. Find one absolute certainty and rebuild upon it.

Francis Schaeffer told of the time he had to do that. Even after years of ministry, first as pastor in America and then as evangelist/apologist in Switzerland, he faced a crisis of faith and had to get away and start over from scratch. During several days alone with God and his Bible in the Alps, he reexamined and rebuilt his hope in God.

Here’s my rock-solid starting point:

1. There is a God.
2. He has chosen to reveal himself.
3. That revelation is found in Scripture.

The Bible is the self-revelation of the eternal God. He has revealed himself in nature but that is primarily sufficient to understand that He exists and that He is powerful (Rom. 1:20 & Ps. 19:1). There are some truths about Him that will be known only in eternity but the Bible is sufficient for every need we have.

However, Job didn’t have the Bible yet. In fact, he probably lived in the patriarchal days, some 600 years before the first words of Scripture were ever recorded. His statement of rock-solid faith probably came by direct revelation from God:

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.... In my flesh I will see God...with my own eyes.... How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27)

New Testament: Hebrews 5

WHY ARE WE SO SLOW TO LEARN?

There’s been enough time. By now we should be in spiritual college instead of still doing ABC’s in kindergarten! Unless you’ve only recently been saved, there’s no excuse for still being unskilled in using the Word.

There’s been enough teaching. Maybe you’ve only gotten milk and very little solid food. If you’re still eating baby food, it might be your own fault - you get what you demand. Too hard? Is it hard because of the difficulty of the revelation? or because of the density of the reception?

There’s been enough truth. Just a glance at the list in Hebrews 6:2 should bring some conviction. Where do you stand on those doctrines? Could you explain them to someone else satisfactorily? Can you “distinguish good from evil”? That can only come from “constant use” (Heb. 5:14).

IT’S TIME TO GROW UP!

Don’t be dull. The meaning of “slow to learn” in Hebrews 5:11 is “dullness” or “sluggishness”. This is something that comes upon the believer gradually. The process is described in previous chapters: drift (2:1-3) leads to doubt (ch. 3-4), which leads to dullness. Being dull prevents further understanding. It is unproductive and requires being taught all over again (Heb. 5:12).

Move on to maturity. Though it’s part of the next chapter, Hebrews 6:1 is linked with a “therefore” and must be kept together with what we’ve been seeing here in chapter five. Maturity is defined as being trained by constant use of Scripture to distinguish good from evil. Actually the part about “go on to” is passive and means to “be moved along to”, i.e. not personal effort but personal surrender to an active influence.

Maturity is...

• teaching vs. being taught
• coming to understand vs. struggling forever
• seeking unity vs. promoting disunity
• studying for yourself vs. accepting others’ opinions
• active faith vs. apathetic coldness
• confidence vs. fear
• using God’s Word vs. deciding for yourself