Inside Out Living

“All our righteous acts are like filthy rags” – Isaiah 64:6

In Ezekiel 14, the Lord patiently reveals to His people that they have no hope of avoiding His judgments. The point that He is repeatedly making is that your righteousness cannot save you from God’s judgment. He further strengthens the point by declaring that even the righteousness of Noah, Daniel and Job would not spare the people of judgment. This statement rings true for us as well because our righteousness is not sufficient to save us in the face of God’s judgment.

Praise be to God that the story does not end there, for we have a glorious hope in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus we can, through faith, have His righteousness credited to our account. This is the only way we can know and experience the hope of salvation. Attempting to avoid God’s wrath by our own righteousness is as futile for us today as it was in Ezekiel’s day.

We are in the middle of a presidential political campaign year, and I don’t know about you, but I have become a bit of a political cynic. Every candidate promises to have the solutions to all the problems we face, but once their term is up, the problems remain. I am so thankful that God’s power is not a political power. God was not elected to His position and His power is not subject to anyone else.

As you read the closing chapter of Job today, you noticed that God chose to bless Job. God did not have to defend that decision to anyone. He didn’t have to get the approval of the House or the Senate. God’s promises are not like those of a politician. Because of God’s power, we know that every last one of his promises will come true. Do you trust in God’s promises? What about God’s power? Do you believe that God has the power to accomplish whatever he desires? We must first believe in the power of God before we can trust in His promises; otherwise God is nothing more than a politician.

The work of creation is one of the greatest evidences of God’s power. He uses it here to help Job understand how great the Almighty One is.

Many of us take God’s creation for granted and have lost sight of the magnitude of what God did. Mankind has become quite skilled at creating different things from automobiles to computers; we can make some pretty amazing stuff. However, no one has ever created something ex nihilo, or ‘out of nothing’ as God did. It is not as though God brought together the raw materials of the universe and followed the instruction manual. No, he simply spoke things into existence. His creative power is beyond all that we can imagine. “In the beginning God created…” (Gen. 1:1). God has always existed. We may not be able to fully comprehend this, and we certainly cannot create ex nihilo, but we can accept it and believe just as Job did (40:3-5).

The devotionals this week will center around the theme of God's power. God's infinite power is a truth that while difficult to understand at times is one that gives us great hope as well.

Elihu makes the statement in 36:22 that God is all powerful. Theologians refer to this as omnipotence, which is the teaching that God has the power to accomplish all that He wills to do. Elihu also gives us two key applications of this truth.
The first is that God doesn’t need us to instruct Him in what to do or how to do something (36:23). In fact, God doesn’t need us at all. He is perfect in His existence. Are you like me? Have you ever found yourself trying to instruct God in how to accomplish something? A better way is to receive instruction and direction from an all-powerful God.

The second application is that we should have a response of joy to God’s omnipotence (37:1). Have you ever wanted to do something, but were powerless to accomplish it? God never experiences that. How hopeless would our lives be if God were powerless to accomplish His desires.

May you, like Elihu, find joy in knowing that God has the power to fulfill His good purposes in your life.

There is a difference between knowing truth about God and allowing that truth to impact how we live our lives. The same day I started writing about God’s sovereignty in Job’s life, I was diagnosed with pinkeye and was coming down with a nasty cold. I was miserable. Worse than that, I had become grouchy and irritable and was acting like a jerk (best word to describe it) to my family. After two days of my inappropriate behavior my wife had to confront me about it. I knew I was acting out, but it hit me like a ton of bricks when she said it. I realized how much of a hypocrite I had been for writing about God’s sovereignty in Job’s life while not allowing His sovereignty to control my life. I entirely ignored the fact that even though I felt bad, God was still in control and had a purpose for all this. Are you like me? Have you lost sight of God’s sovereignty in your life? Are you allowing life’s circumstances to dictate your behavior rather than the truth of God’s Word? I want to encourage you to take a step back, reevaluate, and recommit to living with God’s sovereignty as a constant reality in your life.

“God’s ways are as hard to discern as the pathways of the wind, and as mysterious as a tiny baby being formed in a mother’s womb” (Eccl. 11:5).

I would imagine that at this moment Job would very much relate to the above verse. Job is struggling to reconcile his current state with how he has lived his life. We all struggle with this same issue; we often ask the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” This may be an exclusively American question, though, because the majority of us live a charmed life compared to the rest of the world.
A key principle we learn from Job is that living a righteous life will not guarantee a life free of trials and grief. The purpose of living a righteous life or a life of obedience to God is not to manipulate God into blessing us, but rather to bring pleasure to our Heavenly Father who loves us.

Nothing exists that doesn’t fall under God’s sovereignty. This profound truth extends even to the existence of evil. Many have wondered why God allows evil to exist, but this question is ultimately futile because we cannot change the fact that it does exist. What we must focus on is how to live appropriately in light of the fact that evil is present in this world.

A large part of that issue is the ability to put Satan and his evil forces into a proper context. Satan is not the evil equal of God; rather he is a created being, a fallen angel who will ultimately be defeated by our great and glorious God (Rev. 20:10). The story of Job helps us to understand the proper context of evil. God, in His sovereignty, grants Satan a measure of authority in Job’s life. So we know that Satan and evil are real and have significant power and authority in this world. However, none of it is beyond the sovereignty of God. Thus, in spite of evil, the believer can rejoice in the sovereignty of God and the knowledge of the Lord’s ultimate victory.