AUGUST 22
The length
today is a little long since we are still getting grounded in Job, and because
1 Corinthians 14 is a little complex. When you're finished with the notes on 1
Corinthians 14, you might need a friend to give you the Heimlich maneuver.
Job 4-7
Up until
now it looks like Job has passed this terrible test and it's over. Not so.
Although Satan is not mentioned again in the book, his influence against Job
continues in the form of his friends misrepresenting God. Many things Job's
friends say are good; but in terms of really understanding God or understanding
Job's situation, they are completely off base. Because of their misapplication
of the truth, God will tell them that they are wrong and that Job is right.
They all get an education into the depth of God's wisdom. And we are led to
understand that what is going on in reality is larger than just us and our
peril here on this planet. The answer in all of this is to have absolute and
fearless trust in God. He Himself, His love and wisdom, has to be enough.
Job 4
Vs. 1-6
We'll see this over and over. Job was known for his ability to help and to
strengthen others. This guy is accusing Job of not being able to take his own
advice and be calm while suffering. His friends, though acknowledging that Job
strengthened others, do the opposite in their dealing with Job. Do you notice
the subtle rebukes in Eliphaz's words to Job? Would you dare do this to someone
who had suffered such losses?
Vs. 7-11
This statement is actually both their problem and Job's. All of them believed
that disaster was punishment. They were all wrong. Job will contend that he
didn't sin, and rightly so. His friends will contend that he did sin. Job will
eventually slip, by saying that God was unfair. No one but Elihu, at the end,
will suggest that God in His wisdom uses disaster for reasons other than
punishment. God's wisdom is what none of them could grasp. So for us, it is
good to keep in mind that bad things are not necessarily a sign of punishment
in our lives or in the lives of others. That may be the first thing we feel,
but the message of this book says something more.
Vs. 12-21 This is the "truth" that
Satan shared with Eliphaz that now drives the thinking of Job's friends. What
is sobering is that these friends received "spiritual" information
that is empowering, driving them to ruin their friend. This doesn't happen in
the church, does it? And the Lord's servant must not be
quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25correcting
his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to
a knowledge of the truth, 26and
they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after
being captured by him to do his will. (2
Timothy 2:24-26) Paul wrote this to
Timothy in dealing with believers in the church in Ephesus.
V. 17 In
my mind this is the key to understanding the attack on Job and the lie that
Satan gave Job's friends. The answer is assumed to be "no." But
that's not true, is it? Since the fall in the garden, God has known, but kept
secret, the way the answer would be "yes" in Christ. Even in the OT,
those who drew near to God in faith sensed and understood in the very character
of God, that salvation and righteousness were possible. This didn't come
through religion or just through the Scriptures, but by being close to God.
They knew it by faith. It's like, you don't know how He will do it, but you
know Him, His love and His wisdom, and that He will and can do it. When it all
works out, we don't understand all the events or reasons, but knowing God has
to be enough.
Vs. 17-21
All of these words are from Satan. Knowing what you know of the Lord and the
Bible, how many half- truths can you find here? The attempt is to destroy all
hope. Thankfully, the things he says are not the full truth, and our hope is in
the Lord.
As
disciples saved by grace, our following is not because of what we expect God to
give us on this earth or any other ideas of justice or fairness. All that is
gone. We live knowing our Father, serving His Son, following His Spirit, who
indwells us. Regardless of what happens in life, knowing God in Christ is
enough.
Job 5
Notice
that all of what Eliphaz says is right and good, but it is terribly misapplied
to Job. Much of what he says is consistent with God's words elsewhere. Tomorrow
we'll read Psalm 38, and this sounds just like that psalm.
Vs. 1-7
Eliphaz really wanted Job to see the one-to-one correlation between what had
happened to him and his sin.
Vs. 8-16
Notice in this section that the first verse says to seek God, and the rest of
the verses tell you why to do that. It was all good advice, but applied to the
wrong guy. He was insisting on Job's sin and understanding God's actions as
very one-dimensional.
V. 13 This
verse blows my mind, because Paul quotes the first part of this verse in 1
Corinthians 3, showing Paul's breadth of knowledge in the OT and showing that
these guys were saying good stuff and eternal truth. This is like singing a
happy song at an execution. It can be a great song, but it doesn't fit the
situation.
Vs. 17-27 Verses
17-18 sound like something out of Hebrews. All of this is good stuff. (Keep in
mind that although only one "friend" is speaking at a time, they are
all in agreement, having probably discussed this matter and made their judgment
on their way to visit and "comfort" Job.) But you see here the subtle
charge Eliphaz and Co. are making against Job.
They are saying Job's troubles are God's reproof because of sin. This isn't
something Christians do to each other, is it? What if it is simply God's will
to allow something to happen for His greater purpose in reality and for some fine
tuning in our lives? Pruning, as in John 15, doesn't mean reproof because of
sin. It means that the Father is helping us and furthering His own plans for us
and others.
Job 6
Vs. 1-7
This is the bitter weight of his emotional and physical anguish.
Vs. 8-13
This is a good question. Of course we see what is happening behind the scenes
spiritually and we know the end of the book. We could yell to Job, "Don't
wish for death; it will all get better." But from Job's perspective there
is this thing that has come upon him that has shaken some of his understanding
of God.
V. 9 is
asking why God doesn't just take him. At the end of the book, Job will
understand God's wisdom in not allowing him to die. If God doesn't take life
needlessly and lets life linger on purpose, we need to wait on Him and not
"play" God on earth. All of the talk of "mercy killing" is
misguided.
Vs. 14-23
This seems like a warning to his friends, that they will get in trouble for
approaching Job like this. Job was right.
Vs. 24-30
It looks like Job is appealing to them to stop before they are guilty of
injustice. They couldn't prove Job was guilty; they could only accuse him. In
v. 30 Job says that he would know if he was guilty.
Job 7
Vs. 1-6
This gives you the idea that months have gone by and Job is tired of suffering.
Vs. 7-10
And, when Job finally dies there will be no memory of him. Verse 7 seems to be
an appeal to his friends for mercy and consideration.
Vs. 11-21
These words seem to be directed toward the Lord. Because Job was lingering and
anticipating death, he felt justified in questioning and venting against the
Lord. He never cursed God, but he greatly misunderstood God's actions. Of
course that is easy for me to say. I do the same thing when I'm in pain or when
I face bad news.
Vs. 14-16
It seems like the effect of hearing about Eliphaz's vision was that it made
Job's desire to die even more intense. Job had great temptation bearing on him
to take his own life and not wait for God's vindication. That was Satan's work
and Satan still does the same today.
Vs. 17-21
Job's understanding of God was that if we sin, He forgives. Of course Job was
one of a kind and close to God. He understood God's grace and mercy. So then,
this was strange to him that God would so demolish him and not forgive him. But
Job knows he hasn't sinned. He doesn't have a category for understanding God or
what is happening to him at this point in time.
It is
interesting that Job wasn't allowed to die and that the impulse to desire death
came through Satan. Our own troubles, the plight of the dying, and the lives of
the mentally challenged fulfill God's purposes. We are not God. He can end
things whenever He desires. Often He is working through these things to
accomplish purposes on so many levels, in so many lives, that we cannot
comprehend it. We are not God. The impulse to end these things is not from God,
since God is the One who gives and takes away. If we really want to "play
God," we need to show love and comfort until He takes life away. We know
His wisdom, His goodness, His love, His character. That is enough. Our trust in
waiting and living needs to be totally in Him. He needs to be enough.
1 Corinthians 14:18-40
In showing
the abuse of the gift of tongues in Corinth, Paul has also been saying that the
purpose of their gatherings should be to edify, strengthen and encourage one
another. Paul has shown that tongues is impractical in terms of edification,
unless others are there who understand what is being said. Now Paul and the
Spirit will show that tongues had/has a very narrow purpose.
Vs. 18-19
These verses really conclude what Paul was saying yesterday. Notice the
exaggeration in what he says. There is a hint of rebuke in these words. The
Corinthians should have been more focused on building up others instead of
showing their stuff. They were acting like they were lost on earth, living for
themselves and not engaged in the harvest.
Vs. 20-21 Paul is quoting
Isaiah 28:11-12, For by people of strange
lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will
speak to this people, 12to whom he has said, “This is rest; give
rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear.
In Isaiah,
the people in view are Jews. The gift of tongues was a sign to the Jews that
God was taking His offer of "rest" and redemption to others. They
would know this because a foreign people would be declaring the praise of God
to them, the Jews, the people of God. My opinion is that this was and is the
only purpose of the gift of tongues. It was a sign to the Jews. This is how it
was used in Acts, and I think the reason it was so prevalent (and misused) in
Corinth is that the church was next to the synagogue and the church was very,
very Jewish in membership. Think this through. In which other churches/letters
do you find any teaching about tongues?
V. 22 This
is Paul's conclusion and you have to follow his reasoning closely. Notice that
Paul says "sign," not "gift."
A sign not for believers seems to
mean that unbelievers are shown
something by this sign. Believers do not have anything revealed to them, so it
is not "for" them. In Acts, this "unbelief" took the form
of not believing that the gospel was going beyond the Jews. In Acts 10-11, that
"unbelief" was demonstrated by Jewish believers of the circumcision
party who took Peter to task for visiting a Gentile. The gift of tongues was a
sign to them of their unbelief, to show them God's working beyond them and to
help them conquer their unbelief. It showed them something. You notice that the
gift had a very specialized purpose, because even in talking about
"unbelievers," it meant a very specific group of unbelievers and a
specific kind of unbelief. The message of redemption was given, for a time, to
the Gentiles. The Jews were now hearing the message of redemption that had been
theirs to tell, through the stammering lips of Gentiles.
So then,
what does it mean that prophecy is for believers, showing or revealing something to them?
Vs. 23-25
Hang on to your hats. This will be funny.
V. 23 I
thought tongues were supposed to speak to unbelievers. But tongues only speak
to a particular kind of unbelief and a particular kind of unbeliever, that is,
“unbelievers” who do not believe that the gospel has gone beyond the Jews.
Here, the unbelievers, who were probably Gentiles, have no concern about the
gospel going out beyond the Jews and are only listening for the message. They say
Christians are mad.
V. 25 But
now doesn't it seem that the gift of prophecy "spoke" to the
unbeliever? Here, an unbeliever falls on the ground, worshipping God
(apparently coming to faith in Christ), yet notice that through the work of
prophecy bringing life to this person, it shows
or reveals to the church and Christians that
God is really among them. The effect of prophecy in the church is that
it leads the church to bear fruit and that is the sign to believers that Christ
is among them. Notice the effects of this prophecy on the unbeliever:
conviction, called to account, heart disclosed, falls on face (repentance), worships
God. But the "sign" is for believers, showing them that
they are on the right track, in the harvest, and that God is among them. All of
that can happen through "prophetic" preaching.
Notice the
word really. Can it be that we
“think” we have God among us because of the emotion of worship music and
because we hold a service, but that He's really
not there? How do you understand what Paul is saying here? The effect of
"prophecy" is changed lives and fruit in the harvest. This seems to
be how you know God is really among you.
I know
this is radical; and, admittedly, it is my take on things. Notice that the only
place worship is mentioned in this service is from an unbeliever coming to
faith in Christ in the service. Paul apparently thought that the service of the
church should be understandable to a lost person. If you follow the definition
of prophecy that Paul is using, it is one part revelation and three parts
teaching, instruction, and encouragement. I think the last three parts are a
part of a particular kind of teaching and preaching that the church still
needs.
Vs. 26-33
Notice that there is a slight change here. Up until now, Paul has been teaching
about the gifts and the purpose of the service. Now, Paul is directing, giving
commands to the leaders on how to arrange the service. These letters were
written first to elders, and then to the congregation. In a case like this
where Paul is giving orders, we are now reading the part for elders who serve
and direct the church. If you catch this change and understand the different
tone here, it will make the next section about women more understandable.
V. 26
Notice the parts, and notice the purpose is still edification.
V. 31 This
is a way to understand the purpose of prophecy and edification, that all may learn and all be encouraged.
V. 32
Following the Spirit is no excuse for disorder. I love this, the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.
Vs. 34-36
Earlier Paul said women could pray or prophesy publicly, if they wore a head
covering. So, what is this? Often, people who are ardent for women's rights
either disregard these verses or claim Paul is quoting someone in the church.
You've read enough of 1 Corinthians to know that when Paul quotes an opponent,
it is very clear what he is quoting, and he gives a good, clear answer. As
we've seen in chapter 11, the newfound freedom of the Jewish women was, in some
cases, taken too far. In chapter 11 it was expressed in not showing submission
to their husbands publicly; and here, I think, it is in publicly arguing with
and not submitting to the elders of the church.
I believe
the difference here is in v. 26. Paul is now speaking to the elders, giving
them orders, and talking about leading the church as only the elders are to
lead the church. In meetings where elder level decisions are being made and
expressed, women were apparently arguing. Paul says if it was a congregational
meeting and women were present during these discussions, they were to be silent
and subordinate at this level of leadership,
I try to
be as broad as I can be without violating what God says, but I was once in a church
meeting that showed the truth and wisdom behind what Paul is saying here as
two vocal women made quite a show. One was a single woman who wasn't a member
and whose spiritual maturity was very questionable. The other was an elder's
wife who chided her husband (who was leading the meeting) in front of the
group. Her contribution was the "cherry on the top" to an already
tragic meeting.
I think
both here and in 1 Timothy 2, the silence and submission of women is seen in
the context of church leadership, specifically, leading the church as elders
lead the church. Note that in 1 Timothy 2 after Paul talks about a woman's
silence, he immediately talks about elder leadership. The context of the
silence here in 1 Corinthians 14 is criticizing and not submitting to the elders'
leadership in the church.
Vs. 37-38
Talk about Paul declaring his spiritual authority. This is a command of the
Lord. That means it is binding on us too. And if they didn't agree with Paul
and couldn't recognize the Lord in what he was saying, Paul said they were not
recognized as leaders or as spiritual people. And of course, it wasn't Paul, it
was and is the Spirit who is speaking. O Weh!
Vs. 39-40
Paul said not to forbid speaking in tongues, I think, because the gift still
did have some validity in their situation next to the synagogue.
Sorry for
the teaching here. You don't have to agree with me. If you are feeling choked
by all of this, have someone stand behind you, with their arms around you and
put their hands together into a big fist just below your sternum. Now have them
hug you tight, jump up and pull the fist into your diaphragm when they hit the
ground. Better?
Psalm 37:30-40
Vs. 30-31
Notice the connection between the mouth
and the heart. What ultimately is
determined are the actions or direction of that person. They are following the
Lord.
Vs. 32-33 I think we can
agree that this is true in an ultimate sense in reality, and in a general sense
on earth. As we are seeing in Job, there are times that the Lord allows His own
to suffer. There is love involved and there is the wisdom of God bringing forth
His plan of redemption.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36As it
is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are
regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:35-37)
V. 34 The
first part of this verse is what I want to be content to do, without needing to
see the second or third part of this verse in my lifetime.
Vs. 35-36
Understanding of course, that we might not see this in our lifetime.
Vs. 37-38 This is certainly true in the
ultimate sense of the kingdom of God. Paul wrote the following verse knowing
that his death and departure were near. The Lord will rescue me from every evil
deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (2 Timothy 4:18)
Vs. 39-40
This is true of all who know and love the Lord, yet it may be true as we
fulfill the Lord's mission for us in dying for His name in the face of mocking
unbelief, just as our Lord died. Life doesn't end at death, and our vindication
and salvation are ever present.
Reading
Job and reading this psalm is interesting. I want to say I know all of this is
true, but really I need to trust the Lord, not my expectation of what this
justice will look like or when it will come. God and who He is has to be
enough.
Proverbs 21:27
Amen.
If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year
Bible, click on this link http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/every-day-in-the-word/. If that doesn't
work, go to http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/
and click on “Every
Day in the Word.”
I'm writing these comments to and for those who are
following a One Year Bible and interested in growing deeper as a disciple,
following Jesus in the harvest. My hope is to see the growth of a discipleship
culture in the church. Groups of 3-4 disciples, meeting weekly, encouraging
each other to follow Christ and work to reach out and make disciples who make
disciples. The Bible itself is the most universal manual we have and key to our
growth and service in Christ. Nothing keeps us more focused on why we are here
or what we are to be doing. My comments are only meant to provide some
explanation of the events or to show the flow of God's plan of redemption. My comments
are in no way exhaustive, but are designed to keep us focused on Christ and our
role in His harvest. My hope is that the people in these groups will grow in
Christ and be willing, after a year, to find 3 others to meet with and
encourage in their growth as disciples, disciples making disciples in the
harvest.
If you would like a complete description of this model
of being and making disciples you can find it in my book: Simply
Disciples*Making Disciples. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WJIDQA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is
still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's
keyed to the NIV, so the result is the commentators are constantly telling you
what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.
I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible; in
fact, I read something you don't, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.
Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and is
encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the
comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding,
that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but
only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.
Send comments or feedback to dgkachikis@gmail.com.
If you would like documents containing an entire month
of the Reading Notes, go to https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes. You can download
these to use on your computer or to print.
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