Worship as the root of rebellion

For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence. 

Isaiah 3:8

Rebellion has deep roots and really it is a worship problem. That's what God says about His people when they turned from Him. And they were going to suffer the consequences with intense societal pain. Their world would be ripped apart in judgment. The city would fall and the nation would be conquered. But the reason Judah rebelled was not because of just outward sinful behavior. Judah fell when the people defied the presence of God. They no longer worshipped the God Who dwelt among them.

In the case of Judah, God's presence was literally with them; His glory manifested in the Most Holy Place in the temple in Jerusalem. But as they declined in their reverence for the God Who lived among them, the lure of other idols, of wealth, personal pleasure, and the pursuit of sinful pre-occupations began to define a people who were meant to be defined as God's unique people. Instead of the world flooding to Jerusalem to find the God of Israel, Israel instead gushed over the world and neglected God.

The point of this analysis by God is to show us that sin is always rooted in the heart. And the human heart worships something. We always have to hold something... a person, place, thing, or idea... as a ruling passion in our hearts. We were created for God to be our worship. When we replace His worship with any other worship, our lives degenerate. And we overlook the glorious presence of God.

Walk in the Light

O house of Jacob, 

come, let us walk 

in the light of the LORD. 

Isaiah 2:5

A cry goes out

against the night

calling us all

to walk in the light.

Those who hear

the call despite

fears and alarms

walk in the light.

Dark brings despair;

trails may affright,

but we can obey

and walk in the light.

God is there

with power and might

to lead us when

we walk in the light

Stumbling in the dark

some struggle despite

the promise to see

and walk in the light.

We reach to them

loving them despite

the dark around them

so they walk in the light.

The face of God

shining so bright

smiles on us as we

walk in the light.

Sovereign Lord; Dumb people

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: "Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. 

The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand."

Isaiah 1:2-3

What The Lord has to say through His prophet Isaiah is a harsh and direct indictment of the nation of Israel and the rejection they have done of Him. It comes fiercely with strong words right from the very beginning. God calls the universe to witness as He speaks the charges against His people.

God speaks as a judge.  He summons the heavens and the earth to this hearing. God reads the charges against Israel. He convenes the tribunal and strongly states their offenses. He holds nothing back. He wants Israel to know clearly that He knows what they are doing.

God speaks as a Father. The relationship God has with Israel is parental and His children have come to age and chosen to turn against the Law and their Father's love. They have rebelled and are rejecting the relationship. God is broken over this and it is reason for His discipline to break forth.

Finally, God speaks like the people themselves, using a common agricultural metaphor to describe their condition. His point?... they are dumber than livestock. Even an ox responds and knows the farmer and a donkey knows to come home and eat in its own stall. But Israel won't come back to the farm. They are dumber than common beasts of burden.

This indictment will set the tone for the largest of the major prophets. In Isaiah, God's rulership, His authority, His right to judge, His tender Father's heart, and His rights to Israel as "landowner" all come through. Israel was called to love and worship a loving, sovereign Lord.

restoration of relationships; restoration of fortune

So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job's prayer.

And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Job 42:9-10

The "happy" ending of the story of Job comes first with Job's own repentance (Job 42:1-6). Job realizes that he has spoken "without knowledge" and now that he has heard from God, he repents of his demands for explanation of his losses. That's good, because The Lord is never compelled to give him that explanation in the least. The reality is that it literally did not matter about "why" things happened at the moment that he heard from God in the storm. The reality of the fierce holy power and the sovereign love of God threw all Job's questions down. Job repented of ever wanting them answered in the first place. God Himself was all that Job needed at the end of the matter.

After repentance came restoration. And The Lord brought two levels of restoration. First, there was restoration of relationships. The very first matter of business was for Job's friends to repent as well. Job had led the way, and now Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had humble business to do with God. The Lord commanded them to repent by having Job serve as a priest for their sacrifices. They did so, and upon Job's prayer for them, The Lord accepted their repentance. So in the end Job got his friends back through mutual worship and obedience. And God ensured that the way in which that happened vindicated Job and rebuked the insolence of his friends.

There was also restoration of fortune. Job became the recipient of supernatural blessings, just like God had sovereignly brought the bad circumstances of disaster upon him. His fortunes are now reversed and restored to twice his former estate. Over the rest of his lifetime, Job is blessed with seven sons and three daughters. He lives out his days blessed by God to the ripe old age of 140 (twice the normal lifespan) and the story ends in God's sovereign blessing on an exceptional servant who passed the test of suffering.

God owes no one.

Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. 

Job 41:11

This brief rhetorical questions and the short statement that follows it form the core message that impacts Job in the "answer" that God gives him. Over and over in God's speech to Job, The Lord has emphasized that He is sovereign over the universe. He controls everything, even the wildest of creatures and the strongest of storms. Job cannot take care of even a wild donkey in the desert. Job can't even send a breeze to blow where he wills it. God is God. Job is not.

But in this question God instructs Job that no one has ever given anything to God that He didn't already have. God owes no one. Ever. God already owns the universe. It is impossible for God to need anything from anybody. Even when we "give" Him our worship, we are giving Him what He deserves, and indeed already has. The universe is His estate. We are part of what He already has. And nobody is God's creditor. It is impossible.

Implicit in this truth is that God did not "owe" an answer to Job for his circumstances. God could do with Job as He wished. And to think otherwise is a form of pride. Ownership is part of Lordship.

However, the reality is that mercy brought Job this answer. God did not speak to Job out of obligation. He spoke out of His own will and love for Job. God delighted in Job from the very beginning of the book. And He came to Job in the tornadic storm out of His love for His servant.

You see, when this whole trial started with Job, it was God Who brought up Job's name first to Satan (Job 1:8). God was quick to "brag" on his exceptional servant. God was pleased with Job's life of obedience. And God was willing to let Satan test him to show that his delight in Job was justified. God wil sovereignly allow trials to those whom He loves. And He will show us His mercies when He does... not because we are owed an explanation, but because He delights in us at all times. This is reality both in and out of our difficulties.

You are God; I am not.

Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?
Job 40:9

Long ago in early days
at an ancient city gate
You taught a man Your ways
rewarded his love and made him great.

Job sat like a king
as others sought his advice
You gave him everything
impressed with holiness and lack of vice

And he served You faithfully
others knew his kindness
until the enemy in jealousy
asked to tear him down to sadness

Your sovereign will knew
that in his heart Job still loved You
so the tragedy started and grew
mounting losses of all given by You

Job wept in pain with riches and children gone
but trusted You as in control
and when disease destroyed his skin he hung on
while others cursed, he would not let go

Friends came to comfort his grief
but only spouted accusation
each spoke words with no relief
adding to growing frustration

Job cried to You to come
and speak words of deliverance;
he hoped in You, though numb
from pain, confusion... bewilderment

And then at last You spoke to him
Job learned a lesson not forgot...
he did not need You to explain Yourself to him
for.. "You are God; I am not."

a wilder, bigger God

Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?
Job 39:26-27

When God challenges Job to "consider" Him, He does so at the beginning of His dialogue with Job by concentrating on the wildness of the natural world and how it all is out of Job's control and understanding. God seems to delight in the strength, beauty, and power of the creatures He has made. And He especially takes joy in the order in which they each uniquely fit. It is a way to contemplate God's sovereign reign in the universe. Each creature in the natural world has a unique role that is fit to a total ecosystem that God has designed.

Of course, Job has absolutely no control over the wild beasts. There were basic facets of their biology he did not know. But God does. And that is the point. God knows, understands, and takes credit for the functioning of the life cycle of even the most humble doe in the wilderness. What does that say about God's sovereign work in Job's life? If God could understand and direct the lives of eagles, hawks, ostriches, wild oxen, wild donkeys, deer, and any other wild beast, wouldn't it make sense that any human being's circumstances were also part of what God knows and relishes with the joy of a wise Creator?

God tells Job that all these creatures follow their natural instincts by His command. He understands them when the men of Job's day barely gave them a thought. And God knew the wild circumstances that had entered Job's life. They were not outside God's control. They might have been beyond Job but they were not beyond God.

I have always found this part of God's message to Job intriguing. I love the wildness of it. I love that God delights in the wildness of His creation. And it is awe-inspiring to realize that even a bird's flight occurs at His command. The world is a big place for one human to comprehend. The universe is absolutely mind-blowing. God is bigger than both.