Unexpected (A SOAP Journal from Job 9 and Acts 13)

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Job 9:16

If I summoned him and he answered me,
    I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.

 v.32-34

For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,
    that we should come to trial together.
There is no arbiter between us,
    who might lay his hand on us both.
Let him take his rod away from me,
    and let not dread of him terrify me.

Job’s cry in his distress was that he might be heard by God, yet in the midst of his great pain, shame, and grief he could not believe or expect that God would actually hear and answer him. He longed for there to be an advocate, a mediator who could take away his fear and reconcile his relationship with God. A real-life man of peace. His words remain the profound longing of honest men and women in their pre-relational faith. I'm referring to those people who know that God must exist, and they feel like he is angry with them, and have no idea how to fix it. This is a common condition throughout the ages. Yet God, in His great love for us, has sent the promised savior. As Paul announced in Acts 13:32-33a, 38-39,

And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus… Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe
 on Unsplash

I know that there are times that I ask God to come through with something or to answer my prayers but deep down don’t expect him to do so. And when he does answer, help, comfort, and deliver, then I can doubt that my prayers had anything to do with it. Lord have mercy!

The good news is that he heard the cry of suffering and confused people like Job as well as those sinful and slow-to-believe people like me and sent Jesus Christ. God the Son came in the flesh to save us from our sins, to spread his arms on the cross to put his hand on our shoulder and his other hand on the Father so that we might be restored to a right relationship with the God who loves us.

Lord God, thank you for hearing and answering my prayer in Christ before I even asked it. But Lord, I pray that you would also bless me with faith to believe that you do answer so that I might live my life expecting that you are near and that you are at work even when I can’t see it or feel it. May you not be unexpected. Hallelujah! Amen.

Psalm 21 — Humble Glory & Deliverance from the Proud

This post originally appeared on my Honest2God blog in 2014. I am reposting it here because it is still relevant today for we are surrounded by the manifested selfishness of a society of fallen souls. We all seek to establish and expand our own kingdoms and in the process, we treat others with disrespect. This psalm is a powerful reminder that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted (Luke 14:11). As we lead the people of God, we should do so in a way that best reflects the love of Jesus!

Psalm 21:5-7, 11-12

This is a psalm of David, presumably written by or for King David and using the third person "him" most likely to refer to himself and any godly descendants to follow. I like his statement in v. 6b and desire that I too might be glad today with the joy of the Lord's presence. So having sorted out the pronouns, the author is speaking of the king (David), and by extension of the people of the king, to God,

⁵ His [David’s] glory is great through your [God's] salvation;
    splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
⁶ For you make him most blessed forever;
    you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
⁷ For the king trusts in the Lord,
    and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.

The king’s glory was not in his own achievements so much as it was great through what God had done to save and deliver him time and time again. David didn’t have to promote himself but it was God who bestowed splendor and majesty on him. God’s consideration of us is usually better than anything we would honestly think of ourselves. Self-glory is always at the expense of others and in the end, poisons our own life. But the humble glory that God gives to those who trust in him and are “glad with the joy of your presence” results in our being firmly established. Following the plan of God is not some dour task demanding grim determination, though often difficult (as it was for David) it is filled with joy and the greatest of loves.

In this psalm, David—the king—represents all who would trust the Lord for their honor and glory. David worked diligently as a shepherd—in obscurity even within his own family—until the time that Lord chose to elevate him. Saul persecuted David for years and yet David spared Saul’s life several times (see 1 Samuel 16-31) and though a proficient warrior he refused to take things into his own hands (his military advisors told him to kill Saul) trusting in the plan of God. Why? Because he knew the steadfast love of the Lord for him! The steadfast love of God is something we all need to be reminded of amid a culture of self-promotion, self-esteem, and selfishness. Amazingly we matter more to God than we do to ourselves!  

I wrote a major paper in the first year of my doctoral program about the “humble glory of God” and this passage fits into that model. In that paper, I included an original poem, Scent of Glory, that begins like this,

Born to share glory, not seek it.

Yet sniffing, climbing, grasping, fighting, expecting,

We hunt along a different path

Twisted we claim it, kill it, and die

Poisoned by pride.

And then later,

Glory is given not grasped,

Belonging to God—Father, Son, Spirit—

Shared in Trinitarian community of love.

Yet he invites us in as family, to eat once again

What we once lost by taking.

His invitation to “come up” is far better than the humiliation of falling from our self-claimed glory (Luke 14:7-11). 

The second section of this Psalm that stood out to me, in this reading, was v.11-12. While the king/person that trusts in the Lord is established and unmoved, the person who is filled with the pride of self-promotion will not ultimately succeed. These verses contain some very military language that we would like to be true of us in our conflict with our enemies today.

Though they plan evil against you,
    though they devise mischief,

                they will not succeed.
For you will put them to flight;
          you will aim at their faces with your bows.

When I read the phrase “aim at their faces with your bows” I can’t help but picture the humorous scene in the movie, Fellowship of the Ring, where Gimli the Dwarf covers his own fear of the forest by bragging about how stealthy he is, only to look up to see a bunch of Elfish bows pointed at his face. It seems that prideful people are like that…surprised to learn they’re not “all that.” 

The humble glory of God has a much better shelf-life than any works of human pride.

God is still in the business of confronting the pernicious idol of our own pride. In the midst of cultural discord, political campaigns, and sadly, even in church conflicts, pride is not absent. I pray that we might be delivered from the attacks of the proud, yet often that means we need to be delivered from ourselves. 

We are to be different, following the example of our gift-giving Savior, Jesus Christ, and considering others first. 

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Phil. 2:3-4)

Lord, have mercy, Christ have mercy!