Job 11
I wasn't really taking my time reading this passage. Job is a pretty depressing book and I just didn't really feel like studying it slowly. Then, in chapter 11, the 6th verse jumped of the page at me.
Know therefore that God exacts from you
Less than your iniquity deserves.
There are so many different parts of the Old Testament that foreshadow the Gift that God has sent us. Throughout the Bible we are told that all humans are sinful creatures, falling short of the glory of God and that what we earn from a life of sin is death. And yet, we live.
How is it that a God who hates sin and hurt and disease and fornication and gambling and addiction and death so much can turn away and let those who do those things go without punishment? Does that seem fair? It probably isn't fair. But it also isn't the entire story.
While God does hate all of those things, and we do deserve to die because of those things, God spares us from that fate. He exacts from us less than our iniquity deserves. This mercy that God pours out on His children serves only one purpose. That purpose is an attempt to prevent the thing that God hates the most; losing His sheep.
The number one thing that God wants from us is our love. He wants to have a progressively increasing, deepening, intimate relationship with His children. For some that never happens. With others it happens near the end of life. And for still others it begins early and strengthens throughout our entire lives.
Finally, realize that if it is a relationship that God wants then there must be one critical thing that we must have. Life. You can't have a relationship with anything if you're dead. It is only by the gift of Mercy, of giving us less than what our iniquity deserves, that we ever have a chance of establishing that relationship. So this Mercy is a gift that we should newly open every day. Think about how excited you were on Christmas morning when you opened that perfect gift. That is the same way we need to feel every day when we accept and open the gift of Mercy God gives to us regardless of if we have naughty or nice.
Know therefore that God exacts from you
Less than your iniquity deserves.
There are so many different parts of the Old Testament that foreshadow the Gift that God has sent us. Throughout the Bible we are told that all humans are sinful creatures, falling short of the glory of God and that what we earn from a life of sin is death. And yet, we live.
How is it that a God who hates sin and hurt and disease and fornication and gambling and addiction and death so much can turn away and let those who do those things go without punishment? Does that seem fair? It probably isn't fair. But it also isn't the entire story.
While God does hate all of those things, and we do deserve to die because of those things, God spares us from that fate. He exacts from us less than our iniquity deserves. This mercy that God pours out on His children serves only one purpose. That purpose is an attempt to prevent the thing that God hates the most; losing His sheep.
The number one thing that God wants from us is our love. He wants to have a progressively increasing, deepening, intimate relationship with His children. For some that never happens. With others it happens near the end of life. And for still others it begins early and strengthens throughout our entire lives.
Finally, realize that if it is a relationship that God wants then there must be one critical thing that we must have. Life. You can't have a relationship with anything if you're dead. It is only by the gift of Mercy, of giving us less than what our iniquity deserves, that we ever have a chance of establishing that relationship. So this Mercy is a gift that we should newly open every day. Think about how excited you were on Christmas morning when you opened that perfect gift. That is the same way we need to feel every day when we accept and open the gift of Mercy God gives to us regardless of if we have naughty or nice.