January 31 - Quietness

Oh my goodness. My head is spinning. Have you ever started to clean out some small compartment and found hours later that you have completely dissassembled the entire room! Well, I feel like that with today's reading! Here's how it has gone...

I read Streams and I highlighted a few things, one of which was the reference in the poem to Jesus as our "Elder Brother." I really liked that because I always wanted an older brother to look out for me. I have often thought of God as my father, Jesus as a husband, but never Jesus as my Brother. Anyhow, I went on to read Job 34 from which the verse for today's passage was taken: "He giveth queitness." I always like to do this to see the context of the verse and make sure I understand the occassion and the audience. (Too often I have seen verses misused because of man twisting them to mean what he wants to hear, so I find this step of our devotion very important.)

The context of this verse is regarding oppression of wicked men toward the poor. God hears crys of the afflicted and gives quietness. The occassion is Elihu (one of Job's friends) has listened to Job's defense in which he justifies himself rather than God. Elihu's wrath is arroused because of the poor council given by Job's three other friends, their inability to respond to Job's defense (they are 'dumb struck') and Job's self-righteouss claims. The audience is Elihu speaking directly to Job regarding the disciplinary and redemptive role of suffering, and the truth that no one is really innocent therefore God denies no one justice.

That said, in this particular verse, Elihu is repsonding to Job's accusation that the wicked do not see God's judgement. Elihu says that in fact God does hear the cries of the afflicted and gives quietness. I really like what he says in the rest of the verse, "when He hides His face, who then can see Him, whether it is against a nation or a man alone?" Sometimes it may seem as though God's face is hidden and he is not seeing our distress. This is what took me to Matthew 8:21 to follow up on the beginning of Streams where it talked about Jesus calming the storm.

The disciples did infact think that Jesus was "unaware" or that His face was "hidden" from their distress .

I then was prompted to read the sermon notes from my pastor (Pastor Paul Viggiano) on this passage and, although, all of it is edifying, I will put here just a few of the nuggets. You can click HERE if you want to read the sermon notes in full.

"Jesus, true to our experience, gives the appearance of being uninvolved...'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?' Have you not been tempted to ask that question during the storms of your life?...(the disciples)failed to realize that Jesus, the man slept, but Jesus, the living God, never slumbers" Psalm 121:1-4 confirms that He does not slumber (love this song by Sons of Korah by the way).

"Let us never mistake God's apparent idleness to be genuine inacitivity on His part. His actions, be they blessings and curses are sure. God is not unaquainted or indifferent to your storm."

My pastor points out that Jesus corrected the disciples before He spoke to the storm...seemingly out of sequence. Wouldn't you rather He calm the storm first and then talk to you about it? But my pastor points out, "we are often most malleable amidst life's tempests." Now, I can certainly vouch for this. When I'm down and out...there is no where else to turn...but to Him.

Next, I love how my pastor asks the question, "(Would God) create a storm merely to instruct?" and then sites the passage Psalm 107:23-32. You have to read it...right now!

Lastly, there is this, my favorite point in the notes,

• "What had perhaps escaped their attention--what perhaps escapes the attention of many--is that Jesus is not merely the calmer of storms, He is the raiser of storms.


• Popular yet unbiblical is the notion that God is not the ultimate and first cause of our troubles--


• even employing Satan for His own desired ends (John 13:27).


• All of creation is His classroom and His children are His beloved students.


• Hence fear is always mixed with a want of faith."

(I added the bullets just to break out the points being made :)

I could go on and on, especially since the sermon notes go on to talk about whether or not fear is always an act of faithlessness, and my oldest son and I were discussing the sin of fear on the way to school this morning. But I think I have made the point that I am getting at, and that is, when you open your Bible...you never know where it will take you. Don't be afraid to dig deeper and deeper.