Readings for today: Job 13-15, Acts 8:26-40
I love these words from 1 Peter - “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5) They inspire me. They encourage me. They serve as a constant reminder to me that my hope is not of this world. My hope is not in the things of this world. All my achievements. All my accomplishments. Everything I might be tempted to place my trust in will eventually turn to dust.
Life in this world is hard. It is harsh and brutal. It is full of pain and suffering. The fact that I can escape most of it or mitigate it due to my wealth and position and privilege and the nation where I live doesn’t erase this fact. I have been around the world. I have seen how most people live. They wake up each morning and walk miles to work. They bear heavy burdens all day long. They drink water that is not clean. They eat food that is scarce and unhealthy. They are vulnerable to disease and violence and natural disasters like drought and famine. They get no days off. No weekends free. No vacations. They rarely travel beyond the bounds of their village or region. Death comes almost as a welcome relief from all the hardship, toil, and pain. Death comes for me as well. Death comes for us all. He is undefeated. He can only be held back for so long. Only be pushed away for a time. Eventually he will have his way with us. And his ways are often painful and terrifying. Perhaps that’s why I resonate so much with what Job says this morning…“But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place; the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man.” (Job 14:18-19)
Nothing lasts forever. Nothing lives forever. Only God is eternal. This world is broken. Things move from order to chaos. Even the mountains eventually crumble and fall. The waters wear away the stone. The waves crash over the earth. Nothing we build will endure. Nothing we do will outlast us. No one will remember our names. No one will remember our deeds. The point of all this is to drive us to our knees in holy despair. To teach us to never place any trust in ourselves. To never hold onto any hope in this life. God sets out to destroy the hope of man not to punish but to root out the deepest sin of our souls. We are not like God. Let me say that again…we are not like God. It’s the oldest temptation, of course. The one that got Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden. The one that continues to afflict us even to this day. We believe we are like God. We believe we chart our own destinies. We believe we are the masters of our own fates. We believe we are righteous on some level before Him. But none of this is true. Not for Job. Not for Job’s friends. Not for us.
Once we have been driven to our knees. Once we’ve had everything stripped away. Once all our accomplishments have turned to dust. Once we lose all hope in ourselves and our abilities and our wisdom and our strength and our honor and our righteousness then we finally can turn to God. Our eyes will rise above the things of this world and we will discover the living hope that is ours in Christ Jesus. We will find ourselves looking forward to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. We will trust God alone to guard our lives through faith in a salvation that one day will be revealed in all its glory.
Readings for tomorrow: Job 16-18, Acts 9:1-22