Faithful on Fridays Blog

Finding Jesus in Job

There is a timeless question asked by young and old alike that’s the heart of the book of Job: “Why does God allow suffering?” We could phrase it another way, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Job’s three friends explained his suffering by assuming that their creed was the right one: bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people. Does that answer explain God’s ways? Job didn’t think so and neither do I.

Suffering is part of human existence for good and bad people alike, however, the question shouldn’t be “why am I suffering?” but “how do I handle it?” Trials occur in everyone’s life, to different degrees, because of sin. It’s our enemy that brings evil into our lives. Since Satan was given the earth as his command center, his influence is all around us, and we’re forced to co-exist with him, but only for a little longer. He doesn’t have the authority to simply kill us, as with Job, only to use his many weapons of emotional and spiritual warfare. Lies and guilt are two weapons he wields but in the power of the Holy Spirit we shield ourselves from his attack. Job, his story was possibly the first Biblical book recorded, was a believer, however, he wasn’t sinless as he maintained. The truth is that he needed a Savior. It took many chapters for Job to realize his sinfulness and that’s precisely where we find Jesus in the book of Job.

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. Job 19:25 ESV

As this book reaches its conclusion God speaks at length comparing Himself to Job and therefore to us. Four chapters describe His sovereignty and power; Job is finally humbled.

I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Job 42:2-6 ESV

The bookends of Job are clear: God authorizing Satan, God forgiving repentant man.

Let’s learn from Job in our times of suffering to humble ourselves, repent, and seek His direction. We don’t have to listen to all the voices that give advice when we have God’s full attention. He’ll show us the way out, in His time, and we’ll learn to trust Him to greater degrees. The more experiences we have seeing God at work in our lives the more opportunities we’ll have to share with those in need. I’m with Job on this one: eagerly waiting for the last day.

God gave Jesus a specific assignment to go through Samaria. Why this particular region and this specific well? To look at this story from a heavenly perspective we have to retreat into the life of Jacob. First of all, this patriarch was chosen by God. This divine election was nothing new: Abraham was chosen from all the people on the planet, Isaac was chosen even though Ishmael was the firstborn, and similarly Jacob was chosen over Esau. This well where Jesus stopped was not just any place but a place of remembrance to those who knew Jacob’s story.

Jacob began his life in the womb as an unredeemed man. The name Jacob indicates that he was a deceiver, cheater, and used underhanded tactics to reach his goal. In the womb? Yes, everyone begins his life in the same way: totally depraved and needing a Savior.

The LORD spoke to Rebekah with a warning and prophecy that the older son would serve the younger (Gen. 25:22-26): a picture of God’s sovereignty. As Jacob’s life progressed he showed himself as a sinner but God continued to pursue him. Isn’t that true of us all? We’re all born spiritually dead, in sin, unable to pursue God but Jesus continues His pursuit for us out of love.

At the end of this wonderful story of redemption we find Jacob visited by God through a physical encounter, dreams and visions, and angelic protection. Jacob’s Well is not just any well: it’s the God of Jacob‘s Well.

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
Psalms 20:1 ESV

Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Isaiah 49:26b ESV

Jacob’s Well reminds us that God is an all-powerful King, our source of help, hope, and protection; He was just what this Samaritan woman needed. She was rejected by five men through divorce (women had no rights), the man she was with wouldn’t marry her, she was full of shame, and Jesus had to go to her … now. She didn’t go to the well with the other women in the cooler part of the day, she went at noon when no one else would be there: but God.

She wasn’t looking for a Savior; He was looking for her.

She wanted water; He wanted her.

Believer, you are chosen of God (Eph. 1:4), forgiven of your sin (Eph. 1:7), lavished with His grace (Eph. 1:8), and pursued by Jesus Christ. Let’s walk together with the God of Jacob, remembering His mercy to us when we didn’t deserve it either.

Finding Jesus in Esther

Holocaust. It’s a word that brings to mind images that we’ve seen on TV or in movies. It’s an ugly word. The massive, reckless, deliberate, and systematic extermination of an entire race of people: that was Hitler’s goal. He intended to wipe the nations free of a group of people for no other reason than they were Jewish. Interestingly, the Hebrew word for ‘burnt sacrifice’ is olah and it means literally ‘going up in smoke’. The parallel is unmistakeable. The burning furnaces of the death camps was not God’s intention, it was Satan’s. His original plan was the burning sacrifice of an animal to take the place of the sins of His people until the Messiah appeared: He would be the final substitute. Even though it seemed that Hitler’s plan of genocide was working, God’s plan was that His Son Jesus was the final solution, not the extermination of the Jews. How does this coincide with the book of Esther? Let’s dive into the story.

Hopefully you’ll remember from previous blogs that God had reached His limit with His chosen people and their idolatry. The Babylonian armies were allowed by God to capture and exile His people as Jeremiah had prophesied: a 70 year captivity and so it was. We previously read that Ezra and Nehemiah, under the new Persian Empire, were assigned to return and rebuild with those in agreement. Among the ones who decided to stay and continue their life within the Persian empire was Hadassah, a young Jewish girl. As you read the dramatic story of Esther (Hadassah’s name-change) keep in mind that Satan is never ahead of God. He’ll always try to steal, kill, and destroy but God doesn’t follow him: God is sovereign over him.

As Esther emerges into royalty through God’s divine plan, she becomes the star player; it’s quite poetic that her name means ‘star’. God moved His plan of deliverance through her in juxtaposition to the evil plan of Haman. Satan has been working in the darkness to bring a holocaust to the Hebrew people in Persia. Haman-Hitler is the same murderous spirit that tries, with no success, to systematically exterminate God’s treasured possession.

The Feast of Purim, instituted after Esther’s plan of deliverance was successful, is the year-end celebration of God’s deliverance of His people from their enemies. Remember back to Moses and the first feast of the year, Passover. God loves to celebrate with His people. There are many similarities between these two great deliverers, Moses and Esther, ending with the two yearly feasts as reminders of God’s covenant faithfulness. Jesus the Messiah is the final fulfillment of those two great forerunners as He was the chosen One, The Deliverer, that would bring salvation to the world. That’s where we find Jesus in the story of Esther.

No Haman, no Hitler, and no Antichrist will be able to thwart God’s plan of deliverance. He was in total control then and will be forever: Jesus, our Deliverer.

The Apostle John had this amazing ability to see beyond the natural realm and into the spiritual: the lower and upper story. His perspective of Jesus often had a mystical or mysterious outlook to it and John inspires us to look at that mysterious, heavenly side of Jesus’ ministry.

John 4 tells the seemingly simple story of a woman that Jesus encountered at a well. He had previously spoken to a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who had come to Him at night, and explained the process of being born again: it’s a spiritual birth. Jesus told him, quite mysteriously, that you must be born twice: naturally and spiritually. I’d say that’s pretty mystical.

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? John 3:12 ESV

I want to understand heavenly things.

Since Jesus has the Spirit without measure (John 3:34) and was sent from God with purpose, He sensed the Spirit urging Him to leave Judea and travel north to Galilee. That spiritual drive is what we experience as well when we sense the Spirit sending us somewhere; you may also be on assignment from the Father.

Now he had to go through Samaria. John 4:4 NIV

Different translations use different words in this verse: and, but, or now, suffice to say there’s more behind that little word. Jesus had to; He was compelled by the Spirit to make this trip. It was necessary, inevitable, and must happen now. There’s an emphatic sense to this assignment from His Father and the purpose was salvation.

A good Jew wouldn’t travel through this half-breed area of Samaria; there was bad blood but Jesus knew He was on an apostolic assignment, sent by God, and had to take that specific route now.

Why? As we’ll see in the coming weeks, Jesus’ destination of Samaria wasn’t due to convenience: He needed to reach a specific place, at a specific time, to fulfill His divine assignment. Jesus’ mission on earth wasn’t just for the here and now; He always had the Second Coming in view.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:37-40, 44 ESV

Get ready to look at this story from a heavenly perspective.

Finding Jesus in Ezra and Nehemiah

My husband and I have built two homes since we’ve been married. Each time the anticipation of our ‘move in’ date escalated with each month. When that day arrived we were ecstatic and ready to begin our new life in our new home. That’s a similar scenario, I submit, to the way Ezra and Nehemiah felt as they received the charge from God to return and rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the Temple.

After 70 years of exile in Babylon God worked through the Persian (today’s Iran) leader Cyrus to release the Jews to go home. Not all of the Jewish people were anxious to return to the land of their forefathers; a new generation had emerged and many had no desire to leave their new-found lives in Persia: only the remnant returned (Ez. 3:8; Is. 10:21-22). Even though only about 50,000 of the approximate 2 million wanted to return, those whose hearts God stirred were going home. But what were they going home to? What was left of their beloved city and Temple? Nothing. It would be their assignment, should they choose to accept it, to return, rebuild, restore, revive, and reform their land and their relationship with God. This assignment had one goal: get ready, spiritually and physically, for the appearance of Messiah.

Israel, the people and the land, worked hard and long but it would take another 400 yrs. of divine silence for God to move on a priest in Jerusalem: Zechariah, father of John the Baptizer. The chairos moment, a specific time set in history, would arrive, a virgin would conceive and bring forth a Savior, Jesus the Messiah (Luke 1-2). That’s where we find Jesus in these partner books, the same place we find ourselves in these end times: waiting for the arrival, the coming, the parousia, of Christ for the second time.

Ezra, a religious figure, and Nehemiah, a political figure, were used mightily by God in calling for a reformation through repentance much like that of Martin Luther several thousand years later. They called the people to look at themselves honestly and decide if their hearts were ready to receive Him. They interceded for the people, much like our leaders in the Church today, asking God for revival. Israel was no longer a divided land and a divided people; they had became one again, unified, as in the time of David. The stage is set and life goes on as each generation stands in faith that God will complete the Plan of Redemption and visit His creation. As I mentioned earlier, it took 400 years for God’s divine time to arrive but Messiah did become flesh and live among us.

Ezra and Nehemiah remind us of the importance of preparation and Jesus echoes that in the New Testament:

You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Luke 12:40 ESV)

What an exciting time we live in!

The story of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus is a clear picture of the relationship that’s available to us with Jesus: our Brother and our Friend.

So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. Hebrews 2:11 NLT

Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” Mark 3:34-35 NLT

Christians all have the same Father and He is also our Friend. Consider the parable of the Friend at Midnight from Luke 11:5-13.

After Jesus responded to Martha and Mary (Luke 10:41-42) by explaining that Mary had chosen intimacy with Him over serving, the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray as well. After explaining a pattern of praying, the Lord’s Prayer, He told them this parable of contrast.

The gist of the story is persistence in prayer; not just a simple quoting of the Lord’s Prayer but relentless, urgent, and pleading prayer. Friendship is important but Jesus tells us:

—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence. Luke 11:8b NLT

Shameless persistence. If a natural friend, annoyed by your requests, will give you what you need, how much more will your Friend and Brother? That’s the kind of prayer that’s sometimes necessary, especially if you’re not seeing answers. I want to be that kind of relentless prayer warrior, unashamed of what people think: unembarrassed boldness before God. I won’t stop asking because of fear that He’ll be annoyed but come to Him in faith, repeatedly, and believe He’ll answer me.

Jesus said that our answer is the Holy Spirit: our Helper, our Advocate, our Defense Attorney, our Friend, and continued with the famous passage (Luke. 11:9-13): ask and receive, seek and find, knock and open.

I think we often forget that when Jesus ascended into heaven He promised to give us another Helper, John 14:16; One just like Himself. What a promise! Verse 17 assures us that we’re filled with His Spirit and that He lives in us. What a powerful truth.

Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it! John 14:14 NLT

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.
John 15:13-16 NLT

Friends and Family.

Finding Jesus in Chronicles

These amazing books, taken as one, point us back to the spiritual hope of Israel: Messiah. They focus on the southern kingdom of Judah from where David and eventually Jesus descended. The Chronicler, author, probably wrote these pages from the Babylonian captivity to give the history of the Hebrew nation beginning with Adam (in the first nine chapters) in an effort to bring encouragement and hope that one day they’ll return to their land. David is the focus of the Chronicles because of the Messianic hope he foreshadowed even though these books follow Solomon and the kingdom divided. Interestingly, there’s no mention of the exiled and forgotten northern tribes. The Chronicles review the Davidic Covenant and David’s Prayer in 1 Chron. 17 in an effort to focus attention on God’s promises: return and restore.

The Chronicler follows the books of the kings with Hezekiah as the rallying point in chapters 29-32 of the second book. He was a great king who restored worship in Judah, following the example of David. We see references from the prophets Isaiah and Amos regarding this restoration of worship and also see in the New Testament that it was a foreshadow of the true worship to be experienced when Messiah returns:

… then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness.” Isaiah 16:5 ESV

“In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old,” Amos 9:11 ESV

Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, “‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’ Acts 15:14-18 ESV

Notice the spiritual nature of the Chronicler as you read through his books and his effort to gain the reader’s attention by stressing prayer, seeking the LORD, worship, and anticipation of the Promised One Who will reign forever. We find Jesus loud and clear in these books as we remember that royalty flowed in His veins and we share in that genealogy as adopted children of God.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9 ESV

Lazarus is dead, what more could be done? The weeping and wailing was underway and the Rescuer appeared seemingly too late (John 11). Jesus’s response to the situation was to thank His Father, in advance, for always hearing Him and producing evidence so they’ll believe.

What evidence? The manifestation of God’s glory: His victory over death.

The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” John 11:44 ESV

Jesus connected heaven and earth in this story by loosing the cords of death on this man. His imprisonment was released and the sentence against him annulled: binding and loosing. Jesus set this captive free.

In the lower story Lazarus’s hands and feet were tied: he was in bondage. When we look at the upper story we realize that we can be bound as well. Sin, Satan, or even our will can bind or keep us wrapped up as prisoners until someone says “loose him and let him go.”

Jesus taught us that binding and loosing are keys to kingdom living and again, makes heaven and earth interconnect:

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:19 ESV

Lazarus was bound by the physical death of his body and Jesus freed him. Is there bondage in your life? Sickness, fear, anger, depression, addiction, negative attitudes, hopeless circumstances? Has the enemy bound you and you can’t seem to get free? Let me reassure you, you’re not helpless because the Helper is ready to move.

Jesus told us that we’ve been given His authority to loose people from their bondages: keys of the kingdom. In the lower story we use keys to lock and unlock entrances but in the upper story, our spiritual life, we lock out influences of the enemy that draw us away from God. When we’re bound we have the authority to use the name of Jesus to be set free. Loosing means we untie, release and annul the effects of the devil’s influence. We declare them to be void, nullified, and canceled. That’s what Jesus did for Lazarus and many believed in Him, now He gives those keys to us.

The end of this family-story is one of serving. John 12 tells us each sibling took their place operating in their gifts. Martha, serving from a heart of faith, Mary, anointing Jesus’s feet for His walk to the Cross, and Lazarus leaning into His Rescuer: reclining. Reclining is the position of royalty and in Hebrew culture it’s a sign of freedom.
Lazarus was loosed from bondage and released into freedom.

We can experience those same spiritual truths in our family-story as well: servanthood, embracing the Cross, and reclining next to Jesus as a sign of our freedom. Call for the Rescuer.