The God who whispers in our ear

Pray: Ask God to speak to you through his word today

Consider: Has God ever whispered in your ear? What did he say?

Bible Reading:  Job 36:1-25

Insight: Elihu has not finished and has a lot more that he wants to say that will prove his argument that God is fair and righteous. And he promises to say only what he is sure to be true.

Job has suggested that God has a certain tolerance for the wicked or faithless but Elihu says the opposite, that God destroys the wicked and shows particular favour to the poor and honourable. It is as if he keeps a particular eye on them, even placing some of them in positions of public esteem. However, some virtuous people do get trapped in calamities of all kinds, but even when this happens, God kindly watches over them. He shows them where their pride has caused them to sin and then disciplines them in order to lovingly correct and restore them. If they respond to His correction Elihu believes that they will live happily ever after, the new testament though tells us that the righteous are to expect hardships, trials and persecutions.

According to Elihu, the ungodly store up God’s anger against them and while they are still young their soul dies and they live with others that are ‘unclean’. But for the righteous person, hardship and suffering is like medicine that draws them closer to Him. It enables them to hear the whisper of God in their ear.

In fact, Elihu goes on to say that if Job had accepted his suffering in the spirit in which it was meant, and learned the lessons that God was teaching him, he would have been restored already. But because of Job’s resolute attitude he is continuing to suffer and if he doesn’t change there will be nothing that can save him from certain destruction.

Job must stop asking to die, Elihu thinks this is a dreadful thing and warns Job to beware of his attitude. Even though Job had led a life of integrity, just lately he has been impatient, proud and rash. He has complained, grumbled and questioned God’s justice. He has also tried to tell God how he should be running the world.

Elihu is saying that even the most righteous people, those that on the outside appear to live a life of piety, who dedicate themselves to God find it easy to slip into bad habits and poor attitudes. He isn’t talking about things that we would consider to be ‘big sins’ but those things in our lives that just creep in almost unnoticed until one day we hear God whispering in our ear that really we should respect that family member, love that neighbour, forgive that friend, stop controlling that person.

Our job is to glorify God and Elihu thinks that Job could do this and be an example to everyone that sees him by being patient, accepting his suffering for what it is and repenting of his poor attitude. How could you glorify God today? Is God whispering in your ear about a habit or attitude that needs to be changed?

Pause: Stop and listen to the voice of God, don’t rush on.

Picture: Is there a picture in scripture or in the world around you that helps?

Ponder: Think more deeply. What else does this relate to and what else does scripture say?

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)

Pray: Spend time in conversation with God; be completely honest and open.

Promise: Decide what needs to change, commit to it and consider writing it in your journal.

Further Reading: John Goldingay, Job for Everyone.

Thank you to Fiona Doherty for today’s Bible Reading

Blood cries out

Pray: Ask God to speak to you through his word today

Memory verse: to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:24)

Consider: What is the difference between justice and revenge?

Bible Reading: Genesis 4:10-13

Insight: Abel’s blood cries out to God for justice. It cannot be ignored and demands redress although interestingly it doesn’t demand avenging. God doesn’t say that Cain needs to be killed for his actions and he does need to be punished.

Just as the snake was cursed and marked as separate from the other animals, so Cain is to be separated from the land he has been working. God implies that because of Cain’s sin, the land that he was supposed to be serving has denied him. It is as if the whole world is connected and sin has caused the Earth to distort and reject those meant to care for it. Sin is not an isolated act that can be easily rectified, one sinful act can affect so many people. Indeed it is only through the shedding of Jesus blood, the blood that cries out for forgiveness, that the effect of sin can be repaired.

Instead of relying on the land to provide for him Cain will now be reduced to surviving on what can be found in the wilderness and this punishment is too much for him. In fact it is the burden of his defiance or waywardness that has become too much for him to carry. Carrying someone’s waywardness is an old testament way of talking about forgiveness. When you forgive someone you carry their waywardness, just as God carried the waywardness of the Israelites time and again, Jesus took our waywardness to the cross. Cain is vocalising the human condition, that our sins are too much for us to bear.

Tell Us: Abel’s blood cried out to God for justice, what is significant about this phrase?

Why do you think Cain was exiled rather than executed?

Prayer Ideas: Praise God that he gave us Jesus to restore the effect of our sins. Is there someone you need to forgive? Pray for them. Pray for others that are struggling under the weight of their own sin and shame, that they would listen and hear Jesus call to them.

Further Reading: John Goldingay, Genesis for Everyone Part 1.

The first family

Pray: Ask God to speak to you through his word today

Memory verse: By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. (Hebrews 11:4)

Consider: Have you ever stood in church and, while everyone else around you is in full flow of worship, you didn’t really feel anything?

Bible Reading: Genesis 4:1-5

Insight: Just as Adam sounds like the word for dirt and Eve sounds like the word for living so Cain sounds like the word for get or acquired. Abel on the other hand sounds like the word for vapour or a puff of wind. It means  something unsubstantial and easily blown away. The same word is used in Ecclesiastes to describe the uselessness of human achievements.

Eve doesn’t take conception or birth lightly and recognises God’s hand in the safe delivery of her child. God is still active outside of the garden.

It seems that Cain and Abel instinctively want to bring gifts in order to worship God. We don’t know whether the gifts were given because of gratitude, atonement for sins or love. We don’t know why Abel’s offering was accepted and Cain’s wasn’t or even how they knew that one offering was preferred over than the other. It leaves us with a lot of questions, not least, why some people seem to ‘experience’ God more than others.

It appears that Abel brought an offering of the first lambs that were born while Cain brought an offering of crops, it wasn’t perhaps the first of his crops that he brought. Is there a lesson that we could learn about giving to God the first portion of our money and time, not simply what is left over at the end of the day or the end of the month?

Tell Us: In what ways do you, or could you, bring offerings to God?

Prayer Ideas: Offer God your praise now. Repent of specific times that you have brought a half-hearted offering of worship to God. Pray for the worship leaders/team at your church and ask God to show you where your offerings are falling short.

Do: Spend some time worshipping God and listening to Him.

Further Reading: John Goldingay, Genesis for Everyone Part 1.

Saturday

Pray: Ask God to speak to you through his word today

Memory verse: for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:10)

Consider: When was the last time you got to the end of the week and were satisfied with everything that you had achieved?

Bible Reading: Genesis 1:31-2:3

Insight:

Is this how we see our week? That it is a struggle to get through and a relief to get to the weekend? With God it is different. He is able to sit back in satisfaction, reflect on all that he has made and be very pleased indeed.

Then God stopped work. He didn’t rest because he was tired, he simply stopped working because creation was complete. He had been working for six days and saw the next day as worthy of something different. He chose to then mark the seventh day as special and holy, perhaps in a kind of celebration. He blesses or perhaps more accurately praises it.

At this stage God doesn’t say anything about humans observing the Sabbath, in fact, it is not until the Israelites have left Egypt that they begin to do so. But it is this pattern of working for six days and stopping for one day that is another distinguishing behaviour that made the Israelites stand out. Eventually people who observed the Sabbath became known as those who were close to God.

Today, as we live in a 24/7 economy, the Sabbath takes on a new significance. Students work very hard, studying and working all hours to get the grades they desire while workers are asked to take on extra shifts, overtime and come in at weekends. Soon the only days we have ‘off’ we tend to fill up and run around doing all those jobs that we can’t get done during the week. Without a ‘stopping day’ we are soon exhausted, depressed and ill.

Tell Us: How busy are you?

Do you take time out to stop working? How do you relax?

How might you ‘rest in God’?

Prayer Ideas: Thank God that he has given us a pattern for sensible working. Repent for the times that you have over-worked and not taken time to stop and rest. Pray for anyone you know that is studying or working, that they will find satisfaction in the work that they are doing. Ask that your work this week would bring glory to God.

Do: Commit to make one day each week a ‘stopping day’. Take time that day to ‘rest in God’.

Further Reading: John Goldingay, Genesis for Everyone Part 1.