Reading… and Thinking

Daily Readings: Job 21 Zephaniah 3 I John 3,4

The world has a whole different connotation of the concept of “No Fear” than God’s perspective. Perhaps you too, have seen macho-looking super-sized pickup trucks with that logo blazing from the back window decal. These people are declaring their supposed power over anyone who might dare to “mess with them.” In contrast, woven throughout our designated passages today, I noticed the real concept of lasting fearlessness. Let’s explore it together.

Starting with Job, we find a man writhing in his misery, but somehow finding the strength and courage to defend himself before his friends’ misguided advice. He has an inner strength that will not allow him to be beaten down either by his afflictions, or by their words. I think our passage in I John explains what the source of Job’s fearlessness might have been. The phrase is this:

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;…I John 3:22

I think this is the place we find faithful Job – a man challenging God, yes, but challenging with a heart that did not condemn him. And the reason his heart did not condemn him was, I suggest, a thought found in our Zephaniah passage. In speaking of the restoration of Israel to being a faithful nation, God says:

In that day you will feel no shame because of all your deeds by which you have rebelled against Me. Zephaniah 3:11

I believe that Job felt no shame, in spite of his friends telling him over and over that he had sinned and brought his calamity on his own head. Not that Job was perfect and sinless, mind you, but that his heart did not condemn him before God. He knew the power of forgiveness. He did not feel guilt for hidden misdeeds or continual rebellion against God like the nation of Israel had committed. He walked a “blameless and upright” life, “fearing God and turning away from evil.” (Job 1:1) And in the end of the story, we discover Job was right – and his friends were wrong. He did indeed have the mind of the Spirit, while their words were of the flesh. And in an act of gracious obedience, he loved his friends enough to intercede for them in spite of their hurtful foolishness. (Job 42:7-10)

Now why does Job read this way? Because Job encouraged the Lord Jesus. Jesus could read Job and see the very struggle he himself would face – only flawlessly in his (Jesus’) case. Jesus “condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3) and never felt either the shame of rebellious deeds, or the fearful guilt of a heart that condemned him before his Father. And like Job, Jesus loved us – his friends – enough to lay down his life for us. John expounds beautifully on how Jesus did this. Because God is love and Jesus was (literally and figuratively) born of Him:

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God…
By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear…I John 3:16, 4:7, 16-17

Let us resolve to live in a fearless place of forgiveness and confidence. Let us rest in His great love as evidenced in the fact that “He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (I John 4:10) Let us demonstrate this great love by loving one another.

Thank You, Holy Father!