4 ¶ And his sons went and feasted in their
houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat
and to drink with them. 5 And it was so,
when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified
them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according
to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned,
and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
There are few Christian parents of grown children who have
not known Job’s concern for his children. Those of us who pray daily for their
children know his worry. These festivities, whether they were separate birthday
feasts throughout the year or one long feast with different sons being
appointed different days, were family celebrations as their sisters were
included and Job gave them his blessing. They were joyous celebrations, not
pagan orgies as portrayed in the following verses.
Exodus 32:6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and
offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down
to eat and to drink, and rose up to play…25
And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them
naked unto their shame among their enemies:)
1Corinthians 10:7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of
them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to
play.
Job lives in a time before the Law was given to Moses and
gives sacrifices to God as Noah did.
Genesis 8:20 ¶ And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and
took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings
on the altar.
Job, who was approved for eschewing, or refraining his
tongue from evil, against God (see verse 1), in his fear and dread of God’s
wrath, was worried that his sons might have done that very thing, hence his
motivation for offering burnt offerings on their behalf, a continual thing with
Job.
Jonathan Edwards, a great preacher of the period in American
history known as the Great Awakening, said in his sermon entitled, “The Justice
of God in the Damnation of Sinners,” that;
There is a great deal of difference
between a willingness not to be damned, and a being willing to receive Christ
for your Savior. You have the former; there is no doubt of that: nobody
supposes that you love misery so as to choose an eternity of it; and so
doubtless you are willing to be saved from eternal misery. But that is a very
different thing from being willing to come to Christ: persons very commonly
mistake the one for the other, but they are quite two things. You may love the
deliverance, but hate the deliverer. (3)
Job knew that it is entirely possible to claim the mercies
and blessings of God and, yet, hold Him in contempt by your thoughts. Moses and
the Lord Jesus Christ both taught us that;
Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all
thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great
commandment.
How many Christians actually love God? Even those who claim
they do will ascribe base motives to Him, making him the author of sin as some
Hyper-Calvinists do in saying that God ordained Adam to sin and others suggesting
that, even though He died on the Cross for them, that because life is taking a
hard turn, He must hate them.
It is possible to obey every surface dictate of leadership
and still hold that leadership in utter contempt. The Catholic can follow every
ritual, partake of every sacrament, and still hold God in absolute disregard by
not concerning himself with how his sin affects God. The Independent Baptist
can attend all of the services his church offers, go to every revival meeting
and hymn sing, and knock on doors and still show contempt for the one who
purchased him with His own blood by ignoring the Lord’s words written in His
Book.
In his sermon entitled, “The Almost Christian,” the famous
preacher and founder of the Methodist church, John Wesley, admitted of himself
because he lacked a love for God, a love for his neighbor, and faith;
I did for many years, as many of this place can testify; using diligence to
eschew all evil, and to have a conscience void of offence; redeeming the time;
buying up every opportunity of doing all good to all men; constantly and
carefully using all the public and private means of grace; endeavoring, after a
steady seriousness of behavior, at all times, and in all places: and God is my
record, before whom I stand, doing all this in sincerity; having a real design
to serve God; a hearty desire to do His will in all things; to please Him who
had called me to “fight the good fight,” and to “lay hold on eternal life.” Yet
my own conscience bears me witness, in the Holy Ghost, that all this time I was
but almost a Christian. (4)
One way of understanding verse 5 is that to willfully sin is
to curse God in your heart while another way views willfully sinning and
cursing God in your heart two separate actions. One thing that has been
suggested by John Gill, who preached in Spurgeon’s church a hundred years
before him, was that the young men, in Job’s mind, could have been foolishly
giving themselves credit for their wealth rather than attributing their bounty
to God’s hand. Of this, he was concerned. (5)
Deuteronomy 32:15
¶ But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked:
thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then
he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
Proverbs 30:8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me
neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: 9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who
is the LORD?...
When a man or a woman is successful in life in some way and
does not give credit to the Lord that is due or receives some bounty from their
employer or government and does not acknowledge that it came from the Lord he
or she has cursed God by holding Him in contempt and denying Him the credit for
what He has done.
One question we might ask in reading Job is; was Job himself
guilty of this when he reviewed his habits of life with his friends? When we
hear someone talk about their work ethic, how they raised their children, how
they handle their money, play their sport, or serve God in their church, home,
work, or community do we not hear someone trumpeting their own righteousness
without acknowledging that none of that would be true without God’s
providential hand in their lives?
How many “good” Christians curse God in their hearts and sin
by taking credit themselves for the good works they claim they do?
(3) Jonathan Edwards, “The Justice of God in the Damnation
of Sinners,” www.jonathan-edwards.org,
(accessed 7.16.2014).
(4) John Wesley, “The Almost Christian,” http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0620_Wesley_-_Almost_Chri.html.
(accessed 7.17.2014).
(5) John Gill, “Job 1:5,” http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/job-1-5.html.
(accessed 7.17.2014).
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