Sunday, December 14, 2014

Job, chapter 33, 14-18 comments: Elihu instructs Job


14 ¶  For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. 15  In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; 16  Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, 17  That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. 18  He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.

Here, Elihu notes that God speaks to man regularly but man is often unaware of it, doesn’t understand what he hears, unless God opens man’s understanding. Perhaps here there is an implication that there is another meaning of our dreams than what we have considered. Dreams can be direct and blunt;

Genesis 20:3  But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife…6  And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.

…or they can be cryptic and require the Spirit of God to interpret and their meaning is not readily apparent to the dreamer. Compare…

Genesis 28:12  And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

…with

 

John 1:51  And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

The Bible is filled with these dreams and visions which require the Spirit of God to interpret or future events, unknown to the dreamer, to explain. We should, perhaps, pay more attention to the dreams we remember and how they relate to clear Biblical statements, doctrine, and principles, not our inflated view of our own self-importance. But we have something the men of Job’s time did not.

2Peter 1:19 ¶  We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 20  Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

God speaks to you, Christian, through the Bible. When you read it, expecting something from God from it, He will open your ears and eyes and reveal Himself to you in special ways. I personally have been delivered from alcohol and horror movies and a love of violence including violent sporting events and entertainment through God speaking to my spiritual heart by His Bible. If you don’t feel compelled to read or hear the Bible read daily, to hear God speak to your heart through its pages, maybe you need to consider what Bible you are using and whether or not it is God’s Bible. Or, maybe you just have a seared conscience and are cold to the things of God.

God speaks to you, Christian, through preaching from the Bible that is not agenda-driven, doctrinally foolish, or politically motivated wrenching verses out of context and insisting that words mean something the speaker wants them to mean but they don’t. If you hear a doctrinally sound sermon, that is deep and rich in its understanding of God’s word, confirming what God has told us through the ages from His word, then God will speak to your heart by it.

God speaks to you, Christian, by the events of your life, confirming His sovereignty over you and His right to dispose of your day-to-day life as He sees fit, expecting you to trust His judgment and lean completely on Him for wisdom and light, understanding that He loves you and wishes to make you more like Christ each day. God shows you things every day but you perceive it not.

He speaks to you to turn you from the evil purposes you have conceived, to deliver you from a particular sin, to urge you on to serve His will, and to mold you into a person useful to Him. He keeps people from the consequences of their pride, keeps people from Hell, and from violent death, often, through what He tells them. He sanctifies you with His word.

John 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

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