I lead a bible study in my home on Thursday evenings. The ladies and I are studying 1st Peter this session. As we take in the text, Peter's point about us being "born-again to a living hope" resonated with my soul. The Lord brought to mind where we put our hope is what comes out when life appears hopeless. We can find that affirmed in the life of Job.
As soon as you read this poetic life story, you are introduced to a man described as "blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil." This description is exemplified by his actions as told in his story, "he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them (his children)." He says, "It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." His hope lay in God's acceptance of his offering because his heart was toward the honor of God. Job was an example of one who lived toward the hope of the Messiah while we look back at the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus. Job's example in his actions was a man with a living hope.
The synopsis we are offered about Job at the beginning of his story helps us understand what those with a living hope look like. Some say when life is good, it is easier to worship God. I'd challenge that by saying it can be easier to forget God when life is good. I've reached that conclusion biblically, Deuteronomy 31:20 "For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are gull and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant." Job was habitual in his lifestyle, looking forward to a living hope.
Having a living hope is necessary to remember God during good times. It keeps us from turning to other gods and serving them. When life is good, it can become easy to serve our accomplishments, education, and abilities. I asked the ladies who joined me to study God's Word, "what keeps the living hope Peter speaks of before you daily?" The answers varied from one lady sharing, "remembering what God has already done." Another sister responded, "knowing this world is not my home." "The fact that God's Word has been given to us for our learning and to offer us hope. As I read the Bible, I look to learn and find hope through the examples like Peter and others who fail and are restored," someone chimed in. Is this question easier to answer than to live out? That question can be answered more honestly as a full-frontal attack by life's hardships comes. Job's life will reveal what the consistency of his actions was fomented on, a living hope.
Even Satan thought life was going so easily for Job because he was so consistent in his worship. "You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all he has, and he will curse you to your face." Interesting that Satan uses those words because Job was concerned that his children "have sinned, and cursed God in their hears." In other words, Satan was saying, "You are giving Job what he wants, so he's giving you what you want." What he did not understand is that human character is not that simple. I'm not trying to minimize what Satan knows about us, but his accusation did minimize those who hope in God. God understood the opposite more accurately than Satan's conclusion. Yet, God would allow the squeezing of Job to see what his living hope was based on. Is easy living the reason for hope? Job's story will answer that in the negative.
Here are a few questions for you to answer.
Has life become so easy that you've accredited success to yourself? If this answer is yes, you are creating temporary hope. This is the kind of life that, like Humpty Dumpty, will come crashing down. God's rebuilding would be based on the living hope of His Son. You may need to be squeezed and squeezed again until the focus of hope changes.
Has life become a life of religious actions with no actual spiritual substance? It may appear substantive because your works have all the evidence of spirituality. The hope you have is that life will not be shaken. If it does, what happens to your religion?
When life is squeezed, what will come out? In my husband and my early lives of marriage, he would answer the phone, "Praise the Lord!" It was so habitual and integrated into his being that he never wavered. One night the phone rangas he was knocked out. He woke up, knocked over the lamp, and reached for the phone, "Praise the Lord!" The person on the other end was so impressed that in that moment of being disoriented, he still said, "Praise the Lord!" What was in him proved consistent when life offered him a hit during a vulnerable squeeze.
The whole hitting your toe on the corner of chair possibilities come to mind. Most people's hearts are proven when that sharp pain runs through their bodies. What was squeezed out of Job? One after the other, reports were brought to him, his oxen and donkeys were taken, and servants struck down. Then fire burned up his sheep, and the servants over them were consumed. His camels were stolen, and those servants were killed. Then the test you think would reveal the defilement of Job's soul. His children were killed by a storm crushing the oldest son's home, where they gathered. Here it comes; the pain of tragedy is worse than that toe on the corner of the table leg that will reveal Job's actions were all a religious work, unconnected to the living hope he appeared to have. "Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped." Wait! What? Job did not curse God? Satan thought he would. Job's soul was squeezed, and worship poured out.
Satan received permission to touch Job's health and jumped at the chance. His wife encouraged Job to curse God, "do you still hold to your integrity? Curse God and die." As hardships are squeezing Job, his lifestyle prior is being proven true. His living hope was toppling over the instinct to curse God. He tells his wife, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak." Here is why when hardships and tragedy squeezed Job, he could hold on to the living hope he depended on; His understanding and heart were revealed. "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" While things are good, the only way to know your "hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness" is for God to let you get squeezed.
That is the only way to reveal the true character of your soul. The passage I'm writing this from in Job makes an assessment of him, "in all this Job did not sin with his lips." He was squeezed, and he worshiped. Thinking of Peter's reminder that those born again have a living hope makes me conclude that worship should be revealed when squeezing happens in those lives. Remember, Peter was writing to people being squeezed. They were being persecuted for their faith. Peter offered them the possibility of standing firm and not cursing the God who was their hope. We read in Hebrews 11 that many of the people Peter wrote to were squeezed to death for their faith in Jesus. That was the ultimate worship for those who would not sin with their lips through their hardships. To understand what it means not to sin with your lips is revealed in Luke 6:45 "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasures produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." This was exemplified in our example of Job and the saints Peter wrote to; will you be squeezed to worship?
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