Thursday: Obedience Unto Death
Job 1:22 reads: “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong” (NKJV). Job 2:10 reads: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (NKJV). In both cases, despite the attacks, Job stayed faithful to the Lord.
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Both texts stress the fact that Job did not sin, either with actions or with words.
Of course, the texts don’t say that Job wasn’t a sinner. They would never say that, because the Bible teaches that we are all sinners. “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10, NKJV). Being “blameless and upright,” fearing God and shunning evil (Job 1:1, NKJV), does not make a person sinless. Like everyone else, Job was born in sin and needed a Savior.
Nevertheless, despite all that came upon him, he remained faithful to the Lord. In this sense, in his own way Job could be seen as a kind of symbol, a faint example of Jesus (see lesson 14), who, amid terrible trials and temptations, didn’t give up, didn’t fall into sin, and thus refuted Satan’s charges against God. Of course, what Christ did was so much bigger, grander, and more consequential than what Job did. Nevertheless, the simple parallel remains.
Read Matthew 4:1-11. How did Job’s experience reflect what happened here?
Though in a terrible environment, His body weakened by lack of food, Jesus in His humanity, in “the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3), did not do what the devil wanted Him to do, just as Job didn’t either. And also just as Satan disappeared from the scene after Job stayed faithful, after Jesus resisted Satan’s last effort against Him, Scripture said that “the devil left Him” (Matt. 4:11, NKJV; see also James 4:7).
Yet, what Jesus faced in the wilderness was only the start. His real test would come at the cross, and here, too, despite everything thrown at Him (even worse than what Job faced) Jesus stayed faithful, even unto death.
Read Philippians 2:5-8. What hope does Christ’s “obedience unto death” offer us, and what does it tell us about how we should live in response to His obedience?
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In all our trials we should struggle through humility in Christ not to give the devil victory and in the long run he will be forced to flee.
Amen Tracy, I like that it was brought out in the lesson that Job was just like us - he was not sinless - he was born in sin just like the rest of us - he chose to trust God fully, and he made good choices. I like the children's song "Get Thee behind me Satan". We have to choose to follow God with the choices we make daily.
The Book of Job provides evidence that human beings can be live obedient lives that are sinless....this is the power of the Holy Spirit....what Christianity provides is the Power to be obedient rather than relying on self-discipline.
In our postmodern society the humanistic way of living is highly encouraged and promoted ... God and righteousness are regarded as myths rather than fact based on His Word the Bible ... Job's example of trusting God no matter what is a testimony of faith based on relationship and not relying on society's transient norms
It is worth thinking about how we communicate with our modern society. Many Christians justify their belief system rather than seriously considering how to communicate with Post-moderns. They are our mission field and if we ignore them, they represent a large number of people we are not reaching with the Gospel.
We are sinless in the grace of Jesus; not as a result of fulfilling a list of Dos and Don'ts. Jesus died to save us, not show us how to be saved. And if you think that means we can do whatever we like, you are wrong. The fruit of our salvation is our response to his grace.
Maurice, doesn't the Holy Spirit through Paul say we DO fulfill "the list"? (Rom 8:4)
Yes, this comes from a clean heart and right spirit which only God can impart to the willing soul who must make choices to repent, confess and resist evil. Truth will motivate our actions and choices that must take place daily as long as we are alive in this world. Nothing magic happens without our fighting the good fight of faith and laying hold on eternal life through our abiding in the Vine. This is effort made from choices, which we are left to make and must make.
It is Christ in us (by constant choosing in every thing we must respond to), the hope of Glory.
What do you think blameless means? We talk about trials. Temptations are what Jesus faced in the wilderness. To many of us, temptation is the strongest impulse that we face on a daily basis. Do we win or lose? Maybe not a pretty picture. Only God knows. Our plea is for help. Jesus is ready and willing to give us the help that we desperately need.
Blameless = without fault. Without guilt. Choosing the right path in every decision. Isn't this what God is desiring to lead every soul to do in His strength? Only such beings will inhabit the city of God and dwell in His presence "with exceeding joy". One known sin would make this joy impossible to know as it would be replaced with exceeding fear. God has commanded us to be holy as He is holy, and in Christ has provided the way for this to happen in every willing soul. Doesn't Jesus invite all to "follow me"? The Revelation depicts the last generation of the faithful doing this. They gain the complete victory over the world/self.
Here in this earth, Christ is our perfect epitom. We need not to sin nor keep cherishing a known sin if we are indeed looking for that glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour.
If we must say with John the revelator, "Even so, come Lord Jesus"..... we must have to strive against sin even unto blood.
Peace be unto thee.
christ's obedenty until death gave us every lasting victory if we real believe in his words.
From this, I learn that with little steps towards emulating Jesus, am on the right path to defeating the devil, just as Job did. Staying closer to Jesus, I have already made a sharp mark of defiance against the devil and will soon defeat him. I also learn that the devil doesn't give up. Oh yes, he makes one or two or even more tries. Just as the devil kept on trying to derail Jesus from his purpose, and so does he do to us. But we are required to constantly resist his demands and he will flee from us.
Friends,there is a tme coming that Satan will not come to the scene of humanity;in the history of mankind,the devil will not be remembered anymore because we will reign with the LORD JESUS CHRIST.All this will be possible only if we resist the devil.Be obedient unto death for the Lord will reward you at the end.
Job managed to reflect the life of Christ despite living before the time of Christ. If through the animal sacrifices he managed to fully utilize the Saviour's Sacrifice, How much more should we, who have heard and read a lot about Him reflect His sinless character.
Having lowered Himself to the level of a man Christ still humbled Himself in order to ' take our shame and death'. With Christ's humility we are enabled to endure anything in our quest to obey God. What He did we can only do through Him.
Indeed mostly Christians we tend to give up after toiled for along period. This time our trials should Assist us to go further with faith .our character should be taken after Christ,whose character did not change because of time
God speaks to us through temptations. Let us not give the devil a chance he will demand to drive our lives
Jesus in his humanity had a powerful pray life, which gave him the strength he needed to withstand the assaults of Satan. We too should follow his example.
Job's obedience came out of what appears to be a prayerful life which culminated in his determination to be faithful. Let us not miss the point, however, that this faith is tied completely to his dependency on God to fulfill His will in him. Job's obedience was not as a result of what he might inherit, but out of duty to his creator. I am humbled by Job's unfailing commitment.
We can only overcome the devil through a diligent study of the Word and constant prayer.
Elia, I would only add this; the exercise of genuine faith.
The word obey means there is tow or more sides that you have to decide on #ONLY one, the great controversy is real; that means there are forces coming from different directions but the side You(I) give in ourselves is the side we are obedient to... obedience is one of the fruits of faith that shows a true worship to God
when you see that u have started asking God certain questions like; why me?, when can i? etc. that means you have lost the faith in God. Job 1:22 "In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong” (NKJV)
Adversities will befall your way but if u don't take a second thought on whatever u split out of your mouth it might be your first step of losing everything
Learning to abound and to be abased are precious in deed and I mean in deed.
The word obedience to me sounds like legalism or earning salvation by works, so instead of the word obedience I substitute "live in harmony with the will and character of Jesus" and I believe that more truly reflects the meaning of the verses with the word obey or its similes.
Take this verse - Philppians 2:5-8 - Christ lived in harmony with His Father's character until his death?
Has the lesson pointed out indeed Job and Jesus shared some things in common, which we should haste to emulate, and that is resisting the devil and he will flee, but our weaknesses like Eve is our desire, and once we open up that Avenue we already lost the temptation of the devil plots against us. I'm praying that we all reach this level, because only then we'll become true Victor over him true Jesus.
Bro Francis, The text that says resist the Devil and he will flee is found in James 4:5-8. That says, God has put the Spirit in us.It is by His Grace that God makes us to resist the proud. Verse 8 says, come near to God and He will come near to you. The battle is not ours.1Samue17:47, and Ephesians 6:11,12.
Paul Blanke
I think I kinda understand what your trying say,
But I don't fully agreed with your respond,
Please note even though Eve was fully righteous, there was a time when she was a lone, and had to made a desicive decision whether to obey God or the serpent,
I could illustrate more on the nuwerous time Jesus stand a lone seemly like his Father,our father rejecte him, and he had do the same has Adam and Eve, making the right choice to obey or disobey.
So since we're on Job let's stay here because he exhibit the very thing we are talking about here,
1 even though the Scripture didn't say much on this, but by reading, it seems like every report he gets from his servants he was alone.
2 He have absolutely no clue where the source of his problems was coming, unlike Eve and even Jesus could see the temper with there eyes.
3 He had make a concrete desicion whether or not to trust God or Cruse him and die.
So my brother you see, the same is required of us, in that moment when we're alone to stand firm though the heavens fall,
And even though it may seem like we are alone, remember God promised us, never to leave us alone,
But at times we will have stood our ground before he shows up,
Ask the three Hebrew boys.
Daniel 3:22-24
We must never think that following God means no trouble or suffering, coz evn Job was following GOG buh he needed mercy from God not to go wrong/. buh wat makes b happy is that he Remainec faithful to God.
Jesus is our great example of being "obedient unto death" (Phil 2:8 KJV).
A thought comes to mind.
Especially in the old days, soldiers would obey their commanders, knowing that they faced an almost certain death. Many soldiers were obedient, even "unto death". But if the soldier disobeyed an order to advance [even into the arms of certain death,] they knew that their lives would be forfeit anyway. And it was much better to die facing the enemy, than to die by the hand of your own nation. And for many, to be branded a coward was worse that death anyway... death was better than dishonor.
But worldly [or national] motivation is small in comparison to true Christian motivation. By a single word or a nod many of our old brethren and sisters could have denied the truth and saved their lives. By consenting to cast "a single grain of incense" onto an idolatrous altar, they could have saved themselves from terrible suffering. But multitudes refused to be unfaithful. They preferred to die with a clear conscience, rather than do something which would defile their conscience, and dishonor God. They stood for the truth under the most threatening circumstances. These were "obedient unto death."
So often we think that we would successfully face the "big" test, and offer our lives when it comes down to it... but how do we go with the "little" tests?... when our lives are not at risk, and it is only the risk of embarrassment, or non-acceptance that we feel? In a sense perhaps those "little" daily tests are the most important ones for us.
Referring to Phil 2:8, another thought explains this verse a bit more: Matthew 26:37-46. Yes Jesus was obedient to death for the best possible reason. Do any of us have the same motivation?
The hope that christ obedience gives us is that good will always prevail, and most importantly, if we keep our eyes fixed on jesus,and the word of God through our trials the devil will flee. We need to know our Bible,and we all need to strengthen our realationship with the creator, who will always sustain us to the very end.
yes " we are living on earth temporarily, as like job, we need to choose wisely your choice will brings to your final destination, so while living on earth , do what job did. God bless us all 'til he comes.
After reading this passage I started thinking… Job never became unfaithful to God he kept at it and stayed with him through the dark and tough times. Never thought about what his friends said or what his wife said. He never considered it at all he knew it was wrong so he completely rejected the thought of what they were saying because it was all WRONG.
At the last sentence of the passage ‘Of course, what Christ did was so much bigger, grander, and more consequential than what Job did. Nevertheless, the simple parallel remains.’ Reading through that we notice that as well as Job, Jesus was faithful no matter what happened. Jesus endured more hardship than what Job had by a long run. Instead of just Job just having Boils, friends, and a wife as a hardship in his life. Jesus himself the Son of God endured that pain by ten-fold. Jesus had people going for his throat for example the Pharisees hated Jesus for being more popular than them, doing things on the Sabbath that the pharisees forbid anyone to do, and better yet heal the sick and forgive sinners sins.
Jesus died on the cross because of us. Sinful people who didn’t have a choice of going to heaven just the choice of going to hell but because of Jesus… Yes Jesus dieing on the cross for us, the whole human race as we know it… We are now able to have what the people back then before Christ’s birth had. We now have hope. Hope that we will be risen again. Hope to see all of our loved ones. Hope for a better future...
Aidel, in a number of comments I see a lot of positive thoughts and promises that we look forward to receiving. Do we maintain those positive thoughts- especially in comparison to Job that was without blemish? When we review our own past history, what do many of us see? Is it a positive outlook? For me I see failure after failure. What I want to see is Faith and Forgiveness that is meaningful.
When a steady stream of imperfection is the thought for the day, it results in pessimism and defeat. Is my hope genuine, or just so much talk? We need to be as clear as possible about our individual Salvation. I pray for understanding and enlightenment daily. God bless us each one.
This lesson compares Job's trials with Adam and with Jesus
It compares Job's response to disaster with Paul who endured great hardship
It points out that there is more than Jesus in contention with Satan - we have a part to withstand those temptations to win along with Jesus.
Job's wife isn't mentioned any more by name, but she was recipient of the great blessings in the end - she must have been the mother of the 10 more kids and all the property doubled. Her motives could not have been evil, there was likely a lot of sympathy for Job seeing him suffer and helplessly wanting to relieve it any way she could.
Last point, it has been touched on -- Jesus won the battle with Satan not ONLY to save us, it was so He can destroy sin and the devils justly in the eyes of all the universe.