An Idiomatic Life
And Job died, an old man and full of days. Job 42:17 NASB
Full of days – What is the result of a life devoted to God? In Hebrew thought, it isn’t getting to heaven. It’s living out the full purposes of God’s design here on earth. In other words, it’s experiencing a life “full of days.” The Hebrew idiom, śābēaʿ yamim, is an expression of satisfaction. If we wanted to convert this idea into modern terms, we might say that Job lived a fully satisfied life. That itself is quite a statement. After all, he lost all of his first children. He experienced the sarcastic anger of his wife. He saw the true colors of his friends. And he suffered and struggled with God. Yet, in the end, the text tells us that he knew satisfaction. Can we say the same for ourselves?
We discovered that Job grew beyond the discipline of duty. He experienced the pliability of relationship. His faith was transformed from declaration to dependency. Drop by drop, he lived in harmony with the dangerous God. For this reason, Job helps us define trust.
Perhaps we think of trust as assurance (something Melanchthon suggested to Luther in the translation of Hebrew 11:1). Perhaps we think of it as confidence and reliance. But Job demonstrates that trust is fundamentally relational, and that means it is the choice to continue in fellowship in spite of ambiguous evidence. It’s not simply a response to another’s behavior. It is our decision to maintain the dialogue, continue the reciprocity and vouchsafe the continuity even when our observations and emotions point us in another direction. More than anything else, Job underscores the decision to believe.
God’s actions are not always obvious. In fact, there are times when God appears as a contradiction, an enigma, a dangerous encounter. But the end of Job’s career in concert with God is a statement that God does not fail. Satisfaction is God’s goal too. Lives well lived, full of purpose, devoted to things beyond our grasp is God’s engineering. John Piper is known for the statement, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” But perhaps Job asks us to alter this. God, too, will be satisfied when we are glorified with Him. How that occurs is the theme of Job’s account. From discipline to dependence is the transition from fulfillment to contentment.
Job ended with an idiom. “Full of days” is the declaration of a life spent on God’s behalf. Will that be your epitaph?
Topical Index: satisfaction, full of days, Job 42:17
“John Piper is known for the statement, ‘God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.’ But perhaps Job asks us to alter this. God, too, will be satisfied when we are glorified with Him.”
How are we to be glorified in Him and thus satisfy Him?
Well, I think this…..”The kingdom of Elohim YHWH is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Ruach HaKodesh”. I believe this can be rightly understood as sequential and progressive. We cannot know peace apart from first being righteous, and we cannot know joy without first knowing peace. So, we must always make being righteous through faith leading to obedience our premier quest. As we abide in this righteousness and persevere in obeying Him, we can then know peace. Knowing peace, we are then free to know His joy. Maybe we could say, Him being satisfied, content, joyful? His good pleasure?
Now, the only faith that pleases Him is the one that believes that He is AND He is a REWARDER of those who diligently seek Him. “DILIGENTLY SEEKING HIM” means persevering in trustingly obeying Him through the things we suffer…..UNTIL WE ARE REWARDED. If we stop persevering in trusting Him while we are suffering, by stopping obeying Him, including not confessing and repenting of our sin and returning to trustingly obeying Him when we have fallen short, then we will not receive the reward. Afterall, it is the testing and trying of our faith that perfects our faith, finishes our faith in Him who is the Author and Perfecter of our faith.
YHWH actually desires for us to be glorified in Him. This is His great desire. His desire in testing and trying us by afflicting us or forsaking us in our suffering is not merely to prove us illegitimate children. It is to bring us to maturity in our knowledge of, faith in, and likeness to Him;
“The Ruach Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, also heirs—heirs of God and joint-heirs with Messiah—if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” [Rom 8:16-17]
“With this in mind, we pray for you constantly, that our God may consider you worthy of the calling and fulfill with power every good desire and work of faith, so the name of our Lord Yeshua may be glorified in you, and you in Him, in keeping with the grace of our God and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.” [2Th 1:11-12]
Agreed.
As we trek through time, each segment, good or bad, is necessary for our
unique on-going transformation. Not a moment is wasted in God’s economy.
How well and how fast each of us responds to this earthly testing environment,
in part will determine our inevitable enjoying of “full days” in His peace, joy and
contentment. Steadfast obedience to the Father’s will was Yeshua’s daily way . . .
and ours. It’s the ONLY way.
No two life stories are alike. But every destination in Christ is the same.
Love can be mimicked. In fact, this is the only way people can get anywhere with others. The flesh has a bunch of ‘civilized’ rules that can function as mutual one-way encounters, thus enabling folks to hobble (or tiptoe) or stumble around each other, but this is not love. Real connection and real function consist of being plugged in not only to the Source of love, but to ourselves, others and our environment. This is a resonance equation more than it is a culinary recipe. People can (and do) learn how to act like love, but if you are not plugged in to the only Source of it, you are only going to be making “sounding brass and tinkling cymbal” noises, and, not only that, others are going to know! They do! We all have a built in love barometer; a tuning fork that picks up the love frequency. We know when others are actually reaching out and touching and when they are just patting themselves on the back, checking off a punch list, or manipulating us.
The flesh approaches God this way, too, because it is the only way it knows; its the closest it can get to Him. We cannot ‘hook up’ with God; He has to do it, but He will not compete with substitutes or counterfeits. We have to let those go, first. This is where disaster comes in. If He can only get our fingers off the counterfeit stuff; can waver our trust in the flesh responses, even a little, something new could happen. Don’t know why we cannot seem to lay it down of our own will; we can only become willing to trust Him to do that for us. And when it does, and He succeeds, no matter what it is, the flesh is going to interpret it as a very bad day!
“He will not compete with the substitute, our conterfits ” recalls to mind what John Elderage termed “the lesser lovers of our souls”. For Job to be satisfied and “full of years” surly his great trial tought him how to discern and walk toward where true satisfaction can be found. YHVH does not suffer long with adulterous hearts. He is a jelous to bring us into true love for he is the truest of lovers.
In truth, He IS longsuffering, and that’s part of our problem. Through believing the lie rather than the truth, we either think He is not slow to anger and strive in the flesh to please Him, living out of an ungodly fear, or we presume upon His mercy, fail to bear right conviction of our sin, His righteousness, and His judgement, and refuse to repent, and continue in our adulterous ways. We must receive a love of the truth and ask the Ruach HaKodesh to search our hearts and see if there is any wicked way in us. We must hunger and thirst for righteousness. Because, He is, indeed, a jealous Elohim, and a consuming fire.
I was once told that a full life is not achieving something but more about being true to your convictions. I read this also in the Job dialogue. The reality is that when we are true we often sacrifice that which we perceived to be worth holding onto so that we can find true harmony in life… Being a life alchemist…