God in pursuit

The Word for today: Job 42:7-17

(...continued from yesterday's post)

I had heard that the book of Job was a study in patience. Oh dear.

I had heard that the book of Job was about the question of why bad things happen to good people. Oh double dear.

I had heard that the book of Job was about repentance. I was getting closer.

Closer. That's where Job is at the end of the book. The book of Job is about relationship. The book of Job is about love.

I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.
Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.

Therefore...
Notice that Job repents after he enters into a new comprehension, a new relationship. We don't enter a new relationship because we repent, we repent because we have entered into a new relationship.

The ardent lover in scripture, the pursuer, is God. As our relationship with God deepens, it is God who initiates each new stage. God makes the first move:

We love him, because He first loved us (1).

The revolutionary truth of Christianity is this:
God doesn't save us because we're good. We're good because God saved us.

The revolutionary truth of the book of Job is the same principle:
God doesn't love Job because he repents. Job repents because God loves him.

It's His kindness that leads to repentance, we are taught in the New Testament (2).

Draw me, we will run after you (3), we read in the Song of Solomon. This is the expression of one who is in love with God, who desires a closer relationship with Him. But she realizes that we can't reach that state; we cannot attain to it because it is too high for us. So, "Draw me (first)--then we will run after You."

Consider:
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him (4).

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself (5).

God would move heaven and earth in pursuit of you. Why, He'd die on a cross, if that's what it took.

(1) 1 John 4:19; (2) Romans 2:4; (3) Song of Solomon 1:4; (4) John 6:44; (5) John 12:32