Title: For a new start
Contents
for a new start
(Job 42:1-10)
Ladies and gentlemen, Nelson Mandela, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, was an outstanding human rights activist who ended the black and white racism policy in South Africa, which was a British colony. In 1963, at the age of 44, he was sentenced to life in prison and spent 27 years in prison. He secretly led the people in prison until his release on February 11, 1990 at the age of 72.
When he became president through democratic elections and took office on May 4, 1994, the world worried about the future of South Africa.
However, Mandela did not inflict any political retaliation, and pursued a politics of tolerance and reconciliation for black and white harmony. It is part of his inaugural address, contributing to creating a country where all people can live in peace under democratic rule through dialogue and negotiations with the leaders of the white regime instead of the revolution.
“The time has come to heal the wounds of all of us.
The time has come to build bridges to fill the spaces that separate us.
The time has come for us to make a fresh start.”
And his inaugural address was followed by prayer.
“May there be justice for all of us. May there be peace for all of us.
May there be work, food, water and salt for all of us.
Help us all to realize that each of us has already been set free in body and soul.”
When they tried to put an end to 350 years of racial discrimination against white people and start a new country, when they practiced forgiveness, reconciliation, and tolerance for reconciliation instead of anger and retaliation, a new world was opened to them.
The text we read is what God said to Job and his three friends.
Job was a powerful man who was praised by God as the “righteous man of the East.”
A disaster that came unexpectedly from one day onwards caused great suffering to him. He lost all his wealth in one day. Ten children who were good and righteous also died at once in a sudden accident.
To make matters worse, the bruises all over his body were unbearably painful, and even his wife turned against him and left his side.
At that time, when he heard the news of Job's suffering, there were three friends who came from afar to comfort him.
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
They did not recognize Job, who was so miserable.
They cried aloud by Job's side, tore their clothes, and were heartbroken, unable to speak a word for a week.
After a week, I started to open my mouth. However, their words were more of advice and reproof than comfort. “Is there anyone who has perished without sin? Repent quickly,” the three friends urged in turn.
The contents are recorded in 27 chapters from chapters 4 to 31. The sum of the words of the three friends is 211 verses, but Job's objection is 457 verses.
After the argument was over, God finally appeared to Job.
Today's reading is the change of Job after meeting God.
1. It was repentance.
The God he met in the process of suffering made a big difference in Job's faith, and that God was different from the God he had experienced before he suffered.
42:5 “What kind of person the Lord is, I have heard only with my ears. But now I see the Lord with my own eyes.” The God he saw with his eyes was an almighty and perfect God.
42:2 “Now I know that there is nothing that the Lord cannot do. “I have come to understand that the Lord's plans are always fulfilled.” Dissatisfaction erupted from moment to moment, and it was because he did not know why he had to suffer so harshly and did not know the God who was driving him to this point.
However, all misunderstandings about God were resolved through the God I met through suffering.
How much you love yourself! Why did you lead yourself to suffering! Only after realizing the great and wonderful providence of God did I repent like this.
42:3 “I am the one who dared to obscure the will of the Lord without knowing it well. Without realizing it, I spoke carelessly. As far as I know, it was very strange.”
What we learn from this verse is that repentance is possible only after receiving grace.
To live serving God means to live in repentance.
We do not know how many sins we commit in our lives.
If you sin and do not know God rightly, you can live in the world knowing that you are righteous.
In the presence of God who has met us minute by minute through suffering throughout the year, I hope that you and I will now repent like Job.
2. Forgiveness.
Job 42:7,8 says, “After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: ‘I was angry with you and your two friends when you talked about me. Because I did not speak right like my servant Job. So now prepare seven bulls and seven rams, and bring them to my servant Job, and offer burnt offerings so that you may be forgiven. If my servant Job asks for forgiveness for you, I will grant his prayer. When you talk about me, like my servant Job, you have not spoken rightly, you have spoken foolishly, but I will not repay you.”
There is a lesson about forgiveness that we are reminded of by this verse. Usually, forgiveness is how the person who has been hurt forgives the person who has hurt him.
Forgiveness is not easy, but one thing to be clear about is that if I do not forgive him in my heart anyway, the problem is not the person, it is me.
Therefore, to forgive a person forgives him not for him, but for me.
If you do not forgive, you cannot escape the pain of the heart, and negative emotions that cannot be forgiven can cause sickness in your body. Hatred, anger, hatred, and cursing are like poison. If you hold them in your heart, you will suffer damage.
How many times must Peter forgive the sins of the people on one day? The Lord's answer was:
“If he sins against you seven times a day and he comes back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ then forgive me.”
Forgiveness has the amazing power to change people.
Jesus taught us to pray like this in Matthew 6:12.
“Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
Job's friends harass Job by beating him with the stick called 'truth', but Job did not understand at all and his friends who urged repentance resented him, and they argued for a long time without making any concessions.
But now God told Job to pray for forgiveness for his friends and promised to hear them.
The important thing is that loving and forgiving opens the door to my prayers.
1 Peter 3:7 “Husbands, in the same way, you too must live with your wife, understanding that your wife is a weaker vessel than you as a woman. And know and respect them as those who will also inherit the grace of life. That way your prayers will not be blocked.” There are times when prayer is blocked, but if you do not forgive, the door of prayer will open. The gates of heaven will open.
To open up a right relationship with God is to forgive people in order to open up prayer.
In this yard as the year goes by, there are things that we should not forget and do.
Forgive yourself first, even if you do not need to go to the other person. Release the core of your mind. Do it as Jesus forgave us.
3. It is the beginning of recovery and blessing.
It is Job 42:10. “After Job had prayed to the Lord to forgive his friends, the Lord restored Job's wealth, twice as much as all that Job had before.”
These words are very precious. It means that God was willing to accept Job, who prayed for forgiveness and blessing his friends. What really matters is what happened right after that.
It is the beginning of restoration and blessing in Job's life.
Grace and blessings were given twice as much as Job's condition before suffering.
In 1 Samuel 1 and 2 of the Old Testament, we see the process of Hannah giving birth to a son, Samuel.
Her husband, Elkanah, had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah.
Peninnah bore children well, but Hannah was childless.
Therefore, there was envy, jealousy, and hatred for Peninnah in Hannah's heart.
Peninnah had children, but he had distrust and distrust of God.
I hated myself for not being able to have even one child.
In such a state, Hannah went to God and continued to pray earnestly.
While praying, something amazing happened. It was because he had a lot of resentment and wrath in his heart.
Because of Peninnah's wrath, we wept, wept, wept, wept, we prayed.
After this prayer, all the resentment and anger in Hannah's heart melted like snow.
It was then that God gave Samuel as a gift. The son became the national ruler of Israel.
God's blessings do not come to the heart of anger.
Just because a new day has dawned does not mean that a new history will begin.
Moving to a new place does not mean starting a new life.
When we truly forgive people and move forward, a new door of God's blessing will be opened.
Today we are spending the last day of the year before the Lord.
A new year is coming.
I bless all of you that the new year is the beginning of true blessings. Amen.