Title: Maturity of Faith (Job 42:1-6)
Contents
Now is the time to shift our focus from growth to maturity. Growth stops after a certain period, and then maturation is required. Usually, you can see the growth of plants through bamboo nodes and tree rings, and you can also see maturity through ripening of fruits and young ears. If growth is a process, then maturation is a result, so growth must lead to maturation.
Growth is essential because it is a characteristic of living things, and if there is no result of maturation, growth itself is meaningless. For example, rice has grown well and there are ears of rice, but if it ends with that, it is of no use. Imagine a stiff, unripe ear of rice. Ears of rice that have grown but are not mature will eventually dry out. Jesus also cursed a fig tree that had no fruit. “When he saw a fig tree by the roadside, he went to it, and found nothing but leaves, and said to the tree, “You will bear no fruit from now on forever.” And immediately the fig tree withered.” (Matthew 21:19)
Today we are going to take a look at the image of a mature believer. The main character is Job. This text depicts the last scene of the book of Job, which spans 42 chapters. The maturity of faith is well expressed in these words.
true repentance
Looking at the structure of the book of Job, chapters 1 and 2 deal with the ‘disaster that fell upon Job’, and chapters 3 through 37 continue the ‘workshop about the disaster that Job suffered’ between Job and his friends. Finally, in chapters 39 to 42, ‘God’s Word and Job’s answer’ appear twice as a solution to suffering and conflicts.
First of all, in chapter 38, when God emphasized that 'the phenomena of the natural world, which have been taken for granted, will inevitably fall into disorder and chaos without God's special providence and consideration' I'm not going to say anything,' he covered his mouth. It was not that he shut his mouth in admiration for God's power, but that he did not respond as a sign of resentment and dissatisfaction at God's failure to acknowledge his righteousness.
Then, when God spoke about human limitations through hippopotamus and crocodiles (chapters 40-41), Job finally yielded to God. The confession, “Therefore, I withdraw myself, and I repent in dust and ashes” (verse 6) means that he admits that his foolish words and actions were wrong. In the meantime, I repented of my mistake by not realizing God's power and wisdom, making hasty judgments and speaking carelessly. It really shows that he has changed.
Specifically, Job repented of not realizing the power of God. He confesses, “I know that nothing is impossible with the Lord, and that no plan is impossible to accomplish” (verse 2). It means realizing and acknowledging that the God who not only created Behemoth (hippopotamus) and Leviathan (crocodile), but also governs them at will, did everything perfectly with omnipotence and justice. Next, he confessed that he accepted by faith, clearly realizing the fact that God surely accomplishes His purpose and fully accomplishes His plan.
He also repented of the fact that he had neglected God's providence and advice by hasty judgment and misunderstanding of facts that he did not realize or knew due to his ignorance. In the meantime, Job was arguing for his own righteousness before God. He downgraded God to his own pleading state. They doubted God's rule and justice. When his wishes did not go his way, he wished to die on his own. He blamed and criticized his friends who urged them to repent. It means repenting of all these things.
So are we. Just like the saying that ignorance means bravery, we need to repent of our judgments and reckless remarks without knowing it properly. The deeper your faith, the more humble you become because ‘the more you know God, the more you realize your ignorance and incompetence’. Job realized that what God was doing was amazing. Therefore, he acknowledged that it was truly shameful to have a conversation with his friends, whom he had talked about without knowing about the pain he had suffered.
We need this attitude too. In the meantime, we must repent and acknowledge that there have been many times when we have disobeyed the providence of God with ignorant words and have spoken words we did not know well. A mature person is the person who realizes that the more you know the Almighty and righteous God, the more humble you become.
From Hearing to Enlightenment
Repentant Job continued, “I tell you, you hear, and I will inquire of you; Lord, let me know; of you I have heard only with the ear” (verses 4-5). This means that Job has remained only in the faith he heard about God with his ears. As we know, he was known as a righteous man, and it is shocking for Job to make such a confession.
So are we. Even if the relationship of faith is deep, that faith may be poor. Even those who serve zealously in important positions in the Church are immature in their faith. There are even those who read and listen to the Word with an attitude of trying to rationalize their thoughts and arguments through the Word. Everyone is in a state of hearing about God only by ear.
It means that Job, who had only heard with his ears, realized the meaning of his suffering. When he first realized that hardships are included in God's providence, that human conflicts over God's sovereignty can only be resolved through obedience, and that there are clear limits to man's knowledge of God and righteous actions, Job's faith begins to grow. I was able to mature one step further.
You must not be a person who challenges the legitimate authority established by God with shallow knowledge of faith, and is rebellious or consistent with excuses even toward God. Such a person is also a person who stays at the level of listening to the Word. Now we have to go to the stage of full realization. As Job himself confessed, we must not be foolish to speak of things that we do not understand, or things that are difficult to comprehend and difficult to comprehend.
There is a saying called “Wu Yi Dokkyung” (牛耳讀 ). Literally, even cattle can hear the word of God, but no matter how much they hear it, they cannot understand it. It is easy to misunderstand Christianity as having nothing to do with enlightenment and just believing. For salvation, it is enough to believe in Jesus Christ. But after that, for the growth and maturity of faith, the knowledge of Christ must become more abundant. That is the meaning of Paul's words, "We will all become one in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, to the point of being perfect, to the stature of the stature of the stature of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).
Jesus also emphasized the importance of enlightenment by telling parables. He warned, “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and takes away what has been sown in their heart” (Matthew 13:19). Therefore, we need to mature our faith from the stage of only listening to the stage of enlightenment.
those who see the Lord
The Messiah began with the words, 'I will make you hostile to the woman, and your descendants to her seed and enemies; and the offspring of a woman shall bruise you in the head, and you shall bruise her in the heel' (Genesis 3:15). Through Noah's ark, the revelation about the Passover Lamb gradually developed. At first, the revelation of God, which seemed to have been obscured by a hazy mist, became more and more clear, and Jesus, the Messiah, finally came to this world. Paul refers to this fact, saying, “Now it is as dim as a mirror, but then I will see face to face; now I know in part, then I will know fully, as the Lord has known me” (1 Corinthians 13:12). said.
We too must go to the mature stage where we can now see the Lord with our own eyes, which we have only heard of. “Seeing the Lord with your own eyes” does not mean that you see God with your own eyes, but that you experience the presence of God. It means that Job's spiritual eyes were opened through direct conversation with God, and he came to know anew about God's great sovereignty and wonderful providence. In the meantime, the faith he had heard was sublimated into the faith of experience, and as a result, all the doubts about God surrounding Job disappeared in an instant.
As we see in the verse, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (John 1:1). If you realize it, that person is a person who sees God directly. We must seek, meet, and hear God's voice in the Word. That is why a life of faith centered on the Word is important.
Also, those who experience God's presence will have a different attitude to worship. We can offer true worship before God. A typical example of a person who does not worship properly is drowsiness in the past and present. And in the past, we exchanged handwriting with the person next to us, but these days, many people play pranks on their smartphones. Please keep in mind that those who see God with their own eyes, that is, those who have experienced the presence of God, must first of all worship properly.
As 1 Corinthians 13:11 says, “When we were young, we spoke like a child, we understood like a child, we thought like a child. should change to
Job sat among the dust and ashes, mourning the disaster that had come upon him, questioning God and complaining with harsh words, but now he has experienced God and has come to discover his ignorant sin with a new realization. It was a completely different attitude in a situation where on the surface nothing had changed. This is the maturity of faith.
If you go to Geoje Island, there is Mongdol Beach. Other beaches have white sandy beaches, but Mongdol Beach is full of small, round, smooth Mongdol instead of sand. The raging waves of the sea changed rough and sharp rocks into beautiful and smooth shapes. The confession of Job that we have looked at today is like a stone polished as smooth as a stone. Job quietly laid down the complaints and questions he had constantly raised through the hardships that came to him before the great God. “I was ignorant.” There was nothing left to say but one word. God is doing a similar thing for each of us today. It is meaningless to end with only a momentary impression. You should not stay only in the stage of listening and enlightenment. I hope that you will achieve inner change and spiritual maturity like Job.