June 18 ▪ Day 169

Scripture Readings

Psalms 31:24
Job 33–34
Hebrews 9–10
Proverbs 19

Verse Focus (Psalms 31:24)

Be strong and take heart,
     all you who hope in the LORD.

Meditation

Psalms 31:24 says, in the NIV, “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.” Verses like this are always encouraging. Do not fear. Be strong. Be encouraged. The Bible tells us this again and again. The repetition tells us how important this is, but it’s also because we need to hear this again and again. I’m not sure if it’s because we so easily forget, or if it’s simply because we need to hear things multiple times in order for it to sink in.

As I looked at today’s verse focus in the ESV, I noticed something. In the ESV, the verse reads, “Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!” And I thought — what? — I thought it was those who hope in the LORD. This says, those who wait for the LORD. Sure enough, when I looked up the verse in the Hebrew transliteration, it turns out that the Hebrew verb here, yachal, means both of these things. Either hope or wait are acceptable translations into English. Isn’t that funny? I know these are related terms, but I wasn’t thinking of hoping in God and waiting on God as being the same thing. Now that I know they are the same thing, Biblically speaking at least, I have a richer understanding since all the ways I was thinking about waiting on God can now also be applied to all the ways that I understood hoping in God.

Today’s verse reminds me to take a deep breath and have courage for the things I need to do today. A migraine was threatening not too long ago, and my heart started to despair — what if I were not able to write? But my hope is in God, not in my ability to feel good or to be strong and healthy. So, deep breath. As the Scripture commands, “Be strong and take heart.” God is with me and gives me the grace I need. Today and every day.

Father God, thank you that you are the one who gives us the breath of life. May your Spirit encourage my heart this day. Thank you for your grace, which you pour out lavishly on us through Jesus Christ. In him, Amen.

Yesterday, Job concluded his defense and then Elihu began to speak. He first rebuked Job’s three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Today, in chapter 33, Elihu begins to rebuke Job. Elihu first identifies himself as a man just like Job. “I too was pinched off from a piece of clay,” he says in verse 6. He, like Job, has the breath of the Almighty in him. He also speaks from integrity and an upright heart. As a fellow human creature, Job should have no fear of Elihu.

Next, Elihu summarizes Job’s arguments. Job has said that he is clean and pure, having done no wrong. But Job charges that God has found fault with him and made him an enemy, shackling him. In verse 12, Elihu tells Job plainly, “Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you, for God is greater than man.” Although Elihu does not elaborate here, he expects Job to understand that God is so much greater, higher, purer, and holier than humankind. God is not petty; He does not turn people into His enemies. His ways are just. In Job’s pain and distress and lack of understanding, he has diminished the majesty of God.

Elihu continues to rebuke Job. He asks Job why he contends against God, complaining that God does not answer him. Elihu says that God does speak to man, in several different ways, although man may not be able to perceive what God is saying. He speaks to mankind in dreams and visions; God “opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings (v. 16).” God’s purpose is to discipline and humble mankind, protecting him from excessive pride or from taking the wrong path (v. 17). God also uses pain and ill health to rebuke humans. Affliction is a tool in the hand of a just God. Yet if there is a mediator — one to intercede for him — the person is spared and his health is renewed. The individual will pray; God will restore his righteousness to him.

Indeed, after such affliction and restoration, the person will declare, “I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved (v. 27).” Elihu states that God will do this two or even three times for a person to bring “his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life (v. 30).” Clearly, the purpose in all this affliction is that the individual may be filled “with the light of life.” The discipline is meant to refine the person’s character and bring him closer to God.

In chapter 34, Elihu addresses another of Job’s charges. Job had said, “I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice (v. 5).” Here, Elihu champions God’s justice. As he says in verse 10, “Far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.” Elihu speaks of how God rules nations and individuals without partiality; He understands and sees all things and knows what is right.

Indeed, God is the one who created the world and He is sovereign. If He were to withdraw His spirit and His breath, “all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust (v. 15).”

Elihu counsels Job that he should respond to affliction with humility. He suggests the prayer in verse 32, “Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I won’t do it again.” Job insists he is righteous and that God afflicts him for no reason. Elihu tells him that, rather, Job should understand that God is just and therefore Job should ask God to open his eyes to recognize the iniquity for which God is chastening him.

In addition to the sins that Job has failed to recognize (such as saying that it doesn’t profit a man to honor God [v. 9]), Elihu tells Job that he is rebelling against God. As the chapter ends, Elihu declares that Job should be tested to the limit “because his answers are like those of wicked men (v. 36).”

In Hebrews 9, the writer speaks in more detail about the difference between temple sacrifices and what Jesus as mediator of the new covenant does. In the earthly copy, there is a holy place and a most holy place. The priests have regular duties in the holy place; but the high priest only enters the most holy place once a year — and, as the writer points out, “never without blood (v. 7).” Indeed, as Scripture tells us in verse 22, “Under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

The sacrifices in the earthly temple are not “able to clear the conscience of the worshiper (v. 9);” they are external regulations that will only be in effect until the new order is established. When Jesus entered the most holy place in the heavenly realms “once for all time (v. 12),” he did so by his own blood. The writer of Hebrews asks, in verses 13 and 14, if the blood of goats, bulls, and calves was able to sanctify the flesh, “how much more will the blood of Christ…cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?”

Christ only needed to offer himself once, not repeatedly like the sacrifices in the earthly temple. The chapter concludes by saying, in verses 27 and 28, “Just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

Chapter 10 continues to expound on how Christ’s sacrifice is needed only one time for all. “By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (v. 14).” The writer quotes from Scripture to illustrate how Christ came to establish God’s will — but by doing so, he “takes away the first to establish the second (v. 9).”

Because of the completeness of Jesus’ sacrifice, the believers have full assurance of faith. We have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus. Since he is our high priest, the writer exhorts us to “draw near (v. 22).” Verses 23, 24, and 25 are all gems, highlighted many times. God is faithful. We should spur one another on to love and good deeds. And we should be careful not to neglect meeting together — failing to go to church can easily become a habit.

The writer of Hebrews warns the believers against deliberate sin. Do not “trample” on the Son of God and despise his mercy. As the writer speaks of judgment and “worse punishment (v. 29)” for those who profane the new covenant, it can be a bit frightening. We know that we continue to fail; we continue to sin — are we guilty? Are we deserving of this worse punishment? The answer is yes. We are not any more worthy of salvation now than we were when we first believed. Yet we rely on the unmerited grace of God and the completeness of Jesus’ sacrifice. I believe the fear that you might feel when you read this passage is merely one way that the Holy Spirit helps us to understand the grievousness of our sin and the price that Jesus paid to redeem us.

However, God does not want us living in fear of His judgment. “Therefore do not throw away your confidence,” says the writer in verse 35. He goes on to tell us in verse 36 that we simply need endurance. The writer assures us in verse 39, as the chapter closes, “We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”

Proverbs 19 gives us yet more of Solomon’s proverbs. There are warnings against lying. Exhortations to discipline. Cautions against laziness. Not to mention the social commentaries on poverty and wealth.

Today I noticed Proverbs 19:27. In the ESV, the verse says, “Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.” Or, as the CSB puts it, “If you stop listening to correction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.” As I read this verse, it was so clear to me — this is why it is so important to read Scripture daily. We must constantly renew our minds; we must hear the word of God regularly in order to keep from straying.

Verse 20 also talks about the power of listening. However, a devotional I read recently pointed out that “listening” isn’t a matter of hearing the Word, but of responding in obedience. Jesus illustrated the difference in Mark 4:12, saying, “They may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.”

Father God, help us to really listen and hear your Word. Keep us responding to your correction; help us to obey what you command. Drive your Word deep into our hearts and minds. Thank you so much for Christ’s sacrifice. Thank you for the new covenant and all the better promises we have inherited. May we persevere in faith. Thank you that we have Jesus as our Mediator and that we can draw near to your throne of grace with confidence. May you give us complete assurance in him. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.