Holy, Holy, Holy
In the course of our seminar at 2020 on Wednesday on Hebrews 12 we looked at some reactions different people in the Bible had when they encountered God face to face, I think they ar
e incredibly humbling and challenges my thoughts on how Holy God is and how sinful I am. Let me tell you about the one that struck me the most.
When we are introduced to Job in the Bible we are introduced to a man who, on all earthly accounts, was very saintly:
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. Job 1:1
Even God Himself gives Job His endorsement:
And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Job 1:8
By all accounts Job was a very godly man. But after all the trials and testing that Job goes through, he encounters God… for real. Listen to this godly man’s response:
”I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5-6
This man, who by earthly standards was a very godly man, even by God’s standards he was a good man, found that when he encountered God face to face he despised himself because of his sinfulness. Despise is such a strong word – so strong must the feeling of self loathing have been in the presence of the Holy God.
So often I find that I casually come to God with all my requests and wants – all too often with reluctant repentance or at least sometimes a feeling that what I have done isn’t really that bad. I pray that this feeling of despising myself because of my sin would become more real to me. I pray not so that I may wallow in self pity but so that I may marvel at the amazing wonder of the Cross of Christ more and more and be reminded of how God’s Holy anger must be appeased, and how it was so wonderfully. Therefore God now views ME as righteous, because I am clothed in the Lord Jesus (2 Cor 5:21). Would this help me to hate sin and to love Jesus.
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