Old things New Podcast

Reformed devotions from all of scripture.
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Regular, reformed Bible devotions from scripture to go deeper with Christ. "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” - Mt 15:32. rcbhpastor.substack.com

  1. 2d ago

    Lesson 8: Satan Accuses Us (Job 2:1-6).

    Prayer Reading: Job 2:1-6. Meditation Lies are Satan’s main tool, but accusations are key in his strategy. Satan falsely accuses the saints. As well as trying to get Job to speak lies about God, Satan tries to feed lies about Job to God, and to other people (we’ll see more of this as we continue on in the book of Job). Satan has already falsely accused Job of loving wealth. He did that back in chapter one, and he accused Job of having no genuine love for God. Moving on into chapter two, those lies have been proven wrong. But instead of admitting to lying, Satan decides to invent another lie! “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? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” 4. Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. 5. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” (Job 2:3-5). What Satan is saying here is that Job is basically treating God like a health-care policy. It’s another lie, as we’ll see. Satan says that Job will curse God to his face if he loses his health. Job does nothing of the sort. Be ye doers of the word… Now, there’s something important for us to see here. Satan is telling lies, fundamentally, about who Job is. He has accused Job of being a lover of money, a lover of good health, and, underneath it all, he’s accused Job basically of hating God. What does this teach us? It teaches us that one of the most significant things about the battle between lies and truth is the battle for self-identity. Through his three friends, Satan tries to convince Job of something that isn’t true. He tries to impute guilt to Job. He tries to warp Job’s perception of himself. Scripture tells us that God is our Father. Satan tries to tell us that God hates us, and that we should curse him. Most of the New Testament epistles spend multiple chapters—not telling us what to do, but reminding us of who we are in Christ. There’s a reason for that. Because we need to know, and be refreshed constantly in the knowledge of who we are in Christ. We are adopted sons and daughters of God. We are forgiven. We are cleansed. We are redeemed. Satan wants to disorient us with lies, have us believe things about God and ourselves that are not true. And so a significant aspect spiritual warfare is simply knowing and holding on to the truth of who we are in Christ, and what God has done to redeem us unto himself. SDG. Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

  2. Sep 24

    Lesson 7: Lies are Satan’s main tool in your suffering (Job 2:1-6).

    Prayer Reading: Job 2:1-6. Meditation In Job 1 we began to see that Satan has the power to inflict suffering on God’s people. We saw another angle on this in Ephesians 6, which says that, as Christians, we are engaged in a conflict with the forces of darkness. The Christian life is, in one sense, a spiritual struggle against these demonic forces. And in Job 2, we begin to gain some deeper insights into how this struggle works, and the causes of the suffering that come out of it. Now, I made the point previously that Hollywood seems to have a tendency, in horror movies—which I recommend you avoid—of portraying demonic forces by using images of monsters and deformities and the like. In other words, horror movies tend to portray demonic activity using physical manifestations and creepy imagery. When measured up to reality, however, we see that the power of the enemy isn’t about creepy monsters turning up in dark places. No. Horror movies, in that sense, are very misleading. The main power of Satan and his demons has always been lies. True, as we’ve seen in chapter one, Satan is permitted, at times, to use physical second causes as a means of attack. But, as Scripture says, he is the “father of lies” (Jn 8:44). It was a lie that undid Adam and Eve, and it is by lies that he continues to exercise dominion and slavery over the fallen human race. So let’s get this straight: lies are Satan’s main tool. It will be helpful to keep this in mind. We see this abundantly displayed in our passage: “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” (Job 2:1-2). Now pay attention to Satan’s response. It’s evasive and deceptive. He should have said, “I have been persecuting Job with malicious hatred, and my accusation against him—that he only loved you because he was blessed—was a lie.” That’s what he should have said. He says nothing of the sort. He’s attempting even to lie to God! So when you think of demonic activities, don’t think of creepy, mutated monsters in dark sewers. Think of lies. Life-destroying lies. When someone talks about the spiritual realm, what comes to mind? Well, one thing you should think about is this: Lies are a point where spiritual and physical reality intersects. It’s the same with truth, only truth is an intersection between God and the physical world. Lies are an intersection between Satan and the physical world. In other words, words themselves are actually incredibly potent. Words are spiritually powerful. As the book of Proverbs says, life and death—which are spiritual realities—are in the power of the tongue. So Satan uses lies to entice us to sin. Be ye doers of the word... Cling to the Truth. That’s our application for this passage. Now, to be clear: God is truth, which is why Satan’s lies have no effect on him whatsoever. Satan is evasive in verse two, as we’ve seen, and does not admit to his lies and failure. God, in verse 3, is not sucked in. He simply points out Satan’s lies and failure. “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? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” I love this! God simply calls out Satan on his lie. Of course, no lie of Satan could ever have any effect upon God! It’s simply not possible. For us, however, we must remember that we are vulnerable. You remember in Ephesians 6. What was the first thing in the armour of God that we need to put on? The belt of truth! In other words, the number one defence against Satan in spiritual warfare is truth. What is truth? As Jesus says, “Your word is truth.” To put on truth, therefore, means that we constantly gird our minds with the word of God. We live, not by bread, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We must cling to God’s word. Feed on God’s word. Rest on God’s word. Hide in God’s word. The moment we stop meditating on the word of God, we are vulnerable to Satan’s lies. Are you reading your Bible? Are you meditating on it? Without it, you will be like a lamb fighting a wolf. Satan will tear you apart. Job was anchored in the truth, and that’s why Satan failed with him. My brothers and sisters in Christ, cling to the truth of the Word of God. Buy the truth, and sell it not. Be in the Word, and let Christ’s Word dwell richly in you. SDG. Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Sep 17

    Lesson 6: Your Suffering is Bigger Than Your Story... (Job 1:13-22).

    Prayer Reading Job 1:13-22. Meditation Your suffering is bigger than your story. Satan’s aim in hurting Job was aimed at doing two things. First: he wanted to get him to deny God. Secondly: he wanted to get him to sin. If we respond to suffering by sinning, Satan gets a win. And if someone abandons their faith because of suffering, that’s Satan’s best game-plan come to life. But consider this: Whatever it is that you are suffering, there is something much bigger going on than just you. Responding wisely to suffering is not just about you getting healthy again. It’s not just about getting a happy marriage. It’s not just about getting enough money to live comfortably. There’s always so much more at stake. It’s about God displaying his sovereign love in your life. Job knew God’s mercy. And even in his suffering, God protected him. Satan couldn’t touch his life. Because Christ suffered all loss. Christ was utterly forsaken so that Job, and you, and me could be saved. Be ye doers of the word... A couple of applications in follow-up to this thought. First, we must learn increasingly to: Practice Gratitude and Worship through our suffering. Job responds to the greatest pain he’s ever known with worship: “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped” (Job 1:20). When you’re suffering, that is the exact time when you need to come to worship. Don’t forsake public worship, or private worship. When you get a cancer diagnosis... bless the name of the Lord. When your child dies, cry out and pour out your anguish and pain, and... bless the name of the Lord. When your marriage is full of pain... bless the name of the Lord. When the world ridicules or persecutes you: bless the name of the Lord. When your business falls apart: bless the name of the Lord. Practice gratitude and worship. The second application here is: study the sovereignty of God. We must have a robust theology of God’s sovereignty, and a robust theology of suffering in times when we are suffering. Job is able to respond so powerfully to his suffering because he understands God’s sovereignty. The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away, Job knows who’s calling the shots. Any Christian who doesn’t understand God’s sovereignty is a baby in the faith, and they will be poorly prepared for the day of grief. Have you studied the sovereignty of God? Have you come to terms with his almighty majesty? Have you understood that he is the potentate of time? The Creator of the rolling spheres? Believer, you must study the sovereignty of God. You must understand his majesty. Because when you do, fires and lightning and tornadoes will not move your faith. You will grieve. You will weep. You will suffer. But your feet will be firm, because you know who God is. And you know that your Redeemer lives. Study the sovereignty of God. Go and get a copy of The Sovereignty of God by A.W. Pink, and read that book—and read it well. We see, then, an introduction to suffering in the Christian life. When you suffer as a Christian, it may be physically similar to the common sufferings of all people. But our suffering is powerfully determined by the spiritual realm—both in terms of the movements of our enemy, but also by the sovereign decree of God. None of your suffering is meaningless. It’s all part of a grand and cosmic scheme, and it is one that God is directing for your good. The hatred of Satan will not have the final say, the love of God will. The mercies of Christ. In these things, by God’s grace, we will be victors in our suffering. SDG. Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Sep 3

    Lesson 5: Your Suffering is Guided by God’s Wisdom (Job 1:13-22).

    Prayer Reading Job 1:19-21. Meditation Our suffering is directed primarily by wisdom, not justice. That is ultimately true for believers, because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). It is true, that there is a connection between suffering and discipline for us, and – for that reason – God’s justice is at work. But discipline is not the only reason we may be suffering. It may be that God brings suffering to us to teach us something, to cause us to grow, or to glorify himself in some other way. Jesus warned the lame man at the pool of Bethesda after he healed him, “Go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” Wisdom is required to prayerfully and humbly respond to our suffering. When we suffer, we do need to consider whether there is some unrepented sin in our lives. However, it may also be that we suffer though innocent. That’s a key movement in Job. Chapter 1 takes great care to make sure that we see Job’s innocence. In fact, the key argument of Job’s three friends is that they think he’s guilty. They keep telling him that he’s suffering because he’s guilty of sin. It’s simply not true. Job is innocent. So... your suffering might be discipline—or it might not. Prayerfully consider either way, but remember above all that your suffering as a child of God is ultimately governed and directed by his wisdom. Chapter one makes it clear that God is not punishing Job. He is rather permitting suffering according to the wisdom of his own counsel. Be ye doers of the word... So then, when you suffer, remember this: It doesn’t matter what form the suffering takes, one thing is always true—the suffering is directly guided by God’s wisdom. Whatever the reason may be for your suffering – be it discipline, or growth, or something else – the one factor that is always present is the wisdom of God. Is that not an encouragement? Every single ounce of pain that you have ever experienced was divinely appointed, sovereignly chosen, and infallibly guided by the unfathomable and perfect wisdom of God. Your suffering is perfectly balanced in the great plan of God. Your suffering is perfectly directed by God, perfectly designed to effect his will. It is perfectly balanced to accomplish exactly what he wants. Your suffering is not meaningless. It is not pointless. And it is not ultimately a product of Satan’s hatred, but rather, ultimately directed, permitted, and designed by God’s love and care. SDG. Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

  5. Aug 20

    Lesson 4: Accept Your Suffering, Lament in Sorrow (Job 1:13-22).

    Prayer Reading Job 1:13-22 Meditation Not a single hair can fall from your head without the knowledge and permission of your Heavenly Father. Though Satan is indeed a mighty adversary—powerful beyond human comprehension—he is not supreme. Behind him, like an eternal and unshakable mountain, stands the Lord God Almighty, who reigns sovereign over all. Can a pebble be greater than a mountain? Can a cup of water be greater than the vast ocean? Can Satan overpower God? There is no comparison. The Lord reigns. He is robed in majesty, mightier than the thunder of great waters. He is the Ancient of Days. Yes, you have a powerful enemy set against you, and yes, he may be allowed to cause you great harm. But never forget: it is God who remains the true and ultimate mover. It is God who ordained Job’s suffering, and what God ordains is always right. So it is, and so it will be, for you. Every iota of suffering you endure has been divinely orchestrated by God himself. How much might you suffer? You could lose everything in this life. God does not promise to shield you from loss. He may take your family, your wealth, your health—just as he allowed Job to be stripped of everything. That in itself teaches us a hard but necessary truth: nothing we possess is truly ours to keep. Everything is from God. Job understood this. When all was taken from him, what did he say? “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job never saw the heavenly exchange between God and Satan. He wasn’t privy to the spiritual reasoning behind his pain. But he knew this one truth with certainty: it was the Lord who gave, and the Lord who took away. Everything you have is a gift from God—everything. You and I are not entitled to any of it. There is no room for saying, “This isn’t fair,” because in truth, fairness would bring divine judgment. If we were given what we truly deserve, we would stand condemned. So let us not grumble. Let us not speak as though God owes us something, as we are easily tempted to do at times. Instead, let’s give thanks. Every breath, every joy, every possession is an act of divine grace. Yes, we will suffer in this life—and perhaps suffer greatly. Nothing is guaranteed to be spared. Not your health, not your children, not your job, not your money. Nothing is off the table. God will give, and God will take away, as he pleases. And through it all, he remains good. He remains sovereign. He remains God. Be ye doers of the word... A couple of applications flowing out of this, first: Accept your suffering. We talked earlier about imitating Job. Here is another point of imitation: Job accepted his suffering. He did not sin, and he charged no wrong to God. On the worst day of his life, his integrity was intact. He accepted his suffering without hesitating. How are you responding to that thing that is hurting you so deeply at the moment? Do you respond with submission to God? Do you respond with trust? With worship? Second thing is: Pour out your grief to God. Job shaved his head and tore his robe. These were tokens of grief. In other words, he grieved—and he grieved deeply. It’s okay to grieve. It’s okay to respond to pain by crying. Fall down before God in your suffering. Tell him all about it. Pour out your soul to God, as Job did. Many of the 150 psalms in the Psalter are psalms of lament. If you are suffering, use those psalms to teach you how to grieve well. Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Aug 13

    Lesson 3: Watch & Pray Against Satan’s Attacks (Job 1:13-22).

    Prayer Reading: Job 1:13-22. Meditation In the third scene, it all unfolds: raiders kill his workers and steal his livestock, his barns and sheep are struck by lightning and burned to the ground, all his camels are stolen by another raiding party, his wealth crashes down to nothing in the space of a moment, and then a tornado rips into his house and kills all his children at once – seven sons and three daughters, all dead. Can you imagine if this happened to you? Let’s try and paint the picture. You’re out for a walk one day. You get a notification on your phone: your bank has just gone into receivership, and you open up your banking app to find that all of your money has evaporated. Your balance is at zero. In panic, you console yourself with the knowledge that you have a lot of stock in the stock market, and you can replenish your funds if you sell some shares. As you log on to your stock exchange app, you find that all your companies have all gone bust, and your shares have plummeted to zero. You’re really panicking now, so you call your wife. She picks up the phone, and she’s hysterical. The house has burned down, and all of your children were caught in the fire. They are all dead. You now have no money, all your possessions have burned, and the only thing you own is the clothes on your back. What would you do in that scenario? It’s hard to even process what that would be like, isn’t it? But remember: we need to be aware of the physical causes of our suffering, and – in this case – we see Satan is the instigator. That will the focus in this meditation. We see a couple of things about Satan’s devices here. Firstly, we see that Satan takes no holidays. Notice how relentless Satan’s attack is. It’s one thing after another. His malice is so great, that he would destroy everything in a moment if he could. If he had the power, he would take your money, burn your stuff, kill your family, and then kill you in an instant. Without hesitation. Such is the malice of our enemy. Be aware of this in your sufferings. If you have a bad day, he won’t give you a few days to recover. He’ll be on your back the same night if God allows it. He will always seek to press the advantage. This is why it’s so important to watch and pray, because your adversary the devil will not relax his relentless attempts to destroy and kill. Secondly, we see that Satan uses second causes. I don’t watch horror movies from Hollywood, but from clips I’ve seen, they like to give pictures to the supernatural. Again, I haven’t watched it, but in a Stephen King movie, for example, the demonic entity might be portrayed as some shape-shifting monster or some such. But Satan is a spiritual being, and we learn here in Job that he uses much more mundane and secondary causes to accomplish his ends. Somehow he influenced those raiders to attack and steal from Job’s flocks. He has the power to influence people’s thoughts, that’s why Jesus said to Peter at one point: “Get behind me, Satan.” Peter was under Satan’s influence at that point. And Satan uses disasters: storms and lightning. Later on he will use sickness to afflict Job. So consider this: when people inflict suffering on you, or some disaster is unfolding, be aware that these things may well be, in that moment, satanic instruments. Real world events are not disconnected from the spiritual realm. People talk about conspiracy theories sometimes, and I can’t say much about them. But I can say this: there is a powerful, global, spiritual conspiracy unfolding right now. There are dark forces, an organised system of evil beings, manipulating pieces on a global scale. This conspiracy is directed by a supernatural and malevolent intelligence, and most people are ignorant of it and in bondage to this evil cabal of demons. It is a conspiracy of epic proportions beyond any conspiracy known to man, and it is fueled by hatred and malice, and it is constantly working to destructive ends. It is the kingdom of darkness. We need to start seeing this unseen reality. As these disasters unfold in Job’s life, they are demonically orchestrated attacks. Be ye doers of the word... If you are a believer, you need to come to terms with this. Satan, or at least his underlings, have designs of harm for you. Be watchful. Be vigilant. Your enemy the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Watch and pray. This is why we’re instructed to pray for deliverance from the Evil One every single day in the Lord’s Prayer. Don’t presume things will tick along fine. At any time, seemingly random from our perspective, he might strike. Watch and pray every day. Look to the hills, from where your help comes, our help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Are you praying for deliverance from evil, temptation, and Satan every day? SDG. Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

  7. Aug 6

    Lesson 2: Become aware of the invisible causes of suffering (Job 1:6-12).

    Prayer Reading: Job 1:6-12. Meditation What have you suffered in your life? Sickness? Injury? Family grief? Physical or spiritual harm at the hands of another person? We tend to think about these injuries in two basic ways. On the one hand we may think of them in terms of bodily harm (e.g. you carry a back injury). On the other hand, we may think about them in terms of human agency (e.g. someone said something very hurtful to you, or abused you in some way). What we don’t tend to give much thought to at all is that there is a powerful connection between the sufferings of your life and the unseen spiritual realm around you (and within you). As the narrative of Job continues, having met Job in verses one through five, a second scene begins to unfold in verses six through twelve, and the scene at this point completely changes. We’re no longer in the land of Uz meeting with Job, we’re in a whole different world. We’re in the heavenly throne room of God himself. There is clearly a powerful connection between our suffering and the unseen realm. This passage lays out a series of insights into the nature of that connection. Let’s explore those connections. First, there is the fact of the connection itself. The spiritual realm certainly does effect our suffering. The events that unfold in these verses completely determine the direction of the whole Book of Job. If God had told Satan that Job was untouchable, none of the suffering would have happened. If Satan didn’t have such hatred, none of the suffering would have happened. Job’s suffering had a direct cause and effect relationship to the actions of both God and Satan. So may yours. Secondly, Satan targets Christians for suffering. Both the churches of Smyrna and Pergamum in Revelation 2 supply New Covenant case studies of the fact of Satanic persecution, and the suffering it entails. Job is a clear example of this as well. Job looses his house, property, family members, all at the hands of one key, demonic mover behind the calamity: Satan. You had better believe that Satan and the fallen angels are constantly militating against the saints – including you. Absolutely that is true. The forces of darkness are militating against your family, your local church, your pastor, and your elders. C.S.Lewis’ book “The Screwtape Letters” is an imaginative but insightful meditation on this theme – well worth reading. Countering this, consider thirdly that: Satan’s reach us under control. Satan is clearly powerful, he can cause natural disasters for example, and he can influence and control the actions of men, but he too is subject to God. He is an ancient, supernatural, malevolent being many times the superior of us in power, intelligence, and craftiness. But lest you be discouraged by your own weakness in comparison to Satan, remember this also: Satan is not the only spiritual power that exists, and he is certainly not the most powerful. It is very clear in this scene of the heavenly courtroom: God is calling the shots. Satan is subject to God. This is not an exchange between equals. So, yes, Satan has the capacity to effect suffering in the life of believers, but he is a pit bull terrier dog on a leash, so to speak. He can go no further than God gives him leave. In addition to this, and the New Testament makes this very clear, since calvary, since Christ’s death and resurrection, Satan’s power has been diminished even further. He has been cast down! He has received a deadly, skull-shattering blow at the cross. In that sense, Satan has less power over us today than what he did in Job’s day. Give thanks for that. And yet remember – he is powerful, and he is full of deadly malice. Here is a fourth observation: God proves the faith of his servants. Job’s suffering in chapter one is not discipline for his sin. On the contrary, Job is presented as entirely innocent. Satan has a pernicious part to play in your suffering, but know this: God’s sovereign decree will always be the ultimate factor determining what suffering God does and does not permit in your life. That is a hard reality to come to terms with, and it is one which the Book of Job explores at great length, but we begin with the basic fact of its reality. God is sovereign over your suffering. Naturally we may ask: Why? Why does God permit us to suffer? This is the very question that the entire Book of Job wrestles with. Satan’s objection when God praises Job is very clear. God says: “Have you considered my servant Job?” Satan responds, effectively, by saying: “Job doesn’t really have faith, he doesn’t really love you God. The only reason Job is so good, is because you have protected and blessed him. If you take that away, Job will fall apart.” That’s the accusation of Satan. God then permits Satan to remove those blessings. Why? One of the reasons is to prove Satan wrong, and to prove Job’s faith is real. You may suffer in your life. It may just be that God allows that suffering to display the reality of your faith. Have you ever considered that before? James spoke about this: “Consider it all joy brothers, when you face trials, knowing that the testing of your faith works endurance.” One of the reasons God allows you to suffer is to strengthen your faith. Remember that next time you’re suffering. Don’t wallow in the misery. Lament, by all means, but recall to mind: God is using this trial to strengthen my faith and thus display his glory – and that is the fifth thing. God is exalted in our suffering. Suffering is not pointless or meaningless. We don’t live in a universe that is blind, indifferent, and pitiless. No, as you suffer, and as you hold fast to Christ in your suffering, God is being and will be exalted. Through Job’s suffering, God has gotten to himself glory incomprehensible. Through Job, and through every saint in history who was edified and helped by Job’s story, God will be exalted. Your suffering as a Christian is no exception. Think of your suffering like this: your pain is the price-tag of God’s glory. When we complain, when we murmur, or say: “That’s not fair!” What we’re actually saying is: “God’s glory is not worth it.” We’re saying: “God doesn’t deserve to be glorified at the expense of my suffering.” We must remember, however, that God did not spare himself this suffering. Indeed, he suffered in infinite measure, and he calls us to enter into a small portion of the same. This is why complaining is such a great evil. So start to learn seeing the spiritual dimension to your suffering. There is a powerful connection between our suffering and the spiritual realm, and just as heaven is above earth and superior to earth, so the spiritual realm is far more influential in our suffering than we care to realise – more influential than the physical realm. We live in a culture of 21st century materialists, so this is hard to get our head around, but it is something that we need to see more clearly. Be ye doers of the word… Job had no idea about that exchange between God and Satan. He was completely unaware that it was taking place. For all Job knows, things are going well, and then a series of catastrophes randomly begins to unfold in his life, and he’s left with a thousand questions and unimaginable pain. Now there are a lot of things we don’t know about what goes on in the spiritual realm, but we do know this: there is a powerful connection between our suffering and the spiritual realm. Always. At the very least, recall this to mind in your times of suffering. There is always more going on than meets the eye. And let this awareness drive you to seek the Lord in prayer. We are instructed daily to pray for deliverance from the evil one. Pray regularly for a more acute awareness of the relationship between the spiritual realm and suffering. SDG. Prayer of Confession & Consecration Heavenly Father, I confess, I have neglected to pray daily for deliverance from Satan. Please forgive me for my spiritual ignorance and arrogance, to suppose that I could live well without relying on your help and protection. Please help me to turn from this prayerless attitude, and to pray daily for your help and deliverance. Please help me to engage in the spiritual warfare that is all around me, and militates against me. Please lead me not into temptation this day, but deliver me from the evil one. I pray also for my fellow believers in my local church, please protect them, and teach them to fight the good fight of faith, watching and praying daily against the spiritual dangers that surround them. I thank you that I have the victory, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Jul 30

    Lesson 1: Learn to accept the reality of suffering (Job 1:1-5):

    Pray Reading: Job 1:1-5. Meditation As little children learn to talk, there are a few common phrases and words that they typically say. Among the most well known are: “Mummy”; “Daddy”; “No”; “I want…”; and on it goes. If you have boys, “Truck” or “car” seem pretty typical, and they usually make a valiant attempt at saying “dinosaur” pretty early on (I’m not quite sure what little girls say – I grew up with three brothers and I have four sons!). There is one other popular phrase that comes along pretty early on as well: “It’s not fair.” It’s amazing how quickly children develop a sense of justice, and if one of their siblings takes something belonging to them or perhaps gets something they want, those words tend to come out pretty regularly: “It’s not fair!” We can see this in children easily enough, but I wonder if we as adults are not also guilty of this kind of thing too. It might not look the same, we don’t generally whine and complain by saying: “It’s not fair.” It will probably look more sophisticated than that, but essentially that is what’s going on. We respond to difficult things we don’t like in a way that communicates: that’s not fair. Maybe we complain, or criticise, or get moody, or argue. Sometimes it’s just that something comes up in our day, and the inner thought crosses our mind: “Great! This is the last thing I need.” The Book of Job has a message for us in such times as this. “Yes”, God says, “This is exactly what you need.” There are reasons why God is letting your difficulty happen, and the Book of Job is custom designed to help us come to terms with this reality. As we scan through this book, we quickly see that most of it consists of dialogue between Job and his friends. We’ll get to that later, because the first thing we need to do is focus on Chapter 1. This chapter is a kind of a key to the whole book, and it sets out the context for everything else. The first lesson that the Book of Job brings to us is that we must come to terms with the reality of Christian suffering. Suffering, in one sense, is a common human experience. We live in a fallen world, and we all share in the painful consequences of sin. However, there are some unique dimensions to suffering when it comes to the experience of a Christian. In particular, faith fundamentally changes the dynamic when it comes to suffering. Scripture says that without faith it’s impossible to please God. When a person believes in and trusts in God, it changes everything about their lives, including how they view and experience suffering. For the unbeliever, every suffering is a foretaste of the coming judgment of their sins. For the believer, they are no longer under judgment, and suffering may be seen by faith to be – not judgment – but loving discipline, correction, or instruction. There may be other divine purposes behind our suffering as well. The narrative of verses 1-5 in chapter one begin by showing us that Job was a model Christian. Of course Job lived in the days of the Old Covenant, and so – strictly speaking – he wasn’t a “Christian”. He was, however, very clearly a man of God and a man of faith. Our text takes great pains to make that point. Job wasn’t just an ordinary Christian, he was exemplary. In his day, he was the greatest, most mature, most godly man on the face of the planet. Imagine if this was God’s testimony about you? “There is no one like him on the earth.” God actually said that about Job! This is an incredibly godly man. Be ye doers of the word... Consider the superiority of Job. God invites Satan and the heavenly host to do just this. Consider Job in comparison to yourself. It’s so easy to form an opinion and judgment about the actions of God’s people recorded in scripture. Our summary of Job might be: “Job? Job got arrogant against God, and God put him in his place!” But consider this: if you lost all your wealth and family members in a day, would you kneel down and worship at the end of that day? Job did. One of the reasons why God used Job as a key character in this story was to show us that not even the very best of saints is beyond suffering. If God is not willing to spare righteous, blameless Job from suffering, the best Christian on the face of the earth, do you really think God would spare us from suffering? Did he spare even Christ, the sinless Son of God, from suffering? Job’s superiority and innocence is, in a sense, intended to show us that every believer will be subject to divinely ordained times of suffering. We must accept the reality of suffering. We are not better than Job, even though we have many new covenantal advantages over him. We ought not to think of ourselves as being above suffering, and we must arm our minds with this knowledge. Accept the reality of suffering, it will be a feature of your life. That’s part of our application in this first lesson, we need to make a mind-shift so that we are in a place where we accept the reality of suffering in our lives. Job confronts us with this reality on every page. But where to from here? As we approach the text of Job itself, we also ought to arm ourselves with another tactical approach to our suffering, that being: we must imitate Job. When we read biblical narratives, one of the things we ought to do, according to 1 Corinthians 10, is to use the characters of scripture as reflections for ourselves. The Apostle James does this specifically with Job himself: “Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (James 5:11). As we read Job, therefore, we consider Job as a pattern of patience for ourselves. We ought to look at Job, as in a mirror, and consider ourselves in light of his responses to suffering. Would God actually say of us: “Consider my servant (insert your name here), there is no one like him/her on the face of the earth?” Would God say such a thing of me? Would it be desirable that he should commend us in that way? Imitate and learn from Job. In our passage we see that he feared God, and that he turned from evil. Do we know what it means to fear God? (start by reading Bunyan’s short volume “The Fear of God”, it will help with this). Job turned from evil. Consider when you have are tempted to do evil, do you turn from temptation? Job continually prayed for his children… do you? Do you pray for the children of the church? Do you pray continually? Finally, of course, Job’s sacrificial offerings are a gospel foreshadow. Job understood that his sins, and the sins of his children, would need to be covered and atoned for by sacrifice, much as Abel understood the same thing. The full gospel has now come to us, and we understand that this sacrifice is Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Job is a gospel man, he deals with his sins by confession, repentance, and seeking God’s mercy. That is exactly what we ought to do also – in times of suffering and in times when things are well. These are fruitful lines of thought, and as we continue on in this book, lesson by lesson, we will learn how to suffer wisely. We will be seeking to wisely discern which things in Job’s life are worthy of imitation – there are a good many of them. SDG. Prayer of Confession & Consecration Dear Lord God, thank you that – in your wisdom – you have ordained suffering for each one of your people. Thank you that you have good purposes in allowing us to suffer. Thank you that you are altogether wise and wonderful in all your works. Please help me to truly and meekly accept the reality of my suffering, trusting in you that all will be well. Please forgive me for the occasions on which I have responded sinfully to my suffering, and teach me to respond wisely to suffering. May you teach these lessons also to your people in my local church, that we may be a church that is humble, meek, and submissive to you in our suffering. In Jesus’ name I pray these things, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

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Regular, reformed Bible devotions from scripture to go deeper with Christ. "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” - Mt 15:32. rcbhpastor.substack.com

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  • Creator
    Reformed devotions from all of scripture.
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    165
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Isaac
  • Show Website
    Old things New Podcast