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Scripture Reading: Heb. 4:14-16
Few Bible readers understand the book of Job. Job was written from the standpoint of human adversities. The book of Job was written on the human level, but it also reveals God’s intention for man in his adversities. At the end of the book of Job God comes in and says that all the words spoken by Job and his three friends were words without knowledge. Nevertheless, their words are frequently quoted by Christians.
For example, Job 22:21-28 often is quoted: “Be well disposed to Him and at peace with Him; / By such, good will come upon you. / Receive instruction from His mouth, / And lay up His words in your heart. / If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up. / If you put injustice far away from your tents, / And place your gold nuggets in the dust / And your gold of Ophir in the stones of the brooks, / Then the Almighty will be your gold nuggets / And precious silver to you. / For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, / And you will lift up your countenance to God. / You will pray to Him, and He will hear you; / And you will repay your vows. / You will also decree something, and it will be established for you; / And light will shine on your ways.” This was spoken by Eliphaz the Temanite. Job responded to these words and said, “Today also my complaint is bitter; / My stroke is heavy because of my groaning. / Oh that I knew where I might find Him, / That I might come to His seat! / I would present my cause in order before Him, / And I would fill my mouth with arguments” (23:2-4).
Many people consider the portion spoken by Eliphaz to be very good, and they like to quote it. However, they do not realize that at the end of the book of Job God judged the words spoken by Job and his three friends. God said that their words darkened His counsel, His will, and that their words were without knowledge (38:1-2).
Some may ask what is God’s will and why does God regard the words that we consider to be wonderful as words without knowledge that darken His will? This illustrates the problem that Christians have in reading the Bible. God desires to give man grace, mercy, and blessing. However, man has the thought that he must be pious and accomplish something for God. With regard to this, we can obtain help from the Psalms. Most of the psalms were written by David, who is a good example. From David’s life we see that if a person is strong, God will break his strength; if a person is perfect, God will break his perfection; and if a person is capable, God will break his capability.
All human concepts, thoughts, and doctrines counsel people to be strong, perfect, and capable before God. However, the Bible shows that God always breaks those who are strong, perfect, and capable. This does not mean that we should now be weak, imperfect, or incapable before God. This is not what I mean. Rather, we should consider only whether God can supply us with grace, mercy, and blessing, not whether we are strong, perfect, or capable. It is a question of whether in our strength and perfection God can supply us with grace, mercy, and blessing. If this is the case, our concepts will not be a hindrance to God’s intention.
The Bible is the utterance of God. However, the words of the Bible passed through men and were often written in the midst of human sufferings. Therefore, there are several veils that can cover us. The snacks we purchase are a good example. They are covered by a layer of wrapping paper, but the wrapping paper is not the snack. Some words in the Bible are like wrapping paper. In the book of Job there are some “snacks,” but they have many layers of wrapping paper.
When we read the Bible, it is not easy for us to differentiate which words are wrapping paper and which words are snacks. It is easy for us to remove the wrapping paper, considering it to be the main content. The debates in the book of Job are wrapping paper, but it is not easy for us to discern this. Hence, it is not easy to read the Bible. We are often influenced by our natural concepts when we read the Bible. According to our concept, we think that God wants us to be strong, perfect, and capable. We do not realize that these things are a hindrance to God. God desires that we come to the throne of grace so that we can receive mercy and grace.
Regrettably, few people know what grace and mercy are. Grace is God working Himself into us. For example, our ability to believe is grace, and this is God worked into us. Grace does not mean that God does something for us. Rather, grace is what God is and what God has done reaching us.
On the day of Pentecost the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. The disciples were regarded as uneducated men and laymen from Galilee (Acts 2:7; 4:13). Their standing up to speak for the Lord was grace. None of the disciples could boast that they were educated or eloquent, nor could they be proud, because they knew that it was God’s grace that enabled them to speak. Their ability to speak, their eloquence, and their boldness were the result of God working Himself into them. This was altogether a matter of grace. The disciples did not have any education, nor were they bold. They were uneducated laymen, and they were timid. It was God’s grace that they spoke for Him with boldness. Hence, grace is not something that we have, that we are able to do, or that we have done. Grace is God reaching us. God’s reaching us can be compared to being struck by electricity. It is not that we reach the electricity but that electricity reaches us. Grace is God reaching man.
We may need to learn many lessons in order to know grace. Sometimes we may feel that a brother does not know grace and that he never feels the need for grace, because he is strong, bold, eloquent, and able to give messages. We may not know what grace is, because we live and work according to our ability. Most of what we do is according to our ability. This is not grace. Grace is God as everything to us. In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul says that he had a thorn in his body so that he would not be lifted up. He prayed three times, asking the Lord to remove the thorn, but the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you” (v. 9). The Lord seemed to be saying, “I will not remove the thorn, because if I do, you will depend on your strength and not on grace. This thorn is to help you sense your weakness and your need for grace. You need Me as grace.”
Grace involves nothing of ourselves. Grace is God becoming everything to us. Grace is God and all that He is becoming our replacement. If we lack eloquence, grace is God coming to be our eloquence. If we lack ability or wisdom, grace is God coming to be our ability and wisdom.
If we were not degraded and fallen, we would have no need for God’s mercy. However, in our degraded and fallen condition, we need God’s mercy, which reaches us and brings us into a situation in which He is able to favor us with His grace. If the younger son in Luke 15 had not become the prodigal son (vv. 13-14) but instead had stayed at home and enjoyed all that his father had, he would have been in a situation of grace. However, even though he fell into trouble, the father received him and then gave everything he had for the prodigal son to enjoy as grace.
Since we are degraded and fallen, our enjoyment of God begins with mercy. Even though Peter experienced many failures, he stood up and enjoyed God on the day of Pentecost because of His mercy. Without mercy, perhaps only Adam, in the garden of Eden prior to the fall, could have received grace. Peter, who denied the Lord three times, would not have been able to receive grace without God’s mercy.
Grace can reach only the people who have a proper standing before God, not the people who have an improper standing. Grace can come to fallen man because of mercy. Suppose I have something that I treasure and would like to give it to a brother who has not made any mistakes. My gift to him is not related to mercy; rather, it is a gift of grace. However, if this brother makes a mistake or even offends me, any gift to him would be related to mercy because his status has changed. My giving him a gift, even though he has lost his proper status, is mercy.
David was able to build the temple of God through his seed. This was not because of David’s strength but because of God’s mercy. God intended that His grace would reach David so that David’s seed would build the holy temple. Prior to his great failure, David was a man who did not know grace. He knew how to be pious and strong and how to accomplish things for God. We can see this particularly in Psalm 1. David, however, was short of grace. There was no way for God’s grace to be manifested in him. In his fall David’s piousness, strength, and accomplishments were nullified. In other words, he was broken.
After David fell, his piety, strength, and accomplishments came to nothing. God’s intention was to give him grace, but God could not bestow grace on him because of his piety, strength, and accomplishments. God was willing to grace David in spite of his failure, but this willingness was based on His mercy.
God gave David a son who was born of Bath-sheba, the wife he took when he sinned. Matthew 1:6 says, “David begot Solomon of her who had been the wife of Uriah.” This is not a nice word. Solomon should have been given to David as grace. However, since David lost the position to receive grace, Solomon became a gift of God’s mercy. By God’s mercy David had a son who was to build the temple. By God’s mercy David obtained the land on which the temple was to be built.
According to the record in the Bible, David had two serious falls in his life. The first fall was his taking Uriah’s wife (2 Sam. 11:2-27), and the second was his numbering Israel (24:1-10). When he took the wife of Uriah, he was condemned by God and repented. The result of his repentance was that he was given a son who would build the holy temple. David also numbered Israel, which offended God. The result of David’s dealing with this sin was that he obtained the site for the building of the temple — the threshing floor of Araunah (vv. 18-25), who was also called Ornan (1 Chron. 21:18). This site was on Mount Moriah (2 Chron. 3:1). This was God’s mercy. If David knew God’s grace instead of relying on his piousness and strength, God would still have given him Solomon as well as the site for the temple. That would have been God’s grace to David, according to God’s doing. It would have been something manifested by God in David, not something that David did.
David’s piousness and strength were a problem to God’s grace. They became an adversary and enemy to God’s grace, frustrating God’s grace. God could not give David grace, because David thought he did not need it. Therefore, God had no alternative but to allow the inability of David’s piousness and strength to accomplish His intention to be exposed. After his failures David realized that he needed God’s grace. David even fell to such an extent that grace could not reach him. God’s mercy was needed in order to bring him to a position where God’s grace could reach him.
David had many concepts concerning piousness that are expressed in the Psalms. When we read the Psalms, we are moved by them and are touched by David’s piousness and perfection before God. We are also inspired by his strengths and accomplishments. This is the problem we have in reading the Psalms. Humanly, David was pious, strong, and capable. His psalms show that he was exercised to live this way before God. When we read the Psalms, we are moved by the sentiment expressed in them, and we likewise want to be pious, resolve to love God, and desire to do something for God. Little do we realize that these sentiments prevent us from receiving grace.
David’s fall was the result of his own actions; however, God was willing to let him fail in order that he would know God’s grace. If God had not loosed His hand, David would not have fallen. Hence, David fell, but God allowed him to fall. In his fall David lost confidence in everything other than God, including confidence in his piousness and strength. He saw that his piety and strength were worth nothing before God. Then he learned to receive both God’s mercy and His grace.
This does not mean that we should seek to fall in order to receive grace (Rom. 6:1-8). Rather, it means that sooner or later God will bring us to the point where all that we have is broken. One day our ability to give messages, our wisdom in administrating the church, our methods in the work, and everything else will be broken. I am afraid that our zeal, faith, love, power, patience, and purity do not have much grace in them; they are mostly of ourselves. God allows this and tolerates it, just as He did with David. God allowed David to live a life of piety for many years. However, David’s piety was not necessarily the issue of grace. It was out of his own strength and his self. It was not until David fell that something changed. His later psalms show that he became a different person.
David became a person who knew grace. Psalm 51 shows that David touched grace. Before his fall his living reflected his piousness, strength, and his desire to accomplish things for God. David said that he had clean hands and a pure heart before God, that he walked in his integrity, that he trusted God, and that he would not waver (24:4; 26:1). The psalms written by David have many expressions of this kind. He often said that he was upright and that he wanted to accomplish things for God.
After David fell, he wrote Psalm 51. This psalm is different. In it David says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, / And renew a steadfast spirit within me... / Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion” (vv. 10, 18). Verse 16 says, “You do not delight in sacrifice; / Otherwise I would offer it.” These words are different from David’s usual expressions. Before his fall David speaks of the sacrifices he would offer to God, but after his fall he realized that God did not delight in sacrifices or burnt offerings. He understood that the sacrifice God wanted was a broken spirit. He says, “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (v. 17). He also asks God to do good in His good pleasure unto Zion. David was asking God to have mercy on Zion and to build the walls of Jerusalem. Verse 19 says, “Then You will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, / In burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings.” First David says that God does not delight in sacrifices, because they had become mere human activities. Then he says that God will delight in sacrifices that are according to God and that are the result of God’s mercy.
Sooner or later we will be brought by God to the point where we know what mercy is and what grace is. Only the pathway of faith can keep us; if we do not live in faith, none of our “good” situations will last. We must declare that only in God’s mercy can anything last. The Lord has a way to break all our piousness, strength, and accomplishments. The Lord has a way to break every one of His followers. The Lord will break all our strong points. If we are strong in our will, the Lord will break it, and if we are particularly good in being patient, the Lord will break it too. If we are capable in administrating the church or in giving messages, sooner or later they will be broken by the Lord. Even our moral virtues will be broken by the Lord. All the breaking is for us to learn what mercy is and what grace is.
We need to see that our morality, endurance, strong will, ability, and knowledge of how to administrate the church or how to give messages do not matter. We have these things because of the grace of God. However, we often do not recognize or acknowledge God’s grace. Therefore, God will allow us to fall into a pitiful state so that mercy can bring us to grace. Then even though we are still the ones living and serving, our eloquence will be God, our morality will be God, and our strength will also be God.
Blessing is the issue of mercy and grace. David had a son who built the holy temple. That was God’s blessing. David obtained the land that was the site for God’s temple. That was also God’s blessing. Eventually, the holy temple was built under the oversight of David’s house. That was also God’s blessing. Let us look at another example. After the Lord’s resurrection Peter went back to his former profession. He went fishing with some of the disciples. They labored the whole night but caught nothing. As soon as the morning broke, however, they listened to the Lord’s word, cast their net, and hauled in a hundred and fifty-three fish. That was God’s blessing (John 21:3-11). If God does not bless, all human labor on earth is in vain; after a whole night of labor not one fish will be gained.
Suppose we have a big gospel meeting coming up, and we all know that we should pray and be prepared. However, we should believe in and depend on God’s blessing more than our prayer and preparation. We should not trust in our prayer or our preparation. We should trust in God. Blessing is the issue of God’s mercy and His grace. It is the issue of God’s reaching us. We should never think that we are able to do anything, that we have methods, are perfect, or have a good character. Such thoughts do not allow us to know mercy or grace, and they do not allow us to know God’s blessing.
God wants to work what He is into us. If our condition is normal, what reaches us is grace. If our condition is abnormal, God will still visit us. However, instead of reaching us as grace, He will be mercy to us. Whether He reaches us as grace or mercy, the issue is blessing. Blessing is not the result of our effort. Blessing is the result of God’s mercy and grace reaching us. For example, we may labor in a place for a while without perfecting one saint to be an elder, but if we have God’s grace, a group of elders will be raised up. This would be a work that God has accomplished, and it will be His blessing.
Theology is taught in seminaries with the expectation that spiritual people will be produced and cultivated. However, it seems that there is not much result. It is God’s blessing for us to be able to perfect some spiritual ones after meeting and serving in a place. Blessing is the issue of mercy and grace. The more we live before God and follow Him, the more we will know mercy, grace, and blessing and will realize that what we have is worthless before God. However, if we are too strong and prevent the grace of God from being manifested through us, at the necessary time God will allow us to be broken. Either He will break our ability and intelligence, or He will break our morality and our will. We may need to fall into a miserable situation so that God can give us mercy. This mercy will bring in a result — the blessing of God. The blessing will produce Solomon, and it will also gain the threshing floor of Ornan — the site for the building of the holy temple, God’s dwelling place.
Blessing as the result of mercy and grace ultimately becomes God’s dwelling place. The building up of the church is God’s blessing. It is the result of our knowing mercy and grace. The building up of the church is not the issue of our effort. Our effort can bring in only temporary prosperity that does not last; rather, it will either pass away or be broken by God. Furthermore, our effort will cause God to raise up an environment to do a breaking work on us. He will break our strength so that the grace of God can be manifested in us according to His mercy. The result of this breaking will bring in God’s blessing.
