Saturday, September 8, 2012

Consign Your Gold To Dust - Job 22

Sometimes, prayer becomes difficult because we've lost our intimacy with God.  In Job 22:21-30, Eliphaz gives his friend Job some good advice about regaining closeness to God.  He says, "Come to terms with God and be at peace; in this way good will come to you.  Receive instruction from His mouth, and place His sayings in your heart (verses 21-22 HCSB)."  When a person can 'agree with God (ESV)', or 'come to terms with God (HCSB)', or 'acquaint now thyself with Him (KJV)', or 'reconcile yourself with God (NET)', then the result is peace.  Peace is found through by receiving God's instructions, and placing His sayings in your heart.  These words perfectly describe the practice of meditation.  The Logos Prayer, or praying the word of God, fills your heart with God's instructions, and thus draws your heart back into a place where you can agree with God once again.

Verses 23-25 (HCSB) say, "If you return to the Almighty, you will be renewed.  If you banish injustice from your tent and consign your gold to the dust, the gold of Ophir to the stones in the wadis, the Almighty will be your gold and your finest silver."  Returning to God doesn't necessarily mean that one has completely left him.  Rather, it means a change of heart and mind, once again aligning the Self with God.  This is done by banishing injustice (inequity) from the tent (soul) of the believer.  Eliphaz's point is that Job has departed from a close relationship with God, and that he needs to return.  Perhaps you also need to return to a closer walk with the Lord.  

Verse 24 says that the way to return to the Almighty is to consign your gold to the dust, and the gold of Ophir to the stones in the wadis.  This involves discarding all that the world offers, which has value in the eyes of society, and exchanging it for the riches of God.  Then, "the Almighty will be your gold and your finest silver (v. 25)."  

It also means considering all my glory as loss.  Philippians 3:7-8 (HCSB) says, "But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.  More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ."

Verse 26 says, "Then [and only then] you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God."  There's a difference between relating to God out if duty and fear (this attitude indicated by a posture of downcast head), and delighting in God (demonstrated by an uplifted face).  You can delight in God once you have aligned your soul to His, and agreed with Him.  The result is that "you will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.  When you make a decision, it will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways.  When others are humiliated and you say, 'Lift them up,' God will save the humble.  He will even rescue the guilty one, who will be rescued by the purity of your hands (Verses 27-30)."

When, like Job, you feel that prayer is difficult because you have lost your intimacy with God, return to a place of agreement with Him by consigning your gold to dust.  This means rejecting everything that the world says is important in favor of what God says is important.  It means letting go of your sense of self that is based on the world's view, and exchanging it for God's view of you in light of His redeeming love.  Then God will lift your face to Himself, and you will return once more to that right relationship that was lost. 


A MEDITATION WITH ECUMENICAL PRAYER BEADS

Invitatory
21 Come to terms with God and be at peace;
in this way good will come to you.
22 Receive instruction from His mouth,
and place His sayings in your heart.

Cruciform
24 ...Consign your gold to the dust...

Weeks
25 the Almighty will be your gold
and your finest silver.

Benedictory
26 Then you will delight in the Almighty
and lift up your face to God.
27 You will pray to Him, and He will hear you...

PRAYER:
Lord, show me all the gold that I have treasured in my heart, that I need to throw into the street, that I must regard as dust.  Let me never glory in my own wealth of talent or my own sense of worthiness.  May I never derive my self-esteem from what the world thinks of me (which is the value of gold).  Rather, may I glory in You, the Lifter of my head.  Amen.