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Zion Bread of Life Christian Church

Job 5 – Ungodly Mindset 非神的意念

Tuesday, 19th December 2023

Rev Daniel Xi An Poon

V1-7 Ungodly Mindset – Men is Born to Trouble 人生在世必招患難

“Call out now; is there anyone who will answer you? And to which of the holy ones will you turn? For wrath kills a foolish man, and envy slays a simple one. I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling place. His sons are far from safety, they are crushed in the gate, and there is no deliverer. Because the hungry eat up his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and a snare snatches their substance. For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble spring from the ground; yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.”

「你且呼求，有誰答應你？諸聖者之中，你轉向那一位呢？ 憤怒害死愚妄人，嫉妒殺死痴迷人。我曾見愚妄人扎下根，但我忽然咒詛他的住處。 他的兒女遠離穩妥的地步，在城門口被壓，並無人搭救。 他的莊稼有飢餓的人吃盡了，就是在荊棘裡的也搶去了，他的財寶有網羅張口吞滅了。 禍患原不是從土中出來，患難也不是從地裡發生。 人生在世必遇患難，如同火星飛騰。」

Job’s friend, Eliphaz, thought he was saying wise words to Job. But is what he said the truth about God? Some people think that we must suffer in life, this is who we are created to be, so just live with it and accept it, it will make life easier. But this is not the values of the Kingdom of God. Do we really know the purpose God created this world? Do we really know our purpose?

約伯的朋友以利法認為他對約伯說的是至理名言。但他所說的關於上帝的話是真的嗎？有些人認為我們在生活中必須受苦，這就是我們被創造出來的樣子，所以只要忍受它並接受它，它會讓生活變得更輕鬆。但這不是神國度的價值觀。我們真的知道上帝創造這個世界的目的嗎？我們真的知道我們的目的嗎？

This is not a godly value, to think that people come to this world to suffer. God created people and He said it is good. Eliphaz thought that everything happened to Job was meant to be. His life belief was to suffer, but this is not a godly value. Because when we have this mindset, we will stop praying, we will stop expressing ourselves to God.

V8-16 默然接受神必拯救

Eliphaz continued to teach Job who God is, everything he said seemed to be right and godly, but is it really? So many people are like this, very good at talking about God, but nothing seems to be applicable. Everything Eliphaz said did not apply to Job. Do we know we are loveable? God loves us and He created us to enjoy this world. When we take our focus away from who we really are in the eyes of God, then we will never see the true purpose we are created on this world.

Nobody likes to be taught and to be reminded of things. We often feel uncomfortable when someone gives us teaching, we think others are judging us and we don’t want others to see our problems. We want people to see how good we are because we don’t think we are good enough. We put on masks and we tend not to expose our weakness in front of people. The Bible teaches us to love others as ourselves, we must know how to love ourselves first then we can truely love others.

We are the wonderful creations of God, God is good and He loves us so we should also love ourselves. When we don’t love ourselves like the way God loves us, we will try to satisfy us with worldly desires, and we can never be satisfied. Let us understand the purpose God created us to be, let us soak in God’s presence and quiet down ourselves. Only in quietness we can truely understand ourselves and others.

V17-27 接受管教神必復興

This sounds right, but it’s actually using the mindset of “karma” to control God. We always want to find the cause of the happening, but do we believe that everything is in God’s hands? There may be some things happening as a consequence of our doing, but there are also many things, who are already manipulated by this sinful world. It’s not about fault finding, but about the goodness of God.

No matter what we are facing, we must know that God is good. We are not controlled by fear, but we are loved. All our decisions should be made out of love not out of fear. Because if we do things out of fear, then we will always live in fear, and we will continue to be in a ‘doing’ mode. Everything we do will be lifeless, without love, everything we do will be meaningless.

God’s Will for us is good, but the world tries to deceive us and feeds us with values that are not godly. Let us focus on God only. God will lead us to the greed pasture and the still water. He is our Good Father.