My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? 

Psalm 22:1 

Christ was the suffering Savior. It is good for us to dwell upon His agonies. The more we understand the depths of His sufferings, knowing He was enduring these painful experiences in order to purchase our redemption, the more we appreciate the cost of it. This will increase our estimation of Christ. Our text contains words Christ uttered from the cross. They are one in the list of His seven sayings from the cross. He used these words in the depths of His excruciating agony of body and soul. It was during this torturous experience that He ‘poured out His soul unto death’ as Isaiah puts it. During this time God the Father ‘made Him to be sin for us Who knew no sin.’ As He pulled the curtain of darkness over the place where His only begotten Son hung, transfixed between heaven and earth, the Father turned His face away from Him and would not look upon Him. Christ was aware of that turning away, and cried out, ‘my God, my God, why have You forsaken me?’ This was His soul crying out in anguish. This was the length to which Christ was willing to go to purchase our redemption. He was willing for His Father to treat Him as if He was sin itself. This is our magnificent Savior. This is the Christ we exalt. He is altogether worthy.  

Our Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You were willing to endure such sufferings for us. 
We praise You that with Your stripes,  
we are healed. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

So Job died, old and full of days. 

Job 42:17 

Our life here eventually comes to an end. Job’s did. Our text is the last verse of the book that bears his name. This text is particularly interesting for what it does say as well as for what it does not say. ‘So Job died, old and full of days.’ He had suffered greatly, endured patiently; thought deeply; and developed spiritually. God restored to him all he had lost. He lived out his days in peace and prosperity. What is significantly absent from the last chapter of Job is God’s explanation to him of what all this was about. Christ had spoken to him out of the whirlwind; had instructed him in His ways; had waxed eloquent in His discussion of His relationship to all that is. What Christ had not done in all that discourse was explain to Job why He had allowed what He did in his life. Job lived…and died…without ever receiving an explanation. Now, he understands. He has been in the presence of Christ for thousands of years. He knows more now than he ever did then. We may also have experiences in life we never understand as long as we are in this scene of time. What He is doing in our life we may not understand now. We can, like Job continue to trust Him, knowing He will reveal all to us in due course of time.  

Our Wise and Holy God, 
we rejoice that You know all that we do not know. 
We praise You that You will make all things plain to us,  
in Your eternity.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

I have heard of You by the hearing of ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.  

Job 42:5-6  

Job’s experiences were life transforming spiritually. His hardships let to his questioning of everything he knew. He questioned God and His ways. Eventually God spoke to Him out of the whirlwind in the same way He had spoken to Moses from the burning bush. This was a Christophany as certainly as Moses’ experience was. If we examine all Christ says of Himself and His relation to all that is, we come to a much deeper understanding of Him. Job experienced this growth in spiritual understanding. Our text is his articulation of this spiritual transformation. He clearly contrasts his former spiritual experience of God with what he gained by all that had happened. Thus he says, ‘I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees You.’ This is the end purpose of our experiences, that we know God more thoroughly than we ever have before. We may have some experience of God already . We may have heard from Him. Our experiences should transform us from hearing from Him to seeing Him. These experiences may be painful, but necessary to bring us to a deeper understanding of the One Who has created us for fellowship with Him. 

Our great and gracious God. 
We rejoice that You continue to develop us spiritually. 
We praise You that you will not cease to work, 
until You have conformed us fully to the image of Christ. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

You asked, Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 

Job 42:3 

We do not always speak wisely. There are times in our experience when we are perhaps grieving, frustrated, bewildered, or angry at what God is doing with us. At those moments we often speak rashly. Our soul may be wrought up over circumstances which God has allowed and we question Him, His ways, and His treatment of us. Job was in this position. He believed God, and yet was totally at a loss as to why God allowed him to endure such hardships. After Christ had spoken to him out of the whirlwind, Job realized he had spoken foolishly. Our text is his confession. We may find ourselves where Job was. We may have endured, or are enduring things which have brought us to question God, His ways, His decisions, and especially His treatment of us personally. We may have uttered what we did not understand. If we have and realize we have done so we can confess it as certainly as Job did. Christ received Job and testified to his friends, ‘you have not spoken of Me what is right as my servant Job has.’ For all Job’s shortcomings, he was doing better in his understanding of God than his friends were. Christ received his confession and stood up for him. We want to know Christ that well. We want to have such a friendship with Him. Job suffered greatly, but gained immeasurably.  

Our Kind and Gracious God, 
we rejoice that You receive us with all our faults. 
We praise You that You 
lead us in spiritual paths to where we need to be. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.  

Colossians 1:17 

I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.   

Job 42:2 

God is sovereign, Christ is God; therefore, Christ is sovereign. This is an integral part of what it means to be God. God had spoken at length to Job about Who He is and what He does. Our text is Job’s response to all he had heard. He says that God can do everything and follows that with, ‘no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.’ There are several things that arise from this fact. First, because God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, which is His purpose, all He has intended will infallibly come to pass. Second, some of those purposes we will understand, and others we will not. Third, true spirituality is to see things from God’s perspective. Fourth, we will see things from His perspective only as He reveals them to us. Fifth, His chief means of revelation to us is through His written word, which leads us to Christ, the Living Word. Once we have beheld Christ and He has become the chief object of our spiritual contemplation, we will begin more consistently and thoroughly to understand His purpose. This will calm us and cause us to be more at peace with what we do not understand. If we have seen how Christ works all things together for good for those who love Him, we know we can trust Him to do all things well in all the things He has purposed.  

Our Great and Gracious God, 
we rejoice that You rule over all. 
We praise You that Your counsel shall stand, 
and that You will do all Your pleasure. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning