Tawa Baptist

Hands

Scriptures:   Psalm 128:2, 90:17, 28:2, 141:2, 17:7 & 138:7,

Proverbs 10:4 & 12:24, Exodus 17:11-13, 1 Timothy 2:1+8,

Leviticus 1:4, John 20:24-28 & 10:27-30

Video Link: https://youtu.be/1sAi6TtXn1I

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 26 Jul 2026 – Hands by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Hands are for work
  • Hands are for prayer
  • Hands are for saving
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

What do these four words have in common: chandler, handkerchief, shorthand and handsome? [Wait] That’s right, they all contain a hand.

A chandler was originally someone who made candles by hand. But it can also be someone who handles the purchase of supplies for ships. A handkerchief is a cloth you hold in your hand for wiping your nose and shorthand is an abbreviated form of handwriting.  

Handsome first meant ‘easy to handle’, in the sense of being convenient or well-crafted to fit the hand. But it has since evolved to mean aesthetically pleasing or beautiful. It can also mean generous, as in openhanded.      

There are literally hundreds of words in English which contain a hand or derive their meaning from the hand.

Today we continue our new sermon series on body parts, this week focusing on the foot. No. Just kidding. We might do the foot another week. Today’s focus is the hand. Apparently, the hand is mentioned around 1,800 times in our English Bibles, which is a lot.

Our message today explores the purpose of our hands. The purpose of our hands is to make things happen. Hands get things done. In the Bible, we read how hands are used for work, for prayer and for saving. Let us begin then with hands at work…

Hands are for work:

There are 27 bones, 29 joints and at least 123 ligaments in each human hand.

This gives human beings the dexterity to do a whole variety of different kinds of work; from writing, to sewing, to changing light bulbs and chopping wood. Where would we be without our hands.

I have a confession to make. Two Sundays ago, I skipped church. We were in the Franklin district visiting one of our daughters. It was a beautiful day and there was work to do.

Among other things, I spent about an hour picking up pony poo. I needed my hands to do that. The horse doesn’t belong to our daughter. She was looking after it for one of her flat mates. The horse wasn’t that interested in me, because I didn’t have any food, but I did get on well with Cookie, the goat.

Now you might be wondering, why pick up the pony poo? What difference does it make? The horse is just going to undo your work by pooing all over the field again. Well, it’s not a pointless exercise.

Picking up the poo helps to keep the horse healthy. It’s not good for animals to eat from the same place they defecate. And, in the case of horses, taking their poo away breaks the lifecycle of worms and other parasites.

In Psalm 128 we read: “When you eat the labour of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.”

The labour of your hands is a poetic way of saying the produce of your work.

If you are a dairy farmer, then to eat the labour of your hands is to drink the cows’ milk. Or if you are a wheat farmer, then to eat the labour of your hands is to eat the bread made from the wheat grown in your field.

And if you pick up poo for a living, then eating the labour of your hands does not mean eating the poo. It means having a healthy horse, free of worms and parasites. The psalmist is saying that what we produce by working with our hands feeds us, body and soul. Without our hands we would be hungry and sad.

While I wouldn’t want to pick up poo fulltime, I did enjoy working with my hands that day. It fed my soul to do something different and to help someone I love in a practical way. I felt closer to God and his creation.

Working with your hands gets you out of your own head. It helps you to stop overthinking and it grounds you in the natural world. Despite the new blister,

I was happy and it was well with me.

There is wisdom and folly in our hands. The book of Proverbs has this to say about how we use our hands…

A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

Also, Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labour.

These verses are saying the same thing really. When you put your hands to work in a diligent way, with careful persistent effort, then (other things being equal) you put yourself in the driver’s seat. You have more control in your life.   

It should be noted that working with diligent hands does not automatically guarantee riches and success. We need a measure of God’s grace too.

If God didn’t send rain to grow the grass or enable the horse to produce a foal safely, then it wouldn’t matter how diligent you were at picking up the horse’s poo. As we read in Psalm 90…

Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

These words are attributed to Moses, that great man of God. Moses worked with diligent hands most of his life. He spent 40 years caring for sheep in the wilderness and another 40 years working as Israel’s shepherd.

Moses knew that hard work was not enough by itself. Without the Lord’s favour, without God’s grace to establish what his hands had worked diligently to produce, all his work would be in vain.   

It is instructive to remember that Jesus worked with his hands most of his life. He was a carpenter longer than he was a preacher. His hands were skilled, strong and most likely calloused. At the same time, they were gentle hands, not clenched in anger nor used in violence.  

The apostle Paul also worked with his hands as a tent maker. He put great stock in it. His advice to the fledgling church in Thessalonica was this…

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. 

A quiet life doesn’t sound very ambitious and yet Paul saw dignity in it. He saw it as an essential part of our Christian witness.

Now in saying that, I don’t think Paul means that all Christians should become tradespeople. We are not all good with our hands. The point is, to work diligently for the glory of God.

The work of our hands, whether that be taken literally or metaphorically, is part of our public witness and worship. This means the work we do (whether in the church or in the world) is a sacred thing.        

What is the work of your hands? Do you see your work as part of your worship of God and witness for Christ? Or has it become something else?

We need to avoid two extremes. On the one hand, the work of our hands should not become an end in itself; it should not become an all-consuming idol which replaces God.

By the same token, we don’t want the work of our hands to be emptied of its meaning either. As Albert Camus once said, ‘When work is soulless, life stifles and dies.’ But (as the Bible indicates) when the work of our hands is done as an act of worship for God and witness for Christ, it feeds our soul.        

Hands are for prayer:

We are talking about the purpose of our hands. Hands are for work and hands are for prayer. Let me tell you a story…

Albrecht Dürer was born into a German family in 1471. He was one of 18 children. Albrecht and his brother Albert both wanted to become artists, but their parents could not afford to send them to art school.

So the brothers made a commitment to each other. They tossed a coin. The loser would go to work in the coal mines for four years to pay for the winner to go to art school. Then, four years later, the roles would be reversed. This way both brothers would support each other to become artists.

Albrecht won the coin toss and went to art school while Albert dutifully went to the coal mines. Albrecht thrived at the art academy in drawing, painting and woodcutting. He proved to be better than his teachers.

After four years, Albrecht returned home. On seeing his brother, Albert broke down in tears. He showed Albrecht how almost every bone his hands had been broken by four years labour in the mines. Albert had lost the dexterity to do the fine work of an artist. He could not go to the art academy.

Deeply moved by his brother’s sacrifice, Albrecht asked Albert to pose in prayer for him. He then drew the famous ink and pencil sketch of what we know today as the “Praying Hands”.

Albrecht Dürer became one of the greatest artists the world has ever known because of the silent sacrifice of his brother Albert. God established the work of both brother’s hands. Hands are for work and hands are for prayer.

Sometimes you see people raising their hands in church, usually during sung worship. This is not a new idea. It goes back thousands of years. Lifting open hands to God is an act of prayer. It’s a way of aligning your body with your heart and spirit. We come across raised hands in the psalms.

For example, in Psalm 28 we read: Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my handstoward your Most Holy Place.

And in Psalm 141: May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my handsbe like the evening sacrifice.

Don’t be afraid to lift your hands in church while we are singing songs of worship, if that feels right to you. It is the ancient posture of prayer. A way of reaching out to God. A way of physically demonstrating our openness to God’s will and our dependence on him for all that we need.   

In Exodus 17, Moses famously raised his hands in prayer as the Israelites defended themselves in battle against the Amalekites.  

11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up… so that his hands remained steady till sunset.

13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.

Raising hands in prayer isn’t just an Old Testament thing. In the New Testament letter to Timothy, Paul writes…

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people… 8 Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.

Hands raised in prayer are more effective than hands raised in anger.

Hands are for work and hands are for prayer. Hands are also for saving others, but salvation doesn’t come cheap. It comes at a cost. Let me tell you another story.

Hands are for saving

An orphaned boy was living with his grandmother when their house caught fire. Sadly, the grandmother was overcome by smoke and perished in the blaze. The boy’s cries for help were answered by a man who climbed an iron drainpipe and came back down with the boy hanging tightly to his neck.

Some weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of the child. A farmer, a teacher, and the town’s wealthiest citizen all came forward offering to take the boy in. But as they talked, the lad’s eyes remained focused on the floor. He didn’t want to go with them.

Then a stranger walked to the front and slowly took his hands from his pockets, revealing the scars on them. The boy cried out in recognition. This was the man who had saved his life. His hands had been burned when he climbed the hot pipe. The boy threw his arms around the man’s neck and held on tight.[1]

The same marred hands that saved the boy from the fire, also gave him a home and security. We are reminded of someone else whose hands were marred in saving us. As the song goes. ‘Hands that flung stars into space, to cruel nails surrendered.’

The Psalms are peppered with this idea that God’s hand saves and delivers.

For example, in Psalm 17 we read: 7 Show me the wonders of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes.

And from Psalm 138: 7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; with your right hand you save me.

This is poetry. The psalmist is using the hand of God as a metaphor for the Lord’s skill and power to save him from those who meant to do him harm.

Nothing is beyond the reach of God’s hand. Nothing is too difficult for the power and skill of God.

God’s hand to save reminds us of Jesus who used his hands to heal and restore; to save people from the enemies of sickness and death…

Jesus healed lepers by touching them with his hand.

Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead by taking her hand.

And Jesus reached out his hand to Peter to save him from drowning.

God’s hand doesn’t just save us from physical harm. God’s hand saves us from spiritual harm too, that is from our sins. But God’s salvation doesn’t come cheap. It comes at a cost.

In Leviticus chapter 1 we read God’s instructions for burnt offerings to make atonement for sin: 4 You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you.

By laying their hands on the head of the animal to be sacrificed, the Israelites were symbolically transferring their sin onto the animal so that when the animal was killed and burnt, their sins were done away with as well.

These ritual sacrifices pointed to Jesus, the Christ, who would atone for our wrongdoing by taking our sins upon himself. All our sins were transferred to Jesus on the cross so that when Jesus died, our sins died with him.

On the third day after his death, God raised Jesus from the dead. When Thomas (one of the disciples) was told about Jesus’ resurrection by the others, he had a hard time believing Jesus was alive. Thomas said, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Our salvation by the hands of Jesus did not come cheap. It was costly but also effective. God established the work of Jesus’ hands.

Conclusion:

This morning we have heard about the purpose of our hands. Hands make things happen. They get things done.

Hands are for work. The work of our hands nourishes us (body & soul), it gives us more control in our lives. Better than that, the work of our hands is to be a public expression of our worship of God and witness for Christ.  

Hands are for prayer. We are not to rely solely on our own efforts but lift our hands to God in prayer, depending on him. Our hands raised in prayer should mirror our hearts open to God’s will.

Hands are for saving. Nothing is too difficult for God’s hand (his skill and power). But we need to remember, our salvation by the hand of Jesus comes at a cost. We value Jesus’ salvation of us by trusting and obeying him.

Let us pray…

God of wisdom and compassion, establish the work our hands for the praise of your glory. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. Have you ever injured your hand, so you were not able to use it? How did it feel not being able to use your hand? How did you adapt?
  3. What is the purpose of hands? How did Jesus use his hands? How do you use your hands?
  4. What are some benefits of working with your hands? Why is it important to work with diligent hands?
  5. What is the work of your hands? Do you see your work as part of your worship of God and witness for Christ? Or has it become something else? Does anything need to change for you, where work is concerned?
  6. Why do people raise their hands in prayer? What does this posture demonstrate?
  7. What does the Bible mean by the hand of God? Have you experienced the hand of God’s deliverance in your life personally? If so, how?
  8. How might we value our deliverance by the hand of Jesus?

Outtakes

In John chapter 10, Jesus says this…

27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

To be in the hand of Christ is to be in the hand of God who loves us. Jesus is our security. There is no better place to be.

[1] I’m not sure where the story, about the boy rescued from the fire, comes from?

Tawa Baptist

Eyes

Scriptures:   Psalm 139:1-16, Psalm 33:13-19, 2 Chronicles 16:9,

Matthew 5:27-29 & 38-41, Matthew 6:19-23, John 9.

Video Link: https://youtu.be/sNXqQRibsoQ

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 19 Jul 2026 – Eyes by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The eyes of God
  • The eyes of the body
  • The eyes of faith
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

The human eye is a remarkable thing. Apparently, your eye can see something like 10 million different shades of colour. It can detect the flame of a candle over 2½ kms away and take in around 36,000 bits of information every hour.

I’m not sure how scientists work this sort of thing out, but any way you look at it, the human eye is amazing. Your eyes provide your brain with the data you need to make decisions. They guide you and protect you. They help you in a myriad of ways, without you even being aware it most of the time.   

Today we begin a new sermon series on body parts. The Bible is full of hands, feet, hearts, lips, heads, bones, ears, and other body parts. This morning’s message focuses on the eye. Eyes are mentioned somewhere north of 500 times in the Bible. So make yourself comfortable, we have a lot to get through today. Just kidding.

Our message this morning takes a closer look at just three types of eyes:

the eyes of God, the eyes of the body and the eyes of faith. We begin with the eyes of God. The eyes of God see the inner workings of the human heart.  

The eyes of God:

According to the internet, there are in excess of 15,000 active satellites orbiting the earth with operational payloads. Most of these (over 11,000) are owned by the US.

These satellites are used for communication, navigation and observation.

They are like 15,000 eyes in the sky. However, they do have their limitations.

Satellites are expensive to launch, difficult to fix and not always reliable.

They are subject to limited band width (which restricts how much data can be transmitted at once) and they are vulnerable to bad weather. A satellite cannot see through dense cloud, much less read your mind or rescue you.

The eyes of God though, are not affected by the weather, they never fail and they penetrate deeper than the surface of things. In Psalm 139 we read how God has x-ray vision. The psalmist writes…

1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar… 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place…16 Your eyes saw my unformed body

God is our maker and he sees further and deeper than we can.

In Psalm 33 we read…

13 From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all humankind; 14 from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth—15 he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.

The eyes of God see everything and everyone, better than any satellite. More than just seeing what people do, the Lord sees into the human heart and mind. He considers our actions. From verse 18 the Psalmist continues…

18 But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, 19 to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

The Lord God does not just watch from a distance, like a satellite, detached unfeeling, impotent. No. The eyes of the Lord are looking out for those whose hearts trust in him, in order to save them.

Did you know, the pupil of the eye expands as much as 45% when we look at someone we love. Scientists reckon this response is triggered by the anticipation of reward or pleasure. They say dopamine and oxytocin flood our brain and dilate our pupils.

That may be true on a chemical level but there is more to love than hormones. True love lasts long after the dopamine and oxytocin have worn off. Love is an enduring commitment to the wellbeing of another.

In Second Chronicles 16 we read: 9 For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

In other words, God is on the lookout for people who love him in a committed way, when the dopamine and oxytocin have worn off. God’s eyes see deep into the human heart; our motivation, our fear, our hope, our trust, our loyalty.

The eyes of the Lord are looking to strengthen those who love him.

Jesus had his Father’s eyes; eyes which can see the inner workings of the human heart and mind. Eyes which look on people with love.

The eyes of the body:

What then did Jesus have to say about eyes? Well, Jesus’ teaching was more focused on the human eye. The eyes of our body serve an important function; they guide us.   

Let me tell you a story dating from eleventh century England. At that time there lived a nobleman named Leofric. Leofric was Earl of Mercia and Lord of Coventry. His wife was known as Lady Godiva.

According to legend, Leofric levied a burdensome tax upon the people of Coventry. Lady Godiva looked upon these people as her friends. She acted as a mediator on their behalf. Feeling compassion for the people, Lady Godiva asked her husband to reduce the tax, but he refused.

Not one to be easily dissuaded, Lady Godiva pestered her husband until finally, to get some peace, he said: “The day you ride naked at noon through the streets of Coventry will be the day I reduce the taxes.”

Leofric thought this would be the end of the matter. He could not imagine his wife doing such a thing. But Lord Leofric should have known better than to test his wife’s resolve.

Lady Godiva passed word to her friends all through the city, asking that on a certain day at noon everyone remain in their houses with their shutters closed. Out of love and respect the people did as she asked.

At the appointed time, Lady Godiva mounted a snow-white horse and rode naked through the city and back again. To his credit, Lord Leofric, honoured his word and promptly reduced the tax.

In Matthew 6, Jesus had this to say about our eyes…

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Jesus is speaking figuratively here. This is symbolism, not science. The purpose of a lamp is to shine light so you can see where you are going. A lamp guides you in the dark. Likewise, the purpose of your eyes is to guide your body, to help you see where to go, so you don’t bump into things or fall into a ditch.

If your eyes are healthy, if you can see clearly, then your body will be protected (inside and out); you won’t kick your foot against a piece of furniture or walk off the edge of a cliff. You will have the information you need to make good choices and take care of yourself.

But if your eyes are not healthy, if you cannot see clearly, then you will inevitably put the rest of your body (and soul) in danger.

Lady Godiva had healthy eyes. Her perception of others was sound and generous. She could see her neighbours in need and she cared about them. She could also see her husband’s tax policy was unfair. It was crippling people. Lord Leofric’s eyes were unhealthy. He saw the common people as cash cows to be milked, not as people to be cared for.    

In the same breath as talking about the eyes being the lamp of the body, Jesus warns against hoarding riches. From verse 19 the Lord says…  

19 “Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. 20 Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal.

Jesus is warning against the dangers of greed and accumulating excess material wealth. Pursuing worldly riches can make us blind to the well-being of others. It can cloud our perception and darken our inner life.

If your eyes are healthy, like Lady Godiva, then your perception, your way of looking at others will be generous, warm and open hearted. Your inner life will be full of light; meaning you will have a right perspective and be happier. More than this, you will store up riches for yourself in heaven.

But if your eyes are unhealthy, like Lord Leofric, then you will look at others with a meanness of spirit and your inner life will be filled with darkness. You will lose perspective and become cynical, cold and suspicious.

Given the importance of our eyes in guiding us, it logically follows we need to take care of our eyes and be careful what we look at.  

There’s a dark addendum to the legend of Lady Godiva. A tailor named Tom sneaked a peek at the naked Lady, through a gap in his shutters, and later made the mistake of bragging about it. He lost his eyesight. Some said his blindness was divine judgement. Others said it was caused by local citizens with red-hot pokers.

The infamous Tom is still remembered today. His name is often used to describe any peeping Tom who spies on another person, especially a man who sneaks a lustful look at a woman when she doesn’t want to be seen. [1]  

Our eyes guide our body. If we are not careful, they will guide us into trouble.

In Matthew 5, verses 27-29, Jesus talks about taking care of our eyes and what we look at. The Lord says…

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into Gehenna…” 

Adultery doesn’t start with jumping into bed with someone. It starts with the eyes and the way we look at people. If we look at a person with a view to how they might satisfy our appetite, or how we might use them, our body and mind will be guided into dark places.

Gehenna was the name of the rubbish dump outside Jerusalem, always smouldering, where the worm never dies. It has become a metaphor for hell. Verse 29, where it talks about gouging out your right eye, is not to be taken literally. Jesus is speaking figuratively; he is using words to paint a picture.

The point is to rid your life of anything that would lead you astray. Don’t be a peeping Tom. Don’t put yourself in a position where you may see things with your eye that tempt you in the wrong direction. You don’t want your eyes to guide your body into Gehenna.

Are there things in your life that you need to be rid of? Things that distract you or syphon off your best energy? Things you need to cut out. Don’t let those things become habits. Whether they have become a habit or not, ask God (your spiritual surgeon) to remove them.   

There is a saying which comes from the Old Testament law of Moses:

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

You can interpret this verse one of two ways. If your eye (or your perception) is bad, then you might think you are commanded to take revenge when you are wronged. Tit for tat. This interpretation is false.   

The good eye, the healthy eye, looks at others with generosity and interprets God’s law in a positive way. Moses was not commanding revenge; he was trying to limit revenge. The intention is to prevent people going overboard when avenging wrong.

As Ghandi pointed out, ‘An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind’. Ghandi got his inspiration from Jesus on this point.

This is how the good eye of Jesus interpreted the law of Moses…   

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.

This is difficult to do. Jesus did it, but it doesn’t come naturally to us. Everything in us wants to get even when we are wronged.

Resisting the temptation to take revenge requires us to look at the situation with the eyes of faith, trusting that God (who sees all) will make things right in the end.

The eyes of faith:

What then do we mean when we talk about the eyes of faith? Well, faith is how we see spiritual reality. Just as our physical eyes enable us to see the material world, so too our faith enables us to see God at work in the world.

The eyes of faith are like a guide dog. We cannot see the spiritual realm.

God is invisible to us and his ways are a mystery. But faith in Jesus guides us through this world to the next, sort of like a guide dog guides a blind person.

As Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians: We walk by faith not by sight.   

There are a number of gospel stories of Jesus healing people who were physically blind. Often though, these blind men possessed the eyes of faith to see who Jesus really is, when others couldn’t. They had spiritual insight.

One such story is found in John chapter 9…

As he went along, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 

Interesting. When the disciples see this blind man, the first thing they think of is sin and who to blame. They operate from, what we today might call, a deficit model. They can only see what is wrong, not what is right. Jesus sees this man using a strengths-based approach; as someone capable of glorifying God.

Jesus heals the man by making some mud with his saliva and putting the mud on the man’s eyes. We are reminded of God, at creation, forming Adam’s body from mud. Jesus is creating eyesight for this man.

The blind man obeys Jesus. No questions. This is faith. Trust with obedience.

Now you would think most people would celebrate with the man, but no one seems to do this. Not even his parents. When the Pharisees investigate, they want to know who healed the man, because this happened on the Sabbath and, by their (bad eye) interpretation of the law, healing people was work and therefore not allowed on a Saturday.

The Pharisees are divided. Some think Jesus is a sinner (because he healed on the Sabbath) and others are not so sure, saying: “How can a sinner perform such signs”. They cannot decide whether Jesus is from God or not. So they question the man again and he applies the Pharisees’ own logic to the situation, saying…

“Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

The man whom Jesus healed cannot get over the Pharisees’ spiritual blindness. It seems obvious to him that Jesus is from God. How can they not see it?

The Pharisees don’t want to look at the evidence; much less be hoisted on their own petard. In their anger they throw the (formerly) blindman out of the synagogue, unjustly.

Afterwards, Jesus caught up with the man who was expelled and revealed himself as the Son of Man. The Son of Man has a range of meanings in the Bible but, in this context, it refers to Jesus as the long-awaited Saviour from God, who redeems humanity and indeed all of creation.

The man whom Jesus healed responded in faith and worship. He has the spiritual insight to recognise divine revelation when he sees it. He possesses the eyes of faith.

Then Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

These words need some explanation. Jesus did not come into this world to condemn people. Jesus is not looking to catch people out. No. Judgement is not Jesus’ purpose, but it is the inevitable consequence.

Jesus is the light of the world. Light does not condemn. Light simply reveals what is there. Jesus’ presence reveals the truth of the matter. There is no sitting on the fence with Jesus. You either see him with the eyes of faith (like the man born blind), or you don’t (like the Pharisees).    

Who is Jesus to you? That is the question we each need to face. And it can only be answered by faith. We judge ourselves by the way we respond to Jesus.  

Conclusion:

This morning we have considered three types of eyes in the Bible:

The eyes of God, the eyes of the body, and the eyes of faith.  

The eyes of God see the human heart.

The eyes of our body guide us.

And the eyes of faith enable us to see Jesus.

Let us pray…

Gracious God, give us eyes of faith to see you at work in the world. Guide us in paths of righteousness for your name’s sake. Help us to walk in the light of your word. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. Discuss / reflect on the eyes of God. How are God’s eyes (vision) different from our human eyes? What does God look for?
  3. What did Jesus mean when he said, ‘The eye is the lamp of the body’? In the context of Matthew 6:19-23, what does it mean to have healthy eyes? What does it mean to have unhealthy eyes?  
  4. Are there things in your life that you need to be rid of? What practical steps can you take to be rid of them? Ask God for his help.
  5. What do we mean by the eyes of faith? Can you think of a time in your life when you couldn’t see a way forward but then discovered the way by faith? What happened?
  6. How does Jesus see the man who was born blind? How is this different from the way most other people saw the blind man? How do you view people who are different from you?
  7. Why does the blind man worship Jesus?  Who is Jesus to you? 

Bibliography

  • Leon Morris, ‘NICNT: The Gospel According to John’, 1995.
  • Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, General Editors: L Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, Temper Longman III, IVP, 1998.
  • John Burge, ‘NIVAC: John’, 2000.
  • Leonard Mann, ‘Green-Eyed Monsters and Good Samaritans’, 2006.
  • R.T. France, ‘NICNT: The Gospel of Matthew’, 2007.  

[1] Leonard Mann, ‘Green-Eyed Monsters & Good Samaritans’, 169.

Tawa Baptist

The Covenant Justice of God (by Mike Harvey)

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 12 Jul 2026 – The Covenant Justice of God (by Mike Harvey) by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Good morning everyone.

You will probably be familiar with the idiom “That’s Greek to me” or “It’s all Greek to me”. We say this when we don’t understand something, usually technical, like a piece of legislation, or the terms and conditions page on a website, or science fiction jargon on a TV show like Star Trek. 

The idiom dates back to medieval times, and even Shakespeare used it in his play Julias Caeser, as you can see on the wall.

Today I’d like to look at Romans chapter 3 verses 21-24.  Romans was written by the apostle Paul, and it’s generally agreed that his audience was a group of small house churches in the city of Rome, and that the church members were a mix of Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus.

I’m reading from the New International Version, or NIV.

21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus

Now, if someone not familiar with the Bible or Christianity were to read this passage for the first time, they might say that this is Greek to them.  There’s a lot of jargon in here – the word righteousness, redemption, justified, and the glory of God.  Today I’m not going to try to explain ALL of these words, but I do hope to make this passage more understandable.

Just for fun, this is how verses 21-24 actually look in Greek.

As you might know, the New Testament was originally written in Greek, and the Old Testament was written in Hebrew,  There are many, many English translations of the Bible out there, maybe as many as 450 according to Google AI. 

One translation of just the New Testament is called the New Testament for Everyone translation, or NTFE.  The NTFE was written by NT Wright and published in 2011.  NT Wright, also known as Tom Wright, is a UK New Testament scholar, former Bishop of Durham, and author of over 70 books. 

Let’s see how the NTFE translates verses 21-24 into English.

21 But now, quite apart from the law (though the law and the prophets bore witness to it), God’s covenant justice has been displayed.

 22 God’s covenant justice comes into operation through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah, for the benefit of all who have faith. For there is no distinction:

 23 all sinned, and fell short of God’s glory— 

24 and by God’s grace they are freely declared to be in the right, to be members of the covenant, through the redemption which is found in the Messiah, Jesus.

As you can see, there are some differences between the NIV and the NTFE.

For example, in verse 22.  The NIV talks about God’s ‘righteousness’, and the NTFE instead talks about God’s ‘covenant justice’.   Also, the NTFE speaks of the faithfulness OF Jesus, rather than talking about our faith in Jesus, as the NIV does.  Why has the NTFE done this?   Hold that thought; we’ll get back to that in a few minutes.

For now, let’s imagine, about half an hour from now, you are walking out of church towards your car.   Someone named Julie has seen you come out; you don’t know her and she doesn’t know you.   But she’s feeling bold & brave today, and so asks you, “Can you explain what this church thing is all about?  Why do you believe in this stuff?  What’s so good about it?”

What do you think you would say?  How would you give a summary of the Good News? Would it go something like this? 

“Well, Julie, we believe in a God that created this earth, and you and me.  And he wants a relationship with us.  But you and I are sinners; we do wrong things, selfish things, have unclean thoughts and so on.   And that sin separates us from God; he’s pure and righteous and on the other hand we are not, and so He cannot have a relationship with us.  And our sin deserves death.  But God sent Jesus to die the death we deserved.  He sacrificed his life for us, for you.   That death cleans your sin so you can have a relationship with God and spend eternity with him in Heaven.”

Rom 3:21-24 in the NIV translation seems to line up well with your answer to Julie about what the Good News is.   It is also consistent with version of the Good News that many of us have learned since Sunday School when we were kids, or at least that’s true in my case. 

But I’d like us to consider whether Rom 3:21-24 is really talking about personal salvation, how you are personally made right with God.  Is that Paul’s main focus?  Or is Paul actually talking about something else here?

To answer this, let’s look at 3 questions. 

What does the word ‘sin’ mean?  What does Paul mean when he uses the Greek word for righteousness, or covenant justice.  And finally what does the Cross have to do with both of these? 

First, what does Paul mean when he talks about ‘sin’?   Well, Paul gives a list of sins earlier in Romans, at chapter 1 verses 29-31.  He says:

“They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.”

So this is one way to define sin – we could say sin is bad actions or thoughts.   For example, we could point to the first sin the Bible records, when Adam & Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge in Genesis 3:6.  

Genesis tells us that God had created a perfect world, the Garden of Eden; chapter 1 says that food was provided, and it seems Adam didn’t need to work for it.  And God created community – he said that it was not good Adam to be alone so he made a partner for relationship and intimacy.  Further, God himself was there, wanting to be part of that community.   Genesis 3:8 says that God was walking in the garden.  God himself.  Extraordinary.   

God also gave humans the task of caring for God’s creation.   It must have been incredible to live in the Garden.  It was an early version of God’s kingdom on earth.

But Adam & Eve for some reason were not satisfied.  They thought maybe there was something better out there,

In English, we have the saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side”.  In Persian, which is spoken in Iran and Afghanistan, the equivalent saying is “The neighbor’s chicken is a goose”.   Behind the saying is the truth that it’s not necessarily the case that everything on the other side is perfect.  Among Afghan refugee friends of mine who moved to America in the 1990s to escape civil war, I saw disillusionment play out; they had thought they would find a golden goose in America, but it was often harder than they had imagined.

With Adam & Eve, despite all that God had given them, I wonder if they thought there was another side that was greener.   Maybe their hearts were restless, not thankful for what they already had.  “I want to try this thing over here; maybe that will give me more happiness, more knowledge, more autonomy….”  That’s what the serpent was whispering to Eve – that if you eat the apple, you’ll be like God.

This is idolatry – giving more worth to something other than God’s kingdom.   It is a root sin, a foundational sin, or what I like to call sin with capital S.  Eating the apple, or for us, stealing or having hate or arrogance, or a love of money or whatever it is, these are ‘sins’ sure, but they are only the fruits of the root problem, idolatry.

What happens when we give our hearts to something?  That thing comes to have power over us, like an addiction.  Jesus talks about how one can’t serve God & money, and how we can become a slave to money if we aren’t careful.  When that happens, our hearts turn away from God and his kingdom – and further apart from each other.    

Do we appreciate what we have already, for example God’s creation, the nature around us?  Do we appreciate the signs of God’s kingdom already here on Earth, the amazing work of theologians and doctors and scientists and teachers, many many of them motivated over the centuries to learn about and serve God’s creation. 

Will gave a sermon some weeks ago on the parable of the weeds and the wheat.  Yes, some things are awful – we do need to work to restore those things that are broken.  But I think we also need to rejoice in those things that are beautiful and are working well, due to God’s grace and the servants, the human beings, he has worked through.

If we don’t appreciate and put value on God, his creation and each other, if we have the mindset that there are other things that would be better for me to pursue, then idolatry can take over.

Romans 1:19-20 says God’s goodness and his kingdom way of doing things had been plain to us humans, but verse 21 says we did not thank him, and set out on a different way.

And so God GAVE us OVER to the things you see on the wall, sinful desires, shameful lusts and a depraved mind.  (Romans 1: 24, 26, 28.)  Does this mean God actively pushed us into sin?  No, this is rather like the parable of prodigal son who was un-thankful, who dishonoured his father by demanding his inheritance early, wanting to get away from his father and live a different life, and his father, much as it pained him, letting his son go. 

Just like the prodigal son, when society turns away from God, the power of sin takes over and we become poor, lonely, alienated and broken.

So what was God’s solution to this?  Well, he could have snapped his fingers to re-create the Garden of Eden.  He could have overpowered our wills so that all humans would immediately love and value him again.

But he did not do this.  Instead, he chose to partner with humans, to work together with us to set things right, to restore Eden, to restore his presence, to restore his kingdom. 

After the Adam and Eve story, Genesis goes on to describe how God entered into a covenant with Abraham and his descendants – that all nations would be blessed through the people of Abraham.  God gave the people of Abraham a vocation to restore the world, to set the world right.

As we read on in the OT, Israel did partially fulfil that vocation – we see glimpses here and there of people outside of Israel coming to know God – but mostly we see sin with a capital S holding Israel back, and causing them to fail in its vocation.  The power of Sin was too great, and so they were largely unfaithful to God and their covenant purpose. 

But God did not give up.  He gave the Law to order their society well, and he gave instructions about how to build a tabernacle, and then a temple, so that his presence could dwell among his people.

From beginning to end, the Bible shows us a picture of God wanting to live among us here on Earth.  God walking in garden in Genesis, and then the tabernacle & temple in the age of Israel’s judges and kings.   And then Jesus comes and is called Emmanuel, meaning God with us.  Jesus himself taught us to pray for the kingdom of God to come down to earth, and heaven and earth coming together will finally and fully happen according to the last two chapters of Revelation.

Going back to the vocation God gave Israel through the covenant with Abraham.  Again and again, Israel was failing and floundering in that vocation, and it got so bad that they were exiled to Assyria, ending the time of the kings.  But still, God used prophets to give his people hope and to show them he still loved them.  Eventually, the exile ended; they returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple.  Throughout the Old Testament, we see God’s faithfulness to the Covenant of Abraham.   In other words, we see God’s covenant faithfulness, despite the covenant Unfaithfulness of Israel. 

This is the story Paul is telling in Romans chapters 2 through to chapter 3 and our passage which I’ll get to shortly.  At Romans 2:17 Paul says:

 (17) Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God…

 (19) if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark…

(21) you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?….

(24) God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you   

Paul is saying that Israel has a vocation,,, to be a guide for the blind (that is the Gentile world)….but so far they have largely failed because the power of Sin has been too great, and so God’s name has been blasphemed among the Gentile nations.  Romans 3:9 says that Jews & Gentiles were both under the power of sin. 

But now, Paul says in 3:21.  But now, here’s the solution to the power of sin.  But now the righteousness of God has been made known. In other words, righteousness is the solution, or as Tom Wright puts it in his translation, God’s covenant justice is the solution.  As we saw before, the two translations are different.  Why the difference? 

Well, the word in Greek that the NIV translates as righteousness is Dikaiosyne.  (D-kai-o-SUU-neh).  This word in Greek can mean morally right, virtuous, being a good person.  But it also can mean justice, fairness and equity. 

Many of us are familiar with Micah 6:8, which says:  What does the Lord require of you? To act justly [mishpat] and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. 

To act justly, to act with justice, comes from the Hebrew word mishpat.  When the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek, probably in the 3rd or 2nd century BC, the Hebrew word mishpat in Micah 6:8 was changed into Greek using the word Dikaiosyne.

And when the Bible speaks of God’s justice, it is not far from the idea of God’s love for humanity.  Justice and love are not opposites, but go closely together.

Tom Wright says in his book “Into the Heart of Romans”:

“When the Bible speaks of God’s justice, it is talking about the creator’s utter determination, faced with his creation in a mess, to put it all right.  When it speaks of God’s love, it is talking about the creator entering into a ‘covenant’, a close personal relationship, with his people – as the means by which he will put the world right.  Paul draws on this combined meaning explaining throughout [Romans]…how God has been faithful to his covenant…by which he is putting the world right.”  (page 14).  

See also endnote 1

To capture this idea, Tom Wright uses the phrase ‘covenant justice’ in some of his books and in his NTFE translation of Romans 3. 

Humanity was sinful and therefore broken, but now a new ‘setting things right’ has happened, aligned with the covenant faithfulness of God throughout the Old Testament that we’ve been talking about.  Covenant justice is the putting into operation of God’s covenant faithfulness.

Where is this covenant justice placed?   How does it come about?   Precisely in Jesus the Messiah; his life death and resurrection.  Verse 22 – God’s covenant justice comes into operation through the faithfulness of Jesus. 

In other words, God has set things right through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  The problem of sin with a capital S, the problem explained in Romans 1 and 2, has been dealt with through the covenant justice put into operation by Jesus.

Verse 25 reiterates the same idea, that God’s demonstration of his covenant justice is found in the cross of Jesus, who was faithful to the point of shedding his blood. 25 says: 

God put Jesus forth as the place of mercy, through faithfulness, by means of his blood. He did this to demonstrate his covenant justice

I began this sermon thinking about what ‘Good News’ we might say to Julie outside of church, and I included a line about God sending Jesus to die for my personal sin, and then I raised the question about whether that was in fact the message of our passage in Romans 3.    What I’ve tried to suggest today is that in this passage, Paul is not so much talking about Jesus being killed in my place for the bad things I’ve done, but rather he’s talking about the Cross dealing with sin with a capital S, breaking the power of Sin and death, so that we are now set free to take forward the vocation he had given Israel to set the world right. 

Now, how does Jesus’s death actually ‘deal with sin’ in that way?  How does it actually break Sin’s hold on me, on us?  That’s a puzzle that I’ve agonised over for the last 2 or 3 years and which I’m still working through – I don’t know if I’ve quite solved that puzzle completely.

But I think part of the answer is to imagine what happens, or should happen, in my heart when I look on Jesus, when I look on that cross with amazement at what he did, and grapple with what it all means, and if I soak it all in with the help of the Holy Spirit, should it, and will it, make my heart sing and set me free?

About 25 years ago when I was in seminary, I read a book by Paul Fiddes called the Creative Suffering of God, and when I read the passage from his book that I’m about to show you, I think I did feel the Holy Spirit opening my eyes to something new about the cross.

In the book, Paul Fiddes speaks of death in a wider way than just physical death.  For him, it’s also a loss of relationship, it is alienation.  He explains how God experienced that death throughout the Old Testament, and then experienced death in his own being as the Son was separated from the Father at the Cross. 

Now, Paul Fiddes, being a good and proper British theologian, tends to use very dense language that can hurt your brain and make you reach for a tall cup of coffee, so I asked Google AI to paraphrase it for us into simpler English.

Saying God defeats death does not mean death just disappears. It means that when God exposed Himself to death through Jesus, death was unable to destroy Him. Instead of being ruined by this dark power, God used the experience to show His character.

Because death could not break Him, it now belongs to Him and leaves a permanent mark on who He is.  We cannot think of God without remembering that He experienced death, and we cannot think of death without realising it failed to shatter God.

While God has always encountered and overcome death throughout human history, the death of Jesus was the ultimate demonstration of this. It was the deepest moment of isolation and pain God ever experienced.

This terrible event actually became the clearest message about who God is. It shows that God willingly chooses to share in our deepest loneliness and suffering, which naturally moves us to trust Him more.

This connection changes everything for humanity. When we choose to trust God, death loses its aggressive power and control over our lives.

Finally, the resurrection of Jesus acts as a powerful sign. It proves that even when faced with absolute finality, God does something new for his creation in the face of finality and death.

See also endnote 2

Tom Wright says this:  “The answer to human idolatry, the root of sin, is the fresh revelation of the one true God.  God has supplanted the idols worshipped by Israel and the nations alike with a fresh revelation of himself.” (Page 332 – The Day the Revolution Began)

And because those chains of sin have fallen off you and me, we are now free to join with God in doing “something new for his creation”, as Paul Fiddes says in his book.

I spoke earlier about God being in the business of ‘setting things right’.  Further on in Romans 3, verses 24 and 26 suggest that through Jesus, we are now ‘in the right’ – we are now Abraham’s family, and so can join in God’s business of ‘setting things right’.  We can take on the Abrahamic vocation of being a blessing to the nations. 

We can restore what is broken in our communities, we can restore our environment, we can celebrate and reflect divine creativity through art and music, working now, today towards that vision at the end of Revelation when a new heavens AND NEW EARTH will be realised, when heaven and earth finally come together, when God himself will again walk among us, just as he did in the Garden of Eden and in the life of Jesus.

If I were to meet a Julie coming out of church today, that would be the Good News I think would tell. 

End Notes

  1. Jewish scholar Abraham Heschel also writes:  “It would be wrong to assume that there was a dichotomy of mishpat and kindness.  [Quoting R Niebuhr] ‘Justice was not equal justice but a bias in favour of the poor.  Justice always leaned toward mercy for the widows and orphans’ ….Justice dies when dehumanized, no matter how exactly it may be exercised.  Justice dies when deified, for beyond all justice is God’s compassion.  The logic of justice may seem impersonal, yet the concern for justice is an act of love.”  Page 201, The Prophets Vol 1.
  • The actual words from Paul Fiddes’ book are:  “..to claim that God conquers non-being, or the death which has become an alien power through the fall of creation…means that God is not destroyed by it [the power] when he exposes his being [Jesus] to it.  Instead, he uses it [death, or the alien power] to define his own being, and in this way makes death serve him…..The point is not what has happened to alien death, but what has happened to God in confronting it, in terms of alienation….  Such death now belongs to God… it leaves a permanent impression upon his life.  This means that we cannot think of God except as one who has experienced death, and we cannot think of death except as the power which could not shatter God….So God uses death to define his being.”

“Throughout human history…God has been encountering death and making it serve him.  But the depth of alienation God experiences in the death of Jesus, means a corresponding clarity of definition….The most dreadful assault of non-being has become the most articulate word about God… [We] encounter God as the one who participates in our estrangement, and this has a persuasive power, moving us to trust him.  In our trust of God, non-being loses its aggressive power over us….[and the] sign of the resurrection of Jesus affirms that God does something new for his creation in the face of finality and death.”  Pages 265-267, The Creative Suffering of God.

Tawa Baptist

Your God is too small (by Ewan Stewart)

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 5 Jul 2026 – Your God is too small (Ewan Stewart) by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

When we look at how Israel and the Church have understood God over the millennia, it is clear that this understanding sometimes conflicts with the record in our bible.  Our bible tells us a few facts about God, and the book of Job in particular, gives some insight but sometimes we take it further and even contradict the bible.  When Jesus came, he was able to help us understand God (Jn 14:9).

From our bible and our own knowledge we can put together some facts about God: (OH 1)

FACT 1: We worship an infinite God

FACT 2: We human beings are finite creatures

FACT 3: We are rarely able to fully understand ourselves, much less fully understand another person

CONCLUSION: We cannot ever fully understand God.  Our understanding must be

•          incomplete and wrong at times

•          we may not even realise our own misunderstanding

RESULT: God sent Jesus to come to us, show us the way to God and help us understand Him

So can we at least start and recognise some of our faulty understanding?

The well known bible commentator, J B Phillips wrote to say “Your God is too small”.  The book of Job tried to help Israel recognise essentially the same point.  So let us start by looking at Job.

Job is one of the less well known books in our bible.  It is one of the books of Wisdom literature – alongside Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs.  Wisdom literature is a well known teaching tool used throughout the middle East in biblical times.  The book of Job is not history, it is a story, a story intended to teach rather than record details of religious reality.  Through the story, Job tries to teach us how great God is.

Job is a most unusual book.  Apart from portions at the beginning and end, it is a single work of poetry and poses some of the most difficult tasks for translators.  We are fortunate that translators have put so much effort into their work that we are able to appreciate the meaning of what was written, even if the quality of the poetry is lost to us.  Some experts “regard it as one of the most original works in the poetry of mankind”.  Written in Hebrew, few of us today are able to appreciate the significance of Job as literature.

However it is clear the significance of Job does not lie in it’s being a unique work of literature. Poetry was merely the tool used to present a message that is far more significant than the literary value of Job.

The story of Job is that of a man whose life was a model even God valued.  He was VERY rich and had sons and daughters, which confirmed he was favoured by God using the traditional Hebrew viewpoint.

Job then suffered a tremendous series of calamities.  He lost his wealth, his children and his health.  His suffering was enormous, and he was in despair.  His wife even urged him to curse God and die, as a way of ending his suffering.  From the traditional Hebrew viewpoint, he appeared to be cursed by God, which implied that he had committed some great sin.  I have even heard preachers comment that the fact that his wife was left to him was another curse, given her advice!

In Job’s suffering, he was visited by four of his friends to advise and comfort him.  They are the origin of the term “Job’s comforters” to describe friends whose advice makes our troubles seem worse.  Job’s friends could not believe his sufferings had arisen by any other means than sin. They told Job (at great length) to confess his sin and that God would help him if he did.  Job rejected their advice, with much exaggeration, because he knew he had committed no such sin.

Towards the end of the book, the words of Job and friends are rejected by God in person (Job 38 – 41), not because they are untrue, but because they are too narrow.  With all Job’s exaggeration we recognize at once that his friends are in fact producing their picture of what the fate of the wicked should be. They create their picture of God only by a careful selection of evidence. Job was suffering because what had happened to him didn’t fit his understanding of God either.

This explains the apparently unsatisfactory climax in which God does not answer Job’s questions or charges.  Though God proclaims the greatness of his might, not of his ethical rule, Job is satisfied. He realizes that his concept of God collapsed because it was too small; his problems evaporate when he realizes the greatness of God.

The book does not set out to answer the problem of suffering but to proclaim a God that is so much greater than Job could understand that his concerns dwindle into insignificance.  Perhaps this will help us with understanding God.

Let us look at part of God’s answer to Job in chapter 38 (OH2):

38            Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm.

He said:

2     “Who is this that darkens my counsel

with words without knowledge?

3     Brace yourself like a man;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.

4     “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Tell me, if you understand.

5     Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6     On what were its footings set,

or who laid its cornerstone—

7     while the morning stars sang together

and all the angels shouted for joy?

8     “Who shut up the sea behind doors

when it burst forth from the womb,

9     when I made the clouds its garment

and wrapped it in thick darkness,

10   when I fixed limits for it

and set its doors and bars in place,

11   when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;

here is where your proud waves halt’?

12   “Have you ever given orders to the morning,

or shown the dawn its place,

13   that it might take the earth by the edges

and shake the wicked out of it?

14   The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;

its features stand out like those of a garment.

15   The wicked are denied their light,

and their upraised arm is broken.

The writer of Job devoted 4 chapters to his rendering of God’s response to Job, so I hope you will forgive me if I only present those few verses.  Yet these verses are a tribute to how great God is.

The writer of the book tells us that Job was made aware that criticising God for his misfortune was a trivial matter when considered against God’s creation and knowledge.  In the following chapters the writer continues God’s response to an extensive summary of the limits of human knowledge of God and his creation, as known at the time. Following that response, Job accepted that his understanding of God was too small, and apologised for his criticism.

With our knowledge today, we can recognise some of the limitations of the writer’s understanding of God, so long ago.  Yet we can now add our own tributes to the power and wisdom of God.  God is awesome beyond our understanding.

Job was made aware of how small was his understanding of God.  Complaining to God because life does not go the way we expect is pointless because we cannot understand God and his plans.  God can help us in our need even if the writer does not discuss it.  However He has plans for us that go beyond this life into eternity.  That is how much greater God is than we or Job can understand.

Despite the message of Job, Israel continued to misunderstand God.   Israel remained focused on the law and obeying it rather than recognising how great God is.  The prophet Micah in about 735BC was also among those who tried to show how narrow this is, but he took a different tack.  He addressed the mindless giving of sacrifices based on the law.  (Micah 6: 6-8) [OH 3]

6     With what shall I come before the Lord

and bow down before the exalted God?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

with calves a year old?

7     Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

with ten thousand rivers of oil?

Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8     He has showed you, O man, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God.

It is possible Micah was contemporary with the writing of Job, with both inspired by a similar issue.  A failure to understand God.  Israel needed to have a better perspective on understanding God.  Sacrifices and the law were no substitute for justice, mercy and trust in God.

For the Jews after their return from the Babylonian exile, their faith remained based on the words of the law as in our Old Testament.  Not much change from Micah’s day.  The Pharisees of Jesus’ day had a faith that was limited to the observance of rules derived from their understanding of the law.  They did not see that God was bigger than any formal expression of law.  As a result the Pharisees understanding of God was constrained by their rules.  As Jesus pointed out in Matthew 23: 23, the weightier matters of the law consisted of Justice, Mercy and Faith, rather than the details expressed in their rules.  Almost exactly what Micah had said 700 years before.

Jesus also directly addressed the idea of a faith based on rules, as taught by the Pharisees, when he was asked by a Pharisee “What is the greatest commandment”:  (Matt 22: 35-40) [OH 4]

 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus’ words again sound remarkably like those of Micah 700 years before.  “And what does the Lord require of you?   To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  They reflect a wider understanding of God than the rules of the Pharisees and show us what God considers important.

Jesus’ simple summary showed that all that is important among the rules taught by the Pharisees could be reduced to two absolute requirements.  To love God and to love your neighbor.  Elsewhere in the gospels we see Jesus rejecting specific rules such as those forbidding work on the Sabbath, where he said, “the Sabbath was made for Man not Man for the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27).  The rules the Pharisees considered important were secondary to the two greatest commandments.  We too need to recognise that we cannot understand God just by following rules.

However, recognising the two greatest commandments still leaves the issue of sin since nobody manages to always obey them – all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.  Sin separates us from God because He cannot accept sin.  Only His Son, Jesus, was without sin.  Jesus died for our sin on the cross in our place, since the penalty for sin is death.  Jesus’ death allows us to come to God.  We recognise that we need to accept Jesus’ sacrifice to allow us to come to God.  God’s plan includes a way for us to come to Him.

When we seek to understand God, we need to cling to the important things.  God is so much greater than us, that our problems are close to trivial as shown by Job.  Yet God is aware of even trivia.  Jesus taught us that God cares for every sparrow  (Luke 12:6), let alone for each of us and he taught that the Father knows what you need before you ask Him (Matt 6:8).  Peter also taught us to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1Peter 5:7).   God knows us intimately and His care includes even trivia.

Job taught us that God is overwhelmingly great.  Yet Jesus has taught us that God is great enough that He still knows all our troubles, even if He does not resolve them as we would wish.  He has sent Jesus as His answer, so that we have a way to come to Him.  Jesus is our way to God.

Jesus told Thomas, and us, in John 14:5-6:  [OH 5]

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

God is great beyond our imagining, just as Job came to understand.  But let us remember that our God, the creator of the universe, including ourselves, also cares for each of us.  He is great enough to know each one of us individually.  He even knows every sparrow, and He gave His only Son to suffer the penalty for our sin.  Is your God too small?

Let us therefore [OH 6]:

•          Try to recognise our limitations in matters of faith

•          Try to expand our understanding of our faith so that it may grow.

•          Recognise that because of our limitations, our “God is too small”, because our understanding is limited.

•          Recognise that God is so great yet He is able to care for each one of us.

•          Trust Jesus as the way to God through all that we fail to understand.

Let us pray

Our Father, we recognise that you are so much greater than us, and we cannot understand you as we wish.  We recognise that you understand us while we even fail to understand ourselves.  Please help us to obey the two greatest commandments, to love you and to love our neighbour, especially even though we cannot fully understand you.