Other! Other! Other!

 

Job 42:4 Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, 'I will question you, and you shall answer Me.' 5 "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. 6 Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes."

Job’s confession continues. Here, he is responding to God’s original question to him when God appeared out of the whirlwind.  God had said in Job 38:3 “Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”

God was about to make His case for His sovereignty, His omnipotence….His holiness. By the way, a good way to view the word holy is to substitute the word “other.” It certainly isn’t the complete definition of holiness, but it gets us started with a right view of God. He is “other!”  He is holy! Grasp that concept like Job did here and like Isaiah did in Isaiah chapter 6. When he said, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts."

Isaiah tainted by sin in his life and living in a world tainted by sin was undone in the presence of a 100% pure and “other” God. And the angel declared, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!"  Other! Other! Other! Now please, let’s not change the wording of the classic Christian hymn, Holy! Holy! Holy! But, let’s remember who we are dealing with. A Holy God who is otherly pure and free of sin.!

 

And God told Job to answer Him like a man! Man up Job! Admit you are a sinner in need of the grace and mercy of God!

 

I was viewing a public service announcement that was produced for a ”man up” campaign, and one of the lines really struck me. It said, “If there’s one thing that I’ve learnt, the manly thing to do is to put your hand up and say, “I’ve got a problem…….”

 

Job finally came to the realization that he had a problem. It was a sin problem. His only help was the Lord, and therefore he says, so he puts his hand up and says, “I abhor myself, I “cast off the old Job and repent in dust and ashes”

 

Have you come to that place in your life? That place where you realize that nothing you do on your own can earn your salvation. God is other, you are not. Our only hope is to receive Jesus, for He is the “holy One of God.” (Mr 1:24 )

The Bible says we are to “put on Christ. That is our only hope for “otherhood.”  Ga 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

 

Having put on Christ through faith in God’s promises, God now looks at you and no longer sees the sins on your record, rather He sees the perfect sinless, life of Christ.