Category: Bible Insights

Reflections and meditations about the Bible by Peter DeHaan, PhD.

Four Lessons from Job about Devotion to God

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 10, 2023

Job Professes His Spiritual Practices

The words of Job’s friend Eliphaz fail to comfort him. Instead they stir up anger. With a friend who speaks like Eliphaz I’d be angry too.

In Job’s reply to his so-called friend, he professes what he has done to align himself with God. He claims his practices prove his devotion to his Lord.

Job Follows God

Job says that he follows closely behind God. It’s as if he walks in God’s shadow, placing each step in the footprint of his Lord. With intention he trails after God, focusing on staying right behind him.

Job Resists Distractions

Job follows God with unswerving dedication. He keeps his eyes fixed on God, walking in his path. Job does not look to his left or to his right. He tunes out worldly distractions so he can remain steadfast in keeping aligned with God, going everywhere that God goes.

Job Obeys God’s Commands

Next Job says that he keeps the commands of God. He listens to what God says and follows his words with unswerving commitment. It’s as if Job pauses in expectation for God to speak. Then he immediately obeys him, doing everything he says to do.

Job Treasures God’s Words

Job ends his testimony saying that he values God’s words more than food. Though we might think this refers to the written Word of God, the Bible, it does not.

Job likely lives in a time before the Scriptures existed. This means Job treasures the spoken words of God.

Job would rather feed his soul by listening to God then feed his body by eating food. For Job to hear God speak, Job must remain in close relationship with him.

The Outcome of Job’s Devotion

Job is a man who carefully follows God with singular focus, obeying him and valuing everything he says. It’s an example of godly devotion we will do well to follow.

You’d think that for Job’s dedication, God would bless him and keep him from discomfort.

Yet for this time in Job’s life, he is in much distress and God’s blessings are absent in his life. Though a positive and pleasant outcome await Job, it’s far removed from his present life.

This is a hard reality to accept and to comprehend. Yet there are two things we must remember. First, God is Sovereign and can do whatever he wants.

We must accept this truth even if we don’t like it.

Second, there is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor. He loves us regardless of what we do or don’t do. In the end, we, like Job, will see God’s blessing and reward.

Until then we should follow Job’s example of devotion to our Lord.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Job 21-24, and today’s post is on Job 23:11-12.]

Discover more about Job in Peter’s book I Hope in Him: 40 Insights about Moving from Despair to Deliverance through the Life of Job. In it, we compare the text of Job to a modern screenplay.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags God, hear God, Job, love, sovereign

Bible Insights

Are Our Beliefs Flawless or Flawed?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 4, 2023

If We Claim to Know the Truth, That Implies Every Other Perspective Is Wrong

The book of Job is mostly dialogue between Job and his four “friends,” with God having the final word—as he should. The words of Job’s four friends aren’t much help.

At one point in Zophar’s monologue he claims that Job said his beliefs are flawless and he is pure before God. No one stands pure before God, just as no one is flawless in what they believe.

However, today many people carry this same assumption about themselves: that their beliefs are flawless. Yes, we must seek truth in our pursuit of God, but we must hold it loosely. After all, we might be wrong.

Unfortunately, not many people see it this way. They see their viewpoints as unassailable and without fault. This implies that all other perspectives are in error. These other people are, therefore, wrong in what they believe.

When it comes to matters of faith, it seems no one stands in complete agreement with anyone else. Though some may hold views closely aligned with what others say, 100 percent harmony doesn’t happen.

Or if it does, it doesn’t last long. Inevitably differences of opinion will occur.

That’s a huge factor as to why we have 42,000 denominations in our world today. When people disagree, they draw lines. They push away those with different beliefs, even those with slightly different views.

Our Beliefs are Flawed

Yet no one’s beliefs are flawless, and that includes our own.

Instead of arrogantly assuming our beliefs are faultless, we should instead adopt the humble viewpoint that our beliefs are flawed: mine, yours, everyone’s. It’s as if we’re seeing through a mirror dimly (1 Corinthians 13:12).

What we know now, what we think we know now, we see in part. And for now, that needs to be enough. Later, we’ll see in full, but that won’t occur while we’re on this planet. It will happen later.

For now we must humbly accept the reality that our theology is incomplete, that no matter how sincere, our beliefs are flawed.

[Read through the Bible this year. Today’s reading is Job 9-12, and today’s post is on Job 11:4.]

Discover more about Job in Peter’s book I Hope in Him: 40 Insights about Moving from Despair to Deliverance through the Life of Job. In it, we compare the text of Job to a modern screenplay.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags Job, theology

Bible Insights

Conflict or Coexistence?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 3, 2023

Mankind and the Animal Kingdom

God created people and animals, the Animal Kingdom (Genesis 1:26). At first, everything was great. Then Adan and Eve did what God told them not to do. They sinned. He kicked them out of the Garden of Eden.

Things went downhill from there. More people and more sin. A lot more sin. Finally God had enough. He wanted to start over, to wipe the slate clean.

He sent a flood to destroy all the people, except for Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark. All the other people, along with all the animals die—because of humanity’s sin.

This, of course, is not fair to the animals. They didn’t do anything wrong, but they’re taken out because of man’s mistakes.

There is an interesting parallel in this today. Man’s behavior is again threatening the lives of animals. This time man’s mistakes result in excessive economic gain and greedy prosperity at the expense of animal habitat.

God did give the earth to man, but to take care of it, not to exploit it.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Genesis 6-8 and today’s post is on Genesis 6:5-8.]

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Bogged Down Reading the Bible?

10 Essential Bible Reading Tips, from Peter DeHaan

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Tags animals, flood, God

Bible Insights

Is it Okay to Contend with God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 28, 2022

Job and His Friends Contend with God

Job’s life has crumbled. His wife turned on him. And his friends don’t help. After listening to their back-and-forth dialogue that accomplishes nothing, God interjects. At last he speaks.

At one point God says, “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?” (Job 40:2). In this rhetorical question, two thoughts stand out. The first is the idea of contending with God, and the second is correcting him.

Contend with God

Though we could view God’s question as implying that he doesn’t want us to contend with him, I don’t think this is what he means.

One understanding of the word contend is to debate. Another is struggle. When it comes to God, these are strong words. It seems foolish for us to debate God, to struggle with him.

God is sovereign. And we are far less than sovereign. Who are we to question him?

Yet I can’t think of any place in the Bible where God punishes his people for contending with him when they do so with respect. I can’t find a single verse that commands us not to question God or debate his ways.

In fact, I think God enjoys it when we ask questions—serious, soul-wrenching questions, just like Job.

For in asking questions, we seek him. And that’s what he wants.

Correct God

However, there’s a right way to contend with God and a wrong way. The wrong way is when we think we know better than him, when we try to correct him and tell him he made a mistake.

When we do this, we forget God is sovereign, and we try to elevate ourselves over him. This is foolish. And it separates us from God. This isn’t what he wants from us.

The Bible says, be angry and sin not (Ephesians 4:26). In parallel fashion, we can also say, contend with God and don’t correct him. That gives us the balance we need.

God enjoys our sincere questions, but we must never forget he is our sovereign Creator and we are the created.

[Read through the Bible this year. Today’s reading is Job 40-42, and today’s post is on Job 40:2.]

Discover more about Job in Peter’s book I Hope in Him: 40 Insights about Moving from Despair to Deliverance through the Life of Job. In it, we compare the text of Job to a modern screenplay.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags connect with God, Job, sovereign

Bible Insights

Does Silence Scare You?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 27, 2022

We Need to Learn to Worship God in Silence, Doing Nothing but Standing in Awe of Him

The Book of Revelation is an amazing book. However, I fear that many people miss the point of it. The intent of Revelation isn’t to give us a detailed map of the future.

Instead, Revelation provides us with a grand overview of God’s ultimate power and amazing plan for the future, our future.

The goal in reading Revelation isn’t to formulate a timeline, detail the future, or argue about the end times. The grand revelation of Revelation is to comprehend the power, the grandeur, and the glory of God.

So it is with today’s text. John writes that when the angel opens the seventh seal there is silence in heaven for half an hour.

Silence.

Total quiet.

Nothing.

How do you deal with silence? How much silence can you withstand before you go crazy? If you’re like most people, your answer is only a few seconds.

Imagine being in the presence of God. The setting overwhelms. God sits on his throne surrounded by his people and spiritual beings. An angel brakes a seal to open a sacred scroll. Silence fills the space in awe over God’s presence, power, and plan.

The only response is to do nothing, to stand quietly, and to not say a thing. To bask in God’s essence.

Nothing happens for thirty minutes. That’s 1,800 seconds.

Tick, tick, tick. That’s three seconds. Can you stand the silence? Do you feel the pressure to say something or for someone else to break the quiet?

Now wait 1,797 seconds more. That’s a lot of quiet. That’s a quiet that honors God. It’s a quiet that God deserves. It’s one way we can worship God.

No music, no song, and no singing. Just silence. By doing nothing we can worship God. By sitting in silence in the presence of his glory, we honor him.

Does silence scare you? It shouldn’t. When done right, it shows God our adoration.

Maybe we should worship God in our silence more often. We can start right now.

[Read through the Bible this year. Today’s reading is Revelation 4-8, and today’s post is on Revelation 8:1.]

Read more in Peter’s devotional Bible study, A New Heaven and a New Earth: 40 Practical Insights from John’s Book of Revelation.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags glory, heaven, worship

Bible Insights

Why Do We Love God? When Do We Love Him?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 21, 2022

We Must Adore the Almighty Regardless of Our Circumstances

It’s easy to love God when things go well. When our lives are great and we receive his blessings, we can thank him, praise him, and appreciate his goodness. It’s easy to love him when life is good.

However, life isn’t always so good. Sometimes our lives are a mess. When we don’t receive God’s blessings or experience his favor, do we still love him?

We should, but our situation makes it much harder. In fact, for some people hardship turns their love of the Almighty into blaming him.

Although understandable, this isn’t right.

Love God Because

When we love our Creator during the good times, we may be loving him because of what he’s done for us. We love him for his favor. We love him for his blessings. We love him because he’s benevolent.

Love God Despite

But when we’re going through difficult times, we must love him too. This is much harder to do, but we must press forward to love him, despite our circumstances. He deserves our love regardless of our situation.

How Does Job Relate to God?

In the Bible, Job, at first, has every reason to love his Creator because of what he did for Job. And when it’s all taken away from Job, he has every reason to turn from God and blame him. But he doesn’t.

Though the Bible doesn’t say that Job loves God, it does imply this when we see Job steadfastly affirming God for who he is, despite the turmoil he undergoes. This isn’t a gushy, emotional love.

It’s an intentional, push-through-the-hard-times effort to give God what he deserves: our resolute devotion despite our circumstances.

Job’s wife condemns him for maintaining his affirmation of God, his love for his creator. She says, “To end your suffering, just curse God and then die (Job 2:9). Job doesn’t agree.

Despite what he’s going through, he doesn’t blame God (Job 1:22 and Job 2:10).

Though the way we show God we love him may vary with our circumstances, we must always love him. It’s easy to love him because of what he does for us, but we must also love him despite what we’re going through.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Job 1-4, and today’s post is on Job 2:9.]

Discover more about Job in Peter’s book I Hope in Him: 40 Insights about Moving from Despair to Deliverance through the Life of Job. In it, we compare the text of Job to a modern screenplay.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags Job, love God

Bible Insights

God as a Vine

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 20, 2022

Word Picture: Vine

Another word picture to help us better understand God is that he is the vine and we are the branches. We can view God as a vine, as our vine.

In this, God is revealed as the source of nourishment, the giver of life, and the means of support, sustenance, and existence.

For us, as branches, we are completely dependent on him for everything. We can produce fruit only through him.

Also, just as fruit trees are pruned, so to, we are pruned in order to be more productive.

Additionally, note that branches that are unproductive are removed. The pruning may be painful, but it is necessary if we are to produce fruit.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is John 13-15, and today’s post is on John 15:1-6.]

Read more in Peter’s new book, Living Water: 40 Reflections on Jesus’s Life and Love from the Gospel of John, available everywhere in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags connect with God, word pictures

Bible Insights

What Can We Do to Help Others?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 14, 2022

Discover Ten Reasons Why People Speak Well of Job

Job had everything and he lost it all. He can’t figure out what happened or why God seems so distant. Though enduring hard times, he asserts he has done nothing wrong.

To reinforce this claim of right behavior, he says that everyone who heard of him has good things to say. They commend him.

Here’s why:

1. Job Rescued People Who Asked for Help

When people in trouble ask for our help, how do we react? It’s easy to come to the aid of friends, but what about strangers?

2. Job Aided Orphans

God has a special place in his heart for those without parents. When we help orphans, we benefit them and honor God at the same time.

3. Job Brought Joy to Widows

In addition to orphans, God also wants to make sure widows received care. Though their plight today isn’t as detrimental as it was then, we do need to be intentional to help widows in need.

4. Job Behaved Rightly

Following Job’s example, we can do the right thing every day. It should be part of who we are and how we act. The Bible calls this righteousness.

5. Job Became Eyes for the Blind

We should help those who can’t see. What can we do to make their life a little bit easier?

6. Job Became Feet to Those Who Couldn’t Walk

Likewise, we should assist those who struggle with mobility issues. What can we do to help them?

7. Job Was a Father to Those in Need

To those with unmet needs, we can be like a father—a loving, gracious father—to help them out.

8. Job Pursued Justice

We can pursue justice for the oppressed and help them find relief from their oppressors.

9. Job Opposed Evil

Evil is all around us. Do we ignore it, or do we oppose it?

10. Job Rescued Victims from Evil

When evil exists, victims result. What can we do to rescue victims from their plight?

Moving Forward

This is a long list, an endless amount of need for us to address. Jesus said we’ll always have the poor with us, but that fact isn’t an excuse to ignore them.

Though these needs could overwhelm us, we should do what we can to help those around us. Pick one thing today and pursue it.

What can we do to help someone today?

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Job 29-32, and today’s post is on Job 29:11-17.]

Discover more about Job in Peter’s book I Hope in Him: 40 Insights about Moving from Despair to Deliverance through the Life of Job. In it, we compare the text of Job to a modern screenplay.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags Job, poor

Bible Insights

Do You Offer God a Sacrifice of Praise?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 13, 2022

Embrace a Different Way to Worship God

The term “sacrifice of praise” is only found in one verse in the Bible. It’s a curious phrase. What does it mean?

Whatever it may refer to, the first thing we see is we are to do it continually. We are to offer a constant sacrifice of praise to God. To do this, we must adopt a wider understanding of praise as more than just singing.

It certainly includes the things we say, as well as the things we don’t say—praising God with words we use as well as the words we keep to ourselves.

This offering of praise could also encompass our attitude as we go about life, even our demeanor.

While sacrifice of praise could include everything we give up—that is, what we sacrifice—for God as an act of adoration, I don’t think that concept ties in with this verse because we can’t continually offer sacrifices.

We can indeed praise God through our sacrificial living and giving, but this isn’t what phrase means.

Let’s look at the Old Testament for insight. Prior to Jesus, animal sacrifices are common—and commanded according to the law of Moses. Those sacrifices must be repeated because their covering is only temporary.

When Jesus comes along to become our sacrifice it is permanent. It doesn’t need to be repeated. It’s once and for all. This means that in the New Testament, the sacrifice of animals is obsolete.

Could it be that a sacrifice of praise replaces it?

May we continually offer our praise as a sweet sacrifice that to God the Father, Jesus our Savior, and the Holy Spirit for their glory.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Hebrews 11-13, and today’s post is on Hebrews 13:15.]

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Tags glory, Jesus, praise, sacrifice

Bible Insights

The Book of Job

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 7, 2022

I once mused that the Song of Songs might be best understood as a screenplay of sorts. Reading and meditating on it as such gave me new insights and a deeper appreciation of this often-overlooked book.

It seems that the book of Job is similar in this regard.

As mostly dialogue, the book of Job could have been an early version of today’s screenplay (movie script) or stage play (theater production).

Roles

In the book of Job, we have eight characters:

Job, the protagonist
God, Job’s protector and overseer
Satan, Job’s antagonist
Job’s unsupportive wife, a bit part, albeit a painful one
Job’s three “friends:” Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, (with friends like these, who needs enemies?)
Job’s fourth friend, the initially quiet and then verbose, Elihu.

Job Overview

The book of Job opens with a prologue (chapters 1 and 2) that establishes the setting of the story. And it concludes with an epilogue (chapter 42) that provides for a satisfying ending.

In between is all dialogue, mostly between Job and his four increasingly critical friends.

Aside from a brief ending summation by Job in the epilogue, the last oration is from God.

It’s fitting that God has the final word—and that Job listens.

May we do the same when we read the book of Job.

Discover more about Job in Peter’s book I Hope in Him: 40 Insights about Moving from Despair to Deliverance through the Life of Job. In it, we compare the text of Job to a modern screenplay.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags Job, movies