Bildad, like his companions, asks a couple of good
questions, "How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is
born of woman be pure?" Indeed,
they understand that the reality is that we are sinful human beings, there is
none righteous, not one. These questions
take God and His holiness seriously. The
problem is that the implication continues to be that Job has some sin that he
needs to deal with and this sin has been the catalyst for all this devastation
in his life. Job will not have his
reputation impugned, he knows that he has done nothing to deserve this
calamity. We know that too. Does that mean we should be angry with God
for allowing it or humble before a holy God who allowed it? Can we believe He has good reasons for all
this?
Jesus says that we have to be more righteous than the
scribes and Pharisees to enter the kingdom of heaven. He said this not to criticize the scribes and
Pharisees but in some ways to lift them up and, simultaneously, to say their example
is not enough to get into the kingdom.
We are called to be salt and light and told that we aren't to hide these
things from the world but to offer them to the world which has to be held in
tension with Jesus' teaching to hide our acts of righteousness like giving and
praying from the world lest we be exalted.
Our personal righteousness is never going to be enough to enter the
kingdom, only Jesus' perfect righteousness is good enough. That said, our personal righteousness is to
exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, it is to be from the heart not the
head. Sanctification matters, not only
justification.
Why has there been such an obsession with the 144,000? An entire denomination, the Jehovah's
Witnesses, arose around this passage.
They believe most of those righteous are already in heaven and will be
joined at the end to fill out that exact number to be priests serving with
Jesus in heaven. These are virgins who
have not defiled themselves with women, so they are men. Here, they are defined also as those in whose
mouths no lie was found, they are blameless, the same word used for Job. This is the only time they are
mentioned. The final words of the
passage are haunting for us when we realize that our deeds follow us. Justification must lead to sanctification,
the desire for righteousness, conviction of sin.
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