Job 14:19

As water wears away stone,

   Torrents wash away the earth’s soil,

      So, You destroy the hopes of mortals.

 

For the lesson on Sunday, we will be studying Acts chapter 14 and focusing on how the current belief system of a person impacts how they understand the gospel when first exposed. One of our country’s founding documents has a phrase about everyone being created equal. The truth of this phrase is limited as we are all obviously created differently in a whole host of ways. The one key similarity is that we are all created with the need for God and the one key difference is whether we have accepted his Son as our Lord and Savior or not. Nothing else matters eternally.

‘Wears’ was once also ‘scourged’.

‘Torrent’ was once ‘surge’.

The King James version had ‘Thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth.’ But every other source was reasonably aligned.

My first thought was that the hopes of mortals are most likely the earthly pursuit of happiness and self-gratification that is influenced by each person’s individual belief system. Two baseball cards I wanted just sold for more than I was willing to pay. I would be ‘happy’ to have them, but not joyful at having spent more than I think I should. As I look at what I have been ‘told’ happiness is, I see that most of the people doing this telling were just trying to sell something. A Valentine’s card from my kid is cool, but if she went out of her way to write me a simple note on any regular day, it would mean more.

The other thought on reading this verse is that it supposedly has a negative connotation. As if we do not want our hopes to be destroyed. But one of my goals as a Christian is to die to self and everything I ‘want’ and replace them with those things that God wants and living to share His love with others. I want to be more like Christ and if my want is not what He wants, I want it removed. My ‘dream’ of more fast cars, and a house with more room for exercise equipment or whatever else the rest of the world makes fun of America for chasing, is part of the problem, not part of the ‘solution’.

Pushing it further, I think that we can take comfort in the fact that God will help us overcome our sin nature bit by bit by bit and that our individual failures will in time be overcome by the constant pressure to do better or the best. I have seen the torrent of water wash away soil, and I have seen evidence of the long-term effects of water eroding stone. I have also seen people without hope, people without a saving knowledge of Christ and the eternal hope that only He fulfills. Building on my Friday Bible Study of Romans, as I seek to align my daily life with obedience to God, I must remember that Rome was not built, nor destroyed, in a day.

Written 10/23/24, Posted 11/23, Job 336