Are we ‘WORTHLESS’ or ‘UNWORTHY’?
June 1
Bible Reading: Job Chapters 25-27
Are we ‘WORTHLESS’ or ‘UNWORTHY’?
"How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who
is born of a woman? If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure
in His sight, how much less man, who is a maggot, and a son of man, who is a
worm?" (Job
25:4-6)
Bildad’s brief
speech (the shortest in the book) emphasized the greatness of God (vv.1–3) and the nothingness of man (vv.4–6). He responds to Job’s argument by
praising God and harshly debasing humanity, and his brief parting shot is a
summation in which he celebrated the loftiness of God (vv.1–3) and acknowledged
the lowliness of humanity (vv.4–6). God is the all-powerful, omnipresent
Sovereign of the universe; whereas humans are sinners of such impurity that God
in His holiness cannot look on them. When
even the moon and the stars are not pure in God’s sight, what hope is there for
man, a mere maggot and worm?
It is important
to notice that Bildad was making a statement about people’s moral standing before God (v. 4) rather than their relative worth as creatures. Scripture
supports Bildad’s assertion that no one
is pure who is “born of a woman.”
Sin pollutes every one of us, so that from our earliest days our lives are
corrupted by evil (Gen. 8:21; Psalms 51:5; Romans 5:12). Even our faltering
attempts at righteousness are nothing but filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Our fallen
condition makes us unworthy to stand before a holy God (Isaiah 53:6; Rom. 3:10,
23).
Yet though we are unworthy, we are
not worthless! We
have been created by God in His own image (Gen. 1:26–27; Psalms 8:5;
139:13–16), which establishes our inherent worth and gives us dignity. Moreover,
God so loved us that despite our rebellion and hostility, He sent Jesus to
rescue us from sin and retrieve our humanity from corruption (Romans 5:8). And
when we turn to Jesus for the forgiveness of our sin, we become children of God
and fellow-heirs of Christ’s glory (Romans 8:14–17; Eph. 1:11–12).
As humans, we are not trash, but we are in trouble
because we are captive to sin. However, God has provided a way of escape from
this problem. Through Christ He promises to make us into the people He created
us to be (see John 3:16–21).
The true knowledge of God should lead
to humility, which is
the refusal to trust oneself for fulfillment of needs but instead turning to God
for help. We should understand that our own righteousness is a vain hope. Instead,
we need to believe that only Christ’s imputed righteousness can allow us to
stand before God!
