Job 13:24

24 Wherefore hidest [cathar] thou thy face [paniym], and holdest [chashab] me for thine enemy ['oyeb]? KJV-Interlinear

24 'Why dost Thou hide Thy face, And consider me Thine enemy? NASB

A rhetorical question from Job, but also from Christ while He was on the Cross. Why, is the question? Why does God turn away from sin, or anything less that perfect righteousness and justice?

And the answer is obvious, or should be obvious.

In this life, we all face hardships. For some it seems the hardships are greater than for others. But everyone has their turn sooner or later.

We can look around and see others doing better than we are, and we can certainly fall into the self-pity mode of life, and grumble at our predicament. After all, why me? Why can't I have a good life like so and so, like others? Why can't my life be better?

But God has a specific plan for each one of us. We only function in that plan if we pursue our spiritual life.

And actually, I should say that God has two possible plans for our life. The first plan is His plan, the one designed by Him, and is our best option. The second plan is the one we ourselves choose. And if we disregard God, are indifferent toward Him, and basically ignore all of this Bible stuff, then God allows us to fall into His alternate plan, the second option, for our life.

The first plan places God in charge of our life and the results are far better. The second plan is of the worlds design, and you get what you pay for, as they say.

But back to our verse.

Jesus Christ came to this world as a man in His first advent, for only one purpose, and that purpose was to go to the Cross. He did not come to rescue the people from the Romans. He did not come to set up His world kingdom. Although many at that time thought that this was in the plan for history. He did not come to grow up, work, and retire to an easy life in Florida.

Jesus came as a servant and a savior. God, the Father, had a plan, and Jesus came to fulfill that plan. To the letter!

When Jesus went up one Cross, on that Passover afternoon, from noon until three o'clock, for three hours, God the Father and the Holy Spirit, separated themselves from Him. They in effect 'hid' their faces, as one hides his face in shame when confronted with someone who has been disgraced.

Jesus came into this world a perfect man. He committed no wrong, no sin, nor did He commit any infraction against anyone or anything during His life. And yet people hated Him because of what He stood for.

People hated Him so much that they manufactured frivolous charges against Him, arrested Him, tried him six time no less, and then executed Him.

And in all of this, Jesus complained not once. He knew His purpose, and He submitted to it with complete confidence in the Father and the Spirit. Jesus knew that life after the Cross was certain, and life after the Cross would be infinitely better, than life before the Cross.

We all face that question. Will we prefer our life now, over life in heaven? Will we complain when life treats us unfairly? Even when we know that all people throughout past history have died.

How many people from the eighteen-hundreds, seventeen-hundreds, and prior, do you know that are still alive? None.

We all know that once we are born, we will die sooner or later. Some folks live to be a hundred. So what. What will another thirty, or forty, or fifty years do for you, in this life if you ignore God in your life? Nothing.

God keeps us here in this world just long enough to fulfill His purpose for us. Jesus lived just thirty-three and a half years and not one day more. He was born, and grew up, and had his ministry, and fulfilled all of the prophecies of the Savior, and on Passover, went to the cross and fulfilled all of the functions of the Cross, followed by His death, burial, and resurrection. That was His purpose for coming that first time into this world.

We all have a plan for our lives. Some of us will live but a few minutes. Some will live a few decades. All of us will check out of this life and go before Jesus. Say Hello to Jesus when you get there.

So long as you are alive and breathing, Gods plan for your life will function, if, and I repeat, if, you get with your spiritual life. Don't get all tied up in your own plans for this life. Don t get caught up in self complaints when what you want is not what you get.

We all wish, and hope, and pray for things in this life. Most of our hopes, and wishes, and prayers do not come true, because God has something better for us.

But, while we are here in this world, we are sinners and enemies of God. Jesus Christ went to the Cross to remove that barrier, and allow God to turn and face us while we function within our spiritual lives.

As unsaved unbelievers, we are repulsive. While disinterested and out of fellowship believers, we are repulsive. While on the Cross, Christ was abandoned, forsaken, and made to become repulsive.

Sin and death are the archenemies of God, and had to be defeated before any meaningful relationship could be established. Christ accomplished the strategic victory on the Cross. We accomplish our strategic victory when we advance to spiritual maturity.

And God will accomplish the tactical and final victory at the Second Advent and with the establishment of the new universe at the end of the Millennium.

Now is the time to post a prayer.