Rumor and assumptions in the bible have make many Pastor Confused | Dr Able Damina

Rumor and assumptions in the bible have make many Pastor Confused and there Members by Dr Able Damina

The Book of Job 42:5, the 42nd chapter of Job, the 5th verse, and I seeth Thee. We've been examining opinions of God that have created superstitions within the Christian community and within men's knowledge of God. Many people's opinions of God came from superstitious beliefs, things that people told you about God, things you heard about God, or even things you imagined to be God. In our minds, sometimes we have a mindset of how God should be. We create parameters for what God is, who God is, what God can do, and what God cannot do. We create our own God within the figment of our imaginations, which is not consistent with who God really is. So, in Job 42:5, Brother Job, after 41 chapters of making noise, now said, "All I heard of Thee was by the hearing of the ear," or rumor, "but now my eyes seeth Thee." The word "hearing of the ear" is the word Shema in Hebrew (s-h-e-m-a), which means to hear a report or a rumor. This means Brother Job's knowledge of God in 42 chapters was all rumor-based. How many of you want people to know you based on rumor? I don't think anybody wants that. How many of you want people's opinions of you to be based on what people are saying about you? I don't think anybody wants that. You want people to know you for who you are. If you're a very smart person, you don't draw conclusions on people based on what you hear. You want to meet them one-on-one and experience them for yourself. You don't want to just run with what people are saying. You want to experience people by yourself. So, God doesn't want to be known by rumor either. He wants you to know Him for who He is.

Look at what Job said about God in Job 1:5. Job 1:5 says, "And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said,"—pay attention—"It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus, did Job continually. Based on that, Job was having night vigils. When you see him praying all night, you conclude he knows God. But this guy is just doing all night based on assumptions, based on rumor, based on fear. It may be that his children have sinned, and to avoid disaster befalling them, he prayed all night. So, most vigils are born out of assumptions and superstitions. That’s why most vigils sound like the children of Baal crying, "Baal, Baal, Baal," from morning till evening. Elijah said, "Cut yourselves with knives." They carried knives and cut themselves. Elijah said, "Shout louder, maybe your god has traveled." Most times when you see so-called Christians carrying out their vigils, fasting, and prayers, they are no different from those descendants of the Baal generation. The fact that somebody is doing vigils every Friday or every week doesn’t mean he knows God. Some of us are full of religious activity emanating from fear. He offered sacrifices continually, assuming that his children had sinned, assuming. Fasting and prayer, offering of sacrifices, promoted or activated or motivated by assumptions.

Look at Job 1:20, "Then Job arose, rent his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and worshiped." Oh, brother, the guy is a worshiper. When he worships God, he lies down on the floor, tears and snot come out of his nose because of the intensity of humility and brokenness. Because until the alabaster box is broken, the perfume cannot come out. So, he is broken before God in tears, lying and weeping. This is a man with the fear of God. Give me the next verse, Job 1:21, "And said, 'Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.'" What hypocrisy. What are you blessing Him for? He gave and took. What’s the big deal there? He gave, and He took. So now, Job is accusing God of taking. He gave and took, so God is like a spoiled boy. When He’s angry with you, He collects everything. When He’s happy, He gives to you. So that’s the picture Job has painted here. That statement was from error. Job was a self-righteous fellow. I repeat, Job was a self-righteous fellow, all about what you do or don’t do. After 41 chapters of noise, he admits, "I have heard of You. Everything I said about God is rumor. Don’t take me seriously. But now my eyes see Thee."

"Now my eyes see Thee" is the word raah (r-a-a-h) in Hebrew. Raah is direct revelation, while Shema is third-party information. "I have heard of Thee by the Shema of the ear," which means I have heard of You by third-party information. But now, my eyes see Thee. Raah is a direct revelation of who You are. What you heard about someone whom you never met is what we call third-party reportage. So, Job, for many years of his life, didn’t know God. Yet, he was attending church. He was carrying olive oil all over, different pockets to service. He had a prayer shawl that he wore whenever prayer was going on. He had the mantle of the man of God, where the man of God sweated on the mantle for impartation. He was always attending feet-washing services. In fact, he even organized one in his house as the priest of his house. The things he heard about God, he must have passed those things on to his children. Many of us grew up like that. Our revelation of God is what we heard from our father or mother, the testimonies people told in church—whether those testimonies were correct or not, whether they were fabricated and arranged or not. You just said, "Based on that testimony, God must function like that." They gave us formulas, and we adopted those formulas as our third-party or mediums of knowing God, not knowing that in the New Testament, we don’t know God through mediums. We know God directly in Christ Jesus.

Jesus is God explained to us. Look at John 1:18. John 1:18 says, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." The word "bosom" is the word kolpos (k-o-l-p-o-s), which means at the heart of the Father. The only begotten Son, which is at the heart of the Father, He has declared Him. The word "declared" is the word exegeomai (e-x-e-g-e-o-m-a-i), which means He has explained Him. The only begotten, which is in the heart of the Father, has explained God. So, Jesus is not an added revelation in the Bible. Jesus is the revelation of the scriptures. He is not one of the many things you need to know. He is the message Himself. Jesus is the message of the scriptures. Whatever is not in Christ is not in God. Whatever we cannot find in Christ, we cannot find in God.

Please don’t miss those foundations. Now, did people slap God? Yes. When they slapped God, did He slap them back? No. When they slapped God, did they go free? Yes. If they slapped Jesus, they slapped God. If they beat up Jesus, they beat up God. If they spat on Jesus, they spat on God. Because Jesus is God. Jesus is not junior God. Jesus is not God’s errand boy. Jesus is God Almighty. He showed us the very character of God. People were pursuing God ignorantly, but Jesus showed up to unveil to us the true character and nature of God.

Your age as a Christian makes no difference. You can be a longstanding Christian with lots of experiences. That doesn’t mean you know God. Experiences are not an indicator of knowing God. Superstitions are all over the place. Somebody says, "Well, who can stand against the Lord?" Samaria did. Samaria stood against the Lord. Jesus was to go through Samaria, but Samaria said no. Jesus changed His itinerary. So, there are people that can stand against the Lord. They can oppose the Lord. What is the will of God? That everybody be saved. Is everybody saved? No. Why? Because people are standing against the Lord’s plan, and the Lord can do nothing about it. So, all this mindset of "whatever God wants to do, He will do" is coming from superstition. God will not do whatever He wants to do because one of the main things God wants to do is save everybody. But He’s not succeeding in saving everybody.

That’s new learning for some of you. Somebody says, "Well, if God wants me to marry, I will marry." You sit down there and dream in the afternoon. Some say, "No, who can question the Lord? Who can battle with the Lord?" There are people battling with the Lord. The image of God you have is a tyrant somewhere who just bulldozes His way. No. If God were to bulldoze His way wherever He wants, everybody would be saved. All will come to repentance. Yet people stand against God. Jesus didn’t bulldoze His way through Samaria. He changed His plan and went somewhere else. So, there are a lot of superstitions about God.

This brings us to our text in Matthew 25:14.