Episode 4 on Job
The Feast And The Priest
Reading: Job 1:
5 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, May be that my sons have sinned,
and cursed God In their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
“…When the days
of their feasting were gone…”
·
The Hebrew word translated feast or feasting
occurs first in Gen. 19: 3. It ia about Abraham entertaining some angels. The word,
feast - mishteh, in Hebrew - in this
passage is used in a noun form: …and he
made them a feast. The same word, mishteh, is used in Esther 1: 3-4…he made
a feast unto his princes and his
servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and the princes of the
provinces…when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty… It
reads that king Ahasuerus gives a feast unto all his princess and servants. The
next verse reads of the king showing the riches of his glorious kingdom and the
honour of his excellent majesty for many days… Awesome, isn’t it? There is another word translated feast in the
bible, but we shall mainly be concerned with the nuances and implications of
this as it applies to us and our lives in Christ. In the 25th
chapter of Isaiah, the 6th verse the prophet speaks of a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees… The word feast
here is the same word in the verse of our meditation and that of Esther. This
feast is a banquet given by some important person to others, as Job gives free
rein to his sons to feast, the king giving a feast for days to his princes, servants
and to the people of his kingdom, and as the Lord giving a feast of fat marrow….
And we ask, What
wealth! The givers of this type of feasts are people known to be rich, powerful,
mighty, victorious and excellent. The
children of Job feasted for 52 weeks or 360 days in a year, year in year
out. Then again, what a period of peace and tranquillity! They were enjoying
the peace of heaven as God the Almighty watched keenly over them. A Yoruba man
will say in his own graphic expression, These children are eating life; while a
pidgin-rapping chap will say, These
children de chop life o. And this is very apt as, indeed, living in affluence
is eating life. Has anybody paused to ask why the whole of Africa nations are
about empty out into America once tagged by a great Professor of Economics, Galbraith,
as the Affluence Society? It is because banquets go on in the US 366 days in a
year. It is great to participate in a great man’s feast.
“…When the days
of their feasting were gone…” The sons and daughters of Job were blessed and it
was not out of place for them to feast, to eat or chop life. But the feast
would be best enjoyed in close proximity to the heart of their priestly father.
If they could read the mind of their father they would definitely hap upon a
heart that was unbound by the fascinations of the hand of God and the good things
dropping from there; his eyes were off the gifts of God. Those eyes, the eyes
of the matured, were continually focused on the shining face of his Father. Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly
calling, consider the Apostle and the High priest of our profession, Christ
Jesus… If they considered, they would have seen the mark towards which
their father pressed – the prize of the
high calling God in of Christ Jesus. This consideration and attainment come
out of love-response to the Father. They, however needed not consider for, as
children, they did not know much about the life spoken about which was the
preoccupation of their father. At
present, therefore, they could only dwell lingeringly on the power, the might,
the victories, the miracles, the riches and the excellence of their Father. These
are what constitute the feast for us, the feasting or the eating or chopping of
this life.
“…when the days
of their feasting were gone…” Yet
children must grow and develop to sons through experiences – cerebrally
tasking, psychologically exacting and strength-sapping challenges that will
draw heavily on their resources. Which is why the street kids are always
smarter and tougher than kids from affluence homes; which is why those kids
from the streets are quicker to be able to handle responsibilities. Some street
kids have been known to be taking care of their younger siblings from an early
age.
Several years
ago, the Holy Spirit swept over the earth. There were repentance and acts of
restitution. Holiness rose to spiralling heights like a tsunami and students of
secondary and tertiary institutions got slain in the spirit. It was a feast of
the high excellence. Following hard on the heels of this was the infilling of
the Holy Spirit when many spoke in new tongues. Years later came the charismatic
move with signs and wonders following.
“…When the days
of their feasting were gone…” We summarised above the feasts men have enjoyed
from time to time in the Lord for some decades. In the first waves, only few
were privileged to come into the banquet. Few, yes, but not the types of people
any man will envy. They left, in droves, the older churches where they had been
members. These endured as seeing the
invisible. There was nothing on earth but spiritual promises, all intangible or
palpable to the touch - new crystallising
revelations of forgiven sins, new way of living, identifying with Christ and
His Father, and a hope of eternal salvation and reigning with God or of going
to heaven – that kept them going. No wonder they were few. In the history of mankind,
it has been found out that only very few can hold on to God’s promises that
more often than not are not physical and material; only few can endure as seeing Him who is invisible. Those in this banquet were
the scum of life, the unlearned, the poor; those today’s Christians will call
pie-in-heaven believers.
The second feast
was also quickly entered into and enjoyed by these we humbly call the first
fruit company. We use that word advisedly.
Soon they were blowing away in tongues, even then only few received this news
experience. In those days, no man joined
himself to them: but the people magnified
them. They were a force to reckon with on earth. Though not many, wherever
they were found, righteousness supervened and they were recognised all over, though
derisively called funny names. Their societal non-so-good positions and placements
did not bother them much. They esteemed the
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. They enjoyed
singing two songs with respect to their conditions on earth. The first had to
do with the rejections they suffered among their relations and peers. To this
they reply in, If my relations disavow me/ as long as I have Jesus/ I go on
bearing it. To their lack of position on earth, they sang back: Take ye the
whole world and give me Jesus/ I am satisfy, I am satisfy.
The heaven
opened and joy filled the earth. These were a strange company of people who had
nothing on earth as pursuit or as an incentive to serve God. There was only one
Christian fellowship in each institution of secondary and higher learning. Oh
what felicitations and love and union among the brethren! It was like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even the beard of
Aaron’s beard that went down the skirts of his garments. We remember the story of a sister, B, who left a town X
for a town Z to write an exam. Now B had never been in town Z before. When she
arrived and clambered out from the commuter bus, she spotted another sister
coming from the opposite end, dressed like her. Sister B walked up to the
sister she saw and explained her plights. The sister opened her purse, handed
the key of her one room apartment to B as she explained to her how to get to
the place. She could not return with B because she was hurrying to office that
morning. Sister B, insisted the new found sister, should check the cupboard to
find some food to eat until her returning after work. Oh we are just telling
the edifying stories of the feast of yesteryears when the Spirit walked with
men on earth, when the believers were not divided along denominational lines,
when no discrimination of whatever hues or shades ever existed. The third waves
quickly followed.
“…when the days
of their feasting were gone…” This is the feast of the miraculous, healing,
deliverance, prosperity and confessing to possess ministries. The life-styles
of the earlier believers were subjected to new bifocals and holiness was
redefined and the over-righteousness of these early believers was ridiculed.
This new feast occurred at such times that the socio-politico-economy of the country
was experiencing terrible hiccups. Men sought God for help, for healing, for
success, for preservation, for divine interventions, for protection from evil
and calamities…. Salvation was secondary. The churches were flooded; the days
of great revival had come. One or two decades later the age of the mega
churches had arrived.
“…when the days
of their feasting were gone…” No doubt the Father is very rich and powerful,
and mighty and excellent. The children of the Father deserve to feast, to show
how great is the Father; they deserve to show that the Father is rich, very
rich; they deserve to let the world know that cities of His righteousness can
be built on the earth; they deserve to show that the wealth of the heathen must
become the wealth of the children… We genuinely thank God for these . The church now has voice among the rulers of
the nations. It now ministers to the mighty and the powerful in the society
with its leaders dinning and winning with the super- greats and celebrities. In
some instances, the rulers, the judges, the functionaries of nations are at the
beck and call church. It is even boasted that rulers cannot take decisions
without us!
“…When the days
of their feasting were gone…” In the
present feasting, so many things have not only crept in but cropped up. The
church is inclusive and this is how it should be; she is full of the good, the
not-so-good, the saints and the sinners. Today, the church is a place of
ostentatious displays of natural endowments: mass of flesh; backsides and
breasts of women, mouth-filling words, big grammar; it is a place of deployment
of startling witticisms and captivating oratorical artistry: fulsome engagement
of puns and rhymes. There is also a place for bragging of faith.
But the days are
upon us now when the Lord will entrust into the hands of the willing believers
and the ministers the line and the plummet. By these building instruments,
taught Pastor Olabode Busiyi, will the believers be able to build according to
the pattern of the Capstone and will also be able to cross-check any message by
only the plan of the Foundation. For everyone shall know me from the greatest
to the least, sayeth the Lord. The accuracy and the uprightness of the messages
that appeal to the base instincts will be easily detected by the handy plummet
and, so will also be the self-preserving and the give-me-this-and- that prayers
that have charactirised our religion and devotion and meditations for such a
long period of time. Salvation is almost here. The feasting on to God will now
commence and the feasting unto self will stop. We are in the feast of
Tabernacles, which is harvest and rejoicing to the Lord. Yes the feast of
righteousness will supervene again.
Lord we pray for
this hour when your children will really feast unto you. Their purpose of
gathering will be You; their pursuit, You. We shall never be anxious again to
build the kingdoms of this world nor shall we be found helping to prop them up;
but we shall be mindful of only the kingdom of God. This will be our vision,
our message to the world. And the kingdom of God will be reflected in us. Lord
the days are upon us when the ministrations of the Apostle and the High Priest
of our profession from the Throne of Mercy will completely exterminate the
pursuit of worldly grandeur and achievements from our souls. We will have only
what you want us to have and we shall be satisfied with You alone, You alone.
The purest heart pleasing to You comes off from fire. Therefore, we say, Have
Your end by Your Own way. As we feast in
the Resurrected church, help us oh, our High Priest to stay on course. Thank
You, Lord.
(Heb. 3: 1; Phil.
3:4; Heb. 11: 27; Acts 5:27; Psm. 133:1,2;Zech. 4:10.)
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