Have you ever felt unworthy? Unloved? Less than?
I think if we are honest, we have all felt these emotions at some point in our lives. And the weird thing? I think Christians feel unworthy more often than people who don’t believe. And yet we are the ones who should know how much God loves us, how He delights in us, has our names written on the palm of His hand.
But it is so easy to doubt His care when life gets hard, isn’t it? I know I’m guilty of doing just that. And I question His love on too many occasions.
I’ve been studying the book of Job for the past few weeks. I recently read chapter 25, the comments of one of Job’s “comforters.” By this point in the book, Job’s friends have stopped telling Job that all of his troubles are because he is a horrible sinner. Instead, this guy Bildad, focuses on God.
You can tell Bildad has a great fear of God and while he might have gotten a few comments right, at the end of this short chapter, he tells Job that in comparison to God, people are maggots and worms. (NLT version)
The statement reminded me of the song, “Amazing Grace” where John Newton says that God “saved a wretch like me”. But wretch and maggot aren’t quite the same, are they? Bildad really had a poor image of how God views the people He has made.
And I thought back to teachings in my childhood. The doctrine of the depravity of man is a familiar one to me, though it isn’t talked about much these days. I couldn’t tell you the exact wording of the doctrine, but I can say that I would agree that the Bible tells us that “there is no one righteous, not even one.” And “all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.”
That we are sinners in need of a Savior is something we all need to come to grips with if we truly want to know Jesus as He longs for us to know Him.
But Jesus didn’t come to die for maggots and worms. Sorry Bildad, but there is just no evidence to support your thinking. Genesis tells us that God made us in His image. Stop and think about that.
I may not know what God looks like, but He gave us qualities and personhood that reflects His image. We are His image-bearers and we were put in charge of caring for the earth, not created to be the disgusting creatures that make me squirm or show up on dead things.
Psalms also reminds us that God made us a little lower than God (according to the NLT) or a little lower than the angels (as it is worded in other versions). We are not made to be God. We are made a little lower than He is.
We don’t have His authority or power and we really wouldn’t want to take His place, though sometimes we try to tell Him what we’d like Him to do and just how He should do it, don’t we? Actually, the enemy, known in the Old Testament as Lucifer, used to be top angel in heaven until He wanted to be God. His end is written in Scripture, and I’m pretty sure none of us would want to live his coming fate.
God didn’t create us to be usurpers like Lucifer or maggots and worms, as Bildad suggested. He made us in His image to carry His likeness by becoming like His Son, Jesus. Image bearers get to know God loves them even when life doesn’t. Image bearers don’t have to feel unworthy or unloved or less than because even if the whole world treats us that way? God doesn’t. God sees us, beloved.
He holds us close when we are hurting. He heals those wounds we won’t let anyone see. He lifts us up from wretched to worthy because of Jesus. If we will let Him.
Bildad thought of God as super powerful and no one could be found innocent before Him. And in that Bildad was right.
We are sinners, yes. But Jesus gives us value, makes us worthy, and crafts His likeness into us so that we aren’t just made in God’s image, we become like Him in attitude and behavior so that we can go and love a lost and hurting world.
Will we be the image bearers God made us to be?
~Selah
