Behold, God does all these things twice, three times with a man to bring back his soul from the pit that he may be lighted with the light of life.
– Job 33:29–30
Oh, what a great picture. Did you hear that? God does all these things. God does so much twice, three times to bring back a man’s soul from the pit that he may be lighted with the light of life. How repetitive is that?
Job 33:29–30 teaches us that God is always working on our behalf.
The whole picture is brought back from death to life, what God does to save people, and not just once, but repeatedly, to save people from death, from destruction, from destroying their life, from darkness, to bring them from darkness to light and death to life.
I think about my life, all the ways I know, and I’m not even aware of the millions of ways God has saved me from my sin and myself that I don’t know, that I’ve not even acknowledged or recognized, but all the ways I know God has saved me from my sin and myself time and time and time again. He’s kept me from going to that which would destroy me. Ultimately, Jesus has saved me from my sin, and then daily has saved me from going back to sin in this way or that way, saved me from myself, and obviously, I still sinned against him, which I genuinely grieve over, which we never want to be content with in our lives.
Job 33:29–30 encourages us to praise God every day for His salvation.
Kind of the point, we want to praise God every single day for his salvation from sin, for the way he saves us from our sin and ourselves, and to pray for that every day, not for final justification in Jesus over and over again as if we don’t have assurance of eternal life in him, but to pray every day, God, I know I’m prone to sin today.
Please save me from myself. Please save me from sin. Not its penalty, but its power and its fact in my life and its temptations in my life today and to trust that God delights in over and over and over again, keeping those who look to him and trust in him from sin and experiencing his salvation on a moment by moment, day by day basis. So God, we pray first and foremost praise you for your full and final salvation from the penalty and power of sin in Jesus.
Jesus, we praise you for taking our sin upon yourself on the cross for salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in you alone. All glory be to your name for free and final salvation in you. Praise you for how you brought that about in our lives. God, we praise you for how you have drawn us to you.
This verse reminds us to pray for the salvation of others.
God, I pray if there’s anybody listening to this right now who doesn’t know that salvation in you, that today would be the day, even this moment that they trust in you, Jesus, to save them once and for all from their sin. And then, oh, God, help us daily to experience and live in that salvation. Keep us from sin today, we pray. Keep us from ourselves today, we pray. Help us to walk in your Spirit all day long to turn from sin and walk in holiness. God, help us to walk in the light that you have saved us to walk in today. And when we wander, oh God, hold us back.
I pray for anyone listening to this right now who is wandering, who is wandered into the pit in any ways, small ways, big ways, for a short time, for a long time. God, I pray that even right now, they would hear your Spirit speaking to them, calling them by your grace, your mercy, your love for them, out of the pit, out of darkness, into light, into life.
Oh, God, we praise you for how you do that patiently and mercifully and continually in our lives. And we pray that you would continue to do that all day today. Save us from our sin and ourselves to walk in the light we have in you. And God, we pray you’d help us to lead others to light. Use us today to bring people from death to life, and darkness to light through sharing your gospel. God, help us to be bold in sharing the gospel with someone today.
Prayer for the Jogi People
And God, we pray for those who don’t have anybody around them to share the gospel with them… Specifically for the Jogi people of India and Bangladesh, millions of them in this Hindu people group… Most of whom have no Christians around them to share the gospel with them. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to the Jogi people… Specifically in Bangladesh where there are even fewer followers of Jesus. God, please draw them from death to life. Bring them from the pit… From eternal destruction to everlasting life in the gospel. Help us, as your church, to faithfully spread the gospel to them. We pray all this in light of your grace and your love on display… And your persistent saving us from our sin according to Job 33:29–30. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
