“Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come to thee” (Job 22:21).
Before going to sleep last night, I read several verses from my Daily Bread verse cards. I’ve found this is a wonderful way to go to sleep. I’ve found that having God’s Word in my mind and heart as I drift off to sleep works better for me than sleeping pills.
One of the verses that spoke strongly to me during the past few days is a verse from Job that tells God’s children to acquaint themselves with the Lord. Strangely, the person telling Job to acquaint himself with God, Eliphaz, was speaking to someone who was better acquainted with God Almighty than he was. Job had a lot of “knowledge gained from personal experience” as Webster’s New World Dictionary defines a person who understands what the word acquaint means.
Perhaps it’s necessary to understand the Hebrew word (sawcan) which is underlying acquaint. The term refers to: “becoming familiar with” (Gesenius, Hebrew and English Lexicon, p. 587).
Interestingly, the NASB and the NIV translate this term as “yield” or “submit.” So, they say, “Yield now” or “Submit to God.” The NKJV follows the classic KJV and translates the word we are trying to understand so we can know what the Holy Spirit meant when He sayes we are to acquaint ourselves with the Lord, not merely acquaint ourselves with what He says. The NKJV says: “Now acquaint yourself with Him and be at peace.”
Because Webster’s states that acquaint means: “make familiar with” and the underlying Hebrew word for acquaint has the root meaning of “to be familiar with,” it seems clear that God’s children are to acquaint themselves with their Lord, meaning to become familiar with Him. Evidently, the NASB and the NIV indicate the way to become familiar with God is by submitting to Him, which is certainty true.
The question of how we are to acquaint ourselves daily with our Lord and Master is answered in the pages of the Bible. The Spirit of God, through inspired words, stresses several things. Jesus said, “Come to Me, and I will give you rest” (Matt.11:28). In this verse, our dear Lord Jesus answers how we can acquaint ourselves with Him—by simply coming to Him. This seems to be the direct answer of today’s verse, Job 22:21, which says: “acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace…” When we acquaint ourselves with Jesus, we find the rest and peace we so desperately need in this modern world that is on a slippery slope sliding into a toxic sea.
When the Spirit said: “Kiss the Son less He be angry’ (Ps.2:12), He meant what He said. If a child of God doesn’t want to make the Father angry, he or she has to have an ongoing warm heartfelt relationship with the Son. We must acquaint ourselves with Jesus.
Many of God’s children daily experience: “In Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We find rest and peace when we acquaint ourselves with Jesus by coming to Him. Our faith is to be proactive. Sadly, many Christians are waiting for the Lord to come to them when He already has to save their souls. Now, we are to come to Him and remain with Him. We are to walk by faith (2 Cor. 5:7) in the power of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:25). We must remember only the Spirit of God knows the things of God (1 Cor. 2:11), and only by yielding to the Holy Spirit, who lives inside each child of God (Rom. 8:9), can we come to understand “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2).
If a person tries to become acquainted with Almighty God without first yielding to the Holy Spirit’s teaching, he or she will fail.
Jesus clearly made this point when He said, “The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me” (John 15:26). This is the Spirit of God’s job: to acquaint humanity with Jesus. First, He produces a new birth; then He promotes abiding in Christ.
Other blessed lights from heaven also tell us how we can acquaint ourselves with Him:
1) Jesus told us how we can abide in His love by the words: “Obey My commandments and you shall abide in My love” (John 15:10).
2) We must claim that we are already in a position of friendship with Jesus. He said: “I call you friends” (John 15:15).
3) Anyone who comes to know a person talks with them. When the Spirit said: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), He was saying in another way that we are to acquaint ourselves continuously with our Lord.
It appears God’s children often spend more time focused on information about Him rather than on personally acquainting themselves with the One who is their Lord, Savior and best friend, the One who was sent to reveal God to mankind.
Spurgeon said he never experienced more than a very short time without experiencing the presence of his Lord. Murray said we never are to forget that when He said, “Come to Me,” He was saying, “Stay with Me.”
Abiding in the Lord is not for the independent of heart; it is the condition of those familiar with and yielded to their Lord. They have learned to obey: “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee” (Job 22:21).
These are the souls who bear much fruit. Those who acquaint themselves with Jesus in a personal and trusting way bear bumper crops.
Reflecting on the bumper crops that our Lord has promised to those who are intimately acquainted with Him, a little song of praise came unexpectedly to my heart in the words: “You helped me to see that You love even me. Praise You, Lord, I see the light. I am comforted by Your might. You set me free. You talked to me. A bumper crop I’ll soon see as I daily walk close to Thee.”
Understanding now what it means to acquaint myself with Jesus and how to make that happen, my heart uttered, “This has been a very good day, Lord.”
Become a provider of the waters that this world is having spiritual water wars over in vain attempts to find God’s pure and healing water. Promote becoming a source of the guaranteed abundant crops of salvation and healing that are only produced by those who acquaint themselves with Jesus. Amen.