Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin. My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin. – Job 14:16-17

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 4, 2018): Job 14

I am a step counter. Every time I get up and move around, I make sure that my counter is with me. My goal is a minimum of 10,000 steps a day, and I am currently aiming for 400,000 steps a month. I know, for some I that is not much of a goal. I know of people who seem to be able to meet my monthly goal, often in a single day. But that is not me. Even though I endeavor to count every step that I take, and as soon as I finish this post I plan to go for a walk, I don’t think it would be possible for me to reach into the 100,000 steps a day club. Ten thousand, for me, is a reachable goal. (By the way, my personal record for steps according to my step counter is just under 18,000. And on days when I come close to that number of steps, my body seems to like to remind me of my age.)

I count my steps, but I try not to count my sins. Personally, that seems to be Satan’s job; to continually remind me of all of the ways that I have failed. Someone, and I have mercifully forgotten who, has argued that heaven was a place where we were able to view a replaying of our lives over and over again, including the greatest hits of all the ways that we have failed. The message seemed to be that we should be careful not to sin, because not only were we going to have to pay the consequences of our sin in this life, but we were also going to have a PVR recording of them to watch over and over again in the next. The idea sounds to me to be a lot closer to hell than heaven.

Job argues that God knows his steps. God knows where it is that he goes, he knows of Job’s movements on the earth. After all, nothing can be hidden from him. The Psalmist, David, would centuries later sum up Job’s comment like this:

 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139:7-12)

God, you know my steps. And because you know my steps, you know my sins. Because you know when I walk in the depths, or because you see me even when I am trying so desperately to hide from you, you know my sin. But while you might number my steps, when you encounter my sin, you hide it away. You seal it in a bag where it never has to be revealed or relived again.

And not only do you seal my sin away, but you also cover it over with your grace. You bury it so deep that it can never rise again. I’m not sure that we mortals could ever ask for anything more of the God who numbers our steps.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 15