Job
When the Lord asks me to read the book of Job...I know, he is preparing me for something very hard for me to go through. The book of Job, arguably, could be one of the first books written for the Bible, It starts with God and the devil having a narrative about Job, God's faithful and honorable servant. Strangely.. the devil want to torque Job, to see if he would stay faithful to God during this time of suffering. So..God says go ahead, but don't torque him until death. Job, was obviously a victim, a chess piece in a game of chess. He lost his children, livestock, workers, and was inflicted with disease and boils. Job's wife and friends on top of everything else tormented him with "What did he possible do to make God put him through all this suffering."..his own wife wanted him to curse God and die.
When I came across Job chapter 42 verse 5.."My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you." God revealed to me during all this time Job in his subconscious was trying to reason the terrible things that came upon him and his children.."Maybe my children did something bad against God or this or that. It wasn't until verse 5 that Job saw God in the spirit, God is God...We could be good in our own eyes and others, but this doesn't make us see God as God. Building up award and aptitudes doesn't give you a relationship with God. For me Job, finally got it..he was saying, "I admit I once lived by hearsay of you God..I woke up, and now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry, forgive me God.
When I came across Job chapter 42 verse 5.."My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you." God revealed to me during all this time Job in his subconscious was trying to reason the terrible things that came upon him and his children.."Maybe my children did something bad against God or this or that. It wasn't until verse 5 that Job saw God in the spirit, God is God...We could be good in our own eyes and others, but this doesn't make us see God as God. Building up award and aptitudes doesn't give you a relationship with God. For me Job, finally got it..he was saying, "I admit I once lived by hearsay of you God..I woke up, and now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry, forgive me God.
Comments
Unanswered questions like theses, threaten our enthusiasm and heartfelt commitment to our beliefs. We find our faith growing more stoic, our view of God less emotive. We are left to slug it out on our own, believing that the only relevant resources are in this present world....
A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.
Think about this, the leaves hang very lightly on the trees, when the autumn winds send them falling in showers around us; quite helpless to stay their own course, fluttering in the air to and fro, What a metaphor for our own crisis....Struck with disease, stung with acute pains and pangs, we feel that if the affliction continued for much longer, it would be better for us to die than live. Just longing for the shadows of death, so that they might find shelter there. “Oh God, so weak as I am, will you strike me again? Shall your hand fall on me again? You have laid me very low. Why do you lift up your rod again? Please, do not break a leaf that is driven to and fro!”
Or, perhaps we have been long out of work; food is not to be found; our children are crying, hungering, starving; the habitation has been stripped of everything which might procure a little nourishment.
Me being homeless 3 times in my life, I can testify, like a leaf that is driven to and fro, I've said, “Oh God! will you continue this much longer? Will you not be pleased to restrain your rough wind, mitigate the sharpness of the winter, ease my adversity, and give me peace?”
It seemed at length as though the widow would be bereft of her last and only child, and then she cried, “Oh God! I am already broken; my heart is like a ploughed field, cross-ploughed, until my soul is ready to despair! Will you utterly break me? Will you spare me no consolations, no props for my old age? Must I be altogether driven away before the whirlwind, and find no rest?”
Oh my brethren, what a great blessing it is to be made to know our own weakness.
His flesh wastes away from sight, And his bones stick out which once were not seen.
Yes, his soul draws near the Pit, And his life to the executioners.”-Job 33 verses 19-28.