9-23-2023 Remembering Job
Most people
know about the ‘patience of Job’. Many know
what happened with Job – possessions, family and finally self. But how many actually know why these things
befell the man of God. I say man of God
based on the fact that God praised Job calling him perfect and upright (Job
1:8-10, Job 2:3). However, Satan issued
a challenge “If You take your protection away from him, he will curse You.”
(Job 1:11, Job 2:5). So, God told Satan
to give it his best shot, but you can’t touch the man, Job (Job 1:12, Job 2:6).
Satan
attacked Job but was limited by God’s word.
Sabeans
stole Job’s oxen and donkeys and killed the servants tending them. One man survived to tell Job (1:14-15).
Fire came
down from heaven and burned up Job’s sheep and servants and one man lived to come
to tell Job (1:16).
Job’s camels
were ‘rustled’ (stolen) and servants slain yet one survived to tell Job (1:17).
Then Job is
told how his children were having a party when the roof collapsed killing all, (1:18-19).
This all
came rapid fire. As Job received news
from one messenger, the next came in.
Job’s
reaction was to mourn his losses but he blessed the Lord and did not sin (1:20-22).
Later, God
gave Satan permission to attack Job again, but this time he was allowed to
attack Job BUT he couldn’t take Job’s life (2:6).
After all
this, Job’s wife encouraged him to curse God and die yet Job did not sin with
his lips (2:9-10).
(How much
can a man take? The patience of Job)
The rest of
this chapter through Job 35:16, Job & his buddies “discuss” God. All four knew the law, punishments and
blessings from God and why. Because of
his sorrow, Job wishes that he had never been born (Job 3:1-11). Eliphaz gives his discourse of why God lets
things happen to people (Job 4:1-5:27) Then Job responds (Job 6:1-7:21. Bildad gives his opinion of what is happening
(Job 8:1-22). Job responds to Bildad
(Job 9:1-10:22). Then Zohar adds his two
cents (Job 11:1-11:20) and Job’s responds to Zohar (Job 12:1 – 14:22). Job and the three men spend the rest of the
time ‘discussing’ how we know people sin and what can be done about it
(15:1-32:1). Finally young Elihu comes
into the fray as he is angry at all four men as Job kept declaring his
righteousness and the three couldn’t get Job to accept his guilt (Job 32:1-37:24).
Even in the
midst of his ‘discussion’ with his friends, Job challenges God. If I were able to find God and come to His
seat, I would lay my arguments as to why this shouldn’t have happened. I would like to know how He would respond (Job
23:1-5). Job says that he would speak in
his defense, then wait to see how God would answer him.
God does
respond to Job’s challenge. Where were
you while I (God) was creating everything?
Father paints a pretty clear picture of His majesty, His authority and
His power (Job 38:1-41:34).
Finally Job
gets the picture. I have heard about
You, but now I have seen You (Job 42:1-6). If you will, Job has had
a personal encounter with the Almighty God, YAWEH. He is no longer mimicking what ‘others’ have
told him, but he now has found God for Himself.
He had a personal encounter, even as Paul did with Jesus (Acts9:3-6).
As I said at
the start, most people remember the patience of Job. That he suffered all that loss but didn’t
turn against God. If you read the book,
according to the Law, Job did not sin.
But, because all these issues that befell him, his buddies knew that bad
only comes upon sinners. God blesses those who keep the law, therefore, Job
must have sinned for these events to have come upon him.
Job had a
personal encounter with the living God and came to understand the relationship
he needed with the Father. I repeat
‘personal’. Dare I say that from that
moment on, Job referred to God as “You” and not “He or Him”.
So, just what
is our personal relationship with the Lord?
Job said he
had ‘heard’ all about God (42:5). He had
been taught the Law. According to the
Law that means his dad should have taught him what he knew and the priests or
elders would have added in to expand Job’s knowledge. We can be confident that Job most likely did
not have the Tanakh, that is the Torah (5 books of Moses), the Neviʾim
(Prophets) the Ketuvim (Writings) readily available for him to
read. Without a personal relationship
with God, Job had to rely on others to keep him informed. But now, Job has talked with God, man to
Supreme Being.
The disciples
had a @3 ½ year experience to learn from Jesus.
That is they learned from the “horse’s mouth”. No disrespect intended here but if we believe
God created all thing through His Word (Gen. 1:1-31 – God said 9X) and the Word was with God and was God and became flesh
(John 1:1-14), we believe in the unity of God – the Godhead. We may begin to understand that Job now
understood because God, Himself, was enlightening him.
So, I ask
again, what is our relationship with the Father?
Do all that
we know aboaut God come from what people have told us (including
preachers)? Do we read the bible just as
a book – good reading? Makes me a
well-rounded person, right? Do we asks
the Holy Ghost to guide us as we read the bible? Hopefully we have accepted Jesus but then
do we quench the Holy Ghost abiding in us?
Paul tells us not to quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19). That is, do we allow the Holy Ghost free rein
operate in our lives? Oh, He’s good for
when I’m in trouble and need help or when I am sick and I believe Him for a
healing. But just how much of my
personal life do I share Him? Do I seek
His direction in all that I do?
How’s my
prayer life. “Our Father which art in
heaven … Is that the extent of our
prayer? Do we pray for others? Do we pray for situations of which become
aware of? Do we actually bare our hearts
open to our Lord and Savior in our prayer time?
Do we share with Him our hurts, our desires, joys? When we speak (pray) in an unknown tongue, we
speak to God and the Spirit speaks mysteries.
In so doing, God edifies us. But,
because I don’t understand what the Spirit says, I also ask for understanding
so I might edify not just myself, but those around me as well (1 Corinth.
14:2-4, 14-15). Paul declares that he
speaks in tongues more than all, but also suggests that we ask for
understanding so we might edify others (1 Corinth. 14:18-19). Do we desire to approach Father with all our
concerns? The Holy Ghost is that
connection, but do we ask for understanding so we can then be a blessing to
others?
Paul says to pray without ceasing (1 Thess.
5:16) as part of a list of things to
strengthen our relationship with Father.
“Without ceasing”? Does this mean
staying on our knees 24/7? Of Course
not. But it does mean having a continual
attitude of prayer. When in doubt, don’t
just jump and hope it works out. Seek
guidance from the Holy Ghost and be sure of what to do. This means praying (at least in our heart) in
our native language and/or in our heavenly-given Spiritual language. As we allow the Holy Spirit free rein in our
lives, when to pray, how to pray, praying will become a most natural condition
of our lives. We can pray anywhere,
anytime and yes, we do need our “quiet time” when we can commune, alone, with
our Lord.
As we grow,
we discover that more and more of God’s nature becomes more evident in our
lives.
We are made
in the image of God and God’s image is love (Gen. 1:26-27, 1 John 4:6-8).
So what do
we learn from Job? God is in control in
all that befalls us so we can trust God, giving Him the praise and glory for
whatever comes our way. By the way, did
I mention that God blessed many times over for his trouble (). We seek Father’s guidance (through the Holy
Ghost, who is within us) so we can know how to handle whatever we face. We trust God to see us through to the end
because He can and He will, because we have developed a relationship with Him.
And
developing that relationship is what we learn from Job.
This means
that for today, Father wants a one on one relationship with all His children.
amen
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