like clay

Posted on June 19, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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like clay

Job 10:1-22 (JDV)

Job 10:1 My throat is disgusted with my life. I will give vent to my complaint and speak with the bitterness of my throat.
Job 10:2 I will say to God, “Do not just condemn me! Let me know why you prosecute me.
Job 10:3 Is it good for you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands, and favor the plans of the wicked?
Job 10:4 Are your eyes flesh, or do you see as a mortal sees?
Job 10:5 Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a healthy man,
Job 10:6 that you look for my iniquity and search for my sin,
Job 10:7 even though you know that I am not wicked and that there is no one who can rescue from your power?
Job 10:8 “Your hands shaped me and formed me. Will you now turn and destroy me?
Job 10:9 Please remember that you made me like clay. Will you now return me to dust?
Job 10:10 Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?
Job 10:11 You clothed me with skin and flesh and wove me together with bones and tendons.
Job 10:12 You gave me life and faithful love, and your care has guarded my breath.
Job 10:13 “Yet you concealed these thoughts in your heart; I know that this was your hidden plan:
Job 10:14 if I sin, you would notice and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
Job 10:15 If I am wicked, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am filled with shame and have drunk deeply of my affliction.
Job 10:16 If I am proud, you hunt me like a lion and again display your miraculous power against me.
Job 10:17 You produce new witnesses against me and multiply your anger toward me. Hardships assault me, wave after wave.
Job 10:18 “Why did you bring me out of the womb? I should have died and never been seen.
Job 10:19 I wish I had never existed but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
Job 10:20 Are my days not few? Stop it! Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little
Job 10:21 before I go to the dark and shadowy ground, never to return.
Job 10:22 It is a dark ground, like a deep shadow, darkness, and disorder, where even the light is like the darkness.”

like clay

Job appeals to God as his creator — reminding him that he was made like clay. Clay vessels can be smashed. We are vulnerable. We are not invincible. When disaster happens, we need a God made of different stuff.

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collision

Posted on June 18, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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collision

Job 9:1-35 (JDV)

Job 9:1 Then Job answered:
Job 9:2 Yes, I know what you’ve said is true, but how can a mortal settle his case before God?
Job 9:3 If one wanted to take him to court, he could not answer God once in a thousand times.
Job 9:4 God’s heart is wise and his strength omnipotent. Who has stubbornly resisted him and come out intact?
Job 9:5 He removes mountains while they know nothing, flipping them over in his anger.
Job 9:6 He shakes the land from its place and its pillars tremble.
Job 9:7 He commands the sun not to shine and conceals the stars.
Job 9:8 He alone spreads out the sky and marches on the waves of the sea.
Job 9:9 He makes the stars: the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky.
Job 9:10 He does great and unsearchable things, miracles without number.
Job 9:11 Note: If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him; if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him.
Job 9:12 Note: If he snatches something, who can stop him? Who dares ask him, “What are you doing?”
Job 9:13 God does not hold back his anger; Rahab’s assistants cringe in fear beneath him!
Job 9:14 How then can I answer him or select my arguments against him?
Job 9:15 Even if I were in the right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.
Job 9:16 If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said.
Job 9:17 He batters me with a whirlwind and multiplies my wounds without cause.
Job 9:18 He doesn’t let me catch my breath but fills me with bitter experiences.
Job 9:19 If it is a matter of strength, look, he is the powerful one! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
Job 9:20 Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.
Job 9:21 Though I am blameless, I no longer care about my throat; I renounce my life.
Job 9:22 It is all the same. Therefore, I say, “He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.”
Job 9:23 When catastrophe brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent.
Job 9:24 The land is handed over to the wicked; he blindfolds its judges. If it isn’t he, then who is it?
Job 9:25 My days fly by faster than a runner; they flee without seeing any good.
Job 9:26 They sweep by like boats made of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
Job 9:27 If I said, “I will forget my complaint, change my expression, and smile,”
Job 9:28 I would still live in terror of all my pains. I know you will not acquit me.
Job 9:29 Since I will be found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?
Job 9:30 If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,
Job 9:31 then you dip me in a pit of mud, and my own clothes hate me!
Job 9:32 Because he is not a man like me, that I can answer him, that we can take each other to court.
Job 9:33 There is no mediator between us, to lay his hand on both of us.
Job 9:34 Let him take his rod away from me so his terror will no longer frighten me.
Job 9:35 Then I would speak and not fear him. But that is not so; I am on with myself.

collision

Job affirms that Bildad is right in saying that God is just. But he is also convinced that he has a right relationship with God, so nothing he had done brought this calamity upon him. Truth collides with truth. God is both the problem and the solution, yet Job realizes that there is no arbiter. Whatever happens, God is going to have to do it. In Job’s day – as well as today – many spend their lives looking for ways to manipulate things to their advantage. Some choose science, others demonic magic, others religion, but they are all trying to do the same thing. Job realizes that it cannot be done. Fate cannot be changed on this side of the human/divine divide. Even if Job were able to convince his friends that he is innocent, that would not change things. He is helpless before an omnipotent God.

LORD, we rely upon you. Rescue us from the lie that we can handle things.

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apparent signs

Posted on June 17, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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apparent signs

Job 8:1-22 (JDV)

Job 8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
Job 8:2 Until when will you go on saying these things? Your mouth’s words are a puff of breath.
Job 8:3 Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
Job 8:4 Since your children sinned against him, he gave them over to their rebellion.
Job 8:5 But if you earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy,
Job 8:6 if you are pure and upright, then he will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.
Job 8:7 Then, even if your first was meager, your days afterward will be full of prosperity.
Job 8:8 You see, ask the previous generation, and pay attention to what their fathers discovered,
Job 8:9 since we were born only yesterday and know nothing. Our days above the ground are a shadow.
Job 8:10 Will they not teach you and tell you and speak from their understanding?
Job 8:11 Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Do reeds flourish without water?
Job 8:12 While still uncut shoots, they would dry up quicker than any other plant.
Job 8:13 Such is the destiny of all who forget God; the hope of the godless will be destroyed.
Job 8:14 His source of confidence is fragile; what he trusts in is a spider’s web.
Job 8:15 He leans on his web, but it doesn’t stand firm. He grabs it, but it does not hold up.
Job 8:16 He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine; his shoots spread out over his garden.
Job 8:17 His roots are intertwined around a pile of rocks. He looks for a home among the stones.
Job 8:18 If he is uprooted from his place, it will deny knowing him, saying, “I never saw you.”
Job 8:19 Surely this is the joy of his way of life; yet others will sprout from the dust.
Job 8:20 Look, God does not reject a person of integrity, and he will not support evildoers.
Job 8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with a shout of joy.
Job 8:22 Your enemies will be clothed with shame; the tent of the wicked will be no longer

apparent signs

Bildad uses an excellent argument, which would no doubt have been very successful except for the fact that Job was innocent. Bildad compares Job’s previous fortune to that of a Papyrus plant, which grows quickly and looms above other plants, – a signh of strength –yet it can be easily destroyed. The assumption was that Job was being punished for sin. How often do we see people in sad circumstances and conclude that they must have brought their fate upon themselves? How often do we suffer setbacks and ask God what we did to deserve them? This is the same mindset that caused the rich Pharisees in Jesus’ day to miss God entirely. Personal health and wealth are not barometers of our spiritual condition.

LORD, we seek a relationship with you. We will not settle for the apparent signs. We want the substance.

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your target

Posted on June 16, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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your target

Job 7:1-21 (JDV)

Job 7:1 Isn’t each mortal consigned to forced labor in the land? Are not his days like those of a hired worker?
Job 7:2 Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hired worker he waits for his pay.
Job 7:3 So I have been made to inherit months of futility, and troubled nights have been assigned to me.
Job 7:4 When I lie down, I think, “When will I get up?” But the evening drags on endlessly, and I toss and turn until dawn.
Job 7:5 My flesh is clothed with maggots and encrusted with dirt. My skin forms scabs and then oozes.
Job 7:6 My days pass more swiftly than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.
Job 7:7 Remember that my life is but a breath. My eye will never again see anything good.
Job 7:8 The eye of anyone who looks on me will no longer see me. Your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.
Job 7:9 As a cloud fades away and vanishes, so the one who goes down to Sheol will never rise again.
Job 7:10 He will never return to his house; his hometown will no longer remember him.
Job 7:11 Therefore I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my breath; I will complain in the bitterness of my throat.
Job 7:12 Am I the sea or a sea monster, that you keep me under watch?
Job 7:13 When I say, “My bed will comfort me, and my couch will ease my complaint,”
Job 7:14 then you frighten me with dreams, and terrify me with visions,
Job 7:15 so that my throat prefers strangling — death instead of my bones.
Job 7:16 I give up! I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
Job 7:17 What is a mere mortal, that you think so highly of him and pay so much attention to him?
Job 7:18 You inspect him every morning and put him to the test every moment.
Job 7:19 Will you ever look away from me, or leave me alone long enough to swallow my spit?
Job 7:20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you, people-watcher? Why have you made me your target, so that I have become a burden to you?
Job 7:21 Why not forgive my sin and pardon my iniquity? Because soon I will lie down in the grave. You will eagerly seek me, but I will be gone.

your target

Job felt like God was targetting him (vs. 20). But in fact, the devil orchestrated all these attacks, and God allowed them because God knew his servant Job would prevail. Trust God through your trials.

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outweigh the sand

Posted on June 15, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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outweigh the sand

Job 6:1-30 (JDV)

Job 6:1 Then Job answered. This is what he said:
Job 6:2 If only my grief could be weighed and my devastation along with it on the scales.
Job 6:3 Because then it would outweigh the sand of the seas! That is why my words are stammering.
Job 6:4 Because the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my breath drinks their poison. God’s terrors are layered against me.
Job 6:5 Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass or an ox low over its fodder?
Job 6:6 Is bland food eaten without salt? Is there favor in an egg white?
Job 6:7 My throat refuses to touch them; they are like contaminated food.
Job 6:8 If only my request would be granted, and God would provide what I hope for:
Job 6:9 that he would decide to crush me, to unleash his power and cut me off!
Job 6:10 It would still bring me comfort, and I would leap for joy in unrelenting pain that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
Job 6:11 What strength do I have, that I should continue to hope? What is my future, that my throat should keep breathing?
Job 6:12 Is my strength that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze?
Job 6:13 Since I cannot help myself, the hope for success has been banished from me.
Job 6:14 A despairing man should receive loyalty from his friends, even if he abandons the fear of the Almighty.
Job 6:15 My brothers are as treacherous as a wadi, as seasonal streams that overflow
Job 6:16 and become darkened because of ice, and the snow melts into them.
Job 6:17 The wadis evaporate in warm weather; they disappear from their channels in hot weather.
Job 6:18 Caravans turn away from their routes, go up into the desert, and are destroyed.
Job 6:19 The caravans of Tema look for these streams. The traveling merchants of Sheba hope for them.
Job 6:20 They are ashamed because they had been confident of finding water. When they arrive there, they are disappointed.
Job 6:21 So this is what you have now become to me. When you see something dreadful, you are afraid.
Job 6:22 Have I ever said: “Give me something” or “Pay a bribe for me from your wealth”
Job 6:23 or “Deliver me from the enemy’s hand” or “Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless”?
Job 6:24 Teach me, and I will be silent. Help me understand what I did wrong.
Job 6:25 How painful honest words can be! But what does your rebuke prove?
Job 6:26 Do you think that you can disprove my words or that a despairing man’s words are mere breath?
Job 6:27 No doubt you would cast lots for a fatherless child and negotiate a price to sell your friend.
Job 6:28 But now, please look at me; I will not lie to your face.
Job 6:29 Reconsider; don’t be unjust. Reconsider; my righteousness is still the issue.
Job 6:30 Is there injustice on my tongue or can my palate not taste disaster?

outweigh the sand

When we are suffering, God’s presence does sometimes seem a burdensome weight. If we had the ability to see beyond the present crisis, we could see that God’s presence in our situation sustains us, but even righteous Job had trouble keeping that reality before him. Often, the best that we can do is be honest with God about how we feel, and stay with him, even when we do not understand his ways.

LORD, give us the wisdom to vent our frustrations to you, because you care for us.

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we have investigated

Posted on June 14, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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we have investigated

Job 5:1-27 (JDV)

Job 5:1 Call now! Will anyone answer you? Which of the holy ones will you turn to?
Job 5:2 Because anger kills a fool, and jealousy slays the gullible.
Job 5:3 I have seen a fool taking root, but I immediately pronounced a curse on his home.
Job 5:4 His children are far from safety. They are crushed at the city gate, with no one to rescue them.
Job 5:5 The hungry eat his harvest, even taking it out of the thorns. The thirsty pant for his children’s wealth.
Job 5:6 For distress does not grow out of the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the ground.
Job 5:7 But humans are born for trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
Job 5:8 However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and would present my case to him.
Job 5:9 He does great and unsearchable things, miracles without number.
Job 5:10 He gives rain to the land and sends water to the fields.
Job 5:11 He sets the humble on high, and mourners are lifted to safety.
Job 5:12 He frustrates the schemes of the crafty so that they achieve no success.
Job 5:13 He traps the wise in their craftiness so that the plans of the deceptive are quickly ended.
Job 5:14 They encounter darkness by day, and they grope at noon as if it were night.
Job 5:15 He saves the needy from their sharp words and from the clutches of the powerful.
Job 5:16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
Job 5:17 See how happy the mortal is whom God corrects; so, do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.
Job 5:18 Because he wounds but he also bandages; he strikes, but his hands also heal.
Job 5:19 He will rescue you from six calamities; no harm will touch you in seven.
Job 5:20 In famine he will redeem you from death, and in battle, from the power of the sword.
Job 5:21 You will be safe from slander and not fear destruction when it comes.
Job 5:22 You will laugh at destruction and hunger and not fear the land’s wild creatures.
Job 5:23 Because you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
Job 5:24 You will know that your tent is secure, and nothing will be missing when you inspect your home.
Job 5:25 You will also know that your offspring will be many and your descendants like the grass of the ground.
Job 5:26 You will approach the grave in full strength, as a stack of sheaves is gathered in its season.
Job 5:27 We have investigated this, and it is true! Hear it and understand it for yourself.

we have investigated

Eliphaz was so confident that he had Job’s problem all figured out. Such confidence cannot exist in the same body as true compassion. If you are not willing to give a suffering person your compassion, at least withhold your judgment.

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eyes of grace

Posted on June 13, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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eyes of grace

Job 4:1-21 (JDV)

Job 4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
Job 4:2 Should anyone try to speak with you when you are so tired? Yet who can keep from speaking?
Job 4:3 Indeed, you have instructed many and have strengthened weak hands.
Job 4:4 Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling and braced the knees that were buckling.
Job 4:5 But now that this has happened to you, you have become tired. It strikes you, and you are overwhelmed.
Job 4:6 Isn’t your piety your confidence, and the integrity of your life your hope?
Job 4:7 Think about this: who has been destroyed when he was innocent? Where have the honest been made to disappear?
Job 4:8 In my experience, those who plow injustice and those who sow trouble reap the same.
Job 4:9 They are destroyed at a single breathing from God and come to an end by the breath of his nostrils.
Job 4:10 The lion may roar and the fierce lion growl, but the teeth of young lions are broken.
Job 4:11 The strong lion dies if it catches no prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
Job 4:12 A word was brought to me in secret; my ears caught a whisper of it.
Job 4:13 Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night, when deep sleep comes over men,
Job 4:14 fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shake.
Job 4:15 I felt a wind on my face, and the hair on my body stood up.
Job 4:16 A figure stood there, but I could not recognize its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes. I heard a whispering voice:
Job 4:17 “Can a mortal be righteous before God? Can a healthy man be purer than his Maker?”
Job 4:18 If God puts no trust in his servants and he charges his angels with foolishness,
Job 4:19 how much more those who dwell in clay houses, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth!
Job 4:20 They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; they be destroyed forever while no one notices.
Job 4:21 Are their tent cords not pulled up? They die without wisdom.

eyes of grace

Eliphaz accuses Job of being impatient and dismayed. The world that Eliphaz knows about is one in which everything happens according to set rules. He cannot imagine a scenario in which a person who is truly righteous is allowed to suffer as Job has. He therefore concludes that Job has committed some secret sin, and failed God in some way. He urges Job to seek his answer in God, and not to insist on his own righteousness. Ordinarily, that argument makes sense: none of us are perfect, and suffering is often the consequence of our own mistakes. But here, it is Eliphaz who is dismayed. It is Eliphaz who has not been patient enough to find the real answer. It is right to direct our suffering friends to God. But sometimes their suffering will not be because they need to be reconciled to him. Sometimes they just need his restoring touch.

LORD, may we not be so quick to condemn those who are unfortunate. May we see them through your eyes of grace, and bring them to you in love.

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death no escape

Posted on June 12, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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death no escape

Job 3:1-26 (JDV)

Job 3:1 After this, Job opened his mouth and declare the day he was born cursed.
Job 3:2 He said:
Job 3:3 May the day I was born be destroyed, and the night that said, “A healthy man is conceived.”
Job 3:4 If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above not care about it, or light shine on it.
Job 3:5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it. May what darkens the day terrify it.
Job 3:6 If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year or be listed in the calendar.
Job 3:7 Yes, may that night be barren; may no joyful shout be heard in it.
Job 3:8 Let those who curse days condemn it, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
Job 3:9 May its morning stars grow dark. May it wait for daylight but have none; may it not see the breaking of dawn.
Job 3:10 For that night did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb and hide sorrow from my eyes.
Job 3:11 Why was I not stillborn; why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?
Job 3:12 Why did the knees receive me, and why were there breasts for me to nurse?
Job 3:13 Now I would certainly be lying down in peace; I would be asleep. Then I would be at rest
Job 3:14 with the kings and counselors of the land, who rebuilt ruined cities for themselves,
Job 3:15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
Job 3:16 Or why was I not hidden like a miscarried child, like infants who never see daylight?
Job 3:17 There the wicked cease to make trouble, and there the weary find rest.
Job 3:18 The prisoners are completely at rest; they do not hear a taskmaster’s voice.
Job 3:19 Both small and great are there, and the slave is set free from his master.
Job 3:20 Why is light given to one burdened with grief, and life to those whose throat is bitter,
Job 3:21 who wait for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than for hidden treasure,
Job 3:22 who are filled with much joy and are glad when they reach the grave?
Job 3:23 Why is life given to a healthy man whose path is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
Job 3:24 I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.
Job 3:25 Because the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.
Job 3:26 I cannot relax or be calm; I have no rest, because turmoil has come.

death no escape

Job had only one thing left. He had his life, and he cursed the day of his birth. Life had been precious to him, and now he saw it as a prison. Seeing how much people suffer, it is no surprise that some philosophers envision death as an escape from that prison. Socrates drank the poison hemlock because he saw it as a means of escape from the trap that his body had become. Job wanted to escape as well, but his view of death was different than that of Socrates and Plato. For Job, death was lying down, being quiet, and resting. It was joining the small and the great (everyone) in a place where there is no light, no consciousness. It is easy to see why someone who has suffered as much as Job did would just want it all to end. Yet, God’s will was not death. God’s will was recovery, restoration, and resurrection.

This life is not always fair. There will be times of suffering, and we may at times get so low that we wish for it all to end. One of the messages that this story gives us is that God is always there, and he will not give up on us. We should not give up on ourselves. Death is a curse upon humanity because of sin. When life seems a trap, the way out is not death. It is eternal life, through Christ.

“It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed” (1 Corinthians 15:52 NLT).

LORD, give us the wisdom to seek for your rescue, not sin’s curse.

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when things get worse

Posted on June 11, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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when things get worse

Job 2:1-13 (JDV)

Job 2:1 One day the sons of God came again to present themselves before Yahveh, and Satan also came with them to present himself before Yahveh.
Job 2:2 Yahveh asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” “From roaming through the land,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”
Job 2:3 Then Yahveh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on the land is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited me against him, to destroy him for no good reason.”
Job 2:4 “Skin for skin!” Satan answered Yahveh. “A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his throat.
Job 2:5 But send out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
Job 2:6 “Very well,” Yahveh told Satan, “He is in your power; only spare his throat.”
Job 2:7 So Satan left Yahveh’s presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
Job 2:8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.
Job 2:9 His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
Job 2:10 “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.
Job 2:11 Now when Job’s three friends– Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite– heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.
Job 2:12 When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head.
Job 2:13 Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.

when things get worse

Job’s victory over his circumstances (and the devil behind them) is seen in the fact that God still boasts of his integrity as he did before calamity struck. So, Satan pleads for more control. The LORD gives him authority to touch Job’s body with painful sores. That was only part of the strategy. The other part is the reaction that Job would have to endure of his wife and his “friends.” Most of the story is a description of the reactions of people around Job to the unfairness of Job’s problems compared to his apparent sinlessness. Their conclusion was that Job must have secretly done something to cause his problems. We know, however, that it was not like that.

The seven days of mourning in silence and the dust on the heads are both signs that Job’s friends expected him to die (return to the dust). Anyone who has ever sat with a friend who is dying of a terminal illness knows how they felt. It is a difficult and painful thing to see a friend deteriorate before your eyes. Job was not the only one being tested.

When things went from bad to worse for Job, it was because Satan was losing. Job was a hero of faith because he refused to accept what everybody else believed. He clung to his relationship with God as an anchor.

LORD, help us to forge such a deep relationship with you that though the world turn against us, we can stay true.

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trust remains

Posted on June 10, 2024 by Jefferson Vann

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trust remains

Job 1:1-22 (JDV)

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz named Job. He was a man of complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil.
Job 1:2 He had seven sons and three daughters.
Job 1:3 He also had seven thousand sheep and goats, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man among all the people of the east.
Job 1:4 His sons used to take turns having feasts at their homes. They would send an invitation to their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
Job 1:5 Whenever a round of feasts was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. Job thought, “Perhaps my children have failed, having cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
Job 1:6 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahveh, and Satan also came with them.
Job 1:7 Yahveh asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” “From roaming through the land,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”
Job 1:8 Then Yahveh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on the land is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”
Job 1:9 Satan answered Yahveh, “Does Job fear God for nothing?
Job 1:10 Haven’t you placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
Job 1:11 But send out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
Job 1:12 “Very well,” Yahveh told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, do not lay a hand on Job himself.” So, Satan left Yahveh’s presence.
Job 1:13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
Job 1:14 a messenger came to Job and reported: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing nearby,
Job 1:15 the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
Job 1:16 He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported: “God’s fire fell from the sky. It burned the sheep and the servants and devoured them, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
Job 1:17 That messenger was still speaking when yet another came and reported: “The Chaldeans formed three bands, made a raid on the camels, and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
Job 1:18 He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house.
Job 1:19 Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people so that they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
Job 1:20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped,
Job 1:21 saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. Yahveh gives, and Yahveh takes away. Blessed be the name of Yahveh.
Job 1:22 Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.

trust remains

A major test of a person’s character comes with catastrophe. It brings out the worst in some people, the best in others. Job is one of those people whose pure hearts shines through when struck by darkness all around. His life literally falls apart around him, and he is grieved deeply by it. But his relationship with the LORD remains. For most, God is immediately to blame when disaster strikes. Job sees the disaster as another reason to worship. His trust in the LORD remains, even when things happen that cannot be explained. Behind the scenes there is a reason for the destruction and death. Job does not know that reason. But he still chooses to trust the LORD.

LORD, make us strong in our relationship with you, so that if the times of testing come, we will be found faithful.

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