January 20 - Job 5:1-7:21

Good morning everyone,

Oh buddy, as we begin this morning Job is a hurtin’ unit. Let us not even take into consideration all of the tragedy he has suffered in the loss of his family, his children, the mourning process he would be going through and just take a look at his health issues. His body is swollen, he has weeping lesions and boils all from head to toe. Without a doubt, he is in considerable physical pain. He is distraught and emotionally distressed, the man is suffering severely on so many levels, is it any wonder he is experiencing depression over it. It hurts my heart to read it. Just sayn'

In chapter 2 we read that three of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar had heard of his misfortune and to their credit they traveled a great distance simply to be with him, to quietly sit with him, their mere presence comforting him. If only they had just remained quiet.

Eliphaz must have been the most prominent of the three friends as he was the first to speak. He claimed to be given a secret knowledge through a special revelation from God, claiming too that he had learned much in personal experience. He argued that suffering is a direct result of sin, so that if Job would but confess his sin it would all end. Eliphaz saw suffering as a punishment from God and just to set the record straight friends ….. don’t let this get past you, God does not punish us for anything. Please hear that! God does NOT punish us for anything. He is not in the punishing business, however, He does in fact allow us to experience pain and suffering as a way of growing us and sharpening us to make us better people, to equip us to serve Him better for His kingdom.If you know nothing else, you need to know God loves us and wants only what is best for us. 

In chapter six Job addresses Eliphaz’s advice calling it tasteless. In his grief, Job expresses his desire to just be done with it all, believing he did not have the strength to go on. He takes a look at how he has been living and tells Eliphaz he is innocent of what he is charging him with. Oh! My! Word!  Take a moment in your mind’s eye to see his face, to feel his desperation, his world is upside down. Job was experiencing such deep anguish and in his agony he cries out to God. He stopped the tit-for-tat with Eliphaz and talked directly to his Abba. He spoke freely about his feelings. There was no blaspheme going on, oh no, Job, in his suffering he was just desperately laying it all out there for God. Talking to the only one who could actually help but most importantly, the one constant in his life he could look to who would simply love him through this most miserable season of his life. 

I have just got to say, I know and have lived that “beyond desperate” season Job is going through and it is just that desperate and quite frankly the thought of ever having to experience it again scares the bejesus out of me. Nonetheless, I am a living testimony that even if you get lost in that time, God is right there by your side and He will put you on His back and get you through, if need be. Seriously, you’ve seen the picture on the poster of single footprints in the sand. Right? God carrying the hurting individual? He is there and will carry you through the worst season of your life! That’s our God. It may not feel like it, you may not feel Him, you most probably will feel all alone while frantically like a scared rabbit, blindly darting this way then the other through the treacherous alleys of an endless, terrifying, black orifice of hopelessness and despair. Totally disoriented not knowing which way to turn when all the while all you simply need to do is look up, quiet yourself, then hold on to the hand of our Savior and believe He sill see you through. Right on?

Psalm 84:1-7 says, “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young - a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Blessed are those whose strength is in you.” Blessed are those whose strength in in the Lord! Amen?

Have a great day ad to God be the glory.

God bless you all …..