January 22 - Job 12:1- 14:22

Good morning everyone,

This morning we begin with Job’s reply to all the observations, counseling and advise his three friends have given him. Again, I urge you to remember the condition Job is in. Let your mind’s eye wander for just a moment and see this man first as a healthy, vibrant, wealthy husband and father. He is a rancher, and a good one, with regular routines of praying and presenting sacrifices to his God. He loves gathering with his family over meals, laughing it up, kind of like the Ben Cartwright of the Old Testament. (Umm, that just dated me ..) Life was great for Job. 

And then …. Now, see this same man, broken. He has lost his family, all his worldly possessions, instead of long hair his head is shaved, instead of tanned healthy, he has sores all over his body, painful open wounds in fact, oozing with puss. His bowels are boiling, he has diarrhea, his skin is black, his breath is so foul it is said to be like death, he is depressed, desperate and more than a little bewildered by all that is happening to him. This man is miserable!

Job has been sitting there, with his entire body throbbing, feeling like it is going to burn out or blow up, listening to his friends give their take on why he is going through this valley in his life. Anybody who has ever been that miserably ill knows that the last thing in the world you want is someone’s accusing words pounding against your head, right?, besides they are not telling him anything he has not already thought of. So finally Job has heard enough and gets a bit snippety with them and says, “I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know all these things?” Job also recognizes that he, a once well respected man in the area, has become a laughing stock, people were pointing their fingers at him because of his misfortune. 

So Job, while sitting on the heaps of ash, reaches his breaking point, the proverbial last straw has been placed in the camel’s back. He looks up, and in the greatest form of sarcasm rips into his friends. Is this godly behavior? Absolutely not, but it serves to show us how utterly confused and disorientated with life Job really is. He says to them, (and say this with attitude) “ I’m sure you think you are the only wise people left. You think that when you die, wisdom will be gone with you.”

I loved Job’s reminder to them in 12:13-25 of the true wisdom and power are found in God. “If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land. To him belong strength and insight; both deceived and deceiver are his. He leads rulers away stripped and makes fools of judges.” And so on …

In chapter 13:20 that Job breaks from speaking to his friends and turns to speak to God. The solid Rock, though he can no longer feel God, it the one place that has always been a constant, the one place he knows to turn. He asks two things; first, that his suffering will stop. He is feeling abandoned and lonely I am sure he totally misses being with God, don’t you when you are away from His word? Second, that God would show him his sins if he’s committed any. He feels adrift, like a boat with no port in a storm. You see, even in Job’s despair he knows that God will be his salvation. When all else failed, Job relied on his basic foundation of truth of God’s Word.

If you are feeling distant from God, I would encourage you to dig deeper into His Word and then pray. Ask God to reveal to you if there be any sin in your heart, creating a divider between Him and yourself. He will honor that. God loves you, He loves us all with a love that is unconditional. He will never leave you or forsake you. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Amen?

Have a great day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all …