Prelude to Disaster
When life has been comfortable for you, do you cry out in amazement at a turn of events?
Let’s take a look at a righteous man from the oldest book in the Bible and later examine Job’s pleas to the Lord after his friends have offered no help. Should we cry out to the wind in the day of disaster? What good could possibly come of it; what good could return from a God who allows the winds of change to bring us into the place of disaster?
Job 1:
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil…
…
19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Job’s pain described to his friends
Job 30:
15 Terrors are turned upon me;
my honor is pursued as by the wind,
and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.
16 “And now my soul is poured out within me;
days of affliction have taken hold of me.
17 The night racks my bones,
and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
18 With great force my garment is disfigured;
it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
19 God has cast me into the mire,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
When disaster strikes, when disaster even threatens, do you cry out to the wind? When terrors seem to fall upon us, when pain gives no rest, do you even blame God?
For it is Almighty God who allows the winds of change. It is Almighty God who painfully refines us in the fire.
Job’s plea to God
20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
I stand, and you only look at me.
21 You have turned cruel to me;
with the might of your hand you persecute me.
22 You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,
and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
23 For I know that you will bring me to death
and to the house appointed for all living.
24 “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
and in his disaster cry for help?
Have you been there? Has this been your prayer, perhaps even now?
Job’s Appeal
25 Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?
Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
26 But when I hoped for good, evil came,
and when I waited for light, darkness came.
27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
days of affliction come to meet me.
28 I go about darkened, but not by the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry for help…
There is more to the sad turn of events in the life of this righteous man, both prior to our glance at this portion of Job’s tragedy and after this chapter when Job confronts the LORD!
If you cry out to the wind even now, will you be saved by your own righteousness?
(I will not give away the ending, in case you have not read or do not recall the conclusion found in the remaining twelve chapters of the Book of Job.) Job faces Almighty God as a righteous man. How will you?
Wind is a tempest we cannot see and a power we cannot control. Can a man of dust grasp the ungraspable? Will a mere mortal stand still or bow down before the LORD?
Wind רוּחַ ἄνεμος
In Hebrew: wind, breath, mind, spirit; and also used in an attempt to describe the Holy Spirit of God.
In Greek: wind, a violent agitation and stream of air; a very strong tempestuous wind; the four principal or cardinal winds, hence the four corners of heaven
Behind the invisible imagery one must see beyond the feel, effect and cause of the wind to a more mysterious meaning of a Source for all wind; therefore a Source also of all calm.
NOTE: Linked text to source for scripture, Hebrew & Greek definitions and other source material for Roger Harned posts on http://talkofJesus.com
Pray for us; for we wait in the path of the tempest for the unwielding hand of God!
Are you a righteous man or woman created by God?
The heavens and the earth and all mankind is created by God! None is righteous; no, not one.
Would you confront the LORD without humility and grace?
Or do you pray to the wind?
Do you pray to a dead prophet or powerless dead saint?
Do you depend on the name of your dead ancestors?
Dearly beloved, for whom Christ Jesus came to this chaotic earth as Son of Man sacrificed for your sins: pray in His Holy Name to God our heavenly Father that you will receive his Holy Spirit, the very breath of eternal life; lest the tempest of His wrath sweep your perishing soul into the abyss of darkness.
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