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Tag: job

Job is first of the books of wisdom in the Bible and thought to be the oldest text included in the Bible.

  • The Curse of Disease and Death

    The Curse of Disease and Death

    We don’t understand death. Illness, disease and all the relatives of pain. These challenge our sense of mortality and question our grasp of purpose.

    Why did God make it this way?

    Wrong question. God created mankind in his image. Sin brought forth death and suffering out of our disobedience to a Father’s command.

    Just like understanding death, we cannot eat of the tree of all knowledge the fruit of what the spirit will endure. Death brings judgment of decay and suffering. But what of the spirit resting, the spirit awakened from death?

    Why a man can hardly understand the fall of adam, let alone the fall of angels. Yet angels and adam rebel against the righteous authority of Almighty God. These fallen ones affect our lives in ways we cannot know. Yet unseen scores of angels answer the righteous beckoning of a loving heavenly Father, who looks upon the mortal and eternal lives of His own.

    A Story of Suffering

    We think we know this oldest of stories of a man whose final blessing we cherish. He received twice the blessing. Fair enough. That’s worth some time when God will not help. Right?

    You don’t really believe that, do you? At least, not if you are the suffering one or the one living every minute with the anguishing pain of a dear loved one. This is the story of Job we quickly overlook on the way to the double-blessed ending.

    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.

    Question #1

    Would that be a man like you? Or a woman like you (if that is your gender)? Was Job a man like me?

    Certainly not. I am a sinner time and time again, certainly not ‘blameless‘ nor upright before the Lord God.

    [ctt title=”תָּם – täm – blameless: complete, perfect, sound, wholesome, morally innocent, having integrity” tweet=”How are you doing at ‘blameless’ minute by measured minute of your mortal life?” coverup=”jaG0i”]

    The fallen angel of disobedience challenges God:

    “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land…

    Isn’t that how we pray to the Lord?

    Hedge us in. Protect us. Give us those double blessings. It’s as if our mortal minutes were all about God giving us a gardens of blessings in all that we do.

    Is that why the Lord created man?

    Job’s Bad Day

    Job didn’t bring on his own distress as we often do. Yet put yourself in this loving father’s place as he hears of the fates of the sons and daughters he has raised.

    15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword..

    … “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 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.”

    … the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” – Job 1:21c

    Would that have been your (blameless) reaction?

    Me neither; but it gets worse. Once again, Satan challenges the Lord at the integrity of Job.

    Job 2:

    “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”

    7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

    Can you imagine any righteous man suffering like this, though he is blameless? Image the constant suffering, the pain this man endured.

    8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

    11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place…

    12 And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.

    13 And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

    Tragic Suffering

    Have you ever seen it? (Did you for a moment blame God?) Was it your wife, or a parent, perhaps even a child…

    Why such suffering!?

    Job’s friends came to him because of the report of the evil Job was suffering. The story of Job in the Bible clearly not only shows us the unseen origin of Job’s tormentor, the fallen angel Satan, but also describe Job’s suffering as evil.

    רַע

    [ctt title=”The evil of suffering sometimes seems larger than God.” tweet=”Remember, though, the Lord suffered for your sins and for mine.” coverup=”Sm646″]

    Wickedness, mischief, hurt, trouble, affliction, ill, adversity, harm and other suffering often leading to death have nearly disappeared from our mortal consciousness.

    For like good, evil has become a measure of no meaning in the minds of mankind.

    Job goes on to lament his very life. Have we not done that when in great distress? Have we not questioned God’s motives in the suffering of man, especially those nearest our mortal hearts?

    All the lessons of life taught from Moses to the Prophets to the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John show suffering – consequence of the disease of sin, yet a hope of redemption and cure of righteousness, resurrection from the suffering of this fragile flesh.

    To be continued…

  • A Crying Out to the Wind

    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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  • Days of Despair

    Days of Despair

     In Christ we have a Light of hope in a season of our dark despair.

    Job 30:

    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.

    Have you ever had a bad time in life like this?

    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.
    20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
        I stand, and you only look at me.

    IF you even ask, do you sometimes feel like God does not answer you?

    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.

     

    Does despair, inward pain and silence from God turn your Christmas joy into a longing for the gift of hope?

     

    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.

    Bible trivia: Job is the oldest of any book of the Bible written approximately 2100-1800 B.C.

     

    Job was a righteous man who had some big troubles test his faith. Perhaps you think that you are a righteous man or woman as well. You do mostly good. You live like you should (for the most part).

    You cry out to God for help… and nothing…

    Job could not help himself, except to pray to God. Often, neither can you or I.

    This time of year you may hear the familiar Christmas nativity story told by either Luke or Matthew. If we were to read on in Matthew to a time thirty years later when Jesus first began His teaching, we would read how our Lord heals the afflictions of mankind.

    Matthew 4:

    23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

    24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains,those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

     

    Are you just one in the Christmas crowds who follow Jesus just to see if He will heal someone else?

    Jesus Christ IS the balm for your wounded soul and the salvation of your sinful flesh.

    Hear these words of encouragement from the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth:

    2 Corinthians 4:

    But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 

    We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;

    perplexed, but not driven to despair; 

    persecuted, but not forsaken;

    struck down, but not destroyed;

    always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,

    so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

     

    To be continued…

    This look at the afflictions of Job is the third installment in my Christmas series in the year of our Lord, 2015.