Learning from Job
(NIV) Job 1:4 His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.
(NIV) Job:1:18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you! ”20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Of all of the Sunday School lessons I’ve taught, and all of the sermons I’ve preached, and the many devotionals I’ve written, I don’t think I’ve ever tackled Job. Truthfully, Job has always intimidated me. What can I possibly bring to the story of a godly man who lost everything due to no fault of his own?
In Job we see that he was a man of great wealth and many possessions. God Himself said Job was blameless and upright. But Satan suggested Job was a godly man solely because of what God gave him. When tragedy came, Job responds with the well-known phrase, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”
Most of us can not imagine such an attitude in the midst of losing everything. Yet we saw repeatedly the victims of Hurricane Helene responding in much the same way. One mother whose young son was ripped from her arms said she heard him calling out to Jesus as the floods swept him away. Still, the mother was able to say she was thankful that her son was with Jesus.
Suffering did not begin with Job, and it will not end until Jesus returns and establishes His Millennial Kingdom. The root of our suffering lies with the original sin that entered the world through Adam and Eve. It was their disobedience that brought sickness and death. For those who have been afflicted with chronic pain, or what seems to be an onslaught of sickness and other tragedies, remember Job and his response to suffering.
And, learn to pray the Psalms. You will find comfort in the songs of David, who went through everything we have. And just as we love to hear our children speak our words back to us (they were listening after all) I believe our Heavenly Father loves to hear His words spoken back to Him.
Psalm 34:1 I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3 O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
May we make a habit of praising God in good times and bad, so that if suffering comes our way our immediate response will be to glorify God. And if you are too ill to do anything else, just say Jesus
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Boas, the Kinsman Redeemer
(NIV) Ruth 4:9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses! ”
11 Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel.”
Well, this is odd. I began my devotional early this morning, as always, but became distracted by one of my senior dogs. When I returned, I could not find my devotional. After searching I decided to start again.
Today’s writing deals with God’s faithfulness to Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi. You remember the story. Naomi, her husband and their two sons left Bethlehem during a famine and moved to Moab, an enemy country. Her sons married Moabite women, and after some time her husband and both sons died.
Naomi, completely bereft, instructed her daughters-in-law to return to their mothers. While Orpah conceded, Ruth clung to Naomi. In one of the most beautiful declarations of love I have ever seen, we read, “(NIV)Ruth 1- 16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
So Boaz, a distant relative of Naomi, acted as the Kinsman Redeemer by marrying Ruth, carrying forward the lineage of Elimilek. This was such a sacrificial act on his part, and it was clearly God working on behalf of the faithfulness of Ruth whose son by Boaz became the grandfather of David.
May we be faithful even when we cannot see a way to make it through.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Hope or Faith
(NIV) Ps 33: 20 We wait in hope for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
21 In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
22 May your unfailing love be with us, LORD,
even as we put our hope in you.
After my first heart attack, I wrote the following poem:
HOPE
Hope drifts in on angel’s wings, barely
disturbing the air, the room, we
hardly know it’s there.
Yet, it arrives, unhurried, but
not unwanted.
We see it in the
face of a friend, the
trace of a smile, or simply
a kind word. It is the promise
of good things to come, the
assurance that we are not alone. It is
what gets us through another day
when we think we cannot go on.
I had just turned 50, we had only been in Pittsburgh two weeks, I knew no one and I was trying to put a house together. But I was so weak I couldn’t go up and down the stairs. I didn’t have a church yet. My friend Coralie offered to come help, but she had just lost her mother two weeks earlier and I was afraid it would be too much for her. So I needed hope.
Did my need for hope mean I had lost faith? Not at all! Hope is foundational to faith.
(NIV) Jeremiah 31: 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” The difference between our hope and those without Christ is that we have a confidence that is built on a firm foundation. We hope in God because of Who He is, what He has done, and what we know He will do.
May we build up our own faith and hope by Bible reading and prayer and staying connected to other believers who we know will stand in the gap for us when we are too ill or weak to pray. And when we are too weak to even say a prayer, just say Jesus.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
(KJV) Ps 24:1 The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof;
the world, and they that dwell therein.
2 For he hath founded it upon the seas,
and established it upon the floods.
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD?
or who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart;
who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,
nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD,
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 This is the generation of them that seek him,
that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
Sometimes I just have to go to the King James translation. “The earth is the lord’s and the fullness thereof” is the way I learned it. So when I read the NIV which says “The earth is the lord’s and everything in it” I know it means the same thing, but those are not the words stored up in my heart.
I pray today that we can stand before the Lord, pure of thought and deed, so that we can seek Him with our whole hearts.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
But God had a plan
(KJV) Neh 1:1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, 2 That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
4 And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, 5 And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: 6 Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. 8 Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: 9 But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. 10 Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. 11 O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer.
You might remember the story of Nehemiah, the cupbearer of King Artexerxes, the King of Persia. Nehemiah was born into captivity, yet when he heard of the plights of those Jews who had returned to Jerusalem, he was filled with remorse. Nehemiah fasted and prayed, asking for direction and he reminded God that those suffering in Jerusalem were His children. He then asked God to have mercy upon him as he approached the King, for nothing could be done without the king’s approval.
I have loved the account of Nehemiah since I first heard it fifty years ago. First, I can’t believe I can reference anything that happened fifty years ago. But more importantly we find a pattern in his prayer that we would do well to follow.
- Praise
- Repentance
- Reminded God of His covenant
- Asked for mercy as he approached the king
And then, he went to work. Nehemiah left his secure place as the Kings cupbearer to go to a place that was foreign to him, but God had a plan.
We will not all be Nehemiahs. But we can all make a difference in someone’s life. May we “bloom where we are planted”, listening to the Holy Spirit and following His guidance.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Seeking Holiness 