One of my favorite accounts in the bible tells the story of Job. A man who was blameless, upright, feared God and was really REALLY wealthy (Job 1:1-5)! He shunned evil and offered sacrifices and prayed for his ten children continually. Satan happened to be going to and fro on the earth looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Satan stood before God to make a petition to test Job. Satan accused Job of being faithful simply because God had blessed him. God allowed Satan to test Job except he was not allowed to kill Job. In one day Job experienced the death of all of his children, his livestock, and his servants. But Job’s response was this: “The Lord gives and takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Satan became even more determined and said that Job would surely curse God if he touched his flesh. So satan struck Job with painful boils from “the sole of his foot to the crown of his head”. Job then went and took a piece of pottery to scrape himself while he sat in ashes. Although the scriptures express that Job was so depressed that he wished he had never been born, it also says “in all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:9)
Throughout Job’s circumstance he did not curse God. In the account of Job he is told by his wife to curse God and die. He is accused by his friends of sinning (which wasn’t true). Job converses with God wanting an answer for his troubles. I used to wonder what was the purpose of Job’s predicament? Why did he have to go through all of this? But like Joseph said: what was intended for evil God meant for good, we see God reveal more of himself to Job. God reveals His Omnipotence to Job in Job 38-39. Job sees that he is nothing in the presence of the Lord in Job 42.
“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear
But now my eye sees You.
Therefore I abhor myself
And repent in dust and ashes”
(Job 42:5)
Job had an encounter with His God that was deeper and more amazing than what he had experienced before. God restored Job’s losses after he prayed for his friends and blessed his latter days more than his beginning. God restored his relationships, his wealth and his family. But I believe that through this trial the most precious thing he gained was a richness in his relationship with God, a closeness that he had never experienced before. Job lived 140 more years more intamently with God than before!
“So Job died, old and full of days” meaning he had a full life at the end of his days.
If you are struggling through something today do not despair for at the end God will reveal something so beautiful to you that you could never have imagined!
Please comment and share what God has done for you. It will encourage someone else.
Inspire(d) 