Get ready to start a journey…a journey through the pages of the Bible and the pages of your life.
One of life’s biggest dangers is the trap of the temporal. One writer notes that our “deepest devotions simply leak out of our bodies by how we spend our time and what makes us smile and what claims our energy.” Most of our time and energy is spent on the things we will retire from and leave behind. When we are caught in the trap of the temporal, we burn out or wash out. But…there is a remedy.
So, check this out. You are your father’s favorite son and your brothers’ worst nightmare. It doesn’t help that you bring bad reports about them to your father and brag about dreams in which they bow down to you. They plan to kill you, mercifully throw you into a cistern instead, and then not so mercifully sell you to a traveling band of Ishmaelites.
One of the most controversial words in Scripture is found in our passage today. It’s the word—predestined. Some run with this truth to places they should never go. For instance, there are those who discard the need for evangelism. “Why share the gospel if God has predestined people?” they reason.
There are many circumstances and challenges in our lives that we don’t understand. From our perspective and from our pain, they simply do not make sense. Death comes suddenly and unexpectedly. Illness invades a healthy body, and we watch it waste away. An accident results in chronic pain.
Job survived. He endured heartache, heartbreak, physical pain, and mostly bad counsel from his so-called friends. In today’s passage, Job even prays for them! And God blessed Job by giving him twice as much as he had before. God blessed the latter part of his life more than the first.
After tragedy struck Job’s life, he moved into the natural and normal period of questioning. Then, as we saw last time, God rescued Job from his downward spiral and refocused his vision. Job was looking at his situation; God said, “Time to look at me.” With his eyes on the person and character of God, Job responds.
Normally, we are the ones asking, “Why?” But in today’s passage, God turns the tables. Speaking “out of the whirlwind,” God peppers Job with questions. Anytime God begins the conversation with “Dress for action like a man,” you better know that God has something to say, and he wants you to hear it!
It is one thing to ask, “Why?” when we go through the inevitable challenges of life. I would argue that the “Why?” question is a natural and normal response from a broken heart. We believe that some amount of explanation would help the pain subside, bring understanding to our exhausted reasoning, and allow us to gain a measure of joy in our circumstances. If we could see how our pain fits into God’s big picture, that would certainly go a long way in the healing process, wouldn’t it? But when we bring accusations against God, we are on a dangerous detour.
C. S. Lewis wrote, “The human spirit will not begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it.” When we are good, we’re good. We don’t need God. As one person said, “We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it’s there for emergencies but he hopes he’ll never have to use it.”
Job’s life had been a cakewalk—layers of sweet blessings iced with a thick frosting of more blessings. Then the cake collapsed. Job had to make a choice. It’s easy to love God when life is good, but how will you respond to God when things go sour? Job had lost all his possessions and his ten children. Now, he is about to lose his health.
Sometimes, life’s windstorms hit us hard and knock us off our feet. One person likened the storms to a blizzard and wrote, “The blizzard of the world has crossed over the threshold, and it has overturned the order of the soul.” The blizzards outside make their way inside and disrupt the rhythm of our lives. That’s what happened to Job. As we have seen, he lost everything and still praised the Lord. But Satan was merciless in his attacks. He was convinced that Job was self-centered and would turn on God when he encountered personal illness.
Standing by the freshly dug grave, I watched as a heavy-hearted couple made their way up the steep hill. The father served as the lone pallbearer. Only one person was needed to carry the small casket holding the body of his infant son. He placed the casket on the nylon straps that would lower it into the grave. What do you say to parents who have lost a child? I remember only hugs and tears as we waited for the rest of the family to gather on the windy hillside.