“While he was still speaking, another also came and said, ‘ “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!” ‘ Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: ‘ “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” ‘ In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong” ‘ ” ‘ ” (Job 1:18-22).
“So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes. Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:7-10).
Heavenly Father, please guide me into all truth. I need to hear Your voice telling me what message You want us to hear today, and what I must say in Your name. So lead God, for You are the source of all wisdom. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Today we will begin to look at what Job is saying as He considers everything that is taking place in his life. I believe that if we listen to Job, it will help us to understand God’s response to him. A note of interest, is that Job, up to this point, is demonstrating an unusual amount of calm, of peace, to some extent. This is also another beginning in Job’s story. These are excerpts from the beginning of his woes
He obviously does not feel as if he is being punished by God, even though he has suffered the loss of everything material and physical, including his health. Only his wife has been spared. All of the servants and hired help with the exception of one from each group, obviously spared to be the porter of bad news, were also killed. But from my perspective, he has suffered the loss of all physical losses, the loss of his children, all of them! Yet his responses are worthy of admiration and praise:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
“Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?”
And inspiration replies to these responses in the following manner:
“In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.”
“In all this Job did not sin with his lips“
During the first two chapters of Job, when the suffering is at the breaking point, there is a composure displayed that I consider supernatural. We would call this, in the grieving process, Denial. When did this manner of speech change? And, What exacerbated the situation?
The following devotional will be dedicated to answering these questions.