“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. . . . And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, ‘ “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” ‘ Thus Job did regularly” ‘ ” (Job 1:1, 4-5).
Heavenly Father, hallowed be Your name forever! You are holy, and worthy of our praise! Your goodness and mercy endures forever! Please help us to learn from You, to remember that we are all dust. Therefore, teach us how to bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill Your law of love! Above all, help us to trust Your love! In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
What we read in our Scripture for today could be a clue about some of the things Job had lived in fear and dread of happening,
“So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my [children] have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.”
As a parent I can understand Job’s anxiety. Because we love our children and want the best for them, we tend to try to cover all their bases! In this case, what I mean, is, we want to make sure that they don’t do anything that would bring God’s “wrath” upon them. Even though we say that we serve a loving God, in the back of our minds we are afraid of Him. Perhaps we inherited that fear from our first parents, who, after they sinned, ran and hid from God!
Whatever the case, Job’s provision of a burnt offering for each of his children was his way of trying to cover their sins, with the blood of the sacrificial animal, in order to avert a possible punishment from God, or even their death. As we ponder Job’s behavior, there are signs of a lack of a personal knowledge of God, which we will hear Job admitting at the end of his personal encounter with God.
Even though God describes Job in these superlative terms, as a, man [who] was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil, he (Job), did not know God, who to know is life eternal (John 17:3)!
Do we realize that we can never love our children more than God does? Do we know that the Godhead held back nothing, in order to save our fallen race? Are we convinced that we serve a God, who not only loves, but is love? Do we believe that “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him, might be saved” (John 3:17)?
I believe it would prove to be a healthy spiritual exercise for us, as we study portions of Job’s life, to search our own hearts to see if we, like him, need to have a closer walk with God, getting to know Him, in order to be strengthened, and enabled to stand, and “having done all, to stand,” in the hour of trial.