Day 11. Reading in Job 29 – 31. 

I invite you to read the scripture for the day and write “in the comments” what was meaningful to YOU. We can encourage each other in Him.

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Job 29.

In this whole chapter, Job remembers how “it used to be…”  when God’s “lamp shone on my head….”  when ” the friendship of God was upon my tent… when the almighty was yet with me… when my children were all around me.” He remembers sitting at the gate and both young men and nobles respected him and called him “blessed.”  He helped all in need; the blind, lame, poor, and persecuted.  Men listened to him and waited in silence for his counsel. “I chose their way and sat as chief.”

• Lord, I have been there too. I’ve gone through periods when I would reminisce “how it used to be.” and long for those ‘good old days.’  I feel like such a “fair weather friend” sometimes, receiving blessing as if it was my due, and bemoaning when tough times come.
• It’s good for me to remember Your blessings, Lord, and be thankful. But do You love and care for me any less in times of sorrow or pain? No, I’m the one who looks away from You. I hope I can remember Psalm 23:4. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me…”

Job 30.

Job showed us his “glory” in the previous chapter. Now he shows us what his life has become (at least, from his perspective).  “NOW they laugh at me, men who are younger than I.”  “Now I have become their (jeering) song; I am a byword to them. They abhor me; they keep aloof from me…..they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.”  WOW.

He describes what his favored life in the sunshine has become. “NOW my soul in poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.”  He feels he’s been thrown into the mirey clay and become like the mud, dust, and ashes he lies in.

And NOW, the worst of it. Job feels God has deserted him. “I cry to You for help and You do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.”

• It takes a very dark time of depression and despondency for a believer to feel that God has truly deserted him.  I mean, where can you go if God is silent?  Many times it’s here that the devil comes to cause further doubt and fear. “Has God really said that He loves you…?  How can a sinful, despicable person like you think that God has saved you…?  God’s has turned His back on you. You’ve sinned one too many times. YOU ARE LOST!” 
• What to do in times like this?  Praise God, we have His Word. A tiny spark of faith in all that darkness can be whipped into flame by his powerful, living Word.  Pick it up, read it aloud, pray it, meditate on it.  You can speak it back to that taunting devil…just as Jesus did in the dessert.  Resist Satan with the WORD. (It is a sword, after all.) Read gospel passages. Pray them. Believe them.  God does not lie. “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.” Romans 10:17  Doubts and the devil must FLEE God’s word.

Job didn’t have the written Word of God, but when his soul rises in faith, it’s when he proclaims God’s promises.  “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him.” (13:15)  “For I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last He will stand upon the earth….and in my flesh I shall see God.” (19:25-26) “But He knows the way I take; when He has tried me, I shall come out as gold.”  “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my portion of food.”  (23:10, 12)

Job 31.

Job is now more bold as if he stands in court to proclaim his integrity.  Notice the many “if… then let” statements he makes. If I’ve sinned in this way… then let punishment come. 

Example:  “If I have raised my hand against the fatherless…. then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket.”  

Or, “If my land has cried out against me and its furrows have wept together, if I have eaten its yield WITHOUT PAYMENT and made its owners breathe their last…..let thorns grow instead of wheat and foul weeds instead of barley.”

And so, “The words of Job are ended.”

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