Faith
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7
I used to dread it when the Lord would tell me it was time to read Job… so much tragedy, the loss of his children, his property and his health. He’s left with critical friends trying to pry sin out of his life and a nagging wife telling him to curse God and die. Adding insult to injury, we find out God allowed Satan to do all this. (Job 1:6-20, 2:1-9)
In Job there are 37 chapters of discourse, mostly between Job and his friends, and then God shows up. I truly marvel at His patience with them (and us). In chapters 38-41, He questions Job. His very first question I’m sure made Job gulp: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4), then in 38:19 He asks, “Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place?” Uuuhh… Job 39:27a: “Does the eagle mount up at your command?” Hmmmm…
Such a beautiful description of Creation and the Creator who holds it all together. In the Woman’s Study Bible,* a footnote reads: “God’s speeches (in Job 38-41) emphasize that if Job can trust God to run the universe, he can trust God to run his life.”
Job replies in chapter 42:5-6. The LORD responds by restoring Job’s losses after he prayed for his friends. He gives Job twice as much as he had before (Job 42:10).
This story amazes me. Job kept his faith during terrible trials, and whined a little, but never lost faith in God or who He is. “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong” (Job 1:22). In Job 2:10b he asks his wife, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?”
Part of a commentary on this passage of scripture in my Mom’s Devotional Bible** reads: “Unemployment. Divorce. Infertility. The death of a father. The illness of a child. The cruelty of an acquaintance. There comes a time when our faith is tested deliberately by God—not so we will be overcome—but that we might grasp the validity of our faith and know it to be real…. Someone likened this process to the kite flyer who takes the string of a kite and runs until the kite ascends into the sky. The kite will not rise without the wind. Wind is necessary to flying a kite, and kites rise not with the wind, but against it. We will not rise to patience and maturity unless we ascend against trials.”
Lord, help us to be like Job. May we also accept adversity as well as good from You. May we trust in who we know You to be, not in what our circumstances may look like. Amen.