Wednesday, November 13, 2013

A Quick Look at the Book of Job

Job lived in Uz which is a word play since Uz means “take counsel” and if you’re already familiar with the story of Job you know that he takes counsel from his friends after suffering family tragedy, financial losses and health problems. The description of Job depicts a righteous man. He was blameless and upright, feared God and shunned evil. The word shunned here is the translation of the Hebrew word “suwr” and is a verb that means to turn away, to go away, to desert, to quit, to keep far from, to stop, to take away, to remove. Job shows us how to be righteous: just shun evil.

Job was wealthy, pious, and devout. He was vigilant at keeping his family right with the Lord. He made the appropriate sacrifices for his children, just in case.
Satan thought that Job was God-fearing because things were good, but he would certainly reject God if things went bad. He probably believed that because it seems so true even today. People are happy with God if things are good, but how many people do you know who get mad at God and quit going to church when they suffer a loss like the death of a child?
In verses 12 – 19 Job got the worst possible news. Notice how quickly the tragedies followed one another: some of his children were attacked, then carried off or killed, fire fell from the sky and burned up the sheep, Chaldeans raided and took the camels and killed the servants, and finally another houseful of his offspring had the house collapse on them. He must have been absolutely devastated. What did he do?
Read verses 20-22:
20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:
   “Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
   and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
   may the name of the LORD be praised.”
 22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Wow! Learn from this. He praised God! He did not blame God! There’s a lot to be learned from this Old Testament book, but if we stop right here we've had the biggest lesson.
(Parts taken from Crossing the Scriptures)

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