Job days

Have you ever felt like Job and have his kind of days? You know,when you feel the world is collapsing around you or the hole you dug seems so deep that you can't get out? Boy I have! So this is how it starts with Job.

Job 1:8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."

Job 2:3 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason."

Have you wondered if the Lord talks to Satan and asks him have you considered my servant Robin, or Debbie, or Rhonda or who ever he decides to name? We work at shunning evil and work at being upright. For us it is always a work in progress. We by all means are not free from sinning but we are forgiven when we ask.

Job lost everything he had including his children. He was a wealthy man and all that was gone. He even suffered physically. Mind you I haven't lost everything, but I am not wealthy with money and belongings. I am wealthy spiritually. But there are days that I suffer physically. Some of those days I call it getting old. Older then I was 20 years ago. Those aches and pains just come with age. Other times I think, maybe it's God getting my attention. Him saying Hey, I'm up here, seek me and I am there for you, let me help you, lean on me. Ever have those kind of days? Now don't deny it we all have them here and there, from time to time or more often than other.

Jobs wife even said curse God and die. She was tired of all this and just wanted to throw in the towel. She was suffering to for she lost her children, can't really blame her. But doesn't sound like she had faith in God like Job.

Job 2:9 His wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!"

This is what Job says and he doesn't blame God.

Job 2:10 He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

Then Jobs friends came and tried to comfort him during his suffering. Didn't really sound like they encouraged him. They didn't have faith in God either. Do we have friends like them? They try to comfort us but their words aren't positive and encouraging. They even try to put the blame on God. Job says this:

Job 6:21 Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid.

Job 12:4 "I have become a laughingstock to my friends, though I called upon God and he answered —

Job 16:2 "I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters n are you all!

Then Job questions God as to why. Why are you allowing this? Why did you give me life if later I'm going to suffer? What have I done wrong?

Job 10:18 "Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.
Job 10:19 If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!

Have we ever questioned God? Don't we ask why when bad things happen? Do we sometimes blame God? Do we wish sometimes we weren't born? It seems like in the book of Job it's ok to question the whys. God probably won't answer back the way you want for answers but if we ask him to resolve that why, he will answer in his own time and if we only truly trust and believe in him. It also may not be the response that we want, but it's the response that God feels is right for us. So it's ok to ask questions to God and even have a conversation with him. I do and I'm sure people have seen me talking to nobody and probably think I'm crazy.

So Job explained to his friends about God.

Job 19:25 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.
Job 19:26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;
Job 19:27 I myself will see him with my own eyes —I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

How we should be just like Job in this area of our lives. He is our Redeemer and he does live. And one day we will see him. Then the Lord spoke to Job and asked him questions. Here is his response when the Lord was done.

Job 42:1 Then Job replied to the LORD:
Job 42:2 "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.
Job 42:3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. l
Job 42:4 "You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’
Job 42:5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
Job 42:6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."

If God responded to our questions and said to us that we are to answer his questions, how would we respond? I definitely would be stuttering for I wouldn't have any answers probably. I'd be a, a, a,............

And the Lord responded to his friends in this way.

Job 42:7 After the LORD had said these things to Job , he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

God told his friends to make sacrifices for burnt offerings and Job would pray for them. We in a lot of ways should be just like Job. Never to speak evil against the Lord or to have our friends convince us to speak evil against the Lord. We will have trouble in our lives but in the end when we come through we should thank the Lord for everything, even the trials we have.