Job

Day 17, Feb 21st 2024

Topic: Job

Text:  Job 1:1-3; 2:6-8; 40:1-4

Introduction- 

Job was “blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil”. Job never lost his faith in God, even under the most heartbreaking circumstances that tested him to his core. It’s hard to imagine losing everything we own in one day—property, possessions, and even children. 

Life Lessons–

1. Choosing faith in the midst of suffering will not eliminate the pain;

Job chose great faith, even while being crushed with pain. (Job 1:21). He exercised faith through it all. The pain was unimaginable, and the physical ailments were so painful that he used broken pottery as the instruments in his homemade surgery (Job 2:7)

2. God is Sovereign over suffering.

Our God is the ruler over all the earth. Even though Satan may roam around causing havoc but can only use any powers only by divine permission. The fact is that often several secondary causes are at work in the work while still overruled by God. In Job 1.1, Satan challenged God to stretch out his hand against Job. Job recognized the sovereignty of God (Job 2:10).

3. Relying on faith while suffering may not make sense.

Can you imagine being the subject of the celestial conversation between God and Satan? The outcome of their conversation was Job being put to the test. How can inflicting such a suffering on someone who was blameless make any sense? Job feared God, which contradicts Elihu’s remark in Job 33:27-30 that pain and suffering is to warn the sinner to mend their ways.

4. Being rooted in faith will not stop you from questioning God.

In Job 33:29, Job could not but question God. Choosing faith during suffering does not mean that we will not ask God the “why?”. David in Psalm 13, while hiding from King Saul questioned God whether He will forget David forever. Our Lord Jesus before the crucifixion had questions about His suffering (Luke 22:42-43). 

Life applications

1. We should not associate suffering with sin:

In Job 4:7-9, we see Eliphaz clearly stated that Job must have been a wicked person for such suffering to come upon him. Eliphaz even claimed that he had a special revelation (Job 4:12-17).

2. Do not go through it all alone:

In all his suffering, what Job hated the most was what seemed to be God’s silence. He felt God was absent. Today, we have an advocate, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was a subject of testing from the time He was born. Hebrews chapter 2 summarizes the man Jesus who reigns over the world. He is our Savior and will deliver us from the snares of death.

3. Give God the rare gift of praise in the midst of suffering.

James 1:2 says to count it all joy when you are going to trials. Job was wise enough to know that God who controlled the good days would surely control the bad ones. We serve a God that never changes. Our Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Holding on to our faith in the time of suffering would a precious gift to the Almighty God. Our Lord Jesus committed to the will of the Father and never let his spirit depart from him. Paul and Silas prayed and sang even when they were wrongly accused, severely beaten, and thrown into the dungeon.

4. Do not question God.

Job was miserable and felt disserted when he did not hear from God that he began to question God (Job 33:29). The Almighty God then rained down with His own questions in the following scriptures (Job 38:2, 38:3. 38:5-7, 40:4) Eventually God declared in chapter 41:11 saying “ I owe no one anything. Everything under the heaven is mine”.

Lesson of the Day

The life of Job demonstrates that humans are often unaware of the many ways God is at work in the life of each believer. A lot of things about faith may not make sense to those without faith. With all of Job’s sufferings, he still held on to his faith. We are encouraged to make choices like Job did, which is simply to make the choice of faith during suffering. Let us be rest assured that God will always come through for us even when it does not make sense (1 Cor. 1:18). 

Complied by: 

Sis Victoria Ashiru