Job 36:15-16 "But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; he speaks to them in their affliction. He is wooing you from the jaws of distress…"
While reading about the life of Job, I was reminded that he had a devotion to God, and in spite of all his pain and suffering he was determined to stay true to what he believed, that God was "Just", no matter the situation, and he knew in his heart that God always had His children’s best interest in mind. He was already a man that bared much spiritual fruit. Which puts me in mind of a scripture found in the New Testaments that says, “Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit” John 15:2. God prunes the righteous (His children) by removing anything unproductive in our lives that is not bearing or reflecting Him and His character. Job’s life before his great calamity was a life to emulate and his life during and after his calamity was one of great example to follow as well. The example that we should follow is to realize that when we don’t understand God, He can still be trusted. You see the devil caused Job’s troubles, but Job did not realize at first that it was the devil. He struggled with trying to understand why he was suffering. According to Job 19:1-12, at first Job thought that God was causing him to suffer, but in fact God did not. He only allowed his suffering. Like we do, Job also pondered a little over the fact that it appeared that God seemed to ignore some of the wrongs that others did in Job 24 while he was suffering for no apparent reason. Have you ever pondered that yourself? Sure you have we all have! But Job's thoughts were about to be corrected in later chapters of Job. While Job never cursed God, he did struggle over some issues about his situation.
Reading these verses reminded me of the times that I have wrestle with God over my own problems. Sometimes I know without a doubt why trouble has come my way. I do my best to repent of any actions that may have brought them on and move forward with a better understanding of how God prunes off the unfruitful and unprofitable things in my life. But sometimes like Job I do have question about God’s decisions in why He allows certain things or does things the way He does; because sometimes it does seem like the innocent suffer while the guilty get away with wrongdoing. But as Elihu reminded Job and his friends, God has a reason for everything that He allows. And if we know Him and trust Him we are to counter our doubt and lack of misunderstandings with that faith.
The only reason that satan had, in bringing on Jobs’ conflicts, was in hopes that Job would curse and dishonor God because of his pain and suffering. And while Job struggled with trying to understand it all, he never cursed God. Even God tells us to come and reason with Him. He understands that we have questions. But we are never to doubt His reasons by thinking that He is unfair in what He does. Understanding our situation will only become clear to us, when we surrender any frustration, bitterness, anger or self-opinion. satan is our enemy, because he is God's enemy. God is who he ultimately wants to hurt and when God's children are brought into the equation, they need to be prepared.
I ended my scripture reading with this verse, "And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends": also the Lord gave him twice as much as he had before Job 42:10. You see this is a prime example of how satan wants to do us harm by what he sends our way, yet, God wants to turn it around and use it to prune off the bad in us, so that the good fruit will surface. And when friends try to offer advice as Job's friend's did, be wise as you listen and remember that they are only human and they think and reason as you do often times. As Elihu the wiser friend rebuked their thinking in chapter 32, his advice was not to accuse God at all. We must learn to trust the Lord, even in hard times and our questions seem to have no answers. When we accept the things that we do not understand or can change, satan will slither away like the humiliated snake that he is. Knowing that he failed again, just like with Job and his friends and just like Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and the cross defeated once again!
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