I have been reading through the Bible for a while now. I started with the New Testament last year and I am in the Old Testament now in job 7. I just read Job 4-6 and I see a very close parallel in how Job acted and reacted in chapters 1-6 to how I acted and reacted in the last 5 years and now with a problem that I face... I will write some of my thoghts after the scripture. Here is what I read today:Job 43 “In the past you have encouraged many people; you have strengthened those who were weak. 4 Your words have supported those who were falling; you encouraged those with shaky knees. 5 But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart. You are terrified when it touches you. 6 Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence? Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope? 7 “Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed? 8 My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same. 9 A breath from God destroys them. They vanish in a blast of his anger. 10 The lion roars and the wildcat snarls, but the teeth of strong lions will be broken. 11 The fierce lion will starve for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness will be scattered. 12 “This truth was given to me in secret, as though whispered in my ear. 13 It came to me in a disturbing vision at night, when people are in a deep sleep. 14 Fear gripped me, and my bones trembled. 15 A spirit[
a] swept past my face, and my hair stood on end.[
b] 16 The spirit stopped, but I couldn’t see its shape. There was a form before my eyeIn the silence I heard a voice say, 17 ‘Can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’ 18 “If God does not trust his own angels and has charged his messengers with foolishness, 19 how much less will he trust people made of clay! They are made of dust, crushed as easily as a moth. 20 They are alive in the morning but dead by evening, gone forever without a trace. 21 Their tent-cords are pulled and the tent collapses, and they die in ignorance.
Job 5
Eliphaz’s Response Continues1 “Cry for help, but will anyone answer you? Which of the angels[
c] will help you? 2 Surely resentment destroys the fool, and jealousy kills the simple. 3 I have seen that fools may be successful for the moment, but then comes sudden disaster. 4 Their children are abandoned far from help; they are crushed in court with no one to defend them. 5 The hungry devour their harvest, even when it is guarded by brambles.[
d] The thirsty pant after their wealth. 6 But evil does not spring from the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the earth. 7 People are born for trouble as readily as sparks fly up from a fire. 8 “If I were you, I would go to God and present my case to him. 9 He does great things too marvelous to understand. He performs countless miracles. 10 He gives rain for the earth and water for the fields. 11 He gives prosperity to the poor and protects those who suffer. 12 He frustrates the plans of schemers so the work of their hands will not succeed. 13 He traps the wise in their own cleverness so their cunning schemes are thwarted. 14 They find it is dark in the daytime, and they grope at noon as if it were night. 15 He rescues the poor from the cutting words of the strong, and rescues them from the clutches of the powerful. 16 And so at last the poor have hope, and the snapping jaws of the wicked are shut. 17 “But consider the joy of those corrected by God! Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin. 18 For though he wounds, he also bandages. He strikes, but his hands also heal. 19 From six disasters he will rescue you; even in the seventh, he will keep you from evil. 20 He will save you from death in time of famine, from the power of the sword in time of war. 21 You will be safe from slander and have no fear when destruction comes. 22 You will laugh at destruction and famine; wild animals will not terrify you. 23 You will be at peace with the stones of the field, and its wild animals will be at peace with you. 24 You will know that your home is safe. When you survey your possessions, nothing will be missing. 25 You will have many children; your descendants will be as plentiful as grass! 26 You will go to the grave at a ripe old age, like a sheaf of grain harvested at the proper time! 27 “We have studied life and found all this to be true. Listen to my counsel, and apply it to yourself.”
Job 6Job’s Second Speech: A Response to Eliphaz 1 Then Job spoke again: 2 “If my misery could be weighed and my troubles be put on the scales, 3 they would outweigh all the sands of the sea. That is why I spoke impulsively. 4 For the Almighty has struck me down with his arrows. Their poison infects my spirit. God’s terrors are lined up against me. 5 Don’t I have a right to complain? Don’t wild donkeys bray when they find no grass, and oxen bellow when they have no food? 6 Don’t people complain about unsalted food? Does anyone want the tasteless white of an egg?[
e] 7 My appetite disappears when I look at it; I gag at the thought of eating it! 8 “Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant my desire. 9 I wish he would crush me. I wish he would reach out his hand and kill me. 10 At least I can take comfort in this: Despite the pain, I have not denied the words of the Holy One. 11 But I don’t have the strength to endure. I have nothing to live for. 12 Do I have the strength of a stone? Is my body made of bronze? 13 No, I am utterly helpless, without any chance of success. 14 “One should be kind to a fainting friend, but you accuse me without any fear of the Almighty.[
f] 15 My brothers, you have proved as unreliable as a seasonal brook that overflows its banks in the spring 16 when it is swollen with ice and melting snow. 17 But when the hot weather arrives, the water disappears. The brook vanishes in the heat. 18 The caravans turn aside to be refreshed, but there is nothing to drink, so they die. 19 The caravans from Tema search for this water; the travelers from Sheba hope to find it. 20 They count on it but are disappointed. When they arrive, their hopes are dashed. 21 You, too, have given no help. You have seen my calamity, and you are afraid. 22 But why? Have I ever asked you for a gift? Have I begged for anything of yours for myself? 23 Have I asked you to rescue me from my enemies, or to save me from ruthless people? 24 Teach me, and I will keep quiet. Show me what I have done wrong. 25 Honest words can be painful, but what do your criticisms amount to? 26 Do you think your words are convincing when you disregard my cry of desperation? 27 You would even send an orphan into slavery[
g] or sell a friend. 28 Look at me! Would I lie to your face? 29 Stop assuming my guilt, for I have done no wrong. 30 Do you think I am lying? Don’t I know the difference between right and wrong?
My thoughts:Wow, how true it is that humankind usually does not stay faithful. Years of being favored by God and having kept true to His word by living a holy and repentant lifestyle. Those years made me strong in the LORD. They gave me a strong foundation, and when calamity came my way because of the discipline that the LORD was giving me, I stayed strong for a while. Then, I started to be irrational in my thinking. Even though I knew that having bitterness and anger within me was not what God wanted, and even though I knew that WHILE I was being bitter and angry, I still did it. It was hard for me to be forgiving. It was hard for me to pray for my enemies. My friends can attest to that. I still remember the look on one of my friend's face as she looked accross a McDonald's table and knew that she just needed to listen and be quiet. I could see that she understood my pain even though I lashed out in anger towards the person that I was angry at. Then, the truth of the LORD was so piercing that in tears I gave away that bitterness to Him. I let Him deal with it because I couldn't. I cannot harbor bitterness; it destroys me. Then, like Job, my friends/brothers/sisters spoke truth to my life, but I thought them worthless at some level because I thought, "They CANNOT know what I am going through!!" But truth pierces through the darkness and destroys it. I felt like Job in chapter 6, even at the end when he pretty much recites Psalm 139 and asks his friends and the LORD to search him and teach him and tell him what he has done wrong.Also, I was, and still sort of am with some people, as Job was in 6:28-30 when Job says, "28 Look at me! Would I lie to your face? 29 Stop assuming my guilt, for I have done no wrong. 30 Do you think I am lying?" it SOOO hard to look at people and wonder what they are thinking, but it seems that the LORD is CONSTANTLY saying, "I got your back!! Don't worry! Trust me!" God constantly is showing me how people trust in who the LORD has made me to be. They have seen my testimony. They know I messed up and was being disciplined, but the KNOW that the enemy has brought forth a false witness against me that will be crushed! It's so encouraging to hear people speak to me and say the encouraging things that they have. I feel Job 4-5. I know that the things that the LORD has put me through and taught me in the past have helped me be prepared for what is going on now. I cannot give way to fear or anger or resentment for they place strongholds in my life.IN JESUS NAME I FORBID THE ENEMY TO BE NEAR ME AND FEED ME LIES; IN THE NAME OF JESUS I BREAK THE ENEMY'S PLANS AND BRING LIGHT TO THEM. AND SATAN I TELL YOU DIRECTLY THAT YOU WILL NOT, BECAUSE YOU CANNOT, HAVE VICTORY IN MY LIFE BECAUSE VICTORY IS ALWAYS THE LORD'S!!I AM THE LORD'S ANOINTED AND WILL NOT TURN MY FACE OR MY BACK FROM THE ONE WHO LOVES ME, THE ONE WHO HAS INSTRUCTED ME, THE ONE DISCIPLINES ME, THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL THAT HAS BESTOWED FAVOR UPON ME, THE ONE WHO HAS GIVEN ME THE HONOR TO KNOW MORE OF HIM BY ALLOWING ME TO BE LED BY HIM THROUGH THE DESERT! I LOVE YOU LORD AND I WILL NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER LET GO OF THE ONLY STEADY HAND THAT I KNOW: YOURS. I WILL ENDURE ANYTHING THAT YOU PLACE IN MY LIFE BECAUSE IT IS ALL FOR YOUR GLORY! IT IS ALL FOR YOUR GLORY!AND *SINGING* I'VE BEEN CREATED TO MAKE YOUR NAME... GLORIOUS!!!And I feel Job 6 as well as I got to the point where I could not handle all this on my own or even with the help of friends and family because the one person that I needed was Jesus and until I surrendered to Him, I could not find peace. So I found peace. I am obviously not ready for ministry otherwise this whole tribulation would be over, but I exactly where the LORD wants me right now! And LORD I give you ALL the praise for that!! I cannot wait to read the following chapters in Job to see the details within this scripture and to have the LORD speak to me more and more as I start to find my way out of the land of the Phillistines and start my journey into the city of David.*singing*I'VE BEEN CREATED TO MAKE YOUR NAME... GLORIOUS!!!
