Job - How would you handle it (Part 9) The finale

Or at least the finish anyway.

If you want to read the previous Job posts please follow these links 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.

I was discussing the case of Job with a minister recently and we had quite a long conversation about it. One of the points of discussion we had was about why God would allow all of this to happen to one of His faithful followers and why He would be for want of a better phrase at a party with the enemy. The minister I was talking with then told me about a theory there is about the book of Job. There is a school of thought that the book of Job is not a historical story about an actual man, but rather that it is a parable. Now for me personally this would make more sense. The dealings with the enemy, the willingness of God to allow the enemy to destroy His faithful servant.

Parables are a common feature in the Bible and for me take nothing away from the message contained within. There are parts of the Bible where the only way God could have passed on His knowledge is in the form of stories and parables. There is no way we can know the mind of God, there is no way to know the plans of God. Yet through these stories He can pass on a message to us, give us a small piece of understanding so that we may be everything He wants us to be. Jesus Himself often taught in parables because the only way people would understand His message would be if they could picture it with an example. But for me, parable or not really does not make too much difference. What matters is the message God is trying to send to us.

So what is the message that can be taken from Job. Well there really is no simple answer, there are many lessons to be taken from this book, it all depends on the depth to which you read it and meditate on it. However there is one message that stands out and can be read no matter how deep you go. God is an awesome God, there is nothing that the enemy can do that God can not undo. It tells us that no matter how much the enemy attacks you or how far the enemy pulls you down, belief in God can protect us in the long run. If we always remember to glorify God at all times, if we remember that God is always worth of praise then He will provide for us. No matter what the enemy throws at you in life if we give our lives and hearts to God then He will always come through for us. Anything the enemy tries to take away from us the Lord will return many times over.

This series has been a little bit of a labour of love, but I have enjoyed writing it, I hope you have enjoyed reading it. I hope to attempt another series at some point in the future, if anyone has any ideas for books to look at please let me know on jerrathorn@gmail.com or by leaving a comment.

Job - How would you handle it (Part 8)

Job 42:7-17
    After God had finished addressing Job, he turned to Eliphaz the Temanite and said, "I've had it with you and your two friends. I'm fed up! You haven't been honest either with me or about me—not the way my friend Job has. So here's what you must do. Take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my friend Job. Sacrifice a burnt offering on your own behalf. My friend Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer. He will ask me not to treat you as you deserve for talking nonsense about me, and for not being honest with me, as he has."
    They did it. Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did what God commanded. And God accepted Job's prayer.
    After Job had interceded for his friends, God restored his fortune—and then doubled it! All his brothers and sisters and friends came to his house and celebrated. They told him how sorry they were, and consoled him for all the trouble God had brought him. Each of them brought generous housewarming gifts.
    God blessed Job's later life even more than his earlier life. He ended up with fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand teams of oxen, and one thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first daughter Dove, the second, Cinnamon, and the third, Darkeyes. There was not a woman in that country as beautiful as Job's daughters. Their father treated them as equals with their brothers, providing the same inheritance.
    Job lived on another hundred and forty years, living to see his children and grandchildren—four generations of them! Then he died—an old man, a full life.

So here we finally come to the last part of the book of Job. Apologies for the length of time it has taken for anyone who has been waiting for it. If you have not read the previous 7 posts please follow these links.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9.

So after His chat with Job God turns to speak to those people who gave Job all that advice. Those people who had been quick to comment on both the actions of God and Job and their advice on how to deal with the situation. They were also quick to lay blame for the terrible things that had happened too. God then lays out the route of forgiveness to them, and being an Old Testament story this requires that they make a sacrifice to God. In addition to this however God has them ask Job to pray for them and that God will accept the sacrifice, God says that He will, but only if they have Job pray for them.

After this had happened, the sacrifice and intercession, God restored Job to his former glory, He brought back his wealth, and doubled it, He brought back his family too each of them with apologies and gifts.  God then went on to bless Job further by giving him children again, and as the passage says Job's daughters were the most beautiful in the country, without parallel. On top of this God granted Job long life, long enough for him to see his family to 4 generations eventually dying as an old man who had had a full life.

I am going to sum the whole story up in one final post which should be up shortly. I hope you have found my humble take on Job at least interesting so far.

Job - How would you handle it (Part 7)

This post is part 7 of a series of 9, feel free to read the rest by following the links.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9.

God begins his chat with Job by kind of declaring His greatness. He does this by challenging Job about his knowledge of things only God knows and about doing things only God can do. At the end of His list of questions He says to Job, ok mate, you asked me some tough questions, answer mine and I will answer yours. Fair deal you might say. Job sees this for what it is, God is making a point, if we can not see all things then we can not know what will come from certain events. We may not like things at the time but we can not see the future positives God can work from these disadvantages. Job rightly defers to God and realises he does not know what God has in store.

Still God is not finished though, He lists His greatness and power to Job asking if he dares challenge Almighty God. God who can do anything to anything rounds off on Job by asking Him if he is brave enough to face up to God with his accusations. At this point Job knows the score, he has realised his mistake and knows he needs to put it right. He tells God that he knows what he has done wrong, he knows he has no idea of what he was talking about. Job says that after seeing with his own eyes and hearing with his own ears the glory and wonder of God he is dying of embarrassment and that he will never do it again.

Now when thinking of doing this series of posts there was one major point I just couldn't understand. Why on Earth would God allow His main man to be torn asunder and destroyed by the enemy. Why did God not protect Job and throw the devil off his game. This point troubled me for sometime and is in part the reason why this series got slightly derailed. I have however been thinking about it a lot and I think I have reached a conclusion on this. The fact that God allowed this to happen is not the point to be focusing on at all, what we need to think about is that no matter what we have or do not have we should be thankful to God for it. God does not owe us anything, we have no reason to expect anything from God. Yet time and time again He gives to us, He even gave us eternal life through Christ. The point is that even when everything is against us and it seems as if God is doing nothing we should still be thankful. We came from nothing with nothing and so anything we do have is a cause for rejoicing. Even if we lose everything we have in reality we have lost nothing since we had nothing to begin with.

The thing is though that when we are in situations like Job's we tend to only look on the short term. If we do look long term it tends to be backwards to the past. What we need to realise is that God works on time scales of His own. In His time he will bring His plans to fruition. All we need to do is keep our focus on God through all things. Many times the enemy will attack us in our lives, we have to stand firm and trust in Gods defences and plans. Wherever He places us is where He wants us to be and there we must do His work.

Next time I intend to look at God's response to the Job comforters.

Job - How would you handle it (Part 6)

Ah the long awaited 6th instalment of the Job saga. For posts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9 follow the links.

The next section I want to look at briefly is the conversation between Job and God. How would you feel if God spoke directly to you, face to face, and asked you a direct question? What would you say to Him, would you be able to even talk? We know from reading Job that eventually Job gets so frustrated with the way things are going that he snaps, that he begins to question all he believed.

After this has happened God speaks directly to him and questions him. God asks Job questions he could not know the answer to, he confronts Job regarding things only the creator of the universe would know. Tomorrow I want to look closely at what God talked to Job about but I do not have time to do so now. But since I wanted to get this series back on track I thought better to do something short and sweet than to postpone for yet another day.

So tune in tomorrow for the 7th instalment.

God loves you

God loves you and made you for the pleasure of knowing you.
God loves you.

In the heart of every man,
There's a need to question who we are and what we believe.
And the answers that we find are simple ones for us to say
But hard to receive
You say that God is love
You take Him at his word, but do you really understand

That, God loves you and made you for the pleasure of knowing you.
God loves you and made you for the pleasure of knowing you
And showing you, God loves you.

Well every person fails, and every man needs love to pick him up
Time after time
This world can use you up
And leave you with a world of care where hope used to shine
But God can give you strength, when all you've done is fall,
So say it till you understand, and tell me do you really understand?

God loves you and made you for the pleasure of knowing you.
Time shows us what we thought we knew
And time helps us to know the truth

God loves you, and made you for the pleasure of knowing you.
God loves you and made you for the pleasure of knowing you,
And showing you God loves
I believe that God loves you,
God loves you.

I happened to be driving in one of the most beautiful areas of the country today. While I was driving past a particularly beautiful area this song came on my ipod. It was one of those perfect moments you get in life, no matter what is going on elsewhere in the world and in your life, this one moment is perfect. It is a moment of pure peace with God, a moment when you know you are in His presence. I have not had a great week, and I have felt very run down and I am finding it difficult to do what I need to do day to day. I blogged on Footprints a little while ago and here is a perfect example of that. When I can't face taking one more step God swoops in and carries me until I can walk again. I am thankful for such an awesome God, I am thankful that Jesus gave His life for me so that I may life in the presence of God and the Holy Spirit.

If anyone can tell me who the writer of this song is I would love to know as I hate to post it without crediting the writer.

I do intend on finishing the Job series soon but things have really gotten on top of me this week. The load will lessen somewhat over the next few days and hopefully I will have time to complete this series soon. Watch this space for more news.

No Job - sorry my bad

Revelation 22:12
Yes, I'm on my way!
I'll be there soon!

Ok guys, anyone who was anxiously waiting for Job to continue tonight I must apologise to profusely. Today has been an epic adventure and I just have not had enough hours to get everything done I wanted to. I have been unorganised and run ragged recently. In addition to this I had some bad news yesterday which has not helped my state of mind when trying to plan ahead for the next few days. I am also away from home for a little while and thus not able to be at a computer as easily or as often as I would like.

When I first arrived at my bed for tonight I had to get straight online asap to deal with my blog addiction. But first I picked up the Bible in my hosts house and it opened right at the last page. The first thing that struck me was the verse above. It sums up exactly how I feel right now, it sounds exactly like the beginning of every conversation I have recently, "Hang on, I'll be right there".

Just like in the post this morning I am often struck by how, when and where God chooses to speak to us. Even when we are so busy and have no time for anything or anyone He finds a way to speak to and comfort us when we take a moment just to be still. Just then His presence descends on us and we have perfect peace.

Job - How would you handle it (Part 5)

I have decided that the next section would be much too big to post online and so would suggest you read each section before you read this post, however I will attempt to write it so that it is not totally necessary. If you do want to read it there is a link to an online bible. This is part 5 of a series feel free to go back and read posts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9.

Everyone gets advice and suggestions from their friends. When things go belly up there are always loads of people who are willing to tell you where you have gone wrong, or what you can do to fix it. The passages from Job that are the messages from his friends teach us a number of things. All Jobs friends are willing to tell him he has done wrong, they are there to tell him he must have angered God and that God is trying to put him back on the straight and narrow. They tell Job that his kids had it coming to them, they tell Job he is not trying hard enough.

Job can't see them being right, all he really wants is his chance to argue with God, ask him why all these bad things are happening to him. He wants to shout and scream at the one person he has tried to honour and worship in all things.Job is so frustrated at the situation he has found himself in and the one person he wants to talk to he can not talk to. His friends are not helping him with their comments and ideas about the current condition.

I am intending to have a break from the Job series until Monday as there are a few things I would like to publish this weekend. On Monday I will pick up the story of Job when he Talks with God. after that I will then summarise the book as a whole.

Job - How would you handle it (Part 4)

This is part 4 of 9 please feel free to read the rest by following the links, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9.

So after all Job went through and did not say a thing something cracked, something gave. He had suffered so much and never once said anything against God, never once complained. Yet eventually something in him gave way and a flood of emotion came out. But then how would you have reacted if it had been you? Would you not have snapped a lot earlier, I know I probably would have. Job 3 is a man full of grief, in the depths of depression. The man has lost everything and the constant grind of his day to day suffering has broken though the damn all at once. My new job puts me in contact with a lot of people in a similar position to Job. Their lives destroyed and nothing left. The grief and depression they have to deal with comes off some of them in an almost physical wave. Seeing this has made this passage that bit more real for me, I can if not imagine how it would feel if it happened to me at least see the effects it could have had on his life. Now we know how Job was feeling after this, now he has spilled his guts for all the world to hear we can look at the cases put forward to him from his friends.

Job - How would you handle it (Part 3)

This is part 3 of a series of 9, please feel free to read posts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9.

Job 3:1-26
    Then Job broke the silence. He spoke up and cursed his fate:

        "Obliterate the day I was born.
            Blank out the night I was conceived!
        Let it be a black hole in space.
            May God above forget it ever happened.
            Erase it from the books!
        May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness,
            shrouded by the fog,
            swallowed by the night.
        And the night of my conception—the devil take it!
            Rip the date off the calendar,
            delete it from the almanac.
        Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness—
            no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever!
        May those who are good at cursing curse that day.
            Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it.
        May its morning stars turn to black cinders,
            waiting for a daylight that never comes,
            never once seeing the first light of dawn.
        And why? Because it released me from my mother's womb
            into a life with so much trouble.
        "Why didn't I die at birth,
            my first breath out of the womb my last?
        Why were there arms to rock me,
            and breasts for me to drink from?
        I could be resting in peace right now,
            asleep forever, feeling no pain,
        In the company of kings and statesmen
            in their royal ruins,
        Or with princes resplendent
            in their gold and silver tombs.
        Why wasn't I stillborn and buried
            with all the babies who never saw light,
        Where the wicked no longer trouble anyone
            and bone-weary people get a long-deserved rest?
        Prisoners sleep undisturbed,
            never again to wake up to the bark of the guards.
        The small and the great are equals in that place,
            and slaves are free from their masters.
        "Why does God bother giving light to the miserable,
            why bother keeping bitter people alive,
        Those who want in the worst way to die, and can't,
            who can't imagine anything better than death,
        Who count the day of their death and burial
            the happiest day of their life?
        What's the point of life when it doesn't make sense,
            when God blocks all the roads to meaning?
        "Instead of bread I get groans for my supper,
            then leave the table and vomit my anguish.
        The worst of my fears has come true,
            what I've dreaded most has happened.
        My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed.
            No rest for me, ever—death has invaded life."

Job - How would you handle it (Part 2)

I hope that the first post in this series didn't scare you off from reading the rest. I am aware that it was something of an epic and will try to keep the rest shorter so that you can focus on what was said and take something from it.

This is post 2 of 9, please feel free to check out the following links to read the whole series 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9.

So imagine the scene, God is having a little shindig with all the angels and along comes the one person everyone was hoping wouldn't turn up. But being a polite deity God has a bit of a chat with Satan as you do in situations like that. God goes for the same opening gambit we all use of asking "So, what you been doing?" which is responded with the equally typical "Bit of this, bit of that". Then God asks if His great follower Job has been noticed at all, in what I must say does seem a bit of a show off fashion. The Devil tries to play down Job's obedience and challenges God on the fact that Job only loves God because he has everything he desires. At this point my friend suggested that the story descends into a case of God allowing Satan to destroy someone's life in order to prove a point. However to begin with I feel that this is a case of God showing not only his power but also that of belief in God. Being given the strength to cope with adversity because you have the Number 1 on your side. Job passes the test with flying colours, he never gives up on God and never says a word against God through it all. The next stage of the story is picked up again with a similar exchange between God and Satan. This time Satan wants to not only take everything away from the man, but also destroy him. God says go ahead try anything you want, but you can not kill him. Despite everything Satan throws at Job he remains loyal to God he still says nothing against him.

The questions that run through my head while reading this are many. Why did God allow Satan to do this, why did God not defend his main man. What did Job do to deserve this treatment, what must have been going through Jobs head when all these terrible things were happening to him? What would I do if I was in Job's position? Could I handle all that and still be in God's corner? The answers to these questions and more will be coming up in later posts. I'd be interested to know peoples thoughts and any possible interpretations on this passage, please get in touch if you have anything to share either by commenting or by mail to jerrathorn@gmail.com.

Crisis

Well as I am writing this I am user as to which post I am going to put up today, it is a choice of two. If you are reading this post then it is good news, I am continuing my blog. Last night I had a huge crisis over whether or not to continue blogging or not. There is a very good reason for this which I may share in the future but for now I will just say an event caused me to question the wisdom of my writing so openly on here. If this post is the one I decide to upload then I have decided that this outlet for me to pour out my thought and feelings is too valuable for me to give up on. I have used this blog at times to express some very personal issues that I can not share with anyone in person, a way to get thoughts out of my head to be discussed later with anyone with thoughts on the matter. I am not great with relationships at the best of times and struggle to express my feelings at time, yet I can say anything on here I want to.

Daniel 9:4
    I poured out my heart, baring my soul to God, my God:
    " 'O Master, great and august God. You never waver in your covenant commitment, never give up on those who love you and do what you say.

Not only am I baring my soul online to you guys reading this, but this is also part of my life with God, it is part of my prayer life and Bible study. If we want God to never give up on us then surely we can at least try to do the same for Him. Part of starting this blog was to increase the amount of Bible study I did, and it has worked. I have been reading the Bible in ways I would never have done before, I have learned things I would not have learned if not for this blog. I am thankful for this blog, its followers and anyone who reads it in passing. Without realising it you guys are helping me on a day by day basis grow in my faith and progress on my journey with our Father. Trials will be sent our way and the enemy will test us at every opportunity, how we react is a sign of our Christian life, when we are struggling it will be hard and we may act in unchristian ways. When we notice these signs that we are struggling we need to increase our contact time with God, ask for increased help and give Him increased access to out hearts, minds and lives.

I do enjoy writing this blog, which is why I post so regularly, and I hope some people enjoy reading it. I hope to continue writing for the long term future to share more with you guys and hopefully hear more from you too. It may be significant that this event occurred while I decided to look at the story of Job, a man who suffered greatly. But as I have said before, God never misses an opportunity to teach us a lesson. If you are reading this there is therefore more good news, or possibly bad if you dislike the longer blog posts, the second instalment of my Job series should be posted at 6 pm GMT. Once again thanks for reading, it is great to have you here, please feel free to comment or send me a mail at jerrathorn@gmail.com.

Job - How would you handle it

I recently decided that it was time to correct a certain problem I have. I don't really know a great deal of the Old Testament. My favourite book of the Bible, Malachi is an Old Testament book but on the whole I do not really know it well enough. So in my quest to correct this I have been looking at Job and wanted to share my thoughts on it, however there is a lot to look at and a lot to say so I am going to do this as a series of posts hopefully over the next few days. To begin with I am just going to give you the first passage I intend looking at and will share my thoughts on it in the next post so as not to make it too long at one time. But before I do I just want to say why I chose to look at this in this way. 

In life things do not always go our way, problems arise, trials befall us and our faith is often tested to extremes. How we cope in these times is down to our relationship with God, with how our faith is rooted. Could we suffer what Job did and still love God, could we experience the trials Job did and not look elsewhere for solace? During a prayer session I attended recently, also based on Job, the leader said they wondered if God realised they only had little shoulders which didn't cope well with loads? Did God know that sometimes the loads they were bearing were too much to handle day after day? But it is not us who need to carry the loads, God is there if we ask for His help, if we allow Him in to help. But I will cover this more in subsequent posts.

So, here it is, The start of Job;

Job 1:1-2:10 

    Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was also very wealthy-seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants-the most influential man in all the East! 

    His sons used to take turns hosting parties in their homes, always inviting their three sisters to join them in their merrymaking. When the parties were over, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children, thinking, "Maybe one of them sinned by defying God inwardly." Job made a habit of this sacrificial atonement, just in case they'd sinned. 

    One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan, who was the Designated Accuser, came along with them. God singled out Satan and said, "What have you been up to?"

    Satan answered God, "Going here and there, checking things out on earth." 

    God said to Satan, "Have you noticed my friend Job? There's no one quite like him-honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil." 

    Satan retorted, "So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does-he can't lose! 

    "But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He'd curse you right to your face, that's what." 

    God replied, "We'll see. Go ahead-do what you want with all that is his. Just don't hurt him." Then Satan left the presence of God. 

    Sometime later, while Job's children were having one of their parties at the home of the oldest son, a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing in the field next to us when Sabeans attacked. They stole the animals and killed the field hands. I'm the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened." 

    While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, "Bolts of lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and fried them-burned them to a crisp. I'm the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened." 

    While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, "Chaldeans coming from three directions raided the camels and massacred the camel drivers. I'm the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened." 

    While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, "Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they died. I'm the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened." 

    Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped:

        Naked I came from my mother's womb,

            naked I'll return to the womb of the earth.

        God gives, God takes.

            God's name be ever blessed.

    Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God. 

    One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan also showed up. God singled out Satan, saying, "And what have you been up to?" Satan answered God, "Oh, going here and there, checking things out." Then God said to Satan, "Have you noticed my friend Job? There's no one quite like him, is there-honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil? He still has a firm grip on his integrity! You tried to trick me into destroying him, but it didn't work." 

    Satan answered, "A human would do anything to save his life. But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away his health? He'd curse you to your face, that's what." 

    God said, "All right. Go ahead-you can do what you like with him. But mind you, don't kill him." 

    Satan left God and struck Job with terrible sores. Job was ulcers and scabs from head to foot. They itched and oozed so badly that he took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself, then went and sat on a trash heap, among the ashes. 

    His wife said, "Still holding on to your precious integrity, are you? Curse God and be done with it!" 

    He told her, "You're talking like an empty-headed fool. We take the good days from God-why not also the bad days?"

    Not once through all this did Job sin. He said nothing against God.


This is the first post in a now complete series, feel free to check out the rest on the following links, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9.

Job 25:2-6

        "God is sovereign, God is fearsome—
            everything in the cosmos fits and works in his plan.
        Can anyone count his angel armies?
            Is there any place where his light doesn't shine?
        How can a mere mortal presume to stand up to God?
            How can an ordinary person pretend to be guiltless?
        Why, even the moon has its flaws,
            even the stars aren't perfect in God's eyes,
        So how much less, plain men and women—
            slugs and maggots by comparison!"