Archives For The book of Job

Thoughts on Job and Prayers for Friends in the Way of Hurricane Irma

September 9, 2017 — Leave a comment

Thoughts from Job and Hurricane Irma

Screen Shot 2017-09-09 at 11.40.53 AMI found the Book of Job very comforting to me during the loss of so many of our family members lives. This morning as I was praying for my many friends in Florida I began reading it again. 

If you didn’t know, Job was a good man who bore unbearable tragedies. After suffering so much, he and his friends try to figure out why such disasters would happen to him. 

The book of Job asks us to look beyond blame, accept uncertainty, and trust God for what we cannot see or control. Basically look to Him in the midst of the storm.

Job was a wealthy man whose possessions included 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yokes of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and tons of servants. 

Job also had 7 sons and three daughters. 

He lost them ALL for awhile….

Job 38  (Message Bible) Job 38 and the bible

 Job had been begging God to speak to him and God finally spoke from the EYE OF THE VIOLENT STORM:

 “Why do you confuse the issue?

    Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about?

Pull yourself together, Job!

    Up on your feet! Stand tall!

I have some questions for you,

    and I want some straight answers.

Where were you when I created the earth?

    Tell me, since you know so much!

Who decided on its size? Certainly, you’ll know that!

    Who came up with the blueprints and measurements?

How was its foundation poured,

    and who set the cornerstone,

While the morning stars sang in chorus

    and all the angels shouted praise?

And who took charge of the ocean

    when it gushed forth like a baby from the womb?

That was me! I wrapped it in soft clouds,

    and tucked it in safely at night.

Then I made a playpen for it,

    a strong playpen so it couldn’t run loose,

And said, ‘Stay here, this is your place.

    Your wild tantrums are confined to this place.’

 “And have you ever ordered Morning, ‘Get up!’

    told Dawn, ‘Get to work!’

So you could seize Earth like a blanket

    and shake out the wicked like cockroaches?

As the sun brings everything to light,

    brings out all the colors and shapes,

The cover of darkness is snatched from the wicked—

    they’re caught in the very act!

 “Have you ever gotten to the true bottom of things,

    explored the labyrinthine caves of the deep ocean?

Do you know the first thing about death?

    Do you have one clue regarding death’s dark mysteries?

And do you have any idea how large this earth is?

    Speak up if you have even the beginning of an answer.

 “Do you know where Light comes from

    and where Darkness lives

So you can take them by the hand

    and lead them home when they get lost?

Why, of course, you know that.

    You’ve known them all your life,

    grown up in the same neighborhood with them!

 “Have you ever traveled to where snow is made,

    seen the vault where hail is stockpiled,

The arsenals of hail and snow that I keep in readiness

    for times of trouble and battle and war?

Can you find your way to where lightning is launched,

    or to the place from which the wind blows?

Who do you suppose carves canyons

    for the downpours of rain, and charts

    the route of thunderstorms

That bring water to unvisited fields,

    deserts no one ever lays eyes on,

Drenching the useless wastelands

    so they’re carpeted with wildflowers and grass?

And who do you think is the father of rain and dew,

    the mother of ice and frost?

You don’t for a minute imagine

    these marvels of weather just happen, do you?

 “Can you catch the eye of the beautiful Pleiades sisters,

    or distract Orion from his hunt?

Can you get Venus to look your way,

    or get the Great Bear and her cubs to come out and play?

Do you know the first thing about the sky’s constellations

    and how they affect things on Earth?

 “Can you get the attention of the clouds,

    and commission a shower of rain?

Can you take charge of the lightning bolts

    and have them report to you for orders?

What Do You Have to Say for Yourself?

 “Who do you think gave weather-wisdom to the ibis,

    and storm-savvy to the rooster?

Does anyone know enough to number all the clouds

    or tip over the rain barrels of heaven

When the earth is cracked and dry,

    the ground baked hard as a brick?

 “Can you teach the lioness to stalk her prey

    and satisfy the appetite of her cubs

As they crouch in their den,

    waiting hungrily in their cave?

And who sets out food for the ravens

    when their young cry to God,

    fluttering about because they have no food?”

Before and after afflictions So the LORD blessed Job in the second half of his life EVEN MORE than in the beginning. Job now had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 teams of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

So God gave Job double of what he lost.

However, he only gave Job back 7 sons and 3 daughters, which the SAME amount he lost. 

I always wondered why? Until…

I realized that Jobs other children were still ALIVE in heaven. 

After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. 

Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life.

We will all suffer in this life.  It is appointed to mankind to suffer. It is a fallen world.  We may not know the “why” today but some day we probably will.  Instead of asking “why”, we should ask “what”.

What is God up to?

What is God trying to do in me?

The “why” will have to wait for someday in eternity.

My prayer for my Florida friends today is that you will be safe and run into the arms of the one who is waiting, the great comforter.  In the midst of violent hurricanes or calm, normal days He is there and He is Lord and in control. 

*If you are interested in more of Job, what else happened to him, what his friends tried to convince him was wrong and other things he said, this is a good place to start.*

Read more: https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/job-bible-story-summary-with-lesson/#ixzz4sCLCLO9V

In Awareness ,
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What I Learned from Job About Our Children in Heaven

March 17, 2013 — 7 Comments

What I Learned from Job About Our Children in Heaven

Every Sunday I start the first of the week with a God first post. Today I wanted to share what I learned from the Book of Job about our children in heaven.

After Jamie died, I read the Book of Job. Oh, I had read it before but it was hardly one of my favorite books in the Bible. It was full of loss and pain and suffering about a man named Job who feared God (devoted to God) and avoided all evil. (against man and God)

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

Job 1:2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.

Job 1:3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.

Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.

God gave Satan permission to afflict Job

Satan before the throne of God by William Blake Job 1:7 The LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

Job 1:8 And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”  The conversation begins with God bringing up Job as an example of a man who loves Him and turns from evil, not Satan bringing up Job’s name.

Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?

Job 1:10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

Suffering

Satan was given permission from God to strike Job, and take everything he owned but was not allowed to take his life. Job lost everything he owned, his children, his home, his animals. Yet in Job 1:22 we see that Job did not curse God, or have any dishonorable thoughts toward Him.

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”

Even when Job’s wife told him to curse God and die, Job did not sin with his lips.

“What, shall we receive good from the Lord’s hand and not evil?

Job rebuked by his friends Most of the Book of Job is how Job’s best friends (Elihu, Bildad, and Zophar) and his wife try to get Job to curse God. They tell Job it is his sin that brought this on and they try to help Job figure out what He did to bring this suffering on.

At one of his very lowest points in his trial and suffering, Job cries out to God and God is silent.

“I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer,” Job wails (Job 30:20)

Have you ever cried out to God and heard silence? I have.

Restoration

There are many lessons to learn from Job’s trials and suffering. The one insight I received from reading Job after the deaths of Jamie and Lillian is what I want to share.

At the end of Job’s life we see that God restored everything Job lost. Not just restored but doubled. But, he did not double his children.

Job started out with 7 sons and 3 daughters and ended with 7 sons and 3 daughters. The same amount of children.

In the first chapter of Job before he lost everything we read, Job had 7 sons and 3 daughters and in vs 13, he had 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 donkeys. 

At the end in Job 42:12  “And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

Everything Job lost, God doubled and returned to him except the number of his children. He still had 7 sons and 3 daughters born to him later in life.

The Lesson

I wondered why God didn’t double the children Job had. Here is what came to me and the lesson I learned.

Job did not need to double his children, because his other children were still alive, they were alive in heaven.

Wow! Isn’t that amazing?

Job’s other children were still alive in heaven.

So in reality Job’s children were doubled.

Our children are still alive in heaven. No one can replace a child that has died. I have friends, that have lost children who are still of child-bearing age and the last thing they need or want to hear is that, “you are young you can have other children?”

Sometimes they can and do. However, the child who died can never be replaced. They are their own unique self.

One of my good friends Des, and her husband, Al lost their first baby, a little boy when he was a baby. A  year later, God blessed them with twin boys. As much as they adore their twins, the twins can’t replace the love or loss they feel for their son that died.

Someday they will be reunited with him in heaven. Just as we will all be reunited with our children that have gone before us.

Just as Job is united with his 14 sons and 6 daughters today.

 

Images used under public domain 

In Heaven, Sunday God First , ,
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