Monday, June 25, 2019
“Surely the light of the wicked will be snuffed out. The sparks of their fire will not glow. The light in their tent will grow dark. The lamp hanging above them will be quenched. The confident stride of the wicked will be shortened. Their own schemes will be their downfall. The wicked walk into a net. They fall into a pit. A trap grabs them by the heel. A snare holds them tight. A noose lies hidden on the ground. A rope is stretched across their path. “Terrors surround the wicked and trouble them at every step. Hunger depletes their strength, and calamity waits for them to stumble. Disease eats their skin; death devours their limbs. They are torn from the security of their homes and are brought down to the king of terrors. The homes of the wicked will burn down; burning sulfur rains on their houses. Their roots will dry up, and their branches will wither. All memory of their existence will fade from the earth; no one will remember their names. They will be thrust from light into darkness, driven from the world. They will have neither children nor grandchildren, nor any survivor in the place where they lived. People in the west are appalled at their fate; people in the east are horrified. They will say, ‘This was the home of a wicked person, the place of one who rejected God.’” Job 18:6-21
The
over-arching message of the Book of Job is that God is in-charge,
and ultimately will balance everything; good will be rewarded, and evil will
also be recompensed. It’s the law of the
harvest…you reap later than you sow, you reap more
than you sow, but you definitely reap what you sow!
At some
time in our lives most of us look at the world’s culture and shake our heads in
disbelief; it must have been that way for Job.
I must confess that last week at Annual Conference I did a little head-rattling
questioning myself. The question is more
of a shell-shock exclamation – if you’d told me thirty years ago things
would be like this, I would’ve told you, YOU’RE CRAZY!
And then
reality hits, and you are still in shock, but you must begin to admit that the
culture in which we imagined we were still living no longer exists. And you’re smack-dab in the middle of one of
those empty times. The insides have been
ripped from you, and your legs are too wobbly to stand, and you lift your face
heavenward to ask, what’s up with this, God…what do I do now?
That’s where
our friend Bildad comes in. When it
looks like everything’s come unglued, when it looks like game-over and you’re
on the short stick, and nothing will ever-again make sense, Bildad says, hold
on, Bud; you’re forgetting Who’s really in charge. Have a little faith in God. You don’t want to be an evil person who
rejects God…that’s what tossing your confidence in the Almighty really is; you’re
being a rejecter (who is going to be rejected)!
The bottom
line for Job was the last chapter of his story…not the first, or the ensuing pain
of losing his family, position, wealth and even children. That was the entrance to the valley of questioning,
struggle to hold-on, questioning of
everybody around him, and the war to keep the faith. Eventually Job’s life turned back to
blessing; it even turned out better than it was before!
For You Today
If you find
it hard to keep the faith sometimes, put this on your tool belt and pull it out
when the battle gets really hard and you don’t know if you can hold on.
But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord; their vindication will come from me. I, the Lord, have spoken! Isaiah 54:17
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Image: Pixabay.com Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture
quotations are from The
New Living Translation©
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