SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 10/21/2011 8:36 AM
My Worship Time
Focus:
“Job’s
Prosperity”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Job 1:1-5
Message
of the verses: “1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man
was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. 2 Seven sons and three daughters were born to
him. 3 His possessions also were 7,000
sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many
servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east. 4 His sons
used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would
send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When the days of feasting had completed their
cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and
offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said,
"Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus
Job did continually.”
I have mentioned before that I have
the greatest respect for Warren Wiersbe and his wonderful ability to write his
commentaries on the Word of God to make them understandable to everyone who
reads them. He has a precious gift from
the Lord to be able to do this.
Before beginning his writing on the
book of Job he knew in his heart that there would be trials that lie ahead so
that he would be able to understand more about the book of Job, that he would
be able to write on it more effectively.
He also challenges his readers to be aware that they too may go through
trials in order to better understand what Job went through and to also learn
more of the faithfulness of God. He
states in his introduction to this first chapter that there are two things that
we should accomplish in our lives as we study this book: to be patient in our trials and also to be
better equipped to help others who are going through trials, and be willing to
help others through those trials.
Job
23:10 reads as follows “’But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I
shall come forth as gold.’” Gold does
not fear the fire, for what is burned up in the fire is not worth having
anyway.
Dr. Wiersbe entitles this first
chapter of his commentary “The Drama Begins,” and it will cover the first three
chapters of the book of Job and it will reveal four important facts about Job
of which the first one is the subject of today’s SD. It should be no surprise to anyone that he
entitles this commentary “Be Patient.”
One of the questions that many
people have in this life is why do the innocent suffer? This is surely one of the themes of the book
of Job, for Job did not have any idea as to why he was suffering, for his claim
throughout this entire book was that his suffering was not due to any sin that
he had committed, as he was accused of by his wife and three friends. James 5:11 states “We count those blessed who
endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of
the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.” This shows that Job was a real person and
that he was a person who was patient, as the word endurance states.
Job and his friends were trying
to figure out why he was suffering and this takes up the majority of the book
as they go back and forth trying to analyze this, but the fact is that none of
them knew why Job was suffering because the first section of the book that
takes place in heaven and shows why Job was suffering was not known to
them.
John MacArthur writes at the
beginning of his Study Bible on Job the following that will shed some light on
this theme of why the innocent suffer:
1.
“There
are matters going on in heaven with God that believers know nothing about; yet
they affect their lives;
2.
Even
the best effort at explaining the issues of life can be useless;
3.
God’s
people do suffer. Bad things happen all
the time to good people, so one cannot judge a person’s spirituality by his
painful circumstances or success;
4.
Even
though God seems far away, perseverance in faith is a most noble virtue since
God is good and one can safely leave his life in His hands;
5.
The believer in the midst of suffering should
not abandon God, but draw near to Him, so out of the fellowship can come
comfort—without the explanation; and;
6.
Suffering
may be intense, but it will ultimately end for the righteous and God will bless
abundantly.”
The first verse states that Job was
from the land of Uz, and that he was “blameless
upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.” There is speculation as to where Uz is
located, some think that it was near where the Edomites lived, but I don’t
think that this is greatly important.
Most scholars say that Job lived during the time of Abraham, in that
era.
His
Character: Stating that Job was
blameless and upright did not mean that Job was sinless, for there was only One
Man who fits that description; Jesus Christ.
Job was complete and mature in character and straight in conduct. When we look at the word blameless we see the
following: “1c) complete, morally
innocent, having integrity 1c1) one who is morally and ethically pure.” (Online Bible Dictionary)
Job feared God and shunned evil, See
Job 28:28. Dr. Wiersbe writes the
following about the fear of the Lord:
“To fear the Lord means to respect who His is, what He says, and what He
does. It is not the cringing fear of a
slave before a master but the loving reverence of a child before a father, a
respect that leads to obedience. ‘The remarkable thing about
fearing God,’ said Oswald Chambers ‘is that when you fear God you fear nothing
else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.’”
His
Family: Job was not only prosperous
in his character, but he was prosperous in his family as seen in verse two.
During the Patriarchal Age it was common to have a large family, as that was a
great blessing. We can see from the text
that the children must have enjoyed each other’s company as frequently meet to
celebrate birthdays. We can see from
this that Job and his wife did a good job in raising their children. Job would even offer sacrifices after those
birthday gatherings in case any of them sinned.
This does not mean that evil was going on, it was just the way that Job
was, and part of his character.
His
Material Possessions: It seems
clear that Job owned his possessions and that his possessions did not own
Job. This is why Satan was accusing God
of giving Job all of these possession in order to have Job worship him, yet it
is clear that Job, although was happy with all of these possessions, did not
worship God because of them. This will
come out later on and is an important part of this book.
His
Friends: Job had many friends as he
was prosperous in having friends. We
will see Job friends were not as supported of him as they could be, but none
the less they were his friends, and we can believe that after this whole ordeal
was over that their friendship became even stronger.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: When I
think of Job’s character and how he handled the situation that he was put into
I wonder in my heart if I would have done this the way he did. I hope that as I study this book that I will
learn much from his character and that by the grace of God, have it as part of my
life.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Trust that the Lord will reveal
to my heart what He has for me to learn as I study this wonderful book of Job.
2. Put on the whole armor of
God: The belt of truth; the breastplate
of righteousness, the shoes of the Gospel of peace, take up the shield of faith;
put on the helmet of salvation; and take up the sword of the Spirit, which is
the Word of God.
3. Continue to learn contentment.
10/21/2011
10:04:44 AM
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