SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 11/16/2011/9:32 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: “The Hopelessness of Job”
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference:
Job 14
Message
of the verses: “1 "Man, who is born of woman, Is short-lived and full of turmoil.
2 “Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and
does not remain. 3 “You also open Your eyes on him And bring him into judgment
with Yourself. 4 “Who can make the clean out of the unclean? No one! 5 “Since
his days are determined, The number of his months is with You; And his limits
You have set so that he cannot pass. 6 “Turn Your gaze from him that he may
rest, Until he fulfills his day like a hired man.
“ 7 "For there is hope for a tree, When
it is cut down, that it will sprout again, And its shoots will not fail. 8 “Though
its roots grow old in the ground And its stump dies in the dry soil, 9 At the
scent of water it will flourish And put forth sprigs like a plant. 10 “But man
dies and lies prostrate. Man expires, and where is he? 11 "As water
evaporates from the sea, And a river becomes parched and dried up, 12 So man lies down and does not rise. Until the
heavens are no longer, He will not awake nor be aroused out of his sleep. 13 "Oh that You would hide me in Sheol,
That You would conceal me until Your wrath returns to You, That You would set a
limit for me and remember me! 14 “If a man dies, will he live again? All the
days of my struggle I will wait Until my change comes. 15 “You will call, and I
will answer You; You will long for the work of Your hands.
“16 "For now You number my steps, You
do not observe my sin. 17 “My transgression is sealed up in a bag, And You wrap
up my iniquity. 18 "But the falling mountain crumbles away, And the rock
moves from its place; 19 Water wears
away stones, Its torrents wash away the dust of the earth; So You destroy man’s
hope. 20 “You forever overpower him and he departs; You change his appearance
and send him away. 21 “His sons achieve honor, but he does not know it; Or they
become insignificant, but he does not perceive it. 22 “But his body pains him,
And he mourns only for himself.’”
In Job 11:13-20 Zophar was telling Job
that there was hope for him if he only would confess to the Lord that he had
sinned, and that is what had caused all of the trouble that came upon him. Now we see in chapter fourteen that Job does
not agree with this assessment and so he believes that his life is hopeless.
In the first part of this chapter Job
will use some metaphors to show the hopelessness of life, things like a flower
that fades away quickly, of a shadow that moves away quickly. Job seems to be wondering why God would fill a man’s short
life with pain and suffering, after all if life is only like a fleeing flower
should God cause man to have so much pain, but of course Job is mistaken about
this view of life, for man is born a sinner, and man lives on a earth that has
been cursed because of sin.
Job even speak of a tree that is cut
down and then the stump dies for lack of water, but when water comes the stump
will produce some sprouts to live again, unlike man who when he dies it is
over. This is another thing that Job is
mistaken of. “37 "But that the dead are
raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the burning bush, where he
calls the Lord THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB. 38
“Now He is not the God of the dead but of the living; for all live to
Him.’” (Luke 20:37-38) It seems that Job does get the right
answer to this question in Job 19:25-27 “25
“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His
stand on the earth. 26 “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I
shall see God; 27 Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not
another. My heart faints within me!’”
In verse nineteen Job says, “Water
wears away stones, Its torrents wash away the dust of the earth; So You destroy
man’s hope.” Job is mistakenly saying
this about God because he did not know God as well as he should have, but we
must remember that the Lord revealed Himself slowly to man, for when the Lord
Jesus Christ came he told Philip that if you have seen Me you have seen the
Father, and now all believers have the blessed Holy Spirit living in them and a
full Bible to read, so we cannot be too hard on Job, for most of us probably do
not take advantage of all that God has given to us at this time.
Believers today have hope, for Paul
wrote to Titus that the second coming of Christ is our hope, and hope helps us
go through the tough times, but Job did not have this kind of hope, however things
will get better for him.
Let me finish this part of this SD
with the words of Paul that he wrote to the Roman church: “Now
may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you
will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I
mentioned that as believers living in today’s society, after the cross, and in
days when we can have the Bible on CDs and listen and watch great sermons, and
have all kinds of wonderful helps to study the Word, there are many times when
I don’t take full advantage of this in order to learn more of God’s Word and do
more things that the Lord wants me to do.
I also do not want to give up the hope that I as a
believe have, even when times get hard, for God is sovereign and has full
control of my life, and has promised to work things out for my good and for His
glory.
My Steps of Faith
for Today:
1. 1John 4:18.
2. Philippians 4:11b.
3. Romans 12:1-2.
4. Proverbs 3:5-6.
5. Ephesians 6:10-18.
6. Romans 15:13.
11/6/2011
8:56:03 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment