The Devotional - 25

The Devotional

Comment:

In my study there are pictures or scenes of ships, some military and some civilian. There is one painting of a three masted ship on a calm morning sailing into a fog bank. Each time I look at it I am reminded of many such mornings of the past when, as a sailor I would stand on the weather deck (outside) and watch the sea and the fog blend into one. The horizon would disappear and the thought in mind would be as one being invisible. The only visible object is the hull of the ship you are standing on, it is an eerie quiet moment in time that can do one of two things. One: give you a calmness of peace, or Two: send you scampering into the superstructure (inside) of the ship where people, lights and normal things are happening.   

Challenge:

Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the LORD – that the LORD is very compassionate and merciful – James 5:11.

I may have said this recently but it is worthy of saying again, the very first words of the Holy Bible that I read after being saved by the grace of God were the words penned by the writer of Job. I believe that God directed my eyes to the book. Now, there are none righteous, no not one for all have sinned and gone astray, Romans 3:9-20 places all of mankind under the penalty of sin.

Most all analogy will break down at one point, but do not take the moment and look for the breakdown, stay with me and notice that the LORD God uses His Word to communicate to you and me. Personally my word means little, but did you notice what the apostle James said? The LORD is VERY compassionate and merciful. So while analogy may point to truth, it is only the Truth from God that matters.

In the fog of sin we can feel alone, as if no one else is like us. In some this stand-alone experience is defended, in others it is an eerie place and the thought is to run and find others that are like minded for comfort. It matters little whether you are a standalone or a runner for like-minded sinners as yourself. The fog of sin is a continual reminder of danger and death.

For the saint of God, that is anyone who has been saved by the grace of God is a saint and alive, yet we live in the land of the dead gleaning continually advice from the dead. The country of OZ where Job lived could easily have been called, Advice! Or the land of counsel and advice The Hebrew indicates this. As we get into the book of Job, we will see that there is a lot of advice and counsel from Job’s three fired up friends. Some good advice, some religious advice and some bad advice.

So up front here Job is righteous as the book describes him, none like him, in other words he is the one who is alive to God in the land of the dead. If you are saved then you too are alive to God in the land of the dead. Except for your saved church family there are NONE other capable of giving godly advice. This is a picture that for the most us is out of focus, since we are surrounded by our own personal sin and the sin of the dead around us. A scary place to be, is it not?

As we move through the book of Job we need to keep in mind that even though he is righteous, even as we can identify with his righteousness in Christ we too are subject to the fog of personal and corporate sin. While alive in the land, Satan has the opportunity to destroy our testimony, but he does not have the authority to harm the Spiritual and physical reality that we are alive in Christ in the land of the dead. Thus stand in the Peace and Righteousness that God has ordained for us. Romans 13:14.