The Devotional - 51

The Devotional

Comment:

Early in the days of being saved by the grace of God I lived for two years at the Christian Servicemen’s Center in Connecticut. The Administrator (Jay) of the Center owned a few cows who escaped one day. I think one of the names was Molly. The cows went to visit the cows or bulls on another farm some distance to the south. I went with the Jay to bring them back. A cow to me in those days was like an alien from another planet. On our way back and on the other end of the rope in my hand was Molly. At first we were just walking along but it seemed that Molly wanted to go faster, soon I was running nearly as fast as I could. Jay said as we sped away, “Jess, just stop running and she will stop too!” I my mind I wanted to believe Jay, but also in my mind was the thought that if I stopped, Molly would keep going and four hundred pounds of cow would make me part of her path home. So I kept running, I had no control of the animal, well we must have made the trip okay there were no bumps or bruises that I recall.

Challenge: Job 39

The LORD God continues His discourse with Job, I would like for us to see the tender love that I see in the words of the LORD as He explains truths about His Creation that bring delight to Him. Animals have a streak of wildness and while the LORD controls and feeds them daily, man only experiences little control and must always be on guard around the wild animal. Even the ox if it desires to turn away from its work cannot be controlled. Verse 9 through 12 reveals man’s desire for the ox to work, but it also reveals the strength of man that fails, yet the LORD is Almighty and the LORD has placed in the mind of the wild ox the instinct to obey, if this instinct was not there the ox would not be useable by mankind.

Look again the LORD says to Job, (verses 13 -18) what about the ostrich Job? It has wings, but cannot fly like the stork! While the stork uses its wings to fly the ostrich uses her wings to flap with joy. Also the ostrich lays its eggs out in the open on the ground to warm in the sand, it has no mind that the egg could be crushed or stolen. The ostrich treats her young harshly and she does not care about the labor involved in the laying of her eggs since God did not give her wisdom or good sense in these matters. Yet when it comes to speed, she spreads those feathers of hers and speeds right by the horse and the rider. God says she laughs at them because they cannot keep up with her. It should thrill our heart that God enjoys a good race.

Now all of this is common knowledge to us, we know these things and we think that because we do we are someone of special intellect. Just let me say that man knows nothing at all and if it were not for the grace of God to give us His Wisdom in part to the Creation around us we would be like the ostrich. The Holy Bible is not folklore, nor is the tales of some forgotten culture. The Living Word of God has been sown throughout time to produce a harvest and the apostle James puts this thought to us this way.

But the wisdom that is from above is first PURE (without error), then PEACEABLE (without hate), GENTLE (considerate), willing to YIELD (forgiving), full of MERCY (producing goodness) to bear FRUIT – James 3:17. This fruit is the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God for mankind to live by, we are to participate in the Righteousness of Christ and not in the self-righteous activities of the world around us and it is vital for you and me to understand that the Word of God is PURE, PEACEABLE and GENTLE and that it will always YIELD, MERCY and the FRUIT of RIGHTEOUSNESS to everyone who looks into the perfect LAW of LIBERTY – James 1:25.

We must not lose sight of Job’s suffering, up to the discourse of the LORD, no one including Job has been able to understand or provide comfort. One thing that I notice is that even though we know that God is our comfort and confidence through all suffering, we seldom see the whole picture because we start from the cycle of suffering by saying “why me?” or “what have I done to deserve this?” while God says, “I love you, let me show you the ways I love you.” God meets all of our needs from His Wisdom, there is still more for us in Job 39.