The Devotional - 27

The Devotional

Comment:

One day many years ago, I was leaving a restaurant, there were several stairs leading down to the pavement. Coming up those stairs was a young man being helped by his chauffeur, the big limousine that carried the man to this point was parked very close to the steps preventing anyone coming out of the restaurant from getting by. I stopped and watched as the man struggled, even with help it was hard for him to go up the stairs. As it turned out, he was the owner of the restaurant chain, but it was obvious that this man’s fortune could do nothing for the suffering written on his face. If I told you the man’s name you would know immediately the restaurant, but what is the importance of that! What is important is that “all” humans suffer. There are no boundaries and the arena where suffering is faced by all is the world in which we live.

Challenge: Job 1:1-5

It is not my intent to go verse by verse through the Book of Job, but I will seek to cover the context paragraph by paragraph so I hope you will take the time to read and study these sections. The introduction of the book of Job begins with the man’s family and his prosperity. Seven sons and three daughters, seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys and a host of men and women who worked for Job. Job was a man who feared God in addition to this fear, Job hated evil.

For the majority of us we are most likely one of the men or women who would work for a man like Job. But you can take heart, we each have the opportunity to suffer as Job did. The circumstance surrounding Job’s suffering included people. Job’s sons and daughters who no doubt had commitments to others outside the family. Job’s employees who also were bound by relationships and of course Job’s three friends who left family and friends to come and comfort Job. These will come into the picture on another day.

Job also is very wise, knowing firsthand the trouble that children seem to run into. He prayed daily for his family, thinking as we might at times. “Perhaps my children because of a lack of faith, have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” So it was customary for Job to pray for his children, just as it is customary for you and me to pray for our family too. All of this is normal everyday life, it does not matter how fat your wallet is.

One important thought here is to notice that on Job’s mind continually was the thought that sin included the properties of cursing God. Also the attack of Satan was to get Job to curse God, while Satan is not all knowing, he does know how to attack God’s children. What Satan does not know or understand is the power of God that overrides every attack of the devil. The one thing of many that we can take from these events in Job’s experience is that “faith in God is resting in the power of God”, Hebrews 4:1-7.

Money, fame, popularity are not the answers to the purpose for living life. In fact; if these are your goals, your aim is well off course, even like a ship lost at sea with a failed compass. The true direction for every one of us is treasure, but not the treasure of the world which perishes. Matthew in his gospel lays out the path to take for spiritual prosperity. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all that you and I will ever need will be added to us” Matthew 6:19-34. This is something that Job understood, sadly many today have no idea thus they have no purpose (faith) in living.

Young people today fall away from God because their purpose for living by faith does not exist!