2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
As God leads me to look over the last portion of the story of Job, the Spirit shows me JOB 28: 23-28. [Job speaking] "God alone knows the way. Knows the place where wisdom is found. Because He sees the ends of the earth, see everything under the sky. When God gave the wind its power and determined the size of the sea: when God decided where the rain would fall, and the path that the thunderclouds travel; it was then He saw wisdom and tested its worth-He gave it His approval. God said to men, 'To be wise, you must have reverence for the Lord. To understand, you must turn from evil.'" This last statement is supported by PS 111: 10, "The way to become wise is to have reverence for the Lord; He gives sound judgment to all who obey His commands. He is to be praised forever." The same can be said for PR 1: 7 and 9: 10, "To have knowledge, you must first have reverence for the Lord. Stupid people have no respect for wisdom and refuse to learn...To be wise you must first have reverence for the Lord. If you know the Holy One, you have understanding." Hasn't God made His will clear here? He has asked us to know Him and to turn from evil. That means that He is commanding us to use the power He gave us to push Satan out of our lives. Since we have seen repeated demonstrations both in the Scriptures and in our own lives of God's consistency, compassion, and His love for us, would He ever ask us to do something He didn't equip us to do? I think not! God knows that we are subjected to evil, but He also knows that we can fend it off and refuse to given into Satan's desire to deceive us into believing that we should be afraid of him.
The story of Job is compelling for many reasons, not the least of which is the contrast between how his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and Elihu viewed Job's suffering and how he viewed it. In the last few chapters of this book before JOB 42, God finally answers Job and the others with a long and beautiful reminder to them to look around them at nature, the nature that He created. God asks probing questions of them, such as those found in JOB 38: 4-6, [God speaking] "Where you there when I made the world? If you know so much, tell Me about it. Who decided how large it would be? Who stretched the measuring line over it? Do you know all the answers? What holds up the pillars that support the earth? Who laid the cornerstone of the world?" The underlying message here is that when they look all around them, they need to acknowledge not only God as the Creator, but they need to put their trust in Him. Something only Job had been doing throughout his period of suffering. The others had looked upon Job's suffering as some kind of punishment coming from God. They didn't understand that God never causes disease or loss, but sometimes allows these Satan-driven things to happen to teach mankind His life-saving lessons. There was never a time, nor will there ever be that Satan's activity wasn't under God's complete control as to its length and its extent. These men and us all need to know that.
God has showed us over and over again that He will provide for our needs and bring justice. This finally comes for Job in JOB 42 as God adjudicates the entire situation for all of them. God directs Job to pray an intercessory prayer for his friends first, and Job complies with this request. God expresses He is angry with Job's friends for their lack of faith and wisdom, but does not intend to destroy them. JOB 42: 10, "Then after Job had prayed for his three friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had had before." (12) "The Lord blessed the last part of Job's life even more than He had blessed the first...." Where was Satan then? He was defeated. He was defeated in the same way he was when after trying for forty days in the wilderness to tempt Christ, he failed and went away [MT 4: 1-11]. Once again, the Spirit prompts me to remind all of us of God's perspective as seen through Paul in RO 8: 18. "I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us." God is telling us to put our suffering and loss in His perspective. That doesn't mean that He doesn't feel our pain. It simply means that we must understand as Job, Christ, and Paul did that the pain is only for a short time when compared with the result of our endurance through it and our personal spiritual growth. We can look forward to eternal joy and fellowship with our Creator Who loves each of us enormously. We can know the warmth of our Abba's loving arms around us and His encouragement through our pain, if we will only seek Him out.
PRAYER: O Lord, there is a praise song with the words, "O Lord, I want to know You more..." That, Dearest Abba, expresses the heartfelt feelings we have. While what You know about us is so much more than we could ever know about You, You have shown us repeatedly how important it is to You that we know and understand the attributes You have shown us through the Scriptures. That is the underlying lesson in the book of Job. It is also the stuff of what builds enduring faith. PS 27: 1, "The Lord is my Light and my Salvation; I will fear no one. The Lord protect me from all danger; I will never be afraid." Those are important truths from your faithful servant, David, for us. We examine the question: Should I be afraid of Satan?, and You give us the answer in the writings of people who had real enduring faith. Your light pierces the darkness of evil and shows us what evil is. Satan could never hide from You and neither can people or angels foolish enough to fear him or who yield leadership of their lives over to him. What comfort You give us through the Psalmist's words in PS 75: 2-5, "'I have set a time for judgment,' says God, 'and I will judge with fairness. Though every living creature tremble and the earth itself be shaken, I will keep its foundations firm. I tell the wicked not to be arrogant; I tell them to stop their boasting.'" PS 93: 1-2, 5, "The Lord is King. He is clothed with majesty and strength. The earth is set firmly in place and cannot be moved. Your throne, O Lord, has been firm from the beginning, and You existed before time began...Your law is are eternal, Lord, and Your temple is holy indeed, forever and ever." We come before Your throne today to acknowledge our own emptiness without You, Lord. In humility, we offer You our confession and pledge You our eternal adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, honor, glory, trust, obedience, praise and thanksgiving. In Christ's name, amen.
Tomorrow's message will provide more "combat intelligence" that God provides to equip us not to fear Satan and to successfully defeat him in His name. Through the storms and stresses of our lives, our Lord Jesus is always with us, sent by the Father. He picks us up and carries us through when we don't have enough strength to walk by ourselves. It is He Who sends guardian angels to surround us when we are wracked with pain, suffering from loss, and grieving. It is on His broad shoulders that we can rest our weary heads. All of these truths are made possible by the profound love of our Abba, our Father and our Creator Who loves those who love Him and cares for them. Whenever we feel like questioning the Father's power or compassion, we need to return to the story of Job for a reminder of just how blessed our faith in Him makes us. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn