*Scripture: Job 19:1-12, 21-27 (NKJV)* 1 Then Job answered and said: 2 "How long will you torment my soul, and break me in pieces with words? 3 These ten times you have reproached me; You are not ashamed that you have wronged me. 4 And if indeed I have erred, my error remains with me. 5 If indeed you exalt yourselves against me, and plead my disgrace against me, 6 know then that God has wronged me, and has surrounded me with His net. 7 If I cry out concerning wrong, I am not heard. If I cry aloud, there is no justice. 8 He has fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass; And He has set darkness in my paths. 9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. 10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; My hope He has uprooted like a tree. 11 He has also kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me as one of His enemies. 12 His troops come together and build up their road against me; They encamp all around my tent.
21 "Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me! 22 Why do you persecute me as God does, and are not satisfied with my flesh? 23 "Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! 24 That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead, forever! 25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; 26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! 28 If you should say, 'How shall we persecute him?'--Since the root of the matter is found in me, 29 be afraid of the sword for yourselves; For wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment." *Devotion* How frightening the account of Job is. And how filled with hope at the same time! Job had suffered such tremendous loss--family, herds and flocks, his very health. And to add insult to injury, pouring salt on his festering wounds, his "friends" tell him that somehow he deserved his suffering, that he had it coming to him. They suggest some sin, perhaps long forgotten, had so angered God that He inflicted these awful woes on Job. It is a truly misinformed opinion that, if one sins against God, someday, somewhere, when he least expects it, God is going to "even the score." Still, in the very depth of his agony, Job confessed his faith in words that are spoken at countless funeral services, "For I know that my Redeemer lives." Martin Luther addressed loss like Job's in similar fashion in "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God": "And take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, let these all be gone, they yet have nothing won; the Kingdom ours remaineth." May we remain steadfast in our own times of testing, remembering always the words of Saint Paul: "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)
_______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
