Overview of: JobToday's Reading:
Job 30:11-31; 38:1-41
"Tough Questions"
Focus Verses: Job 30:20; 38:1-4
30:20 "I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.
38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: 2 "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 4 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand."
Insight:
No one can fault Job for questioning God. Job had reverence for God and did his best to lead a righteous life, but his life had collapsed into loss, pain, fear, and suffering. He began doubting God after the constant verbal barrage from friends and family who were convinced he was being judged by God for something he had done. Job’s doubts, fear, and anger intensified when it seemed to him that the Lord would never answer his cries for help
When God finally did answer Job, it was in the form of a long list of questions. God essentially said, "Job, I know you don't understand what is going on in your life, but have you thought about how many other things you don't understand? Do you trust me to know what's going on? If you don't trust me, who will you trust? Who else has the answers?"
Response and Action:
It’s hard to live with unanswered questions. It's difficult to be crying out in the darkness of hardship, and yet trust that God knows and cares. But doubting or denying God will not remove the darkness. In fact, it makes the darkness even darker because now I am alone in my doubts.
There is so much I don't understand, why should I be surprised that I cannot understand my own struggles and difficulties. Would denying God give me a more satisfactory answer to my questions? Do my problems make a case for there not being a God, or do they underscore my need to humble myself before God, trusting he knows my needs and can redeem my life?
O God, you know all things; but I don't. You can do anything; no plan of yours can ever be shaken. There is so much I do not understand. Life is too big for me. Hear my cries and come to my aid, O Lord. Show me your ways, teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me. Give me the strength to trust in you, to wait upon you, to persevere and cling to you, even when life is more than I can bear and you seem silent and distant. You are God, my Savior. My hope is in you all day long. Amen.
Proverb for Today: Prov. 19:8
"He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who cherishes understanding prospers."
New Testament for Today: 2 Corinthians 1:9-10
9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us..."
In Context: 2 Corinthians 1:3-11
Recommended Reading:
Waiting: Finding Hope When God Seems Silent
by Ben Patterson
