job// [part 3]
So, EVERYTHING about Job 38-42 is my favorite. Y’all, if you ever wonder what it’s like for God’s glory and majesty to show up, THIS IS IT. Go read these last few chapters of Job!
Throughout the entire story of Job, his friends’ argument could have all been reduced to this:
a. Job is suffering
b. God is just and would not allow suffer without cause.
c. Therefore, Job must have done something wrong to deserve this suffering.
Maybe, we’ve made these same conclusions about our own lives or about the lives of others we know.
When God began to speak in Job 38, He could have addressed them through logic and reasoning, but instead He showed them His glory.
“Have you ever traveled to where snow is made, seen the vault where hail is stockpiled, The arsenals of hail and snow that I keep in readiness for times of trouble and battle and war? Can you find your way to where lightning is launched, or to the place from which the wind blows? Who do you suppose carves canyons for the downpours of rain, and charts the route of thunderstorms That bring water to unvisited fields, deserts no one ever lays eyes on, Drenching the useless wastelands so they’re carpeted with wildflowers and grass? And who do you think is the father of rain and dew, the mother of ice and frost? You don’t for a minute imagine these marvels of weather just happen, do you?” (38:22-30 MSG)
In moments where our hearts are bitter, suffering, or hardened, appealing to logic and reasoning just doesn’t work. The only way God could change their minds was to appeal to their hearts.
I LOVE what Halley’s Bible Handbook says about this, “The final answer Job receives isn’t philosophical or logical. It is a majestic presentation by God Himself of who He is (38:1-42:6) — the only satisfactory answer to the problem of human suffering. It does not answer the questions our logical mind comes up with, but it will satisfy our heart.
The grand lesson of the book as a whole is that Job, through his suffering, in the end comes to God in His majesty and greatness as he had never seen Him before. That is the true reward. The fact that Job is also abundantly rewarded with greater prosperity and blessedness than he had at first is almost an afterthought.”
Our greatest reward in seasons of suffering is not that we’ll be restored (but praise God that He does work everything for our good), but instead that our eyes are opened and we see God in His majesty and greatness like never before. “I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes have seen you,” (42:5).
(Only one more Job post to go! 😫)
