Passage of the Day: Job 2: 1 – 9 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: Okay … in this cataclysmic battle between the lightweight, Job, and the heavyweight, Satan, the fallen angel had won round one. And the damaged and defeated Job went to his corner, reeling from the beating by Satan and not having a clue as to why he had been beaten up so severely. And while Job was likely lying with his wife that night processing all that had happened, round two in the heavenlies was taking shape.
Satan encountered God a second time, once again unbeknownst to Job; and the license to attack this faithful and Godly man was extended. Satan, the accuser, tries to convince God that Job may have lasted round one; but if Satan were allowed to attack the man himself, without killing him, Satan was sure Job would curse God. And so the bell rings on round two; and Satan does a pounding on Job again, felling him more personally leaving him in pain and agony, but this time the damage was directly to Job’s body.
And then to add insult to injury, the only person left in Job’s corner, his wife, wants Job to throw in the towel, to curse God, and die. Round two and it looks like Job has had about as much as he can take. But like me, you’ve no doubt read ahead; and you know the story, which is far from over. And we keep asking ourselves, “WHY, God?” And Swindoll uses a more recent time in our own American history to explore our feelings about such seemingly unfair attacks. He takes his readers, like yours truly, to the consideration of all the innocent men, women, and children who were injured or damaged from the 911 tragedies. They all went to work that morning or maybe took their kids to daycare, not having a clue that their lives were about to change forever. And then those planes crashed into the twin towers, and then the Pentagon, and the final one in a field in Pennsylvania. And the survivors who lost their loved ones, many of them spouses or children, were reeling from asking, “Why, God?”
And I don’t think we’ll ever by able to answer those questions; because the answers have to come from God; and as with the case of Job, he was left with the choice of cursing God and maybe committing suicide or trusting God that His Lord must have something from all this pain which he, this damaged warrior must fight on to explain. And as we’ll see, that is what Job did. He chose to live and to fight onward.
And that is what we must do. Last night my psyche got beaten up pretty badly. I’ll not go into the circumstances; but I came away from a meeting of church leaders with an attitude of “why, Lord, must we deal with all these feelings?” And then I’m here this morning I’m reminded that I may not be able to explain it all; but I must fight on because I do believe in the truth of Romans 8: 28; and I do believe in the reality that God has called me to fight on, trusting Him, and following Him into battle. So, here I sit; and maybe I’m not damaged as much as was Job; but I will fight on nonetheless; because like Job, I believe that my God is in control and He wants me to fight to know Him and to serve His mighty Name.
My Prayer for Today: Thank You, Lord for being My Savior and the One I must pursue to know more and serve more. Amen
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