2009 – Day 249.Sept 07 – Demonstrating Class

Passage of the Day: Job, Chapter 23 – 24 … Linked for study …

My Journal for Today: I know that I’ve asked any who follow me here to read a long portion of Job, … two full chapters. However, I really hope you have done so, … especially focusing on the first 13 verses of Chapter 23. This is a powerful passage with which I believe all of us should be able to identify and even empathize. If not, I think we are missing a lot in our relationship with God.

Chuck Swindoll, in his devotional entry for this day from his book, Great Days with the Great Lives, has entitled this one, “Demonstrating Class,” likely because that’s exactly what Job does in these marvelously powerful chapters. Job is still down and out. He’s been confronted with a representation of the world view in his three stooges, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. And he has stood for God’s truth in these past chapters of this book. And here, in these two chapters, we read Job’s clear reasoning and understanding of God’s character. And simultaneously we also see his very human vulnerability and honesty.

Job still doesn’t have a clue why God has allowed these horrible circumstances to prevail in his life. However, his depth of understanding of his God rings through in those first 13 verses of Chapter 23. Go back and meditate on them again, my friend; and you will see that though Job doesn’t understand where God is and why He has allowed his strife, Job really does understand the nature of God. And Job also KNOWS that God has not abandoned him. Read of Job’s marvelous witness in verses 6 and 7; and we come away in awe of Job’s faith – at least I do. Read of his dedication and commitment to faith in verses 9 and 10; and you will be uplifted by Job’s surrender in the face of all the ill which has befallen him. This is most certainly a demonstration of Godly class.

Oh that we all could take what has befallen us, especially the loss and pain of life, and come away with a witness of class and faith like that of Job. In chapter 23 – 24 of his book, Job demonstrates, honestly and with vulnerability, that he still doesn’t know WHY God has brought him to this place in life; but Job also declares that He knows and trusts WHO God is; and he declares allegiance and faith to the God, Whom Job firmly believes has stayed with him through all of his ill-begotten fate.

I believe Job, in these two chapters, becomes a powerful light, shining on the truth of the New Testament declarations in Romans 8: 1 and 1st John 1: 9; and I would hope that any reader here has those two truths deeply embedded in your consciousness. These are two of the landmark truths of the New Covenant in Christ … that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and that we will find cleansing in the blood of Christ any time we confess and repent of our sins. And that is what is witnessed by Job in these two chapters of his book.

I pray that we all can come through the challenges which befall us with the same degree of Christian class our hero, Job, has shown us.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, give us the “class” which will shine a light to the darkness of this world, as that of Job, to glorify you in the face of the evil in our lives. Amen