Study from God’s Word… Job, Chapters 18 – 21 … Passage for Reflection: Job 20: 6 – 9 … NIV 6 Though his [i.e., mankind’s] pride reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, 7 he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?' 8 Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night. 9 The eye that saw him will not see him again; his place will look on him no more.
My Journal for Today: In one of the speeches from one of Job’s misguided friends, in this case Zophar (in today’s text), we read one of those true assumptions from which these “friends” build their misconceptions for Job. Zophar, the Naamathite, declares that man is here and gone like a dream in the night; and that, of course, is true. But mankind always has more of an impact on those in his/her life than one might think.
That’s the whole theme of that great Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart movie most of us have seen many times, It’s a Wonderful Life, where Stewart’s character, George Bailey, thinking he’s a nobody. And through his guardian angel, Clarence, George is shown what the world would have been like if he’d never been there. And we see that though, in God’s timetable, we’re here on this earth for only the snap of God’s fingers, for a wisp of time, our lives do touch others and influence people like our kids and grandkids.
Zophar was right that we’re here and gone, almost without notice; but as Job later points out in response, our lives are important to others; and they are important to God. I love that confident response, in the midst of the horrors Job had experienced, he declares to Bildad, in Job 19, before God of course as well, "I know that my Redeemer lives … and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God … with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
Isn’t that glorious? Here is a man, who is, according to Zophar, but a passing dream, and a man who seems to be under the judgment of God with all his physical decay and emotional loss, declaring – IN FAITH – that he yearns to see and be with HIS GOD, … Who of course is also the same God of Bildad and Zophar and Eliphaz. My friends, it truly is a wonderful life, … even if we experience disasters; because if we live our lives for God and not for self, we will have an influence that is far greater than we can imagine.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, it truly is a WONDERFUL LIFE! Amen
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