Job 23
Job had no interest in avoiding God, but he didn’t seem to know anymore where to find Him (Job 23:3). Wherever he looked, he simply could not see God (Job 23:8,9).
Job was confident of the rightness of his cause and the righteousness of his life. He would gladly lay out his case before God (Job 23:4).
He was also confident He could follow God’s line of reasoning, if he could only know it (Job 23:5).
And he was confident the Almighty would put His strength toward Job’s good. He believed the Almighty’s strength would become his own source of strength (Job 23:6).
Job was confident God knew about him and what was going on, even if Job didn’t know where God was nor what He was up to (Job 23:10). He was confident good would come from this test. He believed God would refine him, not destroy him.
We must reaffirm our commitment to serve God no matter what He seems to do to us. Listen to Job: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him” (Job 13:15). This man, having gone from prosperity to terrible adversity, determined he would not part ways with God over anything. He trusted God’s wisdom and His choices; he looked beyond the immediate testing process to the eventual resulting glory. Listen to him again: “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10). When adversity threatens to turn you from God, resist! Remain true to God who identifies Himself as “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). (Job Holds Fast His Integrity)
Job was confident of his own faithfulness to God and His ways (Job 23:11).
He was also confident of his faithfulness to God’s commandments and precepts. He valued what God had to say more than he valued that which he needed for physical sustenance (Job 23:12). This is especially interesting since Job likely predated Moses (and the Law) by half a millennium or so.
God will do what He is determined to do and no one can cause Him to change from that (Job 23:13). Nevertheless, Abraham and Moses were willing to try changing God’s mind, as it were.
Job was confident God would finish what He had determined to do with and about Job (Job 23:14).
I will try to remember that God does all He can to prepare me for what’s coming. He knows when I will be tested by adversity and when I will be tested by prosperity. Not only does He know when, He also knows how. Knowing all that, He strives to prepare me for the test so that I might pass it successfully, so that “when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). (Facing Opposition)
Today I am living in unfamiliar territory, as it were. I have never been through this day before. I have no idea what’s coming; I don’t know what to expect. The foreseeable future isn’t — that is, I can’t foresee the future. I can’t see even one second into the future. “But he knoweth the way that I take”!
Being assured by that, I purpose once again to stay the course, to continue walking in the Way. “My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined” (Job 23:11). Nothing else makes sense!
Read the rest: Assured by His foreknowledge
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