11/2/2011 8:39:20 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Why Was I Born
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Job 10:1-22
Message of the verses: Before putting the verses on this SD I would like to remind you that this is the last sub-point from the third chapter of Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on Job. For those who have never read from my Spiritual Diaries I use the outline from Warren Wiersbe’s “Be” books to aid me in understanding the Scriptures.
“1 ¶ "I loathe my own life; I will give full vent to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. 2 "I will say to God, ’Do not condemn me; Let me know why You contend with me. 3 ’Is it right for You indeed to oppress, To reject the labor of Your hands, And to look favorably on the schemes of the wicked? 4 ’Have You eyes of flesh? Or do You see as a man sees? 5 ’Are Your days as the days of a mortal, Or Your years as man’s years, 6 That You should seek for my guilt And search after my sin? 7 ’According to Your knowledge I am indeed not guilty, Yet there is no deliverance from Your hand.
“8 ¶ ’Your hands fashioned and made me altogether, And would You destroy me? 9 ’Remember now, that You have made me as clay; And would You turn me into dust again? 10 ’Did You not pour me out like milk And curdle me like cheese; 11 Clothe me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews? 12 ’You have granted me life and lovingkindness; And Your care has preserved my spirit. 13 ’Yet these things You have concealed in Your heart; I know that this is within You:
“14 ¶ If I sin, then You would take note of me, And would not acquit me of my guilt. 15 ’If I am wicked, woe to me! And if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head. I am sated with disgrace and conscious of my misery. 16 ’Should my head be lifted up, You would hunt me like a lion; And again You would show Your power against me. 17 ’You renew Your witnesses against me And increase Your anger toward me; Hardship after hardship is with me. 18 ’Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Would that I had died and no eye had seen me! 19 ’I should have been as though I had not been, Carried from womb to tomb.’ 20 "Would He not let my few days alone? Withdraw from me that I may have a little cheer 21 Before I go-and I shall not return- To the land of darkness and deep shadow, 22 The land of utter gloom as darkness itself, Of deep shadow without order, And which shines as the darkness.’”
We need to first of all understand that in this tenth chapter of Job, Job is speaking directly to God and not to his friends. He is saying to God that He is the One who created him and now He seems to be destroying him, and Job wants to understand why He is doing this. Job has become bitter over the things that have happened to him, and I would say that in Job’s case this was understandable.
In verses four through six Job is saying that God is not mortal and therefore is outside of time. I must say that time is one of the great mysteries to me, at least being outside of time is. On the first day of creation, at the end of that day is says, “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” This is Genesis 1:5b. My point is that God created time on that first day. These days of creation were six twenty-four days, and thus time began as we know it know. The mystery to me is that which is outside of time, and heaven is outside of time. When a believer dies his spirit is taken directly to heaven, for Paul writes that absent from the body is present with the Lord, and then that believer is outside of time. While reading from “Mere Christianity” that that was written by C. L. Lewis this issue of outside of time became a bit clearer to me, but while we are here on earth in these mortal bodies we will never fully understand all of the mysteries of being outside of time.
In Job’s case he was saying that because God was outside of time He did not need to investigate things for He knows the beginning from the end, He knew all about Job and his trials.
Job wants to know why God brought him out of the womb in the first place, for Job though that because he was going through such difficulties that it would have been better if he would have gone from the womb to the tomb.
Job did not understand that God was using him as a weapon to defeat Satan, for if he would have understood then it seems to me that he would not have been qualified to be that weapon. When Jesus was being anointed by Mary with the expensive perfume Judas and some of the others thought that it was a great waste, and were asking “why this waste.” Job felt the same about what he was going through at this time of his life. As believers we do not always understand what God is doing, and there are times when we see a young person die, or a baby die and we feel like Job and Jesus’ disciples did, that it was such a waste.
Dr. Wiersbe writes, “Nothing that is given to Christ in faith and love is ever wasted. The fragrance of Mary’s ointment faded from the scene centuries ago, but the significance of her worship has blessed Christians in every age and continues to do so. Job was bankrupt and sick, and all he could give to the Lord was his suffering by faith; but that is just what God wanted in order to silence the devil.”
“Job asked, ‘Why was I born?’ In the light of his losses and his personal suffering, it all seemed such a waste! But God knew what He was doing then, and He knows what He is doing now.”
Job’s story is one of the great stories that is found in a Book that has the best story in it, and that is the story of how God became a man to die for those who could never earn what was accomplished on the cross by themselves, and yet it is offered as a free gift, and those who will accept this free gift will belong to the greatest family ever, the family of God.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: For those who read in one of the first SD’s on Job that Dr. Wiersbe said that he realized that he was going to have to go through a trial in order to understand the book of Job, and did go through a trial, but did not mention what it was. He then said if one studies the book of Job the same may happen to them in order to understand what Job was going through. Well I can say that I had what I will call a Job moment yesterday morning. I will not go into the details but will say that my wife and I have had several difficulties that we have gone through since my retirement a number of years ago, and the weight of those trials came crashing down on me in a moment of time yesterday, and the experience was difficult, very difficult on me, and yet after thinking and praying about it I believe that I actually felt a little bit like Job felt and therefore understood a bit better his feelings as he went through this difficult time in his life.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to trust the Lord in times of trouble so that I may say with Paul “11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
2. Romans 12:1-2.
3. Proverbs 3:5-6.
4. Ephesians 6:10-18.
11/2/2011 9:38:42 AM
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