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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Job 42:5 and Matt 16:15 "I Hear You but Now I See You" (January 25)

What invites, intrigues, disrupts, disturbs, beckons, bemoans us all into His Presence?  Suffering.  It welcomed Job into the Secret Council

He leaves a Shining Wake
On Earth there is not His Like
Our GOD Who sees all we take
The LORD who sends the strike.

The KING over all sons of pride
The MIGHTY God on High
The COUNSELOR Who doesn't hide
The SOVEREIGN Still, oh my~

The PRINCE whose purpose sails
The HOLY ONE gracing every ill
The SPIRIT hovering will prevail
The ROCK of Job & John & all!

I utter things I do not know
too Wonderful for me,
I've heard you with my ears bent low
but now my eyes speak loudly ~

Job 42:5-6 "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you...therefore, I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes."

Matthew 16:15 "Who do you say that I am?"

You are the LIVING GOD of Job and John and me
Who doubled Job's animals & added ten voices
Beside graveyards marked by sorrow not glee
Yes, the GOD ALIVE who stoops low to all our choices.




3 comments:

  1. "And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning."

    I wondered at Job, before he had his life restored unto him, who confessed that he did not understand "things too wonderful for me" that God was doing on his behalf. He felt immediate repentance at his arrogance and despised himself. In the worst of it (our problem, our pain, our unmet prayer) can we rest and know that He is mightily at work for us? Did the sun come up this morning? Were the waters held back from flooding us in the rains? He has our back.

    Interestingly, Job's eldest daughter after the restoration he named "Jemimah" or dove. Job had peace again in his life not out of the abundance and restoration but out of his new-found understanding of Who God is.

    We must all answer the question for ourselves, "Who do you say that I am?"

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  2. I guess we could say that satan came after Job's soul. He wanted it so badly. He sought to cause Job to lose his integrity and curse God due to the extreme suffering that fell upon him by satan's hand.

    God watched the drama unfold.
    He listened to all the counsel.
    He knew Job's heart through it all.
    And God remained silent and distant until He gave Job a bigger vision of who He was, and is, and is to come. He is sovereign. He is majestic. He is mighty and all-powerful. And He has the whole world in His hands. Even when we suffer. Even when He is silent. Even when nothing makes sense in our human mind and heart.

    I wonder how many times Job felt forgotten by God. I have to confess that I've felt that way, so forgotten.

    But these verses reveal that nothing is outside of God's concern or care over us. He does not forget us. He sees. He knows all we feel. He will respond in His way and in His timing.

    He is God. Never doubt it.
    He sees and cares that we experience victory over trials, tribulations, calamities and attacks. I love the fact that God brought Job to satan's attention.

    And Christ further expresses the same Truth we always need to take to our heart:

    Matthew 16:26

    "26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?"

    I will never completely understand the depth of teaching that is in the book of Job.

    The names of the daughters speak to me of the Spirit's gentleness and warmth (Jemimah), the fragrance of Christ (Keziah), and the radiance of our eyes opened to see God in all His Glory (Keren-happuch). Their beauty? Is there anything more beautiful than the love God has for His own?

    Faith purified and refined by fire is nothing more than a reflection of Christ in our lives. He lives IN us. He is our beauty. He is our righteousness. He is our reward.

    So much evil is in the book of Job. Evil that cost Job dearly.

    But so much glory is there, too. I think that's what overwhelmed me these past few days in our readings. The glory of God. I could hardly stand the way it enveloped me as I read each reading in the Old and New Testament.

    Job saw God and he was Splendor. And Job's eyes never were the same again.

    Don't lose your soul. It is the greatest treasure God has given man. We must value it above all things...

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