Text: Job 2:9-13
Key Verse: "He replied, You are
talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?
In all this, Job did not sin in what he said" (Job 2:10)
Job's rebuke is a very gentle
one. He did not say, You foolish woman! He said, You are talking like a foolish
woman. He is not attacking her; rather, he is suggesting that this is a
temporary lapse of faith on her part and that, for the moment, she has begun to
repeat the words of stupid, foolish women who have no knowledge of the grace
and glory of God. In that gentle rebuke you can see something of the sturdiness
and tenderness of Job's faith.
In this great sentence, he again
reasserts the sovereignty of God: Shall we accept good from God, and not
trouble? Job's wife had the philosophy that life ought to be pleasant, and if
it were not, there was no use living it.
That philosophy is widespread in
our own day, and a mounting suicide rate testifies to the universal acceptance
of it. But this book is given to show us that life is not to be lived on those
terms. The reason we are here is not necessarily to have a good time. There are
meaningful objectives to be attained in life, even when it all turns sour.
When the pressure comes, when
living is no longer fun, life is still worth living. A philosophy that wants to
abandon everything as soon as things become unpleasant is a shallow, mistaken,
distorted view of life. Job reaffirms that. Shall we not take both good and
evil from the hand of God?
We take His joy and His pleasure,
the pleasant things of life, with gladness and gratitude. If God chooses to
send something that is difficult, shall we then abandon that gratitude and
begin to curse Him in protest because life is suddenly different than we
thought it would be?
The reason we are here is not
merely that we might have a good time, and this is taught everywhere in the
Scriptures. God, in His grace and glory, does give us many hours of joy and
gladness and pleasure and delight, and it is right for us to give thanks. But
do not abandon that when the time of pressure comes, because that is what Satan
wants us to do.
He wants us to begin to complain
and protest to God; to get upset and angry and resentful; to stop going to
church or to reading the Bible. That is what Satan's whole attack on our lives
is aimed at doing.
*** Culled from Ray Stedman Ministry Devotional | www.raystedman.org ***
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