Blessed Be Your Name: Accepting Both Good and Bad in Life (Job 2:3-10)

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“You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, ‘Lord, blessed be Your name.’” 

– Matt Redman \(‘ᴑ’)/

Dear receiver-returner,

What we have is not really ours. That’s why when things are taken away from us, let’s not think we’re being robbed. Let us have the same attitude as God’s servant Job.

Job 2:3-10 (NKJV)

3 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.”

4 So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”

6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.”

7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.

9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!”

10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

conversation between God and Satan (portrayed in Animal Crossing: New Horizons)

You may be wondering why we’re tackling the Book of Job when my last epistle was from Genesis. I’m reading the Bible, following the chronological order provided by the Joni and Friends website. <https://www.joniandfriends.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/jaf-chronological-bible-reading-plan.pdf>

Amazing Bible Timeline suggests 3 periods wherein Job might have lived: after the flood and long before Moses, after Joseph but before Moses, or during Moses' lifetime (Hunter, 2013). I’m agreeing with the first one because if Job had lived after Joseph or during Moses, he should have been mentioned in the narrative of their time and because from the podcast I’m listening to, Pastor Sandy Adams said that the Jobab of Genesis 10 & 36 could be Job (Adams, Job Intro).

In verse 10 of the passage, Job said, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” This is something we should ask ourselves when we think life is unfair. If we go back to verse 3, we see God said that the destruction upon Job was without cause. There are many Bible verses that say those who exalt themselves will be brought low (Proverbs 29:23, Matthew 23:12, Luke 14:11, James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5) and pride goes before destruction (Proverbs 16:18, 18:12). Disobedience to God means the person thinks of himself as the god of his life. That makes him proud. Job was an upright, God-fearing man, so he doesn’t deserve what befell him.

All blame is on Satan, the original proud creature. Everything bad is caused by him. He’s the reason life is hard. However, he isn’t God, so he does not have the final say. He may think he’s making his mark by maneuvering mayhem, but God allows adversity for His own amazing anthem. O what melodious music, what satisfying soundtrack of a score notating how God’s power is placed before every eye seeking his succor.

You see, God is in control. He lets horrible things happen, for people to hunger for His help and be toughened through trials. Job 1:21 declares, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.” All things are God's, and so we're just borrowers in this library of a world. Things are just lent to us, so when God takes them back, who are we to complain that He's unfair? Everything He does is for our own good.

Someone asked C.S. Lewis why the righteous suffer and he replied, “Why not? They’re the only ones who can take it” (Wallace, 2019). Pastor Sandy said that the advantage of Christians is not that they're immune from suffering, but that God has promised to go with them through suffering and to reveal Himself through it (Adams, Job 2).

I hope everyone sees life this way: Through God, we have the strong stomach to ride through life’s rollercoaster of ups and downs. Being a Christian makes one strong enough through suffering, for Christ is his strength. Let God control the ride of your life. Accept everything, whether satisfaction or strife.

With love,

Celina <3


References

Adams, S. (n.d.). Job 2. Job | Making Sense of Suffering. Westminster, California, United States of America: Through the Word.

Adams, S. (n.d.). Job Intro. Job | Making Sense of Suffering. Westminster, California, United States of America: Through the Word.

Hunter, M. (2013, April 29). Is Job included on the Bible Timeline? Retrieved from Amazing Bible Timeline: https://amazingbibletimeline.com/blog/job-bible-timeline/

Wallace, E. A. (2019). Extraordinary Hope: 30 Days to Being Strengthened and Inspired. New York: Morgan James Publishing.


Next: Hold My Heart: Letting It All Out to God (Job 7:12-20)

Previous: Depths: Waiting on God (Genesis 8:10-19)

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I like writing. I like rhyming. I hope you'll like the light God's shining.

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