Bible In One Year-Day 257 (Saturday, September 14, 2013)

Commentary: Job40-42. Job’s interaction with God in the last chapters is well informing. God threw some questions at Job. The questions indirectly were telling Job the things only God could do, Job40:8-13. God used terrible creatures as examples of His great work among creatures; the Hippopotamus and the Leviathan. Hippopotamus, the fearless animal that is not threatened by anything; yet only God can tame it. The animal rejoices at the rage of the rivers.

MLB Job 40:23 “When the waters of the stream become turbulent, he is not troubled; though the Jordan should rush against his mouth, he remains confident.”

Leviathan is the water dragon; the principality of the waters and the one in control of water spirits. No one can stand it; the size is regarded as graceful and enormous.

MLB Job 41:12 “I will not be silent concerning his limbs, his mighty strength and his artistic (comely and graceful) proportions.”

As far as Leviathan is concerned, man-made weapon of war is nothing.

Job 41:27-29 “He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble. Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.”

He is a symbol of pride.

Expounding on God’s immeasurable wondrous work on earth brought fear into the life of Job. His reverence for God increased and he came to realize that he had made utterances short of understanding.

Job 42:2-3 “I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought (purpose) can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.”

When God teaches you, you need no one else to teach again. Apostle Paul, before his conversion, was taught by renown men like Gamaliel, yet without understanding. But on meeting with Christ, he was humbled because unusual light (understanding) came into his knowledge. He was taught by the revelation he received.

Galatians 1:11-12 “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

The only thing that is true in any circumstance is that which the Spirit reveals from where we get the real understanding (truth). Well articulated message and eloquent speeches just like that presented by Job’s friend are not true if they are not revealed or taught by the Spirit of God.

Job came to realize that his trial was in line with God’s purpose and agenda after God sat him down to teach him. He, therefore, repented everything he said out of ignorance.

Job 42:6 “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Unlike Job, the friends invoked the anger of the Lord because of their utterances. They made sentences with the wrong spirit.

Job 42:7 “And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.”

The book of Job revealed to us a life TRIED, TESTED AND TESTIFIED. It started by a discussion between God and Satan over a particular life. It proceeds to trials of the life with the use of spiritual and physical things and ended in divine revelation of the truth of what the life was subjected to. In the book of Job, we learnt faithfulness, steadfastness and trust on the side of Job. For the friends, our lesson is to desist from wrong judgment and counseling. A man can be divinely condemned if he counsel or lead an innocent person astray.

Ordinarily, we might think that his life was full of losses considering the death of his children and all he had. On the contrary, his life was full of gains. Whatever God allows, He is in it. The children were not wasted but harvested unto God. Their flesh was destroyed, but since God allowed the destruction, He is able to save their souls.

Psalms 24:1 A Psalm of David. “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”

God is the goal of all lives. Where God is not made the goal, damnation and eternal destruction is the goal. The trials of a genuine child of God are not to destroy him but to refine him for purpose which is for God to be glorified.

Job 42:12-15 “So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. …And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.”

What men termed as loss was actually gain to God.

Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

The summary of the lessons in Job’s life is as follows:

MLB James 1:2-4 “Consider it complete joy, my brothers, when you become involved in all sorts of trials, well aware that the testing of your faith brings out steadfastness. But let steadfastness have full play, so that you may be completed and rounded out with no defects whatever.”

Let us seek for the old path where we could find rest. Let us listen to the trumpet’s sound, wherewith we could escape the calamity to come. Our reading for today is Psalm1-5. Keep the fire of burning and alive.

Supo Abayode

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Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries

Delaware, USA