WISDOM FROM JOB – STORMS AND OUR RESPONSE

Life was and always is, for the fallen man, about control. When we rebelled against God, we chose to be gods of our world, and the masters of our own lives. However, our limitedness, and our helplessness, is revealed, when problems and storms hit us. This is when our true character is revealed. Our character, and its true colours, always are revealed, when we are facing crisis.

Look at the world today, it is a reflection of man trying to gain control over life, intentionally excluding God our Creator. Man has utterly failed himself, and every enterprise of man, and every institution he has ever established, to alleviate himself and the society, has ended up in disaster, and the decline is fast gaining momentum, towards total destruction, and complete annihilation .

The crisis not only reveals our character, but also reveals our futility and fragility. Timothy Keller, writing in his book, “Walking with God through Pain and Suffering” says, “When pain and suffering come upon us, we finally see not only that we are not in control of our lives but that we never were.”

Now to Job – when crisis hit him, like no other in the history, this is how he responded, and it is a reflection of who he actually is – his true self – “20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, 21 And said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” 22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” – Job 1:20-22

There is nothing wrong in human efforts to help ourselves. Such an effort is good and needed. However, when God is excluded, and we place ourselves in God’s place, it changes the equation, and we become gods of our lives. This leads to, as is seen in the world today, to total and utter destruction. May the LORD help us.