Today's Quick Word
Today’s Quick Word
Job 10:8-9 “Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you moulded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?” One of the […]
Job 10:8-9 “Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you moulded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?”
One of the most helpful things about the book of Job is that this poor man’s experience is something to which we can all relate at various times throughout our lives (although, thankfully, to a far lesser extent for most of us!). There can be times when coping with day-to-day existence becomes a challenge, and we start to wonder where God is when we need him most. By voicing these words, Job gives US permission to cry out desperately to God and to question his perplexing providence in tough times – because at the end of the book God commends him as one who has ‘spoken of me what is right’ (42:7).
Many of the psalms also give us this permission. I relate well to the lyrics: “I will trust my Saviour, Jesus, when my darkest doubts befall; trust him when to simply trust him seems the hardest thing of all” (CityAlight Music). Jesus himself used the opening words of Psalm 22, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’, to express his feeling of utter desolation on the cross. Moreover, Psalm 103:13-14 reassures us that God fully understands our plight: ‘As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.’
The key to Job’s (and Jesus’) approved outcry is the acknowledgement of God’s absolute sovereignty in all things. We are his handiwork. He has the authority and power to order and control all our ways. Once we have truly owned this truth for ourselves, as Job did, it is okay to remind our Maker and Lord of his love and promises, written firmly in a covenant that has been sealed with the blood of Jesus. Job has shown us how to remain steadfast in our trust, even while we are desperately choking on life’s bitter pills. Thank you Job, and thank you Job’s God, for the help, and comfort, we gain from being able to read these things in Scripture!
– Bruce Christian
