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Job 27:13, 19-20  “Here is the fate God allots to the wicked, the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty: … … He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.  Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest snatches him away in the night.”

Job 27 is a helpful part of Scripture to read when our circumstances in his life cause us to be confused about, and therefore to question, God’s sovereign Providence!

Job has been subject to a constant, judgemental attack from his ‘friends’ who were too readily attributing his intense suffering to the extreme wickedness of his heart.  But this poor, patient man remained confident in his own persistent integrity (verses 2-6) and was unwilling to accept their criticism even though he could neither understand nor explain what was happening to him under God’s just and loving hand!  What he does know is that there is a bigger picture and plan in God’s providence that we might not really be permitted to fully see in this life, but which requires us to trust God and all his faithful promises even when we cannot see.  In 13:15 he had said, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in (KJV: ‘trust’) him”, and in this he is identifying with the Author of Hebrews 11:1- “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Jesus gives us a glimpse of this bigger picture: ““Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30), and cautions us about being too anxious about the decaying things of this world: “But seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”: (Matthew 6:33)

Job glimpses the dark reality of the man who does not acknowledge God’s sovereign rule in his life: “He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.  Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest snatches him away in the night.”  Unlike this ‘wicked, ruthless’ man, Job knew “that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth” (19:25), and would be happy to sing with Horatio Spafford: “When peace like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say: ‘It is well, it is well, with my soul.’  Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blest assurance control, that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed his own blood for my soul.  My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!  My sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!  For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live: if Jordan above me shall roll, no pang shall be mine, for in death as in life, thou wilt whisper thy peace to my soul.  But Lord, ’tis for thee, for thy coming we wait, the sky, not the grave, is our goal;  Oh, trump of the angel!  Oh, voice of the Lord!  Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.”  Yes, faithful Job knew, in spite of the adverse evidence of his pilgrimage in the ‘smaller picture’, in God’s bigger picture, “It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

– Bruce Christian