Thurs.’s Devo - Job Fights Back

Read Job 16 and 17 Job cracks me up! He tells his friends that they are miserable comforters. He wants to know when they are going to give up. If the tables were turned and he was the counselor, he would try to actually comfort them and ease their pain instead of adding to it. Job accuses them of giving him wrinkles and causing him to loose too much weight. Then in verse 9 he begins to lash out at the Devil. He feels like he is the object of Satan’s anger. He thinks he has been marked by him and all the host of hell are against him which is the truth. Job has been humbled to grieve and sit defiled in the dust. Job holds to his confession that God is his Lord and he is faithful to him even though his friends disagree. In verse 21 he is crying out for a saviour - someone to be the mediator between God and man. But, since there seems no hope for Job’s life he prays for death to rescue him. Job mourns what he has become. Where he was once a blessing, now he has become an object of scorn. He is quickly dwindling away. What has happened to him will be a marvel to men who walk uprightly and will cause them to walk more uprightly and fear God even more. But, as for his 3 friends, they are all unwise. Job sees no hope left for him. His light has been turned to darkness and his days cut short. He will rest in Sheol - the place in hell where all men went until Jesus died. It is hard to relate to Job’s plight since we don’t know if we have ever been used as an example to the host of heaven of our righteousness, but I bet we have more than we know. There are many trials that we don’t understand why they came. Maybe we are the example to the spirit world and maybe we are an example to the seen world. Either way, all we go through reveals our true beliefs. Lord, may we be an example of faithfulness.