Mon.’s Devo - Jesus is Coming!

Read: Job 16:1-19:29,1 Co. 16:1-24, Ps. 40:1-10, Pr. 22:1 Job responds to his friends “encouragement” and tells them they are miserable comforters. If he was in their place he would try to lighten their load, but they have made his heavier. Job feels abandoned by God and his friends. Job has lost hope for his future and has become cynical about life and death. Somehow, after Job’s words Bildad decides to defend himself and the others. Bildad argues that the end of the good and the evil are not the same. The life and death of the evil will be torturous and bad. He will be remembered for the evil he did. The only problem with what he says about the evil is that all of it has happened to Job…and Job is not evil. So Job speaks his mind. He contends that it wasn’t his lifestyle that got him where he is but the hand of God. God has turned against him and he doesn’t know why. Everyone who once loved him now hates to be around him. He cries to his friends for pity, not judgment. Then Job slips in a prophecy about Jesus in verse 25: “For I know that my redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” The disciples in Corinth had seen Jesus come to earth and yet like us, they were looking forward to the day He would return. In the meantime, Paul instructs us to stay awake spiritually, stand fast in the faith, be strong and let all we do be with love. In verse 22, “Anathema” means “to excommunicate or ban” and “Maranatha” means “our Lord has come”. Paul is saying that if a person doesn’t love Jesus then he is condemned because the Lord came and they rejected him. Lord, may we be awake and looking for Your coming with great joy!