Tues.’s Devo. - Eliphaz Speaks FIrst

Read Job 4:1-21 Today we will hear from Eliphaz. He starts with asking Job if it would be ok if he said something. They have sat there in silence for seven days and he has stored up a wealth of knowledge he is dying to spill. He admonishes Job’s accomplishments: he has taught many and given many hope but now he is the one in need of help. He explains that the people who sow righteousness, reap righteousness and those who sow iniquity, will reap iniquity. Then he goes into the telling of a dream he had during their mourning. In his dream he was filled with fear which caused him to physically shake. A spirit passed in front of him which was very scary. He couldn’t make out what it was but he heard God’s voice say, “Is man more just or pure than God?” Even God didn’t trust his own servants and some of his angels rebelled and were kicked out of heaven.” (2 Pet. 2:4) So how much less trust is God going to put in man who is a house of clay, who came from dust, and will die like a moth. Men are born and die everyday without knowing the wisdom of God. Eliphaz is trying to insinuate that Job must have some hidden sin that has caused this to happen to him. His response is a popular and common response we have when things don’t go right. We tend to immediately think we have done something to deserve it. Sometimes we have. Prov. 26:2 says that a curse won’t stick to a person without a cause, but that doesn’t mean that every time something doesn’t go our way, it’s because of what we have done. That is why we have the Holy Spirit: to lead us into all truth. Lord, when it seems we are under a curse; show us the truth and what to do about it.

Mon.’s Devo - Job’s Greatest Fear

Read Job 3:1-26 After 7 days of silence, Job breaks it with cursing the day he was born. How do you try to change something that has already happened? He wishes that he had been born dead. Then he would be at rest now. He speaks of kings and counsellors who built coffins to lay their bodies in, and princes who filled their tombs with gold and silver. He would like to be with them where there is rest from troubles. In the place of the dead there are the rich, the wicked, the prisoners, the great and the small - the servant and the master. Job wonders why life was given to the miserable, and bitter which wish they were dead. Why was life given to him, whose ways are hid and whom God has hedged in? Job feels locked in life and no way to escape. Then Job says something very important in verst 25. “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” If Job is guilty of one thing it is this. Fear. He feared his children would sin, so he went to their house every time they got together and cleansed them and gave sacrifices on their behalf. All his “deeds” could not save them. He thought that his righteousness would get his children favor with God. This was Job’s one fault: he couldn’t trust God with his family. This was Job’s greatest fear and it came. But, Job is going to find out that God is bigger than his fear. Sometimes God will allow your biggest fear to happen just to show you that you can endure it and God can help you. Our greatest fear should be God. We should fear him enough to trust him for everything. He is a loving God worthy of our lives. Lord, we trust you with our biggest fears. May we fear you above all.

Fri.’s Devo - Job’s Friends Arrive

Read Job 2:11-13 The rest of Job has to do with the conversations he has with his three friends, and eventually a forth, that come to comfort him and give their opinion about what has happened to Job, God, and the universe. The first friend was Eliphaz the Temanite. Eliphaz means God of fine gold: my God has refined. That tells us that he had much wisdom that had to be refined since the Bible compares gold to wisdom. Job’s dilemma was part of his refining. Temanite means southern so he came from the south which usually has to do with the underground where hell is. (I’m sure he had a twang!) Bildad, the second friend means confusing (by mingling) love. He is from Bildad which means a pit or a jackal which also has to do with hell. The third friend was Zophar the Naamathite. Zophar means departing early: a climber. He is from Naamathite which means pleasant. (Now that’s a pleasant change.) These three friends were of equal social status as Job: wealthy, leaders, and considered wise. They traveled to come and sit and mourn with Job for 7 days!!! When they saw him a distance away they wailed and cried, rent their garments and sprinkled dust on their heads because of the horrible state Job was in. The whole time they sat with Job, they never said a word. They just consoled him with their presence. I have to say that I am impressed. Who in our days would leave their busy lives and take a weeks vacation to just come and sit in the dust with a friend. That is true intercession. Lord, that we would learn to be friends that know how to comfort those who mourn like Job’s friend did.

Thurs.’s Devo - Satan’s Next Blow

Read Job 2:1-10 It is meeting day again in heaven and all the hosts: good and evil, were there. The first verse reminds me of how subject Satan is to God. He comes to present himself before the Lord. Once again God asks Satan what he has been doing and Satan answers once again “going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” I think the “to and fro” is walking parallel like we walk, but the “up and down” is moving through spiritual roads that run perpendicular. The scientists call these worm holes. I call them spiritual highways. And, once again God brings Job to Satan’s attention. He praises Job’s integrity to honor God even though everything he had has been destroyed without a cause. Satan challenges God to destroy his own body and then see how faithful Job is to God. God had a lot of faith in Job and told Satan to do whatever he wanted to do just not to kill him. Satan left and went to Job and put boils all over his body. These boils burned and itched so Job had to take pieces of broken pots to scratch with to try to relieve the irritation. Even his wife was used against him. She tried to turn Job’s heart from God and encouraged Job to blame God. She told him to curse God and die. (Crazy woman.) Job called her foolish. Then Job asked a very profound question. “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” It is true that we only want good and not evil. Job resigned himself to take whatever God brought his way. There was no entitlement in Job; he just stayed faithful to God. Lord, may we be faithful to you as Job was and not question what you do in our lives; maybe we are being used as a weapon of warfare against the enemy like Job was.

Wed.’s Devo - Job’s Response

Read Job 1:12-22 God gave Satan the power to attack everything Job owned but he could not touch Job himself. Satan is merciless. He can do nothing the Lord doesn’t allow him to do but if you give him an inch, he will take a mile. The next day Job got the message from one of his servants that while his kids were feasting, the Sabeans attacked and killed the servants and took all the oxen and donkeys and he was the only one who escaped. Before he could finish his story, another servant arrived with news that fire fell from heaven and burned up his sheep and servants and he is the lone survivor. Before he could finish, another servant arrived with news that the Chaldeans had stolen all his camels and killed all the servants except him. Then a fourth servant came in with news that a great wind from the wilderness came and destroyed the house where his children were feasting, killing all of them with their servants and he was the only one that survived. Jobs response: he got up, rent his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down on the ground and worshipped God. He acknowledged before God that he had nothing when he came into this world and everything he had obtained had come from God. Now God had taken everything away and he would still bless his name. What a response! After losing everything, Job did not sin or blame God foolishly. Job lost his livelihood and his family and was left with four servants he could no longer pay and a wife. The Chaldeans mean “clod-breakers” so Job was attacked by earth, wind and fire…. and the Sabeans which means “busybodies”. I guess they stood for the demons sent from hell. And in all this he did not blame God foolishly. No doubt he was devastated by the fact that he rent his mantle and shaved his head. It is mind-boggling to me how God allowed this and how Job passed the test. God knew he would. Lord, help me to remember Job’s response when things don’t go my way and I feel attacked. Remind me that we are in a battle against good and evil, God and Satan and You will always win.

Tues.’s Devo - Job’s Abundant Beginning

Read Job 1:1-11 I know that Job is a book many skip because they think it is too hard to understand and they don’t see the significance of it, but that is not true. Job is the oldest manuscript in the Bible. The author is unknown and it deals with the problem of affliction which our world can surely relate to. It gives us fundamental doctrines that we need to know and secrets into many mysteries of God, so I felt it would be a good place to study next. I’ll have to admit I am a little, no a lot, intimidated to blog about it myself , so let’s just rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us to truth. Job is from the land of Uz which means “counsel” which is why Job was so deep. He was like the philosophers or physiologists of today. Job’s name means “cry of woe”, so this book is his cry of woe. He was a very rich man who feared God, lived righteously, and hated sin. The Bible says he was perfect! The only other person the Bible says is perfect is Jesus. He had 7 sons; 3 daughters; 7,000 sheep; 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen; 500 she asses, and many servants. (I wrote these all out so we could see the numbers: 3- the trinity; 7 - complete; 5- grace.) He was so rich he was considered the wealthiest and most powerful man in the east. His sons had lots of parties where there was eating and drinking. When they would finish their season of partying, Job would come to their house and sanctify them and offer sacrifices in their behalf just in case they sinned and cursed God while they were drinking. It said Job had to do this continually which tells me they did a lot of partying. Verse 6 makes it sound like there is a day in heaven when the hosts of heaven have to come before God. Satan and his demons were part of this meeting. God addressed Satan and asked him where he had be hanging out. He told him he had been walking up and down the earth; to and fro. So God asked him if he had run across his servant, Job, who was perfect, unlike all other men because he hated evil and feared God. Satan had considered Job and knew all about him. He accused God of making his life so abundant that it was easy for him to trust. He challenged God to take away all his blessings and see the real Job. Lord, we want you to say of us what you said of Job that we were perfect, hating evil and loving you.

Mon.’s Devo - Jesus Last Words

Read Luke 24:33-53 The two men who walked with Jesus to Emmaus and saw him disappear before their very eyes, got right back on that same road and probably ran back to Jerusalem. They found the disciples and told them what had happened to them. When they got to the part where Jesus broke the bread and disappeared, Jesus appeared in the room. He asked them why they were troubled and why they had thoughts arising in their hearts. (I thought that thoughts came from our heads, but these came from their fearful hearts.) He told them to look at his hands and feet and to touch him to make sure he was not a ghost. While they were trying to process what they were looking at, Jesus asked for something to eat. A spirit would not eat people food. He ate the fish and honey so they could watch. Jesus told them that what they were experiencing was what he and the prophets had prophecied about. Jesus explained that it was necessary that he suffer, die, and be raised up the 3rd day. He also opened up scripture to them like Hosea 6 which says: “1 Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” Jesus came to heal and bind up their wombs but he sent them on to Jerusalem to wait for the power God was going to send like the latter rain. The Holy Spirit would help them to live in the light. Jesus led them to Bethany then blessed them and was carried up to heaven. The disciples worshipped the Lord, and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy and went to the temple praising and blessing God. I can only imagine what it was like to see Jesus risen from the grave and have him explain scripture. We now have the Holy Spirit who never leaves us who can do that if we allow him to. Holy Spirit, open our eyes to your Word. Let your latter rain fall on us.