Mon.’s Devo - Job’s End

Read Job 42 After God finished speaking, Job was undone with repentance. Only God can change a heart and convict. Job’s friends tried to get Job to repent but Job didn’t see his need. When he had an encounter with God he saw his need. God reached inside to his heart. This is a good word to us who think it is our duty to get people saved. That is not our duty, it is God’s. Our job is to be led by the spirit and say the things he tells us to say and pray. We can’t convict a person or convince a person they need God. We can present him to them and let God do the changing. God then went to visit Eliphaz and rebuked him for trying to be Him to Job. He stood up for Job even though Job wasn’t right either. He was now. He told them to take 7 bulls and 7 rams to Job and offer a sacrifice and ask Job to pray for them. How humbling was that??? But when God speaks, you obey and they did. Interesting: he didn’t include the last younger one, Elihu. I guess he was letting him off the hook since he was immature and young. Verse 10 is the crowning verse for Job: “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord give Job twice as much as he had before.” Then God put it on all his friends hearts to come over and spend time with him and give him money and gold. I wonder if they heard that GOD ALMIGHTY had spoken to him. That would be something to come over and hear about. God doubled his livestock and replaced the same number of children. After this, Job lived 140 years and saw 4 generations. He died living out all his days. Lord, it is always good to hear a happy ending. You are the author of happy endings and you have one planned for all of us.

Fri.'s Devo - God's Monsters

≈ Read Job 40:15-41 God describes behemoth who was believed to be a monster with great strength which a mere human could not hope to control. But it is reduced to the status of a divine pet, with rings in its nose. According to the Book of Enoch, Behemoth is the unconquerable monster of the land, as Leviathan is the monster of the waters of the sea, and Ziz the monster of the sky. Leviathan lives in the Abyss, while Behemoth lives in the invisible desert east of the Garden of Eden. According to Jewish rabbinic legend a great battle will take place between them at the end of time. They will fight one another in combat until God kills them with his mighty sword. From the beautiful skin of Leviathan, God will construct canopies to shelter the righteous, who will eat the meat of the Behemoth and Leviathan at a great joyous feast. Although I can’t prove any of this with scripture it is interesting to think about. We know there will be a great battle at the end and the Devil, the False Prophet and the Beast will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. When God talks about what he can do to Leviathan it gives me comfort to know that the Devil really is totally subject to God. God goes to great length to describe Leviathan as something that man could never stand up against yet he is nothing to the Lord. God made him totally protected and hard-hearted. He is fearfully made and seemingly unkillable. Yet God will bring him down in His time. The last verse of 41 describes him the best: “He beholds all high things; he is a king over all the children of pride.” Lord, help us to fear your power and trust the shelter of your wings.

Thurs.’s Devo - All Powerful God

Read Job 39:19 - 40:16 God describes the majesty of the horse that he made. God made him a weapon of war who is fearless and glorious. He loves the smell of battle. Then he moves to the hawk and the eagle that are fascinating in their strengths. God gave them both wisdom to fly and dwell on the rock with eyes that can see long distances. Both of them being a picture of a prophet that abides on the rock of Jesus and can see far into the past and into the future. Then God condensed his questions to Job in one sentence: “Shall he that contends with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproves God, let him answer it.” In other words: is there anything Job needs to teach God since God is the creator of all wisdom and all the earth? If so then God is ready to listen. Needless to say Job was humbled and realizes his sinful state. He has nothing to say and is ashamed of what he has said in the past. He has decided to be quiet. So God speaks again from the whirlwind. He is now addressing Job personally. He rebukes Job for questioning his judgment. He asks him if he has power or majesty or excellency or glory like God does. Can he bring down the proud or destroy the wicked from the face of the earth? If he can then he can save himself. God also shows Job that if he cannot bring under control the lowly creatures like behemoth on land and leviathan in the water, he is probably not capable of ruling the world. Sometimes it is frustrating to know that we really don’t have power to do anything on our own and when we try it ends in disaster. The sooner we realize our total dependence on God the easier life becomes. Then we are free to allow God to do it through us. Lord, help us to give up our ways and allow you to orchestrate our lives. You are the great conductor and the only one that can make music from chaos.

Wed.’s Devo - God Questions.

Read Job 38:24- 39:18 God continues to ask them questions about his creation. He describes how he waters and cares for land that man doesn’t even use or see. God brings attention to the rain, the dew, the frost and the deeps of the sea. Then he moves to the sky and its mysteries. He speaks of “sweet Pleiades” which is a cluster of 7 stars that appear in the spring. And of the bands of Orion which is a constellation that pictures a giant chained to the sky. God asks the men if they can bring the zodiac into sight at the right time of the year, or if they can guide Arcturus with his sons which is Ursa Major and perhaps the three stars in his tail. He asks them if they know the meaning of these constellations. Can they call down rain or lighting? Who is the author of wisdom or understanding? Who knows the number of clouds or can control what happens in the heavens? Who feeds the lions and the ravens or knows when the wild goats bring forth their young? Their babies grow up and leave to never return. The wild asses live out in the barren wilderness and who takes care of them? Can man tame a unicorn to be a work animal? Who gave the peacock its beautiful feathers or the ugly ones to the ostrich? The ostrich lays eggs and doesn’t even sit on them or tend to them. She doesn’t love her babies or care for them because God made her that way. Reading this makes me think of people and how we use the excuse “we were just made that way” to act the way we want to. I know some of that is true but the difference between man and the other creatures is that we were chosen to have free will and wisdom. We can be redeemed and transformed into God’s image if we choose. Lord, help us not to judge others but to pray God’s redemptive grace to change us all.

Tues.’s Devo - God Speaks!

Read Job 38:1-23 This is when I want to stand up and clap, clap, clap!!! Finally, God speaks. We have had enough of man’s opinions to last a life time. God speaks out of the whirlwind because he is angry. He wants to know who has given knowledge a bad name. They better brace themselves because God is going to have his say. He wants to know who was with him when he laid the foundation stone or the axis in which the earth would spin and decided how large it would be. When he did the stars sang and all heaven shouted for joy. When God poured down the water for the seas, who stopped them and put the shores. Who put the clouds in the sky and prepared a storehouse to hold the rain. (This was released during the flood.) God wrote the laws of day and night and as clay conforms to the seal, so the earth has conformed to God’s seal with all its land forms. One day God will fold up this earth as a garment and shake the evil out of it just as Jesus’ garment was found folded in the tomb. God asks these men if they had seen the floor of the ocean or been under the earth to see the place of the dead. All of this is open to God’s eyes. Does anyone understand light and darkness? How about snow, and how every snowflake is different? Where is snow and hail stored up? God says that he stores up hail and snow to use in times of trouble, battle and war. I wonder if God isn’t referring to heavenly wars. Snow in the scriptures is a picture of holiness and redemption….“though our sins be as crimson, they will be white as snow.” I also know that adversity is used as a refining tool. Lord, we take so much of what you have created for granted. Help us to reflect on your creation and learn your mysteries you have hidden in it.

Mon.’s Devo - Elihu’s Last Words

Read Job 36:15-37 Elihu continues and we pick up with his speech about God’s ways. He explains that God listens and helps the poor. God would have delivered Job if he had been in their situation, but instead, Job fell in with the punishment of the wicked. He warns Job of the wrath of God. Elihu thinks that Job has remained in his state of pain and suffering because he has refused to humble himself and accept God’s punishment. Who can contend with God who is the Teacher, the Great I Am, all-powerful, and omnipotent? He explains the wisdom of how rain is formed. Who could have come up with that except God? Then he muses about lightning and thunder. God orchestrates heaven. Thunder is God speaking things we can’t comprehend. (That reminds me of when God thundered on Mt. Sinai and some people heard it as his voice speaking the Ten Commandments and other heard it as thunder.) God controls the animals, the wind, and the seasons. He uses nature to deal with man. He brings different weather to either discipline man or his land, or show his mercy. Elihu asks Job is he knows when God created the earth, or does he understand why God places each cloud where he does. Was Job with God when he created the sky? Does Job alone know how to talk to God? God is so much higher than men in his wisdom and everything he does. Men fear God, and those who don’t God doesn’t respect. Lord, you do have everything orchestrated under your control. That is the comfort we find when we look at how evil the world has become. Keep us as your light shining in the dark.

Fri.’s Devo - Blah, Blah, Blah

Read Job 35-36:14 Elihu just couldn’t get enough of himself so he continues. He accuses Job of thinking he is more righteous than God. Obviously Elihu is not a good listener. He challenges Job’s question of what good is it to be cleansed from sin. (I don’t think Job put it that way, but this was Elihu’s interpretation.) He asks: how does our sin or our righteousness affect God? It certainly affects our fellow man. The wicked man lives by his own strength and doesn’t cry out to God. His pride keeps him from the mercy of God. God may be invisible, but he is surely present and he will have the last word. Elihu, in Chapter 36 has the audacity to tell Job that he is speaking to him on God’s behalf. And since they are God’s words, they are true. He tells him that God doesn’t restore the life of the wicked, only the poor. He takes care of the righteous and establishes them and exalts them. If they are bound in affliction, God shows them why and helps them to be set free. He disciplines his children and if they obey and serve him, then they will reap prosperity and joy. If they choose to disobey, then they die a violent death. Those who are hypocrites fall under the wrath of God and die young under God’s curse. Elihu has reduced God to a formula and disregards the fact that God is God and he can turn a piece of pottery into a vessel for honor or a vessel of dishonor. (Ro. 9:21; 2 Tim. 2:20) God is the one in control, not us. We can’t even be saved unless we are chosen and drawn by God. (John 6:44) Joseph’s life was an example of God’s plan emerging from great oppression and persecution. We can’t look at circumstances and judge. Only God can be the judge and he judges rightly. Lord, help us not be tempted to judge others circumstances or our own but to pray that God’s perfect plan will emerge.