Job, So Far…

WED., AUG. 3, 1994, 8:37 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM HALL

Your Wednesday morning breakfast/study group has now completed one “session” on the Book, the Story of Job. Several commentaries were quoted. Now you have a chance to hear what I, the Holy Spirit, have to say about this tale and about the truths that it suggests. What a good way to “wrap up” such a morning experience!

The first emphasis should be on My Power, as Almighty God. I have the power to bless and to withhold blessing. I have power over all forces, directly or indirectly. In this story I allow satan (good, you remembered) to wreak havoc upon Job’s property and family… and, finally, upon his body. This is great power, and I allow it to be used, also having the power to prevent the effects. This is the power to inflict harm. I also can use this power to bring good. I simply have “The Power.”

The story also suggests, as you noted, that individual human life is not important in the exercise of this Power, for My purposes. The purpose here was to test Job’s faith in and commitment to Me. Some persons had to die in the course of this testing, and that didn’t seem to bother Me. ( 8:52 / 9:04 ) You should understand this, of course, for whatever happens in any earth life is only a small portion of a whole faith journey. Outside of time the events of what seems to be a short and aborted life may be as significant as those from a longer one. Even some conditions of dying are most “instructive” than others. If there were nothing… no consciousness… no life after dying then it certainly would seem right to mourn the death of any individuals. Remember… there are short stories and long noels, short films and long miniseries… The length does not determine the quality of the experience. ( 9:12 / 9:16 ) Job’s cries of pain and suffering were almost matched, in real life, by your (and My) friend Jack’s comments on the pain in his back. In the world today, this very day, there are people in pain from back problems, cancer, kidney stones, and other malfunctions of the human body. As bullets and shell fragments penetrate the body, as is happening in several places on this globe today pain is experienced. As people are without food and water there is suffering. Many will cry out, verbally or not, to Me or just “to whomever”… “Why me?” Why does life continue if it must be in pain? Why was I even born, if I must suffer in this way?

And yet that is one of the tests of life, in minor to severe form. Can you find some meaning and purpose in life when you are suffering, and apparently needlessly? A time of suffering should be appreciated, as an experience, particularly if it is rare. And then I can also assert that this is a time to dwell on the non-suffering past and on the hopefully non-suffering future. The human capacity to remember better times and to envision such again are gifts to use, liberally when in pain. In the film you saw, the lieutenant who lost his legs in combat at first railed against the saving of his life, for it was his destiny to die in combat. Then he was bitter and feeling sorry for himself. But in the end he accepted his fate, put on his protheses, and was ready to marry and carry on into a positive life.