Have You Considered...
MY Servant Job?
Considering Job today, FATHER. Reading in Hebrews 12 how You chasten Your sons has provoked me to once again spend time with Your servant Job...his story still shocks and appalls and terrifies me, in complete honesty. Not only were You the initiator of the conversation w satan, but I associate Your chastening & scourging as a response to us - but with Job, it appears that You are, in fact, the initiator. Bad behavior/sin/rebellion on his part is not what compels - forces? - You to act as a “Disciplinarian” - in fact, You told satan that “there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing GOD and turning away from evil’‘ (JOB 1:8). So many thoughts swirl in my brain and make my heart tremble in the keen awareness that Your ways are NOT my ways, O LORD! How much higher are Your thoughts than my own, my KING? The awareness of how little I know Your heart shocks me yet again, O GOD - and the staggering distance of the ways of my heart & mind and the goodness of Yours. Further deepening this chasm is verse 3 in the second chapter of Job. Once again ABBA, You are initiating a conversation w satan regarding his focusing on Job - drawing the attention of the enemy towards one who You love, rather than away from him. If this were not enough, You add the shocking revelation (to me, anyway!) that “he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause (JOB 2:3c). You Yourself are stating that satan incited You to act...satan. The Hebrew word for “incite” being SUTH: to incite, allure, instigate, entice, persuade, provoke, stir up, seduce, move, set on.
I Am So Very Small
It seems like You actually set the enemy upon one of Your servants, my GOD?! How can this be, O LORD, when You are our Defender, our refuge, strong tower, the One who covers us in the shelter of His mighty wings? Where do I put this, O GOD? How do I process this - where does it possibly go with the paradigms that I currently hold dear - worse, true - with regard to Your character and Your ways, my JESUS? I know that You are good, that You are faithful, kind, loving and merciful. I know these things and I believe them. I see through a glass darkly and am so very small when compared to YOU. I know that You do not suspend one attribute in order to move in another one - that You are ALWAYS good, ALWAYS faithful, ALWAYS kind, ALWAYS loving, ALWAYS merciful...and at the same time, satan himself can persuade You to “ruin him without cause” (JOB 2:3)...?
All For Love
If all of the above are true, then it must mean that even Your bringing Job to satan to “consider” ultimately was out of love, for Job’s ultimate good, holiness and discipline unto being made in Your likeness, holiness and righteousness. There is absolutely no other explanation if all remain, and in fact are true. For You to ruin him without cause - BALA: to swallow down, swallow up, engulf, destroy, devour, eat up, be at end, cover - means that even though there was “no cause” and this event comes upon Your provocation, seemingly egged on by satan, You in fact - as Initiator - orchestrated the ruining and destruction of Job in its entirety - from start to finish AND the depths of its severity. You were, in fact, the Author of it all…
For some reason this reminds me of the passage in Hebrews 12 (which is the reason I find myself considering Job in the first place, ironically).
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on JESUS, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross (the cross!), despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of GOD.
HEBREWS 12:1-2
THE Master Creator, Artist & Storyteller
JESUS is the Author and Perfecter of faith. We have the knowledge of JESUS - Who He is, what He has done - and know that in Him our story truly ends and truly begins. Job did not. Author here defined as ARCHÉGOS: founder, leader, originator, prince; properly, the first in a long procession; a file-leader who pioneers the way for many others to follow. It does not strictly mean “author,” but rather “a person who is the originator or founder of a movement and continues as the leader - i.e. ‘pioneer leader, founding leader.’” Not only are You the Author in its most perfect sense, You are also the Author in every single nuance of our stories as You write them, with eternity ever in sight. You are the Master Creator, the Master Artist, the Master Storyteller, the Master Craftsmen, Sculptor and Designer masterfully weaving not only my story - my very life itself - but every nuance of my heart, soul and spirit unto being made into Your likeness, as I move from glory to glory unto fullness of righteousness as You, my BRIDEGROOM KING. You are my Leader, my Guide - the One who not only carved out the path I am to walk on, but carries me down it, bringing me into the fullness of my ultimate destiny of oneness with You, perfected in Your righteousness, perfect in Your holiness, filled to overflowing with Your joy. I confess, my LORD, that I have no idea what is required of such a feat as this, nor the capacity to carry it out presumably, if I did have an inkling. I do know that Your word says, it was:
… Fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the Author of their salvation through sufferings…
HEBREWS 2:10
If JESUS is perfected through sufferings, how much more than, am I? How much more then, do I need?
Consider JESUS
Once again, I must consider JESUS -
Consider JESUS, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession (HEB. 3:1); For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (HEB 12:3)...
For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of CHRIST; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of GOD, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against is, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
COLOSSIANS 2:9-15
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