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Friday 10 October 2014

Job 17 - the torment of faith

Job continues. His words are a mixture of faith and torment. Remember in all this Job did not know what had gone on in heaven, as reported in the first two chapters. 
It seems that everyone and everything is against him. He has already had a go at God, his friends are no better. When we go through stuff, especially stuff that we just do not understand, our friends will not understand it either. If we do find a friend who has a deep spiritual insight into what is happening we should be eternally grateful, but most of them will not have this insight, and we should not blame them for this.
I do get concerned and annoyed at times when we seem to say, "you should be able to understand my impossible situation", or hold people guilty for not being able to deal with the impossible.
Verses 10-16 are interesting. At one level he is overwhelmed by the hopelessness of it all, and sees the grave as the only solution, the only relief. Then we get v11,12, the desires of my heart turn night into day, in the face of darkness light is near. The desires of our heart are important. Psalm 37 says that God will grant the desires of the heart to those who are devoted to Him. We need to guard our heart, cultivate our heart so it is dedicated towards God. Then the desires of our heart will be a source of strength and hope in the midst of the darkness. For Godly desires are desires that will be satisfied.

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