Happy in Haiti! Hard to read those words now, huh? They don’t go together do they? This image was taken well before the earthquake. And as we start today’s scripture reading of Job–my mind first thought of Haiti. HOWEVER…Job had it MUCH better than the Haitians prior to his temptations from Satan.
(Chapter 1) Job was blameless and loved God. He had 7 sons, 3 daughters, 7,000 sheep, 7,000 camels, 500 oxen, 500 donkeys and a large number of servants. To be frankly said–he was filthy rich. He was the most powerful man in his city. He was God fearing and in love with the Lord. He was respected by all, and consistently was in prayer for his children’s behalf. A loving husband, amazing father and a blameless example of a servant of the Lord.
We know from Jacob’s dream from the Lord that angels come to and from earth presenting themselves to God on our behalf. The angels (Job 1:6) came to present themselves before the Lord–but Satan came with them this time. I love how Satan and God’s conversation starts here. It is obvious that this isn’t the first time a conversation like this has taken place…
Satan: Doing what I do—roaming the earth to and fro.
God: Have you considered Job? There’s no one on earth like him–he is blameless and upright. He fears me and hates evil. (I love that God didn’t have to ask what Satan was there FOR. HE KNEW. It is part of Satan’s job to tempt us, to get us off course, to distract us from the Lord and to ultimately get us to turn away.)
Satan: Well of COURSE Job fears ya! What does he have to fear? You have given him everything. He has no reason to not love you! Let’s see how much your servant loves you when you take everything away—surely he won’t love you then!
God: Very well–but you may not lay a finger on his life.
In ONE DAY Job lost 7 sons, 3 daughters, all his sheep, camels, oxen, donkeys and servants. Can you imagine??? Can you? I surely can’t. The thought of losing one child takes my breath away–but to lose 10 children and everything you have?! I can completely understand Job’s mourning. Ripping his clothes. Shaving his head. But I really, really want to understand his worship.
“Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from the womb and naked I depart. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. May the name of the Lord be praised.”
And this gave glory to God.
How do you react for things that don’t make sense? Do you mourn and then worship? I don’t know about you—but I mourn. It’s not that I’m mad at God in pain. It just doesn’t seem like the right response. I’m just being honest. BUT IT IS THE RIGHT RESPONSE. When I see this picture of this Haitian child who is hurting who no longer has family—my heart is grieved. It doesn’t make sense! And I wish, like Job, my next response was to get on my knees and worship the Lord. But today I’m going to try. Will you consider joining me today to pray on behalf of this child and all the children and people of Haiti…and then also on your knees worshipping our Creator…for all of His plans…for His future and plans for these people and ultimately FOR WHO HE IS! It is right to mourn. And it is right to worship. Even when it doesn’t make sense. Remember God is not asking us to worship Him for the bad things that happen–He is asking us to worship Him AMONG the bad things. When Job takes his eyes off God (later in chapter 4) it is because he is looking more at the distruction than the Lord. Let us keep our eyes focused on the Lord and in the midst of tragedy–put our TRUST in HIM, keep our EYES on HIM and praise HIM for He is worthy to be praised!
The rest of today’s reading is Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of Job. And I’m afraid friends–it only gets worse. There may be days when it looks as if the Lord isn’t winning—but hold tight…He ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS is in the end. We serve a victorious Master! And I believe in times of devestation, HE WANTS TO BE GLORIFIED! How will we step up today, this week, this year to glorify God in devestation??? How will we give up some of our own comfort so others may be comforted? Will we open up our hands and stop worrying about our futures (greed and lack of trust) and instead give them to God for the sake of His people—and say instead, “Here I am Lord. Use me. Everything I have and everything I am for YOUR GLORY!
Turn our frustration Lord to passion to be used for YOUR GLORY…
And let it end in PRAISE…
Where ever you are…no matter how funny you feel sitting and just singing by yourself…join with me in singing our trust and praise to the King…because HE is the only one you are singing for…
Sing to the King!
by admin
i love when you wrote “God doesn’t want us to worship Him for devastation but amoung it” agree! thanks for this post!
Great post, Andrea! Thank you for this today.
Andrea- I was just studying Job last week in my bible study. I also wrote down how amazed I was that in the midst of Job’s total family devestation, he said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised.” Then later when he was afflicted with painful sores from head to toe his wife wondered why he was holding on to his integrity. She told him to “curse God and die.” He answered, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?” I’m amazed at Job’s heart and worship of the Lord in the midst of his horrible circumstances. It challenges me for sure! I feel like I read a devotion everytime I visit your site. Thanks!
Just wanted to let you know I just purchased 4 sets of fortune cookies:) I think it will be lots of fun to do with the little ones. GREAT idea!!
Thank you Jenny! I can’t wait to count up the total we have raised for the orphanage in Haiti!!!! YAY! I’ll have them in the mail for ya next week!