~ Day Forty-Two ~

The final scene of Job's story is a beautiful picture of what happened at the Cross. Job had been brought to the place of humble submission and repentance and the Lord allowed the one who had been offended to intercede for his offenders and bring about their restoration. "...go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has" (Job 42:8). Justice and mercy came together and sins were forgiven, guilt was removed, and relationships were restored!

Afflictions themselves will not reveal God to us. Our pain and suffering will often blind us to the movements of God and cause our hearts to grow cold and hard. The Lord uses our afflictions to prepare us for special encounters with Him, just as He had done with His servant Job in the whirlwind, and as He did with Peter by the Sea of Tiberias. [Feast upon: John 21:15-25] "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me" (v. 22). Peter wept bitterly after he had denied his Lord. He had been ashamed and embarrassed that he had so easily deserted his Friend in the hour of His greatest need. The Lord cares dearly for His servants. He prepared Peter even prior to his fall by telling him He was praying for him. "And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren" (Luke 22:31, 32). Unlike Job, who was unaware of the Lord's conversation with Satan and the trial he would endure as a result of it, Peter was told that he would be sifted in order that he might me made a more useful vessel for the Lord's service. The Lord did not want His disciple to remain dejected and down, and so be soured in his usefulness to the kingdom of God. The resurrected Lord took the time to restore Peter personally and tenderly to the work He had for him to do, just as He did with His servant Job. As Peter accepted his new post, he started to look around again, as he was so apt to do (remember sinking in the sea Peter when you took your eyes off of the Lord!), and asked the Lord, "But Lord, what about this man?" (John 21:21b). The Lord's answer to Peter is an exhortation to all of us who follow Him. "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me" (v. 22). We are not to concern ourselves with what others are doing, or be distracted by their successes. Let us fix your eyes on Jesus and run the race set before us (Hebrews 12:1-3)! See Him! Follow Him! Trust that the Lord has purpose in our suffering, though the reason may be hidden in the shadows of His divine purpose (Isaiah 55:6-13). Let us remember that restoration is always God's goal following repentance. God gives His servants His plans for restoration after they come to repentance. After he repented, Job was instructed to pray for his friends in order for them to be restored to favor with God, and then he received a double-portion of blessing for his willingness to forgive those who had cruelly abused and falsely accused him and pray for their restoration. The Lord's anger was "kindled" against Job's friends because they had spoken wrongly of the Lord (Job 42:7), but Job's prayerful obedience put out the fire of God's wrath, and made a clear channel for God's mercy to come to his friends. May these next three days of prayerful intercession, with fasting and repentance bring showers of mercy and a season of refreshment and restoration to the land. May we see His plans and purposes more clearly as our hearts are cleansed and more fully aligned with His in this time of intercession. Join us in prayer as we journey together through the Book of Joel these next three days [see below]. "Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together" (Psalm 34:3). 

The Lord revealed Himself to His servant Job. He took him on a field trip and showed him the mere edges of His ways (Job 26:14) - the outer fringes of His works - and Job was humbled by the display of God's greatness and sovereign power. He finally realized that God's purposes are supreme. Job caught a glimpse of the glory of God just as Isaiah had in the year that King Uzziah died (Isaiah 6:1), as well as Moses, who, in the cleft of the rock, saw the back of God and heard the marvelous utterance of His great name (Exodus 33:18-23; 34:6, 7). Job recalled the Word of God, and that was what was on his lips when he acknowledged his own folly. "Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know" (v. 3b). He had been humbled by his dire circumstances and the cruel criticisms of his friends, but now he was made lowly by the recognition of the foul condition of his own heart, which God alone can see. Lower but nearer to God, that is what we all should desire to be. "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 6:5). The Lord opened Job's eyes to a clearer, more vivid understanding of His boundless power than he had ever known before the time of his affliction. All the obstacles and hindrances had to be removed from his life so that his eyes could see clearly the majesty of God. Like a stain-glassed window, Job's prosperous and busy life clouded his vision with rich, jewel-toned colors that dimmed and distorted his view of God. Not until all the color was drained through turmoil and sickness was the transparency of the glass restored. Then Job could look out and see the grander, more heavenly vision that the Lord purposed for him to see when He took His servant on a walk through His gardens and galaxies. Job's depth of spiritual perception was awakened on the altar of adversity. He was able to see God through eyes of faith and spiritual understanding, and then humbly accept God's plan for his life, even if it included pain and suffering. The fire that robbed him of all his earthly wealth and riches, also melted his heart. In the furnace of affliction, he discovered the greater riches stored up in heaven for him and he was humbled by the majesty of God. "My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5). It took the ten plagues of Egypt to break the pride of Pharaoh; hearing God's voice prompted an arrogant response (Exodus 5:2), but by seeing God's power, he was made to bow before the purposes of God for His people (Exodus 12:31, 32). God had stretched out His measuring line and revealed how far from his standard of perfect justice and holiness he was, and Job sank into the ash heap and repented of his sin and for every presumptuous word he had dared to speak to God. "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word" (Psalm 119:67). The Lord showed His servant how infinitely perfect and supremely good He is, and Job realized what a thief and liar he had been, robbing God of glory and honor, when He had been nothing but loving and just with him. "Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (v. 6). In the presence of God, Job bowed his head and repented with holy sorrow and self-loathing. Having been reduced to dust and ashes, the only way for him to go was up; it was then that the Lord opened the door to his deliverance and invited into the halls of joy. He then bestowed upon His servant the office of intercessor, and his prayer for those who had abused him marked the pathway back to his prosperity. "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who hate you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:44, 45).

Job came to know the living God in a deeper, more intimate, and personal way, because of his sufferings. And we are grateful for the preservation of his message, which reminds us and encourages us in our own times of sorrow and suffering to surrender completely to God and rest in Him, trusting that He is working all things together for our good and for His glory (Romans 8:28). "The end of a thing is better than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit" (Ecclesiastes 7:8). We may not choose our sufferings, but we definitely choose how we respond to them. May we honor and magnify the name of Jesus by being completely surrendered to the will of God and allow our humiliation and trials to draw us ever nearer to God, rather than cause us to run away from Him. Who knows what beautiful things He has prepared for us if we will patiently endure as His servant Job did and humble ourselves before Him and pray, seek His face, and repent?! Let us praise the Lord for this powerful journey He has led us on these past 42 days through the Book of Job, which has given us a clearer understanding of His sovereign purposes in our pain and suffering, and for the deep, purifying and perfecting work He has been doing within our hearts to align them more rightly with His. Let us offer a prayer of thanksgiving that our journey is not yet over! He has been preparing our hearts for these next three days of prayer, fasting, and repentance as we travel through the Book of Joel. Join us as we continue the journey in humble submission before the Lord in unceasing intercession for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven! "Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together" (Psalm 34:3).

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