Good Morning Gorgeous,

It’s a brand new day. A fresh new start. The beginning of something new. Fresh and anew the earth will be after an evening of rest, and now the sweet light will shine and flowers will open, animals and people will arise, and movement will begin. We will go from rest to activity. And each activity today can be God honoring. Every conversation can be used for good. Every encounter, every choice, let it all be for the glory of God.

In my bible reading plan for the year, I am in Job. Can you imagine with me for a moment Job’s story? It’s heart wrenching. It makes me ache for him.

He was a pillar of wisdom in his community. He was known as a man who encouraged others and knew just what to say to give hope to others. He was honest, and upright. He was wealthy, but earned his money righteously and with integrity. He had a beautiful family of 7 sons and 3 daughters. A massive business that was prosperous and he honored God with all of it. He was healthy and in the prime of his life. All was well and he loved and honored God as his source of provision and blessing.

Satan has schemed to prove that Job’s faithfulness to God is based on his prosperity. He wants to discredit Job’s steadfast faith in the Lord by afflicting him and reveling in glee when Job curses God.

With God’s permission, satan begins to wreak havoc on Job’s life. Satan is not allowed to take Job’s life, but he does manage to make him so miserable that he longs for death.

All of his livestock, gone. Business depleted. He literally lost everything financial. His animals, servants, and his business gone. That alone would crush some people.

Next, he receives news that is every parent’s worst nightmare. His children have died by a tragedy. All 10 of them were together when a tornado struck their oldest brother’s home while they were all there together. He lost all of his children in one instant. I can’t fathom that pain. I can’t fathom that grief. I can’t imagine the heart wrenching, hit my knees, trauma and unending pain that would engulf me. And here is his response:

Wow! Does that make you marvel? When I read that, I paused and just raised my hands in worship. How close Job must have walked with God to be able to stay so committed to Lord even when his whole world has been stripped from him. Yet at this point, he is still healthy. His pain is all emotional and financial.

Next, he is afflicted with sores from head to toe. It is an awful affliction and the bible says that he scraped his sores and sat on the ashes. He is in pain, dreadful pain. Pain that makes you make irrational decisions and say things you don’t mean. He is hurting now physically and mentally. He is financially a mess, grieving the loss of his ten children, and now he is being tormented in his physical body.

At this point, it has become too much for his wife to bear. She tells him to give in and curse God. He remains steadfast! She must have been a woman of faith as well because he tells her that she is talking like a foolish woman, but he never calls her foolish. I believe he is saying, “Listen to yourself! You are talking like other women who don’t know God.” The way he rebukes her points to a woman who is generally wise, but having a moment of doubt. She has lost everything too, and now her husband is ill and covered with oozing sores. She has had enough, and I wonder how my emotional state would be at this point.

His misery is so bad that he begins to wish he were never born. He begins to long for death, yet he doesn’t take his own life. He doesn’t even consider that as an option. He clearly wishes for God to end his life.

Job continues to stay committed to God! He states that if God ended his life now then he would still have the consolation of never denying God. He knows in his heart that He has stayed true even through the turmoil. He has kept his eyes on God. He has not blamed God nor has he questioned God’s authority in the earth. He continues to speak that God is God and he is a mere man. We can learn so much from that alone. He has three friends come to visit. They take one look at Job and find his state so awful that they rip their clothes and sit with him in silence for 7 days! Then when they speak, they don’t have great advice. Job calls his anguish greater than all the sands of the seas!

The story does get better! It does take a turn, but I am not there yet in my reading. What I wanted to share this morning was Job’s desperate plea for Jesus! I noticed it this morning in my reading. Job is talking with his friends. They are certain that he must have sinned against God and brought all of this on himself. He is staying firm to his integrity, and also continuing to honor God as righteous and able to do all thing. He NEVER wavers in his honor of God. He does begin to cry out for a mediator. Someone who can bring him and God together. Someone who can remove the punishment of sin, someone who would allow him to speak freely TO God. Then he says, “But as it stands now, I cannot.”

Friends, Job is longing for Jesus. Someone who can remove the curse of sin, someone who can make a way to speak with God without fear. Someone who can be our mediator. And WE live in a time in history after Jesus, so we are blessed with the very mediator that Job so desperately longs for.

We can enter the Presence of God and speak freely. We can ask for answers to tough questions. We can ask for forgiveness for our sins. We can talk directly to God.

I will continue reading the story of Job and I will share more….

For now, you can rest that you have Jesus! Your personal Savior and mediator. The New Testament speaks often as Jesus, the mediator!

Dear Heavenly Father,

You are soooo good! In all things, in all seasons, at all times, You are a good Father. Thank You for Jesus, our mediator, who made a way for us to enter in and speak with you as sons and daughters. Lord, help us to understand scripture as we read it. Help us to understand the really hard parts that seem challenging and difficult to swallow. Give us spiritual teeth to feast on Your Word as the bread of life. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Blessings everyone!

Vanessa Lynn