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Reading from Job 29 [Abridged from Julia Elliott's Testimony 3rd November 2007]
Job, like many of us, went through a period of terrible trials despite his faithfulness to God. Most people haven't experienced anything like the depth of trial Job experienced. We can, however, identify with him and how he once flourished, but then felt that his fortunes had taken a turn very much for the worse. Job didn't mince his words - as far as he was concerned he had become a laughing stock. This was very confusing to him, bearing in mind he had always tried to honour God and to do what he believed to be God's will.
2 How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me,
3 when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light I walked through darkness!
4 Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God's intimate friendship blessed my house,
5 when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me,
6 when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.
7 When I went to the gate of the city and took my seat in the public square,
8 the young men saw me and stepped aside and the old men rose to their feet;
9 the chief men refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands;
10 the voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
11 Whoever heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me commended me,
12 because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him.
13 The man who was dying blessed me; I made the widow's heart sing.
14 I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger.
17 I broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth.
18 I thought, 'I shall die in my own house, my days as numerous as the grains of sand.
19 My roots will reach to the water, and the dew will lie all night on my branches.
20 My glory will remain fresh in me, the bow ever new in my hand.'
21 Men listened to me expectantly, waiting in silence for my counsel.
22 After I had spoken, they spoke no more; my words fell gently on their ears.
23 They waited for me as for showers and drank in my words as the spring rain.
24 When I smiled at them, they scarcely believed it; the light of my face was precious to them.
25 I chose the way for them and sat as their chief; I dwelt as a king among his troops; I was like one who comforts mourners. Job 29: 2-25
Job's friends tried in vain to comfort him, Job's wife was no comfort at all, and most people thought Job to have somehow brought his demise upon himself, that somehow his situation was due to hidden sin, pride or lack of faith, none of which was true.
Job was exasperated. Much of what he had complained of was right. God, however, showed him that he was only seeing part of the big picture:
4 Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
8 Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,
11 when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt'?
12 Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,
13 that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.
15 The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken.
16 Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.
19 What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?
20 Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
21 Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!
22 Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?
24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,
26 to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no-one in it,
27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?
28 Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
30 when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?
31 Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion?
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God's dominion over theearth?
34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?
35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?
36 Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
38 when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together? Job 36: 4-38
No matter how perplexed and discouraged as Job had been, he held out hope for the redeemer to come:
25 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.
26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; Job 19: 25-26
When God finally restored Job, he was restored far in excess of his original state. Every respect in which Job had flourished previously, he did far more so second time around.
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