Advent Devotional for Dec. 4
Thursday, December 4 Job 42:1-6
Healing doesn’t look like we expect.
The story of Job is one of the most difficult in the Bible. Job lost his family, livelihood, wealth and health and was not sure why, so he cried out to God. He demanded a hearing about his suffering, demanded that God tell him why this was happening to him. Several friends came by to offer their theories, but Job rejected each of them. In the end, God finally shows up; but rather than explain himself, God essentially says, “Are you as big or as powerful as me, to demand that I show up? Are you as wise as I am that I should explain my ways to you?” In the end, in the passage from this morning, Job realizes that God is indeed bigger than he is, and that in his despair he has “uttered what [he] did not understand, things too wonderful for [him] which he did not know.” So Job repents and in the end decides that he just doesn’t need an answer.
Job had a very precise idea what healing meant for him: getting his family back, getting his flocks back, getting his money back, getting his health back. But God knew that Job was not healed in that state after all; Job can only be truly healed when he knows that God’s ways are beyond comprehension. This is where healing starts, that there are things that cannot be known, that we do not need to understand everything that happens, that God is not obliged to reveal every purpose of life to us.
Once we let go of the relentless need to question why things happen, we can begin our real task, which is to follow in faithfulness. This is a healed person, who is not caged by their circumstances and is truly free to follow and live their heart’s deep desire.
Healing doesn’t look like we expect.
The story of Job is one of the most difficult in the Bible. Job lost his family, livelihood, wealth and health and was not sure why, so he cried out to God. He demanded a hearing about his suffering, demanded that God tell him why this was happening to him. Several friends came by to offer their theories, but Job rejected each of them. In the end, God finally shows up; but rather than explain himself, God essentially says, “Are you as big or as powerful as me, to demand that I show up? Are you as wise as I am that I should explain my ways to you?” In the end, in the passage from this morning, Job realizes that God is indeed bigger than he is, and that in his despair he has “uttered what [he] did not understand, things too wonderful for [him] which he did not know.” So Job repents and in the end decides that he just doesn’t need an answer.
Job had a very precise idea what healing meant for him: getting his family back, getting his flocks back, getting his money back, getting his health back. But God knew that Job was not healed in that state after all; Job can only be truly healed when he knows that God’s ways are beyond comprehension. This is where healing starts, that there are things that cannot be known, that we do not need to understand everything that happens, that God is not obliged to reveal every purpose of life to us.
Once we let go of the relentless need to question why things happen, we can begin our real task, which is to follow in faithfulness. This is a healed person, who is not caged by their circumstances and is truly free to follow and live their heart’s deep desire.
posted by Michael Jordan at 6:00 AM
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