Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? Job 38:25-26
The book of Job is an Historical poem. This story is true, not legend as some have suggested.
Job became famous because of his misery. In one day he was crushed by a mountain of disaster. His camels were stolen and his herdsmen were murdered, the same for his oxen. 7000 sheep and their attending shepherds were killed by a thunderstorm. His children, all ten, perished in a cyclone. Job himself was struck by a hideous and painful disease, probably leprosy. People everywhere knew of Job’s calamity and they talked….a lot. Theologians and scholars, as well as nosey neighbors, all had something to comment. It didn’t help or change anything.
Job grieved and anger was a big part of the process. He asked the hard questions, “What did I do to deserve this!?” “Why are you picking on me?!” “Why don’t you just let me die!? Job’s friends speak and analyze God’s motives and Job’s character. Job defends his righteousness, so his friends inquire of secret hypocrisies. Finally, God speaks and Job finds perspective. God ends Job’s story with love, not condemnation and Job’s joy is restored beyond measure.
This book isn’t about suffering, its about who God is when suffering comes. When sin came into the world, death became a part of man. But death does not define God!!!! This is important!!! In a desert where no man may ever go, God waters the land and a flower miraculously blooms for a few short days………just because He’s God. He can and will do what it good!
Human nature struggles with the inequities and injustices of life. How can a good God allow such horror and pain? And then God Himself came from Heaven, in the form of Jesus, to be a partaker in our suffering. Not because man needed answers, but because He is a good God and we needed love. That’s who He is, that’s what He does.
Have a Great Day!
Gretchen