ESOCS Devotional 17 October 2024 – Yearning for the Past
MEMORY VERSE: “Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me.” Job. 29:2
TEXT: JOB 29:1-END
Job further continued his discourse, and said:
2 “Oh, that I were as in months past,
As in the days when God watched over me;
3 When His lamp shone upon my head,
And when by His light I walked through darkness;
4 Just as I was in the days of my prime,
When the friendly counsel of God was over my tent;
5 When the Almighty was yet with me,
When my children were around me;
6 When my steps were bathed with cream,
And the rock poured out rivers of oil for me!
7 “When I went out to the gate by the city,
When I took my seat in the open square,
8 The young men saw me and hid,
And the aged arose and stood;
9 The princes refrained from talking,
And put their hand on their mouth;
10 The voice of nobles was hushed,
And their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
11 When the ear heard, then it blessed me,
And when the eye saw, then it approved me;
12 Because I delivered the poor who cried out,
The fatherless and the one who had no helper.
13 The blessing of a perishing man came upon me,
And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
My justice was like a robe and a turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind,
And I was feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the poor,
And I searched out the case that I did not know.
17 I broke the fangs of the wicked,
And plucked the victim from his teeth.
18 “Then I said, ‘I shall die in my nest,
And multiply my days as the sand.
19 My root is spread out to the waters,
And the dew lies all night on my branch.
20 My glory is fresh within me,
And my bow is renewed in my hand.’
21 “Men listened to me and waited,
And kept silence for my counsel.
22 After my words they did not speak again,
And my speech settled on them as dew.
23 They waited for me as for the rain,
And they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain.
24 If I mocked at them, they did not believe it,
And the light of my countenance they did not cast down.
25 I chose the way for them, and sat as chief;
So I dwelt as a king in the army,
As one who comforts mourners.
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The best part of Job’s former life was that God watched over him. He said God loved him. God protected him. He said God’s light shone in his life, representing the way that God guided him with wisdom and knowledge. Job spoke of the days when he was in his prime, literally, “my harvest days”: “Those were my harvest days, those autumn days, when a bumper crop came into the barn, when blessing upon blessing rolled into the barns of my life.” And of all of the blessings, God’s intimate friendship was the greatest, a sense of closeness of God’s secret counsel, as though God Himself, Almighty God, whispered wisdom and love into his ears.
What’s so tragic about all this as you read it, is that Job doesn’t realize that God in no way loved him any less at that point than he ever did in the past. God’s love is not like our love. It’s not fickle. It’s not vacillating. But when we go into these times of affliction and trial, beware, you won’t know yourself, you won’t know God, it seems. You’re in a fog and you begin to hear whisperings and insinuations. In Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan talks about Christians going through the land of the shadow of death, and he hears whispering, and he thinks it’s his own voice. And he just doesn’t seem to know what the truth is anymore.
Beware that that doesn’t happen to you when you go through afflictions and loss. At the peak of his trial, temptation and affliction, Job thought that God was not with him anymore. And he said, “My family was around me back then, and we were happy.” Verses 4-5: “When God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me.” So, Job couldn’t help but think about his dead children, seven dead sons, three dead daughters. Their faces shone in his mind. He could hear their laughter, their witty conversations with each other, their achievements that made him proud, proud to be their father. God’s blessings extended to them as well as to him. He blessed them lavishly and watched over them as well.
Dearly beloved, as you go out this morning, regardless of whatever you may be going through now, never you assume God has left you nor His love is extinct. Our God is merciful and always with us. Amen.
- Always remember that whatever situation you may find yourself in life, God is on His throne and He is in control. He is the Fourth Man in your fire.
- Lord, any time I am in the deep sea of distress and affliction, please hold my right hand.
Further Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10; Luke 20:13- 28; Revelation 4:1-7
ESOCS Devotional 17 October 2024
