No Needs

Tonight I was browsing through some scriptures and came across Job 23.

Job cries out saying "If only I could find God, sit down and talk, it would all come together, but no!! I look to the east, the west, the south and the north, still I cannot find him. But he knows where I am going, I dont but he does. When I pass this test, like gold in the fire, he will defend me." [Greg paraphrase]

For me this is my reality at the moment. I look for him and it is hard to find him. I know he knows where I am going, but I have no clue.

Job finds himself in a situation where the blessing he new is gone. If something can go wrong it has. "Friends" around him are "helping" by trying to work out why he is in this position, they decide that he is wicked and evil and he has brought this on his head, he is ignored the poor, the widow, the needy and the foreigner.

As is so easy to do we look for the reasons why we would not be blessed, we must have been bad to be having these things happen in our lives.

This is interesting since I find myself on a witch hunt to find the thing that would be causing me to not be blessed like I was. Is it a curse, something I have done, an object in my home, a person I failed to help. However maybe like Job there are times in our lives where he cannot be found, not because we are bad people but because we are good people not only good but "gods" people.

At the end of this chapter Job says "For I have tried to walk Gods path. I have followed him not departing from his side but he has decided to do this and he cannot be persuaded otherwise. What he wants to do, he does. So he will carry out his plan, he is in control of my destiny. No wonder I am terrified in his presence, even the thought fills me with terror. My heart is faint and the darkness is thick around me, impenetrable darkness consumes me."

The God I love and follow is a God of Grace, I do not earn my relationship with him, I accept it and then wonder at the love he has for me. Does this love and grace also lead me to be terrified in his presence, he is still God. I remember a quote from Narnia in regards to Aslan, “not a tame lion”, despite his gentle and loving nature, he is powerful and can be dangerous.

In chapter 28 Job talks of wisdom and understanding, of its incredible richness, that it cannot be purchased. It is not easily found. God knows where it can be found. He knows wisdom, he established it. This is what God says to all Humanity: “The fear of the Lord is true wisdom; to forsake evil is real understanding.”

Could true wisdom be connected with the understanding of what Job said in chapter 23 about the terror of being in his presence? Even in considering the picture of Aslan the untamed lion gentle and loving yet powerful and possibly dangerous do we gain a better understanding of what Job was suggesting.

Maybe once we have this fear and respect for who he is then we walk away from evil because we truly understand the grace he shows us as our king. From Job’s experience do we embrace the times in our life that shake us to our core, from these times do we discover the treasure of wisdom and true understanding or do we join the witch hunt and try to flush out the reason why we are not living a blessed life?

Is our understanding of true blessing flawed? For wisdom and understanding cannot be purchased. Possibly the darkest of times bring us closer to true wisdom and times of blessing allow us to catch our breath as we get to know what it is to be in the loving yet terrifying presence of our King?

As Jesus often told the disciples If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.
So this week I will remember Job, his life, the way he surrendered to the loving yet dangerous King!