EXCERPT:
We live in a world where success is most often measured by the job you have, the position you hold, the people you know, and the things your money can buy. Its been this way since the earliest days of humanity. Speaking of a Job, have you ever heard of Jōb? I can recall a time when one of my children thought that the Bible character’s name was pronounced with the short vowel sound “ah” instead of the long sound “oh”. But you of course know it is pronounced Jōb.
Jōb is one of the oldest books of the Bible. And ironically enough, he too was a man who was the picture of success, and not only from a physical, but even a spiritual standpoint. Yet even Job serves as a reminder to us that we are all flawed human beings who have the tendency to fall short of God’s standard for our lives. But how? How did Job, the man who God called upright and who feared God, fall short?
We all know about the patience of Job. But do we know and understand the secret preoccupation of Job? Today we will be looking at JŌB’s Secret Occupation and how it offers us a Jōb description that we all fit but need to quit.
What are the most important things to you in life? Is it family and friends? Is it your job or ministry? Is it money or the things it can buy? Maybe it’s good mental and physical health. In their proper proportions, these are all things that are worth striving for. The only problem is that, well, they also come with their own problems.
We don’t always get along with family and friends. Our jobs and ministries aren’t always fulfilling. Money and the things it buys sometimes lets us down or leaves us feeling empty. And whether it be through aging, poor diet, or some circumstance, mental and physical health fails. Its just a natural part of living as fallen creatures in a fallen world.
And you see, God knows this all too well. Which is why He reminds us of the importance of holding loosely to the things of this world and tightly to Him—loving not the world, and loving Him above all. But we’re afraid to let go aren’t we? We are afraid to place implicit trust in a God who works in so many mysterious ways. Our default then is an unconscious reliance on the tangible, the touchable, the spendable, the investible, the personable, the relational.
We secretly long for a perfect situation where we have all we need and more in the way of people in our lives and things to possesses and enjoy. And when we find ourselves in those sweet moments when everything seems to be so right, we just want it to stay that way forever. And though we know deep in our hearts that good times don’t last always, we so wished they would that we continually try to keep them going, sometimes at all cost.
Now I’m aware that not everyone feels this way. But if we’re honest, most of us would agree that we do. I understand that some people have given up on life and just exist in misery, waiting for their date with death. I also know that there are some who, for whatever reason, delude themselves with the euphoric lies they produce through things like sex, drugs, and alcohol, and other forms of reckless living. They party all night, and sleep all day, and usually end up destitute or dead. And when death happens for those who have only lived for themselves or for this life, the only one who wins (for now) is Satan. He is the enemy who comes to steal, to kill, to destroy the things and most importantly the people created in the image and likeness of God.
The Bible reminds us to fear not the one who can kill the body, but the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell. God is constantly trying to teach us the extremely important lesson of “fear not”. And believe it or not, Job, a man who had it all,
