Thursday May 26, 2011

God assigned four qualities for Job, and those four qualities were communicated three different times in the book of Job. He was a righteous and blameless man, fearing God and shunning evil. What great qualities the Lord verbalized in regard to Job. What qualities might He say about you? Whether we like it or not, He has assigned qualities in our lives in proportion to the lifestyle and the attitudes we have manifested here on this earth. It would seem that Job would be invincible to temptation and be above convictionn.

Yet as you begin to read the book of Job, another quality begins to emerge as he relates with three of his friends when they try to convince him that he must have done something wrong to deserve all the negtive experiences that Job was facing. Job wanted to know why all of this was happening to him and his friends had ready answers, but those answers were off base.

Job, in the middle of the book, begins to reflect on all tht he had done. As you see in the following verses, there are a lot of “I’s” in this passage. “I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him. The man who was dying blessed me; I made the widow’s heart sing.I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger.I broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth. I chose the way for them and sat as their chief; I dwelt as a king among his troops; I was like one who comforts mourners. (Job 29:12-25). Job got his eyes off the source of all he was and all he had and became prideful of his accomplishments. This was the downfall of Job and what the Lord later in the book begins to attack. Solomon talks a lot about pride in Proverbs and said that pride went before the fall (Prqoverbs 16:18)

On this journey we need to be careful to attribute all we have and all we do to the creator and sustainer of life and not focus on all that we have done.