Job (Part IV)

Yup, I have finally gotten through the last 4 chapters of Job (chapters 38-42), which represents 2 days of daily reading. I am still way behind my daily reading and will be doing some mugging to try to catch up.

But before that, a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR. Here's wishing you a blessed 2008, a year of discovery, growth and blessings! In the Kewl Nitrox clan, the Christmas holidays are over and Mrs Nitrox's sisters are heading home. This morning we just sent off SBIL4 (sister and brother-in-law number 4) and their 2 boys - T1 and T2. We still have SBIL2 and their 2 girls staying with us, but already we are starting to feel the emptiness after the extended family gathering. R1 and R2 are going to miss their cousins so much when SBIL2 and their 2 girls leave on Thurs morning, the house will be empty without the 6 kids that have been so much a part of our lives for the last week.

Back to Job then, and God finally speaks. He did not really answer Job's questions, at least not in the manner that we would expect. As I read what God says to Job, it strikes me that it does not seem to be anything that Job does not already know - in short, God reminds Job that He is the sovereign God. Yet Job replies "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6) I am not sure if Job actually saw God physically (the book of Job is not very clear on whether God just spoke, or did He appear physically as well). But I think that when Job says that he sees God now and repents, it may be more that the eyes of his heart and mind are now open to who God is.

Tenuous as it is, I would still ask of your kind indulgence for me to elaborate. Often we know something in our mind, but we do not know it in our heart. Example, if the doctor says you've got a terminal illness, and the only way to survive is to take a pill every day, chances are that we would remember to take the pill every single day. This is an example where both our mind and our heart knows that we need the pill. By the same token, we may also know that reading the Bible is an important part of the process of renewing our mind, which is (1) how we put off the old self and put on the new as part of the process (and miracle) of Salvation (Ephesians 4:22-24), and (2) what we need to do to understand and benefit from God's perfect will for us (Romans 12:2). Yet it seems so easy to forget to read His Word sometimes, doesn't it? That, to me, is an example where our minds may know the benefit and necessity of reading the bible, but our heart does not.

Perhaps the only way for us to walk closer to God and to reflect His love and His will in our lives is to know Him. I mean to REALLY know Him. Nothing opens my eyes more to my own brokeness than the moments when God shows me a little more more of who He is. Unlike Job, we have the benefit of the full gospel - the Old and the New Testament. My prayer is that we (including myself) will make full use of His Word that has already been given to get to know Him. To REALLY know Him.

And while we are on the subject of His written Word, annette and her hubby is also joining the daily reading plan at http://www.bibleinayear.org/. I am humbled. I am truly humbled.