THE QUIET HOUR

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 24 August 1935, Page 2

THE QUIET HOUR

By Rev. H. Curran

LESSONS FROM JOB. No. 2. • “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but .grievous: nevertheless afterward it jieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12: 11). In our last, we left Job bereaved of all his children, his servants and stock, sitting in ashes, with boils from foot to crown, but God saying of him : “In all this did not Job sin with his lips” (Job 2: 10). But added to this, we read: “Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon Mm, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuliite, and Zophar the Nnamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him and to comfort him. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lilted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down with him upon the ground SEVEN DAYS AND SEVEN NIGHTS, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great” (Job 2: 11-13). Job was so disfigured that his friends did not know him.

These three wept and remained speechless with him for a whole week. What must poor Job have suffered at the hands of Satan during those seven days ?

Then for chapters and chapters the three, who, no doubt, meant him well, gave him a terrible time with their tongues. But they misunderstood, and misrepresented Job, believing that God, and not Satan, was punishing him for his sin, although the Lord had said: ‘ ‘There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil.” GOD COMES IN. Right up to chapter 32 the three men talked, and then young Elihu spoke to them and to Job, and said some very fine things. Then in chapter 38 “The Lord answered Job out. of the whirlwind,” and asked him many questions, and continued to speak to the end of chapter 41.

“Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that Thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from Thee. ' Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understod not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak: 1 will demand of Thee, and declare unto me. 1 have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye sceth Thee. ' -

WHEREFORE I ABHOR MYSELF, and repent in dust and ashes” (verses 1-6). , . / Yes, although the Lord had- spoken so highly of Job, in the tpresence of God, Job felt so unworthy that he abhored himself, and we read: “And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job. the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindley agafinst thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have

NOT SPOKEN OF ME THE THING THAT IS RIGHT,

as My servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to My servant dob, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you: FOR HIM WILL I ACCEPT: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of Me the thing which is right, like My servant Job’’ (verses 7-8). So Job has stood the double test, and has come through with God’s commendation.

“So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Schuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job. Then the Lord TURNED THE CAPTIVITY OF JOB, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (chapter 42: 9, 10). Job did not treat his friends badly, ■because they had given him a bad time. But, even in his own terrible trouble he prayed for for them; and “the Lord turned the oaptivity of Job.”

Then we go on to read: “Then came there unto him all his brethren, and ah his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house : and they bemoaned him. and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an ear ring of gold” (chapter 42: 11, 12).

JOB’S FLOCKS DOUBLED BY GOD. “So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for ho had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses” (verse 12). Let us put it into our own language. The devil took five hundred she asses. God gave him one thousand. The devil took seven thousand sheep. God gave him fourteen thousand. The devil took three thousand camels. God gave him six thousand. The devil took five hundred yoke of oxen. God gave him one thousand. WHY THE SAME NUMBED, OF SONS AND DAUGHTERS? There is little doubt about the character of Job’s family. Satan killed Job’s seven sons and three daughters. God took them to a better place. So, Job had his sons and daughters in God’s keeping, who gave to His servant the same number again down here. Therefore, that godly man received a double family, as well as double in all the rest. Satan had intended to get Job away from God. But a 1! he did only made a, better man of him. And right down through the ages, men and women have found comfort .in reading the story of Job, who was exercised because of his trials, and they yealded the peaceable fruit of righteousness to him. “So the Lord the latter end of Job more than his beginning.”