I love reading the Bible, especially the parts that make you feel good. Like the Love Chapter found in Corinthians, the Psalms for worship , Proverbs for wisdom and of course stories of the old Testament that we learn when we were kids. I tend to avoid prophetic books that are hard to understand, like Daniel and Revelations. Rev 1:3 says, " Blessed is the one who reads these words of prophecy.
Then there's Job. I am back in Job following my chart and Sunday School lesson. It seems like Job has become my summer reading.
I think that one of the things that bothered me about Job, is, it looks like Satan has manipulated God to hurt one of his children. But the more I read, the more I realize that God really is in control. Maybe it takes something this disturbing and powerful to break age old traditions that are deeply rooted and learn truth.
For generation these people believed with all their hearts that God always punishes evil and always blesses good. This gives us a nice fuzzy feeling, until some thing happens that we can not understand. Today we tend to believe the same thing. Remember the people of the bible are real people and we meet people just like them today. There are fair weather friends, those who "always knew things were to good to be true. We all know those who " know it all " and some who are just glad that it is not them.
Even Job believed this and that he would always be blessed and live out his life doing good, surrounded by family. That is one reason that this( fall from grace) rocked his world so badly. He really wanted answers and all he got was more abuse from every one around and seemly God too. What did I do wrong? God know everything, He knows my integrity. He longed to go back to before all this happened to him. He needed answers. Please tell me. If what I believe is true, then......then.... then what? This caused a conflict of belief in Job and often in us and may be the only way to grow and learn truth.
Even a young man who though he had all the answers presume to speak for God. What a fiasco that was. Be careful, never presume to have all the answers. At 19, I thought I had all the answers and that any one older just did not understand. Now that I am older , I realize that I will never have all the answers. I do know that I do not want what I deserve. I choose mercy over justice every time.
Why do bad things happen to good people? The truth is, we just do not know., and we may never know on this side of Heaven. But we do know that God is love and He is control.
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