Job 9-10; Proverbs 4

carpecollum@gmail.com — Fri, 04 May 2007 06:00:00 GMT

Job knew a lot of what Bildad said in chapter 8 was true. Bildad spoke of a pefectly holy, righteous God. Job said, "In truth I know that this is so, But..." (9:2). He was wrestling with his whole concept of God. How can God be righteous and yet let righteous people suffer? Job's contention was always that he had been walking circumspectly in righteous paths. In chapter 10, Job started to ask the big question: "Why?" He has quite a long list of things that he wants to say to God! Have I ever wanted to ask God something like this: "Lord, I know you are righteous, but how can You let some guy go in and mow down 32 'innocent' people in cold blood?" Or on a more personal note: "Lord, I have prayed and prayed and yet You don't seem to answer me - why?"

Here is an excerpt from a blog of a young preacher in Australia (see his whole story here: http://www.pleonast.com/user/ed):

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Ruth is from Sierra Leone and I think she's about 45 years old. Civil War broke out there about 15 years ago and Christians were a target of the rebel forces. Ruth was at a church service in her village when a rebel force attacked their village. They burned her village and killed most of the people. They came to the church and found everyone praying. They killed the men and most of the women. It was a common practice for these men to take a woman alone into the jungle to rape her and then kill her. Ruth was taken by one of the men into the jungle. She walked ahead of him for a long time with his rifle pointed at her back. She did not have a chance to look at him properly until they stopped. When she saw his face she realized that she knew him. He was a man about her age from a nearby village. She could tell that he remembered her as well. He told Ruth that he chose her because he knew her. He remembered that she had invited him to church and that she had told him in the past that she was praying for him. He told her that he had brought her so far into the jungle so that she might escape. He told her to run as fast as she could and to get out of Sierra Leone because it wasn't safe for her. He fired one round of his rifle into the ground beside him, turned away, and began to walk back to the village. Ruth did escape that day, and she did leave Sierra Leone. She took a long journey over many years to get here, but she has been here in Australia for about 8 months. Though she is free of that place, she is still suffering. Her husband mistreats her and makes her life very difficult. His problems are very complex, but there are men in the group that are trying to help him.

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Don't you think you might have asked God, "Why did You let this happen to Your children?"

Let's not fault Job for wanting to know answers - it's only natural. But we should be prepared to accept what God gives us as an answer!

Daily Bible Message

Job 9-10; Proverbs 4