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Devotions on the Book of Job (Tuesday, Week 9)

We were to work through Job 19 on Sunday. But the extreme weather, an uprooted tree* and fallen power lines meant that we were not able to gather for church. My wife wondered if there was something in the message which I had prepared that God didn't want us to hear this week! And yet, there was much in the events of the weekend- the power in the weather, the devastation of the waves, the flooding from the rain- which was on something of a 'Joban trajectory'.

I caught up yesterday with the minister of St Faiths church in Narrabeen, an area where the impact of the storm was particularly severe. He mentioned a number of families for whom the weather was more than just a lot of rain and wind- their houses were flooded and the clean-up they are left with is significant.

We can often be glib about these things: "How about that rain huh? Wasn't that incredible!" But for those who are directly experiencing the impact on the homes and livelihood, we need to be sensitive to what they are going through. As I write this, the front page of our local Manly Daily paper reads 'Resident's Tears in Storm Shock!: Our Weekend of Weather from Hell'

Of course it is nothing like the levels of suffering Job experienced. His children were crushed as their house collapsed by a sudden wind (Job 1:19). Job wonders how he can even stand before God: "Even if I summoned him and he responded, I do not believe he would give me a hearing. He would crush me with a storm..." (Job 9:16–17).

Indeed, Job feels the brunt of the storm head-on:

“I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer;
I stand up, but you merely look at me.
You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me.
You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;
You toss me about in the storm" (Job 30:20–22).

 

And yet- it is ironic that when God finally does speak (Job 38:1), we read that "the LORD answered Job out of the storm". As one book on Job puts it, this is "God in the Whirlwind"!

Clearly, the Lord's hand is at work in all circumstances and we can trust- even in the midst- especially in the midst of 'heavy weather'. We can face all things knowing that he will hold us through to eternity- our Redeemer lives, and we will see Him with our own eyes.

God's presence is an awesome comfort!

* The irony of the uprooted tree, and Job's words in Job 19:10 were not lost on me on Sunday morning! 

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