Job 1:20

New International Version (NIV)

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship

For meditation

What was your first response when your finances bellied up, and your bank sent you the foreclosure notice? Or what was your reaction when your manager handed you the layoff notice and left you wondering about your next job, with the unemployment lines stretching miles on end?

How about when your creditors came down strong on you a brief time after? Did the news about your health report catch you standing up or sitting down? And when your doctor told you your child could not make it, how did you take it?

So, can you imagine old man Job when the news about his total economic collapse and family tragedy hit him right in the face (Job 1:13-19)? Can you imagine yourself being in his shoes when painful sores afflicted his body after all the financial catastrophe (2:7-8)? What would you have told your wife if, in such a terrible situation, she had rubbed it in like Job’s wife did?

But this man, Job! Can you believe his response to the total collapse of his economy?

“At this, Job go up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship” (1:20).

Worship who? Where was God when all those calamities were being poured on him? And to say he should worship Him? But that’s exactly what Job did. And to his taunting dear wife, what did he say?

“You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble” (2:10)?

What a man!

So, what is your situation today? What hardship has befallen you? Has uncertainty clouded your future? What noises are you hearing from even your closest confidants about your integrity? Are you going to capitulate to the tragedies that have assaulted you with a bang you never saw coming? Are you going to yield to the taunting song the enemy is singing through your closest allies? Or you will stand firm in your faith and raise your hands in worship with Job, declaring:

Naked I came …may the name of the Lord be praised (21)?

I pray you remember that going through such painful situations does not mean that you have sinned, as some may want you to believe, or that God has abandoned you. He may even brag about your integrity and faithfulness and smile at you. So, be sure He will sustain you just as He sustained Job.

May you therefore, keep your head in all situations, [and] endure hardship (2 Tim 4:5) as a good soldier of Christ Jesus (2:3), for if [you] endure, [you] will also reign with Him (2:12); and may you consider your trials as pure joy and persevere in them (James 1:2-3), allowing perseverance to finish its work [on you] so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:4).

The Lord is with you and will crown your struggles with laughter.

Pray with Me

Thank you, Lord, for Job’s example. Help me endure hardship as a good soldier with the outpouring of your grace, in Jesus’s matchless name. Amen.