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Job 40:15- 42:17

Job

40:15-41:34  -  ‘Who can stand before Me?’ (41:10). God puts this question to every one of us. God’s Word gives two answers to this question. The first answer speaks to us of our sin. The second answer speaks to us of our Saviour.  The first thing God says to us is this: ‘There is no-one righteous, not even one’ (Romans 3:10). The question is asked, ‘Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in His holy place?’. The answer is given, ‘He who has clean hands and a pure heart...He will receive blessing from the Lord’ (Psalm 24:3-5). We read these words, and we wonder, ‘Is there any hope for us?’. Our situation seems hopeless - until we look to Jesus, the Man ‘without sin’, the beloved Son with whom God is well pleased’, the Saviour who ‘died for our sins’ (Hebrews 4:14-16; Matthew 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 15:3).
42:1-17  -  After so much suffering - a happy ending! Job has been brought closer to God (5-6). His ‘friends’ have been forgiven by the Lord (7-9). Everybody is happy about the way things have turned out for Job (10-11). Is there always a happy ending? In this earthly life, we will never reach a stage where there will be no more problems and everything will be just fine. For God’s people, ‘redeemed with the precious blood of Christ’, there will be a happy ending - but not until ‘the last time’! For now, we must face many ‘trials’. Beyond our ‘little while’ of suffering there is a happy ending - ‘salvation ready to be revealed in the last time’. We must pray that our ‘faith, more precious than gold, will be proved genuine and will result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed’ (1 Peter 1:3-7,18-19).

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