Job 17 & 18: The Steps Of His Strength
Verse of the Day: (18:7) The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his counsel shall cast him down.
1. Sorrow (17:1-16)
Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow. (17:7)
Job lamented about life especially his great sorrow and struggle with the immense loss of his precious children and possessions. Job’s eyes were covered with tears of sorrow and his life was like a shadow waiting to vanish and be with God and his loved ones in pearly heaven. Job had the confidence that he had done his best with his daily devotion and sacrifices of burnt offerings for his sins and those of his loved ones. He believed that they had lived lives that were pleasing to their God. Indeed, let us continue to love and serve God amid sorrow and pain, as one day when we get to glorious heaven we shall have no more sorrow or pain, as we are with Him and our loved ones forever. (Revelation 21:1-4)
2. Steps (18:1-18)
For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare. (18:8)
Bildad, Job’s friend, rebuked Job for treating him and Eliphaz and Zophar as though they were his enemies just because they had counselled him to repent of his hypocrisy and wickedness. Bildad presumed that Job’s steps of strength had become his weakness as he had fallen into secret sins, and that the only way out for him was to truly repent them. However, little did they know that God was actually testing Job, and not that he had reaped the consequences of his sins. Let us thus keep walking in the steps of the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ as only He is our Strength in time of our crises. (1 Peter 2:21-25)
3. Son (18:19-21)
He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings. (18:19)
Job was a patient man as he kept enduring all his friends’ false accusations including Bildad’s presumption that the death of his 7 sons and 3 daughters was God’s curse upon him such that his name shall no longer be remembered on this earth. (James 5:11) Though God’s judgment and curse are upon the wicked yet He is patient and not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. In fact, at the end of Job’s life, not only God blessed him another 7 sons and 3 daughters, but He also blessed him twice as much as he had before. (Job 42:10-17) Let us thus be careful and sensitive when we counsel those who are in crises, and fervently pray for God’s comfort to be upon them. Let God be the Judge, and let us counsel wisely that ultimately all shall come to know that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God, the Saviour of the whole world. (1 John 5:1-21)
Prayer of the Day:
Dearest God, please help me to follow Your steps from here to Your home in heaven.
