Scripture

‘I had only heard about you before .Now I have seen you with my own eyes.”

Observation

After the Lord’s confrontation with Job, Job now replies.

Job recognises that he was wrong to question the Lord’s wisdom because he was so ignorant. Having seen the Lord, Job now repents of his pride.

The Lord then speaks to Job’s friends and orders them to offer some burnt offerings, asking Job to pray for them.

The Lord then restores Job’s fortunes- wealth, livestock, sons and daughters. He lives a long and full life, dying at an old age.

Application

It makes a difference when we experience the Lord for ourselves instead of relying on other people’s knowledge of the Lord.

Job was a righteous man before, but in his suffering he sees the Lord and talks with the Lord for the first time.

We were meant for relationship with God. If we don’t have that relationship we will try to fill it in all kinds of unhealthy ways.

Religion is the substitution of laws, rituals, sacrifices and other behaviour patterns for the relationship for which we were created. So Job offered sacrifice after sacrifice to keep himself and his family right with God. He knew no better because he had only heard about God; he didn’t know God.

We each need to have our own encounter with God. It may not be God audibly addressing us out of a whirlwind. It might be as simple as a deep conviction that we need a saviour and God has given that saviour to us in Jesus. It might be what John Wesley called a “Strange warming of the heart” as he heard Scripture being read. It might be a vision of the risen Christ.

When we have that encounter and decide to follow Jesus, handing everything over to Him, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives to empower us and equip us for the walk of faith. Then we are completely new, born again in Christ Jesus,

Prayer

Thank you Lord for saving me. Help me to live every day in the power of your love. Amen.