“If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!”
~ Job 10:19
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever wished that you had never been born? Job got to where he wished that he had never been born. Job’s life was overnight changed dramatically when your Heavenly Father allowed a fallen angel to mess with Job through heartbreaking personal tragedies and agonizing physical challenges. The fallen angel – whose name was Lucifer – or Satan as he is known today, was given the okay by your Heavenly Father to make Job’s life extremely intolerable. Your Heavenly did not give Lucifer the okay to see to it that Job died. Job was a good guy. Job’s faith was devoutly and deeply rooted in the Divine Creator – the Divine Creator being your Heavenly Father. When Lucifer became a prideful, arrogant, self-seeking angel being, your Heavenly Father had Lucifer be removed from His Divine presence. Your Heavenly Father though did not stop Lucifer from roaming everywhere in His infinite creation. Your Heavenly Father did not stop Lucifer from promoting his destructive, abhorrent evil ways. Your Heavenly Father – as God the Spirit, has the keys to the faith/grace door – which is the door that opens to a life that is filled with eternal hope. Even though Lucifer has dominion over everything that is on planet Earth and a cosmos that is filled with minions who are at his disposal, this utterly corrupt fallen angel being cannot do one single thing to any guy, gal or kid or to anything without first getting your Heavenly Father’s okay to do so. It is one thing though to internalize this knowledge and still another thing though to live out this knowledge when the life of a guy or gal is suddenly interrupted by calamitous catastrophes and personal misfortunes – such as what happened to Job. Job had a family who partied together, lots of possessions and good health. Your Heavenly Father allowed Lucifer to use his gofers on planet Earth to kill Job’s kids and to carry away the possessions that Job had. Having his kids killed and having his possessions carried away was just the beginning of Job’s tribulations as your Heavenly Father allowed Lucifer to completely cover Job’s body with painful, gruesome sores. Finally – for Job’s ultimate faith test, your Heavenly Father allowed Lucifer to pick three guys to take on the role of being Job’s friends. Job’s appointed friends took on the job of pinning the blame for Job’s life’s demise or ruin on Job himself. It was these three guys’ contention that the reason that Job lost his kids and possessions and the reason that he became covered with horrible runny sores was because Job had done something that had severely compromised his faith in the Divine Creator.
Job by Job 10 had a growing bitterness or resentment in his soul towards the Divine Creator. The knowledge and understanding that Job once had of the Divine Creator was morphing to a picture where Job was seeing your Heavenly Father for one reason or another having become very angry with him. Job’s new emerging picture of the Divine Creator was that your Heavenly Father actually favors wicked, evil guys over guys who are innocent of dappling in bad, sinful things. Job began questioning why the Divine Creator would have taken the time to create him just so that He could punish him. Job allowed his appalling situation to affect his thinking process and personal beliefs. Your grandpaa thinks that this is a normal thing that takes place when a gal or guy is facing a catastrophic moment in his or her life – such as when he or she becomes terminally ill with a debilitating disease or tragically loses a family member or a natural disaster does a number on everything he or she owns or . . . your grandpaa is sure that a lot of guys and gals – and even kids, at one time or another have and will think what Job said in verse 19, “If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!” For a guy or gal – or a kid, to end his or her own life deliberately is one answer for him or her to a perceived life dilemma that does not seem to have an apparent resolution to the hurt and pain that he or she is feeling. Your grandpaa does not sense that Job was suicidal – in that Job wanted to die by ending his own life. What your grandpaa senses is that Job was really missing the warmth of the presence of Who he knew as the Divine Creator. Job at this moment to your grandpaa had to be feeling absolutely downright alone and that his three assigned friends were compounding this moment through condemning him versus affirming him, was leading him to feel so overwhelmed that . . .
If you have not experienced yet the moment when you have said ‘why me’ or ‘why is this happening to me’, you will experience these moments at times throughout your lives. Every guy, gal and kid at one time or another will have a life test try to distort his or her understanding and opinion of his or her Heavenly Father. Your grandmaa and grandmaa are leaving in five days on a short term ministry/medical team trip to Guatemala. One of the gals who is going on this short term ministry/medical team trip to Guatemala had just been told that the mammogram that she had taken showed that she had a shadowed area. Brandy arrived at the potluck supper that was scheduled for this short term ministry/medical team a short time after she was told the news of what the mammogram showed. Brandy literally pulled your grandmaa to a dark corner in a nearby alcove where they stood for several minutes hugging. Your grandmaa prayed for Brandy. Another mammogram that was taken two days later showed that the quarter size white spot no longer existed. Brandy’s husband – who is a dentist, uses x-rays all the time. Zack was adamant about x-rays not lying – that it is only through divine intervention that something can simply disappear between a couple of x-rays. It is easy to forget that your Heavenly Father has preprogrammed how every life challenge will unfold that every guy, gal and kid will have so that the challenge that he or she has will bring his or her Heavenly Father glory.
Job 10 (560)