Hope

In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.

(Job 12:10 NIV)

The book of Job is not necessarily one of those books of the Bible that I turn to when I am looking for something to cheer me up; neither I associate it with words like happiness or rejoicing.    I tend to associate Job more with words like resignation, obedience, hardship, suffering, loss, acceptance and sadness.  However, if I pay attention, all of these words imply a state in which the soil of our soul becomes prepped and ready to receive the Good News of His Word.  So if I stick with it, and don’t get discouraged by Job’s hardship, this book does provide a source of hope, true hope.

Hardship, loss, suffering, sadness, and all those states of being that don’t sound or feel very pleasant; God can use to do the work of a plow in the field,- to break it-.  Like the blades on this divine plow, difficult, and often almost unbearable circumstances break us and turn us like the hardened earth on the field that is our soul.  They prepare us to receive the seed that is His Word so the Holy Spirit can create a fertile garden in our hearts where His fruits can grow.

Thus, I do find hope in the book of Job.  I find the hope of the realization that it is by Him, through Him and because of Him that I have the breath of life.  Job reminds me that “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4) Nothing can change that truth.  No difficulty or hardship can change the fact that He sustains me as He lives in me.  And as long as I remain in Him, I will have true hope, for He is the only source of it.  Only those who break away from His vine are hopeless, “For what hope has the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life.”  (Job 27:8)

As my heart is filled with earthly concerns about my Father, my sons, my marriage, my work and my country, I find hope today in the words of Job because he reminds me that the hand of the Almighty is the life of every creature, and that His Divine Breath is the breath of all mankind.  Our Lord has a purpose for suffering and it is to develop perseverance of the saints, as Paul told us in Romans 5: 3-4, “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”  And that hope that comes out of suffering and perseverance is true hope.  It is the hope that endures and protects the soul of the believer from falling into the pit of darkness and desolation. 

He, who is hope Himself, will lead us to hope, even if in the most unlikely places.  For as long as we have life, His breath will remain in our nostrils. (Job 27:3)

But he knows the way that I take;

when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

My feet have closely followed his steps;

I have kept to his way without turning aside.

I have not departed from the commands of his lips;

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.  Job 23: 10-12