THEN THERE IS GOD!

“Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?  Do you make him leap like a locus striking terror with his proud snorting?”  Job 39:19, 20

            Ears perked, heads raised high, eyes wide with wonder and a little fear, nostrils flaring to catch the scent on the wind, strong legs poised in mid-step, they stared at us, lined up as they were at the bottom of the draw.  A colt peered around his mother.  A dark blue roan with a black mane and tail tossed his head, eyes snapping a challenge.  The stallion, I thought. I could see his tension along his arched neck and high held tail. 

            Wild horses they were, of varied colors; light grays with black manes and tails, red roans, blue roans, sorrels and bays.  Some had scraggly coats, some had flaws in their  confirmations; heads too big, necks too long, backs swayed, withers too high, yet they moved with the grace of wild things with muscles rippling and coats glinting in the sun.

            Unconcerned a colt started to nurse and a mare put her head down to graze.  As if this was a signal, the whole herd relaxed.  Some began to graze; others began to meander towards us, eyes bright with curiosity.  It seemed we were not a threat since we weren’t riding hard, swinging ropes and yelling.  Only the stallion remained alert, watchful and weary.

            When John walked towards them, they trotted my way.  As one, the small group flowed across the grassy plateau with the colors and buttes of the badlands in the background.  I was, of course, seeing the whole thing through the camera lens. 

            The stallion kept a weary eye on us but even he stopped to graze and seemed fairly unconcerned.  I have dubbed him Blue Jake, not sure why but that name came into my head as I snapped his photos and has been there ever since. 

            Suddenly without warning and for no apparent reason the herd jumped and bolted.  Muscles taut, manes flowing back, tails high they moved in a flowing mass like a rushing river. The power the strength the grace the very essence of all that is wild.  I was mesmerized, not able to take my eyes off them.

            Others filed up through the draw and took their turns to stare at us until they, too assessed we posed no threat.  There were three groups, each with a stallion, 6 or 8 mares and two or three colts.  They stayed in the same general area, but did not mingle. 

            With arched neck and high tail, Jake snorted and strutted around.  He let the others, and us, know who he was and that he was in control, of his small band.

            We mingled among them and after a bit the horses seemed to accept us.  We were fine.  We posed no threat.  We were friend not foe.  They grazed, flicked flies and wiffled softly to each other.  One group filed right by me, very grand in their posing for my camera. 

            The mares took their colts in hand—er hoof—and said, “These humans now are the nice ones. You don’t have to be afraid of them, but mind you not all are like this.  Some are loud and noisy and have snake-like things that catch us.  From those you must run like the wind.”

            The colts eyed me very carefully, from top to bottom and their nostrils flared as they memorized my scent.  Then unconcerned they nibbled at the grass and played.

                 Have you considered Job?  He lived in the land of Uz and was a very righteous, well-to-do citizen.  In fact he was top dog in all the East, with much wealth in livestock, servants and ten grown children. 

              One day he was going about his business being blameless and upright, and loving God when the sky began to fall.  Literally, when fire dropped from Heaven and burned up all his sheep and the servants with them.  While Job was still getting this dire message, another messenger came yelling that his oxen and donkeys had been stolen by the Sabeans and all the servants with them were killed.  No sooner had he heard this message and another came with the news that the Chaldeans had carried off all his three thousand camels and killed all the servants there.  The messenger was still speaking when another runner came shouting that a great wind had blown the roof down on the house his ten children had been feasting in.  And they were all dead. 

            Wow!  Talk about when it rains it pours!   Can you imagine?  Boom! In one day, in a matter of a few minutes Job was wiped out of everything he owned and held dear.  God had handed over to Satan everything that Job owned, and Satan wasted no time in taking it all.  Except his wife.  Satan left his wife alone and that may  have been the hardest test of all.

            Job grieved, he hurt, he was in shock, I’m sure, but his first reaction was to worship God.  He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised.”  Very admirable, but is it real?  Can anyone be that calm in the face of so much adversity?  Maybe Job was still numb from shock.

            A few days later he developed boils all over his body.  Have you ever had a boil?  I haven’t but I’ve seen one on my husband and like a very bad pimple, it pained and bothered him for a long time, so that he couldn’t lay on it or stand to even have it touched.  Job had them from the tip of his head to the bottom of his feet.  Then Job sat in the dump on the ashes and scratched his sores with broken pottery. 

            He went from the peak of the hill to the bottom of the pit, from being top dog to sitting in the dump from being the greatest to the least.  How in the world did this happen?  And then as if that wasn’t enough we see why Satan did NOT touch his wife.

            She came out to the dump where Job, being afraid to spread the terrible disease he thought he had, sat by himself in misery.  I can just picture her shaking her finger at him angrily and yelling, “Are you still claiming to serve this God of yours? Look what He’s done!  He took our children! He stole everything we had and now you’re sick!  Why you’re nothing but a stupid old man, just curse God and die!”

            Talk about heaping insult upon injury.  The one thing Job had left, the one person he thought would be on his side, turned against him.   But again, Job’s reply is admirable.

            “You are talking like a foolish woman.  Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” It says, “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” (Job 1:22)

                However, Job was not perfect. After sitting on the ashes in misery for seven days, he opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.  Now that sounds more normal and absolutely human.     

              First we must consider his misery.  This is a man who lost, not only all his riches, but also every one of his ten beloved children.  His body burned and seared with pain and itching and his wife, instead of sympathizing and trying to comfort him, was so angry she said he should just as well give up and die.  In fact he was in such misery that his three friends who came to sympathize and comfort him, could do nothing but weep for him and sit with him for seven days and seven nights in total silence. They, who later opened their mouths and spouted off all sorts of degrading things and poor advice, could think of nothing to say for seven long days.

            Utter misery.  Complete devastation.  Black emptiness.  Deep despair.  This was Job’s life.  No wonder he cursed the day he was born and wished to die, to escape, to run.  He says, “What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.” (Job 3:25-26)

            I remember feeling very much the same way.  Oh I never had it as bad as Job, but  when the person who meant more to me than anything in the whole world was taken from me, I knew exactly how Job felt.  I wanted to run, to escape, to die.  I did not want to face my pain, go through life with the emptiness, or sit in the dump the rest of my days.  I had friends and family who were there for me, who sat with me in silence, and it helped immensely, but they couldn’t take away the terrible despair or fill the hole inside my heart.

             Job questioned God,  “Why have You made me Your target?  Have I become a burden to You?  Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins?  For I will soon lie down and You will search for me, but I will be no more.”  He was almost to the point his wife thought he should be.

            Job gets a bit angry with God.  He says, “Does it please You to oppress me, to spurn the work of Your hands, while You smile on the schemes of the wicked? Your hands shaped me and made me.  Will You now turn and destroy me?” 

            He even became somewhat bitter at times.  “All was well with me, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me! He has made me his target.”  

            Job wrestles with questions, searches for reasons, wonders what he did to deserve all this and pounds God for answers. His friends give their opinions and advice , which isn’t so great.

            Suddenly, the skies darken with black clouds.  Thunder booms, lightening streaks the sky, the wind roars as it drives pounding rain before it.  Job and his friends are sitting in the dump.  Drenched and shivering they must think the world is coming to an end.

            With thunder in His voice, God speaks, “Who is this that darkens MY counsel with words without knowledge?  Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”

            Boom of thunder.  Roar of wind.  Job looks fearfully at the skies, at his friends. Was that God?

            The voice goes on, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?  Tell Me, if you understand!  Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!”

            “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn it’s place?

            Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?

            Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of hail? 

            Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm?

            Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?  Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?

            Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with flowing mane?

            Does the eagle soar at your command and build his nest on high?

            Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him?”

            Job is speechless, he covers his mouth with his hand and has no answer. 

            God’s voice thunders, again out of the storm, “Would you have an arm like God’s and can your voice thunder like His?”

            There is a mighty roar in the dark sky, “Who has a claim against Me?  Everything under heaven belongs to Me!”

            There is silence.  The storm passes.  Job is on his face before God. 

            Finally he whispers, “ O, God, I know that You can do all things.  No plan of Yours can be thwarted.  My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You.”

            In the power of the storm, in the glory of the sunset, in the breathtaking beauty of the sunrise, in the awesome wonder of the moon rising over a stark mountain, in the grace of the deer, in the elegance of the elk, in the strength of the horse, in the love of friends and family God showed me Himself.   During the hardest time of my life, in the storm, I came face to face with my God.

            In the midst of my grief He carried me, through the storm He sheltered me and in the healing He taught me. Out of the wind and the thunder He spoke to my soul.  In the end, I could only say with Job, “I knew of You with my mind, God, but now I see You with my heart”.

            It is enough.

“Blessed are You, Lord God, our Father for ever and ever.  Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, and the glory, the victory and the majesty.  For all that is in Heaven and in earth is Yours.  Yours is the Kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as Lord over all.” 1 Chron. 29:10,11

Read Job

(All verses not referenced are from Job 1-42)