Day 165: Job 5:21

"You will be protected from the lash of the tongue, and need not fear when destruction comes." ~Job 5:21, NIV

Job is a mighty and noble man of God. In fact, he was so upright that God gave him everything a person could want in life - riches, family, land, esteem etc. Seeing this, Satan comes to God and asks permission to challenge Job's faith in God, by taking away every good gift God had given to him, except for his life. Satan's logic was that Job loved God because of God's gifts, not because of some moral integrity. If you know the story, you know Satan was wrong - Job outlasted every purge without ever cursing or challenging God - sure, he questioned Him, but he ultimately trusted that God knew what was going on in the big picture.

Job had three friends who came to him and tried to comfort him. Today's verse comes from a long and grandiloquent speech from one of such friends. In it are many truths. Yet Job spurned the "help" of his friends, because they were condemning him for something he had not done, and giving promises that he already knew of. "God will protect you," his friends said, "you won't have to be afraid if you confess your sin."

In their understanding the calamities had befallen Job because of a sin he had committed. While that is often the case, and turning from sin often leads to the blessings they speak of, in his situation it didn't help. And maybe you're reading this and thinking about your situation and you think I'm just proclaiming a bunch of nice-sounding "help". And maybe I am, but listen to the "help" anyways, and gain hope that God is good, even if He's testing you right now.

The verse says you "need not fear when destruction comes." Life crumbles sometimes, and you will often be affected, but that statement still rings true - you don't have to be afraid. You can choose otherwise. You can ask God what the blazes He's doing. Job did. And when Job's trials were over, God blessed him with everything he had had before, and seven times more!

Image: Fotopedia