Job 1:20-22
Job realized that in our feastings and frolicking that the devil can slip in, so he sent and sanctified his children after their times of feasting. He rose early and made sacrifices for all his children, worshiped, and met God on their behalf (Job 1:5). What an example for all of us who desire our children brought into fellowship with the Savior! He was passionately concerned about his children serving God and living right. On every level, it appears as if Job kept a level head. He stayed on level ground. How we need to stay on level ground today. He realistically faced the thought that his children could also mess up, so he constantly prayed for them. He bore them up on wings of prayer.
Church of God, we must pray for the children without ceasing! How they need God, especially in these last times. The enemy powers of darkness are after our offspring, now more than ever. It is our earnest desire that this glorious heritage given to us, continues and lives on through them. Like Job, we will never stop praying for them. Verse 5 informs us “… Thus did Job continually.” There are some traditions that we must never let die and this is one of them – Pray for the children continually!
Job stayed on the straight and narrow. We desperately need some upright men and women in the church today, some God-fearers, some level-headed people, that even when the Almighty blesses them, they stay grounded, remain focused, and maintain their ways before Him. The fact is, when some begin to be blessed, they become giddy and lose their way. Instead of drawing nearer to God, they drift. They do not seem to be able to handle being blessed. In Job’s case, the more he was blessed, the more he practiced piety. He maintained faithfulness. He continued in holiness. He kept up religion. He made time for God. He developed his spirituality. He communicated with His maker. I find it most intriguing that Job was rich and righteous!
God was able to trust Job. Job learnt how to handle the blessings. Maybe we need to make a covenant with God that if riches increase, we will not set our hearts upon them (Psalm 62:10) – that we will be just as faithful, that we will tithe just as before, that we will continue to pray, that we will not leave the church and act proud, that we will keep an altar, that we will still humbly worship and even more – when we are blessed. It is so evident that the blessings all come from Him anyhow. Keep in mind that proud people are never blessed by Him; they are resisted (1 Peter 5:5). Could it be, that Job received God’s attention, for no matter how he was blessed, he continually honored the Blesser? He was blessed with prosperity beyond measure and the more he blessed God, is the more God favored him. The blessings of the Lord were never designed to make us absurdly proud and conceited.
It cannot be overlooked however, that it is somewhat easy to bless God when all is favorable and going our ways. It is easy to get along with us when all goes well. We can all have church in a well-favored environment. The question is, how do we respond when we are challenged, and all is taken away from us. There came a time when the enemy moved against all Job had, to prove the point, that Job was just opportunistic, shallow, and calculatingly self-serving; that he served God only for the material benefits he received. Therefore, he came against his livestock, his possessions, his substance, and his sustenance. He inundated him with trouble, trials, tribulations and torment. He disturbed him with bankruptcy, bereavement, and boils. He invaded him with discouragement, disaster, and destruction of every kind. He sent messenger after messenger with bad news after bad news to somehow break and completely obliterate his name and memory.
However, in all this we see a Job, who refuses to bow or break. Instead of folding under and giving up, Scriptures declare “Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and worshiped… In all this Job sinned not or charged God foolishly” (Job 1:20-22). He proves that we can indeed have church in the most adverse of circumstances. We serve Him in sunshine and in rain. We serve Him in prosperity and in serious adversity, when all is well and when our fortunes drastically change, we resolve to love and serve Him. This we will do even in these most trying times. Hardships do not destabilize us!
Leroy V. Greenaway
Regional Bishop – Northeast Region
October 15, 2022
