As another year ends and we get set to embark on 2024, we’re reminded that time marches relentlessly on. Yet thankfully, God has given us a book filled with timeless wisdom to help us navigate our journey. Over the next few weeks, we will overview the books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon to harness some much-needed godly wisdom for 2024.
We start today with Job. I think of this book as a series of boxing matches, all of which, except one, are verbal. The matchups are as follows:
God v Satan (Job 1-2)
Satan v Job (Job 1-2)
Job v his 4 friends (Job 3-37)
God v Job (Job 38-41)
As you can see, poor old Job cops the brunt of the damage from everyone else! God allows Satan to destroy Job’s life and afflict his body with a horrendous disease, to prove that Job’s faith in God is legitimate. Satan thinks God must buy off his servants - people, therefore, will only trust God if God looks after them. Yet though grief-stricken over the loss of his children, shamed over the loss of his fortune, suffering from a chronic illness, with his marriage on the rocks and his friends wrongly accusing him of evil, Job refuses to curse God. He tenaciously holds onto God by faith in the worst of times, proving Satan wrong while also vindicating God’s character.
God wants us to display this kind of faith in 2024 and beyond.