Week 9; Day 2

What an eventful day of reading! It can be extremely difficult to focus on one particular aspect when so many significant things occur. I’m going to skim through some highlights, then focus on one set of verses for us as women. First, notice that God answers ‘Why.’ He gives the reason for the offerings, sacrifices and festivals; to serve as reminders that He is Yahweh. These reminders were crucial to the Israelites' relationship with God because they did not have the privilege of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. While we do have the incredible privilege, I believe that it is important for us to take times throughout our lives to just stop and remember who He is and what He has done if our life. Did you notice that the military divisions all had banners declaring the tribe to which they belonged? The song I learned as a child, “His banner over me is love,” kept playing in my mind as I read over and over, “with their banner set out.” Jesus places His banner of love before us, declaring that we are His. That should just delight our hearts. And then the complaining begins. I shouldn’t be surprised. God has compassion on Moses having to deal with the Israelites and provides help for him, stating that he does not want Moses to bear the burden alone. Here we see, yet again, that God has created us to support, encourage and strengthen one another. We were never meant to walk this Christian journey alone. I think it’s safe to say that God had enough; “you will eat meat because you cried before the Lord: ‘who will feed us meat? We really had it good in Egypt.’ The Lord will give you meat and you will eat. You will eat, not for one day, or two days, or five days, or 10 days, or 20 days, but for a whole month-until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you….”  God was simply disgusted. Wouldn’t you be if you had sent plagues, parted the Red Sea, provided fresh water and on and on and on? You know, the New Testament says ‘be angry, but do not sin.’ We see that God becomes angry over and over with these people. Have you ever considered that it is our emotion of anger that spurs us to action? We should become rightly angered at wrongs and injustice. The difference between unrighteous anger and righteous anger is the reaction. Do we react with mean hatred and vengfullness or are we spurred to Godly action? This attribute of God that we see played out in His relationship to the Israelites should teach us about what it means to be angry, but not sin; what it means is to have righteous anger. When our emotion of anger is filtered through His Spirit, we are spurred to right action. When it is filtered through our flesh, we react wrongly. Blowing up at my kids is not from God. Seeing another believer act wrongly, for example, causes a response of ‘that is wrong’ and will lead me to speak the truth in love. Please do not misread this to mean a self-righteousness. It is ok, though, for us to expect believers to act the way they are supposed to act. Notice I said believers. Lost people do lost things. The greatest example of righteous anger is Christ who over threw the tables in the temple. We have a passionate God who has place His passion within us. We must make sure, however, that we are not trying to live as someone’s Holy Spirit. This calls for further discussion and explanation. Let’s move on, however. Miriam becomes jealous. Oh heavens, another jealous woman. I know you may argue that Aaron joined her, but he was really drug along. We see this due to Miriam being the only one who received punishment. Notice that she uses his wife against him to cover her jealousy of his position of authority. How is that for manipulation? How often do we try to manipulate in the same way? We try to mask our real feelings with something that might make us sound good, righteous, justified. We really need to learn to stop and ask God to examine our motives before we go spouting something off or taking some sort of action. We are only 4 books into the Bible and how many women have shown us this importance? This wisdom would save us so much grief. As women, one of our greatest battles is this of manipulation and deceitfulness. It takes a conscious effort to take something to God first, but we must surrender our thinking to Him. The Lord knew their accusation and said of him, ‘Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.’ Again, God’s anger raged against them and Miriam had to live with the consequences. We see God say in this passage that He speaks to Moses directly. How incredible it would have been to know that you were the one person on earth that God spoke directly with. We might become prideful if that had been one of us, but Moses understood who he was before a Holy God. Then the spies scout out the land. Only two return with faith that God would lead them to victory. Again, they have forgotten. The other spies focus on the insurmountable task rather than their all powerful God who had proven Himself time and time again. I end today with a challenge. Make personal Psalm 90: 12,14 and commit it to memory; “Teach me to number my days carefully so that I may develop wisdom in my heart…satisfy me in the morning with Your faithful love so that I may shout for joy and be glad all my days.”  

Week 9; Day 1

Numbers 1-9
We are actually going to pick up some of last week’s reading due to beginning the book of Numbers last week. Today, I want to discuss some aspects of these first few chapters of Numbers that seem confusing. First, we see God direct a census for the purpose of organizing the people. The tribe of the Levites was set aside to serve as priests, and they were further “divided into family groups for purposes of assigning the jobs of ministry.” Just as we discussed last week in the book of James that God calls us to remain unspotted or unstained from the world, the issue of cleanness and uncleanness was central to God’s directives. The issue of clean vs. unclean was not necessarily a matter of sin for the Israelites. For example, women who had delivered a baby were considered unclean for a one week period of time. What God declared unclean was primarily to serve as reminders of “their humanness in the presence of a pure and holy God.” Further, in these first few chapters of Numbers, specific attention is given to vows, particularly marriage vows and the Nazirite vow. The instructions and consequences seem a little odd, just keep in mind that the purpose was about faithfulness. Nazirites were individuals who were called to a period of faithfulness for a specific purpose. The term Nazirite means “to consecrate,” “to separate.” Their purpose was different from that of the Levites and their consecration was typically only for a short period of time, rather than a lifelong commitment. As we continue through our Old Testament reading, we will read examples of Nazirites who were called to a lifelong vow. While we can’t specifically apply the calling of Nazirites to us today, we can learn important principles of faithfulness. In both the marriage vow and the Nazirite vow, the expectation was complete commitment. Again, don’t get lost in the specifics, but draw wisdom from the principles.

Week 8 Summarized

Leviticus 11-27; Numbers 1-5
I have chosen to combine the remainder of this week because there is one overarching theme; our holiness because of God’s holiness. There is a verse in the New Testament that summarizes the principle of holiness that we discussed yesterday; James 1:27 states, “Pure and undefiled religion (worship) before our God and Father is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained (or unspotted) by the world.” Do any words sound familiar from our reading in Leviticus? Pure, undefiled. The heart of the law is to Love God supremely, to love other with His love and to live a life that is set apart. The law is not rigid rules, but instructions on how the Israelites were to love God and love their neighbor; how to live as God' set apart people. James puts this all into one thesis statement. He says that loving our neighbor means taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves, those who are abandoned and without hope; loving with the compassionate love of Christ. Secondly, our calling is to live as God’s holy, set apart people. James is telling us what that looks like.  All of the exhausting laws point to one principle; living as God’s holy people. This truth and call is the same for us today. James simply states that we are to live “unstained” by the world. Our choices, actions, attitudes, relationships, thinking, desires; they are all to pure. That sounds like an impossible task. Yet, it is still our call; to be holy because He is holy. Why? To declare His glory to those who do not know Him. In the Old Testament, they accomplished this seemingly impossible task by following the law. The law was their teacher. Today, as New Testament believers, we have the very Spirit of God as our Helper who transforms us, molds us, teaches us. He has called us with a high and holy calling, but has not left us on our own. Our Creator, Father and Redeemer has not left us on our own, but graciously given to us All that we need to live out His calling. We must get into the mindset and habit of measuring ourselves against God’s standard and not the world’s. We will never see the stains of the world if we measure ourselves against the world. I believe that is a trap of Satan; if we look at our lives compared to the world around us we feel pretty good about ourselves. Our life is not about being better than those around us, it is about honoring the God who made us and redeemed us.

There is a set a verses that I want you to etch on your heart from this week; Leviticus 26:12-13.
“I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt (their bondage was slavery; our bondage was slavery to sin), so that (for the purpose of) you would no longer be their slaves. I broke (crushed) the bars of your yoke (bondage) and enable you to live in freedom.” Just stop and let this soak into your heart. As women, we so often walk back to our bondage. We cry out as the Israelites, saying that life was better in slavery. Let us not go back to that place of guilt and bondage. Let us walk in His freedom; not a freedom to live as we please, for that is only a false freedom. Paul declares in the New Testament that “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Christ has crushed your bondage, live in the freedom He has given you.

Week 8; Day 1

Leviticus 11-14
There are two sets of verses that I want to focus on for today’s reading. Beginning at the end, take a look at Leviticus 14:18-20; “In this way the priest will make atonement for him before the Lord. The priest must sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his uncleanness…..The priest will make atonement for him and he will be clean.” Read that again, “and he will be clean.” These verses cry out to us our Messiah, the one who was our sin offering, our sacrifice and our High Priest. Think about that: Jesus was our sacrifice and our Priest. Jesus not only went before the Lord on my behalf to make atonement for me, He gave Himself as my sin sacrifice. He gave Himself as the sin offering to make atonement and as a result, I am declared clean. Ladies, we are not just forgiven. Our guilt is removed. “Before the Lord” means in the presence of the Lord; in the presence of God Most High, I am clean. The instructions for the Old Testament sacrificial system should make us so much more deeply grateful to our Savior. Our salvation is greater than forgiveness. It is the removal of guilt; it is the covering of my uncleanness and being declared clean, pure. “He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
2 Corinthians 5:21

Now let’s go back to Chapter 11 and read verses 44-45; “For I am Yahweh your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves…For I am Yahweh, who brought you out of the Land of Egypt to be your God, so you must be holy because I am holy.”  Our salvation was not a get out of hell free card. We entered into a covenant with God. He is our God and we are to live as His set apart people. I am not talking about a conditional love from God. However, just as the Israelites were called to dedicate their lives to abiding in a life that honors God, so are we; “You were bought with a  price, therefore honor God in your life and heart which are His.” I have to share this with you that just blows my mind. “Therefore honor” means “to adorn or clothe oneself with splendor, to impart His glory, to render Him excellent, to make Him renowned, to cause His dignity and worth to become manifested and acknowledged.” Do you see the implications here? This is not some duty driven relationship. We were brought out of our slavery, to display His splendor, declaring Him to the world. Can you imagine? My life imparts the glory and excellence of God? I am speechless. We so often misread “be holy because I am holy” as a conditional statement. We think of God as this payback kind of God; I did this for you so you have to do this for me.” No. Jesus’ sin offering, sacrificed on my behalf, declares me pure and right before God. Now I have the incredible calling of adorning the splendor of the Holy God who bought me with the blood of His Son. I am speechless. Being holy is not declaring yourself holy; that is self-righteousness. It is God declaring you holy. In Leviticus, God says to “be holy, for I am holy.” ‘Be’ is a term that means to exist, abide, remain, continue, stand.” Living a life worthy of imparting His glory, declaring His excellence, making Him renowned, is only possible through abiding in His Spirit. There is no room here for the misunderstanding that I can decide that I am holy. Only by Him and through Him does my life declare the glory of God.

Week 7; Days 3-6

The reading from days 3 through 6 begin the instructions given by God to Moses for the Israelites to live as His set apart people. All of this effort was so that God’s presence could be among His people. Keep in mind that God takes this time period of approximately one year to mold these newly freed slaves into His people. They need this time to remove from their lifestyle the pagan practices of Egypt and to prepare themselves not to take on the pagan practices of the Canaanites. There is an important principle to learn. We are no different from the Israelites. At the moment of our salvation, we are like slaves freed from captivity; captivity in sin. I don’t want to miss-apply here but we see that even in the life of the apostle Paul, that he took about two years after his conversion, before he set out on his ministry, to allow God to teach him and mold him. We must realize that in our captivity we learned ideas and adopted habits that we must shed and in our relationship with Christ, we still live in this world. We must allow God to mold us, shedding the former things we adopted in our slavery to sin and prepare to live as His set apart people among the lost world.

A recurring theme occurs during the reading for these days. It is that of atonement, “the priest will make atonement on his behalf for the sin he has committed and he will be forgiven.” We see that the sin offering was assigned to “take away the guilt….” We cannot grasp the atonement of Christ in the New Testament, without understanding the sacrificial system of the Old Covenant. The cross of Christ cannot be reduced to forgiveness. Don’t hear me wrong, we are forgiven, but do you realize that we are only forgiven because Christ death was our atonement? The word atonement means “to cover the sin, to make reconciliation.” Just as the sacrificial alter was covered with the blood of a clean animal to make reconciliation between God and the individual, the blood of Christ covers our sin to reconcile us to God. We can only be forgiven because we are covered and reconciled. His blood atones us. We are forgiven and no longer stand guilty as sinners before God. Did you catch that? Your guilt is removed.  Leviticus 10:17 says that the sin offering was sacrificed to “take away the guilt” which is also stated in other translations “to bear the iniquity.” Please don’t miss the beauty of these words. They mean, in the literal translation, “to lift oneself up to take the punishment for guilt.” God gave us Christ as the sin offering on our behalf. Read this verse, “For it is most holy and he gave it to you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement on their behalf before the Lord” in light of the New Covenant, “For He is most holy and He gave Him to you to bear your iniquity to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord.” Jesus is our once and for all sin offering; He gave Himself on my behalf. May we stop trying to earn God’s favor, may we stop living in our guilt and accept Christ’s covering. Before God, I stand reconciled, free from guilt and wholly forgiven.

Week 7; Day 2

Exodus 33-36
First, I cannot help but point our Exodus 33:11; “The Lord spoke with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with a friend. We will read further along in today’s reading that Moses is not allowed to see God face to face again. However, just stop for a moment and think about this: just as a man speaks with a friend. All of this that we are reading is about this one truth; God seeks a relationship with me, personally. His love is not general but personal. Soak that reality into your heart. This has been one of the most difficult things for me to accept as a daughter of the Most High. As we continue with today’s reading, there are 3 principles to be learned from this passage:

1. Do not Go without God
2. Give from the Heart
3. Work with God-given Skills

Moses says, in 33:15, “If Your presence does not go, don’t make us go up from here.” Moses refuses to go without God. How often do we seek to do something for God rather than seek God Himself? How often do we take off headlong into something, even a good thing, without God? This scenario with Moses is about him taking the children of Israel up the mountain into the promised land. Moses already knows that this is God’s plan. Yet, he will still not go unless God is with them. Sisters, it does not matter how good something is, even the good things we do for God; if we move forward without Him, it will not be for His glory. Did you catch that in verse 16? Moses did not want to go without God because He would not be glorified. That is a true heart of submission and humbleness; a heart that seeks only the glory of God. If we are honest with ourselves, jumping into a “good thing” for God is sometimes actually for ourselves rather than for Him. Most importantly, we learn here that we cannot move forward in God’s plan without God Himself. I pray that we all come to the place where we stop and say, “If Your presence does not go with me, I will not go.”

Let’s move forward a few chapters to Leviticus 35-36. “Everyone whose heart was moves and whose spirit prompted him came and brought an offering to the Lord…..Both men and women came; all who had a willing heart….all the men and women whose hearts prompted them to bring something for all the work that the Lord had commanded to be done.” Giving is a part of our expression of obedience and submission to God that tends to become very legalistic. A very important truth we see here is that giving is from the heart. Our time, skills and gifts that we give to God are based on our relationship with Him. We give because our heart, out of love for Him and the guidance of His Spirit, has prompted us to do so. Yet, how often do we give from a duty driven, guilt ridden obligation? For the Israelites, it was an act of worship. These verses give us a beautiful example of what it means to give to God from the heart. Did you notice the result? Giving from the heart caused an over-abundance of giving and as a result, Moses had to tell them to stop giving! Now that is incredible. The important truth here is that when we are living in that personal relationship with God that He desires, He will prompt us and move us to give. The point is not what we give, but the way we give. Such a simple truth, but one we so often miss.

Finally, one of my most favorite verses in this week’s reading: “He has filled them with skill to do all the work…” I wrote briefly about this yesterday. To expand on the truth, read 36:1; “all the skilled people are to work based on everything the Lord commanded. The Lord has given them wisdom and understanding to know how to do all the work….” Sound a little like spiritual gifts taught in the New Testament? Ask yourself, what am I skilled in doing? And don’t say nothing! Have you stopped to consider that it is God you filled you with that skill so that you can complete His work? Just as the Israelites were skilled to build His sanctuary, we are skilled to build His church and kingdom. We are not gifted with our talents and abilities for our own enjoyment but for His work. This does not imply that we are all called to the ministry or that we are to leave our jobs to work for God. This truth is simply that the things you are good at are given to you for Him. There is a place in His church and kingdom work where you are needed or the construction cannot be completed.

Week 7; Day 1

Exodus 29-32
Much of this week’s reading is mundane to say the least. However, if you hang in there you will discover some breath-taking truths. My heart was absolutely blown away at a set of verses on this day. Before I get to them, let me quickly give a little hint on reading these chapters: try to find the phrases that give the meaning and purpose to all of the seemingly pointless details. This is where we discover truth and beauty; “And they will know that I am Yahweh their God,” “so that I might dwell among them,” “so that you will know that I am Yahweh who sets you apart,” “stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God,” “and I know you by name.” Don’t get lost in the reading and miss the significance! Now to the passage that has my heart beating with joy; 31:1-7. Go back are read these verses, noticing (and if you are like me, marking) the key phrases. By name, God filled a specific man with His spirit, wisdom, understanding and skill “in order to make all that I have commanded.” Honestly, I am blown away. God had just given a long line of detailed instructions. Then He chose a man to carry them out. Ladies, it is God who gives us our abilities and they are given to us for His purpose, not our own. How can we miss this. We read that we are His creation, His masterpiece but we miss that our skills and abilities are God given and they are given for the specific purpose of using them for Him. Who we are is for a reason….read this again, just one more time: “ by name….I have filled him with God’s Spirit, with wisdom, with understanding and with ability in every craft…in order to….” Who you are is who He specifically, by name, created you to be in order to….

Week 6: Day 3

Exodus 14-18

Today, another ‘why’ question is answered: why would God harden Pharaoh’s heart? Twice in the first chapter, God repeats His reason; so the He would be glorified by means of Pharaoh. I suspect God enjoys a little irony and this just makes me love Him that much more. Talk about proving Himself. He uses a great enemy to display His name. I must also point out a beautiful verse; Exodus 14:14. There may have been some exasperation in Moses’ voice since it’s stated on the heels of Israel’s whining.  However, listen to this: “The Lord will fight for you; you must be quiet.” I honestly think that we as women are just a whole lot like the Israelites. What do we do when things seem to be going wrong? Our spirit and emotions get all worked up. Talk about turmoil in our hearts. We become panicked basket-cases! God just sent all these plagues, they are out of slavery, yet are already worked up into a tizzy. I guess they thought things would go perfectly smooth. And if we are honest, we are the same way. What we see here is the epitome of what I like to call circumstance based faith; trust in God when all is good and doubt when things aren’t so good. Go back one verse to 14:13. I wonder what kind of faith we would display and carry if we would just be still and be quiet? I don’t mean physically or verbally. I mean within our spirit and mind. Just be quiet. “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and see the Lord’s salvation He will provide for you today…” He is our God and Savior every day. He did not just come to rescue us from an eternity separated from Him. We live our lives as if we check in at salvation, check back out and then check back in again at death. He is not just Savior, He is Lord. And He is crying out to us, “just let Me fight for you.” “Just stop it. Stop trying to figure it out. Stop trying to manipulate things to be the way you want. Stop. And start trusting that just as I have been faithful to you in the past, I will continue to be faithful.” Israel was His people and He would not abandon them. You are His and He will not abandon you. May we stop allowing life to determine the faith we hold in our God.

Week 6; Day 2

Exodus 10-13

Two incredible acts of Almighty God are witnessed in today’s reading; the Passover and the Pillar.  The Israelites started off with obedience. Take a look at Exodus 12:28. We will read tomorrow that this obedience did not continue. What amazes me about this is that they saw even greater acts of God, as if these two weren’t enough for God to prove Himself, but they begin to doubt and whine and disobey. Let’s save that conversation for tomorrow. I want to quickly point out the importance for us to keep in mind the significance of the Passover meal and the death angel. We will refer back to this throughout our reading, all the way into the New Testament. This is a prime example of needing to know the entire story of redemption. We cannot fully understand the new covenant without understanding this pivotal event. Today, I want to focus our attention on one verse tucked in our reading; Exodus 11:7, “so that you may know that Yahweh makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.” As we have read and will continue to read, God creates very specific rules and guidelines. This verse gives us the why. It’s hard to get lost in the trees and miss the forest. Do not get lost in the mundane laws and miss the big picture. God’s entire purpose was to set His people apart as just that; His people. They were to bring glory and honor to Him. They were to be a witness of His power, His faithfulness, His love, His holiness. No, we don’t apply the law today. They are strictly Old Testament and Old Covenant. However, we have learned that when something is restated explicitly in the New Testament, it is a direct command for us today. In Romans, we are commanded to be a holy nation, a royal priesthood. My sweet girls, just as Israel was called to live a life distinct of the pagan culture around them, so are we. Just as Israel was to live displaying the glory and love and faithfulness and holiness of Almighty God, so are we. We have a holy and humbling calling, but if He is our Savior, He is also our Lord. We must live lives worthy of bearing His name. We must live lives that proclaim Him to the lost around us. When Christ came and extended salvation to all, it was extending this command to live as God’s distinct people.

Week 6; Day 1

Because the last day of reading from last week actually began the book of Exodus, we are going to combine that day with today’s reading. The actual event of the Exodus is really the capstone of Israel. However, there were many events that led up to this miraculous event. The book begins approximately 400 years after Joseph’s death. Through the course of changes in leadership over Egypt, Joseph is forgotten. We enter at a time when Joseph is unknown by the current Pharaoh and the Israelites have multiplied to a vast number; so much so that the Pharaoh fears them. Not only are they forced into slavery for Pharaoh’s building projects (do you recall the pyramids?!), but he also orders that the Hebrew midwives kill all baby boys that are born. Incredibly they put more faith in God than their fear of Pharaoh and defied his orders. His anger pushes him to have the Egyptian soldier’s raid the Hebrew homes to kill the baby boys. There is one family that bravely hides their son for three months and here the foreshadowing begins of God’s hand on Moses’ life. After a brave act of blind faith on the part of his mother, Moses is rescued by none other than Pharaoh’s daughter. Let’s fast forward through some events to take a look at God’s patience with Moses. On more than one occasion, Moses expresses to God his fear about speaking to Pharaoh due to his speech impairment. Rather than give Moses a hard time about his fear, I’m going to focus on the grace and patience of God. Remember, forming a nation devoted to Him is entirely His plan. He is the one who has had to watch His beloved people live as slaves for 400 years. Yes, everything is in His plan and works together for His good. Do you think it brought Him joy, though? His heart must have been full of sorrow. Think of the pain and heartache of a parent who witnesses the suffering of a child. We must never forget that He is our Father and His heart towards is such. And His plan is to be culminated through this guy named Moses. As I read, I thought about something I’ve never really thought of before. His fear wasn’t necessarily going before Pharaoh but the actual speaking. I’m not going to read too much into this, but simply state the observation. Graciously, God gives Moses a mouthpiece, a spokesman, to speak on his behalf; brothers who go together before Pharaoh. God speaks to Moses, Moses speaks to Aaron and Aaron speaks to Pharaoh. There is no doubt that Aaron, as we will later read, blows it in other situations. Based on today’s reading, however, consider his submission. Moses is the revered leader whom we focus entirely upon. Aaron must have held such a willing servants heart. He claimed no right to lead the people since he, after all, was actually the one who spoke to Pharaoh. He sought no praise, no accolades. I wonder if I would have held such a spirit if I had been in the same situation. I wonder if I do hold such a spirit when I am in the same situations; those times when I’m called to do the behind the scenes work or the mundane or the unseen. Moses found strength from the presence of his brother and Aaron was thankful to be a part of the God’s plan. I wonder if there are any parallel’s we could learn from this? God is gracious enough to understand our humanity, our fears. Moses was honest enough to admit his fear. Aaron was humble enough to be a vessel that dispelled those fears. Aaron understood that it wasn’t about what job he had, but that God’s plan be fulfilled.

Week 5: A Look at the man Job

When the reading for last week and this week began, I was very hesitant. As I’ve shared with you, Job has never been a favorite book of mine. However, as I’ve studied over the past two weeks, it has become evident how much wisdom lies in this book. Job is undoubtedly a book about wisdom, not suffering. This book is a glimpse into the vast gulf between God’s wisdom and man’s. Further, we see that all too often, we as the created live with an arrogant notion that we have the things of God figured out. Job himself shows us the posture we should have towards God, Creator of all things. I have to say that my favorite words from Job are when he finally tells his friends to “shut up.” I’m glad he finally says what I had been thinking. What I appreciate most about Job is that he admitted his confusion about his circumstance but he absolutely did not waiver in what He knew to be true about God. His feelings did not override his faith. Job knew that he had an acceptable relationship with God and he did not allow the opinions of his friends to cause doubt in his mind. Think of how weak and frail he would have been. It is when we are at our weakest that Satan wears us out. Yet, Job shows us that remaining confident and steadfast is possible even in the worst of situations. This book began by describing this man as one with perfect integrity and he proves as much to be true. What we can learn from Job is that when our relationship is based simply upon our love for God Himself, and not based on the blessings of God, we will remain faithful. We will understand who we are and who He is, with the result being a humble heart that simply trusts. In the end, after God had spoken for Himself and shut the mouths of those who tried to speak for Him, Job simply says there were no words he could speak before God. This book is not a prescription for the why questions of suffering. This is a book showing us the difference between being religious and being righteous. This book should stir in our hearts a desire to have a heart and attitude like Job.