Day 307- Today we are reading chapters 37-39 of Job/Iyov.

Day 305- Today we are reading chapters 31-33 of Job/Iyov.

• 
  Edie Ellingson
  November 1, 2019 at 9:40 am  /

  I couldn’t stop reading this morning. The words of Elihu are stirring things within me that I need to examine further. These chapters beg to be read over and over again. To have a heart without pride and rebellion but rather filled with wisdom and compassion is what I desire. It is so easy to fall prey in the snares set by the enemy, not seeing until I am already caught. I know the “solution” – confessing on my face – but wouldn’t it just be nice to avoid the trap altogether?

Day 298- Today we are reading chapters 10-12 of Job/Iyov.

• 
  Edie Ellingson
  October 25, 2019 at 9:40 am  /

  I am starting to see a small seed of pride within Job. He keeps talking about how good he is, and how perfectly he obeys Yehovah, how he doesn’t deserve what is being inflicted on him. I can relate to a degree. Not that I am good or obey perfectly but I have felt at times that I didn’t deserve what was being laid on me. It’s an easy lie to tell oneself.

  • 
    Dawn Marie McAlister
    October 27, 2019 at 9:08 am  /

    I don’t know that telling ourselves we “don’t deserve” something is necessarily a lie. I don’t believe that everyone who suffers deserves it. Let’s face it, God was bragging on Job for just how good he was. As hard as this is to accept, Job was in the middle of a bet between God and the Adversary. God won, by the way. With all the complaining he STILL never cursed God. Job went too far with his complaining, but he was defending himself against the accusations of his friends. He got worked up. He still had no sin worthy of the suffering he was experiencing before the suffering. Yehovah Himself said so.

    Like Job says (& several writers of Psalms), bad people prosper while good people suffer. Life is not fair and saying that we “deserve” the bad things that happen to us because we must have some hidden sin in our lives makes us as bad as Job’s friends who were rebuked.

    When we encounter suffering in our lives or the lives of others, it is a good idea to look at whether or not we might have some sin that Yehovah is trying to bring to our attention, but if we honestly can’t find one, we need to simply accept that life isn’t fair. We can ask our Father in Heaven for release and He’s big enough to handle the complaints we have during suffering.

    And if we do take those complaints too far, He will correct us, but the correction is for the complaints during our suffering. Even at that point we shouldn’t assume that our initial suffering was due to some sin.

    • 
      Karen Baynard
      October 28, 2019 at 12:39 pm  /

      I appreciated what you wrote, Dawn Marie. The question of suffering is often a difficult one.

    • 
      Edie Ellingson
      October 29, 2019 at 1:50 am  /

      Very good points, Dawn. My statement, in my mind anyway, was more along the lines of we are all deserving of worse than sufferering but even death because we have all broken the Law. But Yehovah in His mercy gives us a way out. Being dealt situations that cause suffering is difficult to understand. Like you pointed out there are multiple scriptures that point out that blessings and difficulties fall on both the righteous and the unrighteous. I have more or less come to the point that I believe what is happening to us is not what matters but how we respond is what matters.

Day 296- Today we are reading chapters 4-6 of Job/Iyov.