Job 29:1 – Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,

Job 29:2 – Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

Job 29:3 – When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;

Job 29:4 – As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;

Job 29:5 – When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;

Job 29:6 – When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;

Job 29:7 – When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!

Hello readers, hope you are all safe and sound, and it’s new blog time today. Why can’t we just go back to normal? This is what Job longed for, the normality of life, the good old days… when things were going great. How applicable is this to the context of the days we live in! Coronavirus has been a theme of many of my recent blogs, that’s because this virus which has spread throughout the world has changed our lives. It’s hard to believe that a few weeks back life was just pretty normal here in Australia.

Job had had a pretty good run in life… see there were days when God preserved him. There were days when God was with him (and he still was!). Job spoke of a time when his children were about him. Job wanted to go back in time to when things were better… happy days, better days. Of course these verses are taken from the midst of the book of Job, where Job’s life had been turned upside down, he feels he doesn’t know God anymore, he’s trying to figure out why this is happening to him. He figures he hasn’t done anything to deserve this, and struggles to reconcile the circumstances with the justice and goodness of God. Where’s God in this? He knew God was somewhere in this, but he couldn’t figure God’s action or inaction out. Satan has always made man question God’s goodness, God’s character. Things happen in life that seem so unfair, so unjust, so unequal… how can the sovereign Lord allow it? Our human understanding is so limited.

But man it’d be nice to go back to when things were hunky dory. Of course Job is so much better than we are. We long for a time when things were great when we were doing what we wanted to do. He just simply longed to go back to when he was right with God and things were great. You know, your life can go upside down and you still be right with God. He was trying to figure out and understand things only God knows. And through this he was realizing there was more to God than he knew, God was revealing himself to Job through real life circumstances. God wants to draw us to himself. We discussed in a recent blog, when trouble came… that God may use trouble to get our attention, that God may throw everything upside down, and it is in these times often that we do the most growing. Normal is not always the best for us. And if your normal is a life in sin, a life that rejects Christ… that’s not a normal any of us need to get back to in a hurry.

In chapter 3, we see Job longing for escape, wishing he had never been born. When things happen in our lives, we look for escape. But sometimes God gets us cornered so we have to deal. Pilate tried escaping by washing his hands of a decision that was his to make. Escape is a natural human response to adversity or to facing up to consequences of our actions. God let Israel get cornered at the Red Sea… and look what it dredged out. They started pouring out their despair on Moses, and what was really in their hearts, their unbelief came tumbling out. We can come down a bit hard on Job, but the more we read this book, the more incredible this man is… none of us would do half as well as he did in the absolute storm of life. It was Job’s Euroclydon! But God took him through, and you can have that same God Job had. A God that delivers in even the toughest corner of life. He’s the same God today as he was back then. Even though Job thought that the God of the good times was what he wanted, at this point in time he didn’t realize that he is also the God of the bad times…. God was just as much with Job in this trial as he ever was. Just Job couldn’t see yet.

Oh that I were as in months past! Are you despairing for the good old days? Man those good times, we take them for granted. How many people in hell are going to long for the good old days? The days when they could’ve so easily believed on Jesus Christ. The days when God was good to them while they despised him with every breath. The days were God didn’t interrupt their unrepentant lives. The days where they had the breath and health to do whatever they wanted. We take so much for granted. Count your blessings the saying goes. We often don’t realize what he had until it’s gone. We can so easily take for granted things that matter. From health to God’s protection to God’s grace to living in a free country. The thing is, Job puts us to shame. He didn’t take them for granted, we see him at the start of the book being very mindful of God, not forgetting God. Job wasn’t tried because he was so bad, he was tried because he was so good. He was a faithful man, he obeyed God, he put God first. Satan really thought he could corrupt him, but turns out God’s grace that was with Job is incorruptible!

Why can’t we just go back to normal? Maybe for you it’s for your best not to. Maybe your normal life is leading you to hell. Maybe this is God’s providence in your life, a timely wake up call. We are all sinners. We all need to be saved. That’s man’s need… man needs Jesus Christ. Yet man so easily passes on the free gift of salvation. We have so many things to thank God for, the Bible says to remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Youth is a precious thing, the Bible says let no man despise his youth. Don’t waste those good years, those best years… on yourself. Because that is a waste. Remember God. Daniel PURPOSED in his heart not to defile himself with the king’s meat. He was a young guy, he could’ve easily rejected God, and could’ve felt justified based on his circumstances.

What was happening to Job wasn’t because he had sinned, it wasn’t because he deserved it, it wasn’t God getting even with him… but here he was trying to figure it all out. Imagine losing your cattle, your kids, your health. That’s a raw deal for someone doing right. He was trying to figure out why do I cop this while the Sabeans have my cattle and are fine. All the bad people in the world getting by… and I’m serving God and my life is ruined and I’m in pain. God is great and God is sovereign, but I don’t get him. How can this be just, how can this be fair? Is it better to justify myself or to justify God? That’s why Elihu got upset at Job. But Job came to the conclusion… it’d be better for me to be dead. He didn’t deny who God was, but he just didn’t understand God. Man can’t understand God in his own strength, in his own thinking, in his own philosophy… God’s so far above his creation. Get in his word and get to know him. He’s worthy of your fear and of your praise… irrespective of whether you have boils or not. This book is real life, Job was doing it tough.

So once again, it’s difficult to do Job’s life justice in a short blog post! We are endeavoring to go through his life, and as chronologically as much as possible. But there’s so much God has for us all throughout this book, just as with the whole Bible. But remember, the Bible points us to Jesus Christ. Job was longing for a time when he was right with God. You know, being right with God is the most valuable thing you can have in this life. It’s worth everything. You don’t see Job longing to have his cattle back … but you do see him desperately trying to find where God is in this. Job didn’t understand how it was all fair, or just, or anything, it was completely doing his head in trying to understand and rationalize his circumstances out. And he wasn’t getting much help from his friends. But Job did long to be right with his Creator again. We should long to be right with our Creator. It’d be horrible to live a long and normal and successful life… but never be saved. Don’t wake up in hell to eternal regret and remorse. You don’t have to be part of the “if only” and “too late” crowd. You can be right with God now, and come hell or high water in your life… that, HE, will carry you through the other side.

You may be longing for the normality of days past. But maybe you need to stop looking past and look to what God has for you in this. He wants you to be saved, to believe on his Son, Jesus Christ the righteous. And there is a light at the end of the tunnel in this coronavirus for those that trust in God… no matter how dark the tunnel, just as dark as this tunnel of Job’s life was… there was light at the end. Job said when by his light I walked through darkness… this is incredible. You can have light to walk the darkness. You can believe on Jesus Christ and by faith abide in him. Jesus will never leave you or forsake you if you get saved, there will be no disappointment, the water of life that he gives will never run out on you. A normal life… maybe you need true life, maybe you need eternal life. Maybe you need a new normal, a better normal. A “normal life” without Christ is not one worth going back to. Hopefully this latest happening makes you realize you need something more, something eternal, you need the Lord Jesus Christ. With him it only gets better, and it goes forever, there will never be a regret and looking back to better days with him. If you’re in darkness, if you see that you are in darkness, there is light for you to walk by, and that light is Jesus Christ, who he is and what he says in his word. He is the light of the world. Make him your normal by faith, and that will be forever.

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