(Job 23:10) But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
As we enter another year of life we wonder “what does it hold for us?” We make plan and try to prepare for upcoming events and also to allow for the “unexpected”. But as we have found this last year and years prior to that one, things do not always go the way we want and the “unexpected” can knock us completely off coarse for a little while or even change our life radically.
Job experienced the epitome of the “unexpected” and suffering. No one has suffered the way Job did during his days of trial. Oh, some may say they have, but I seriously doubt any have. In one day Job lost all his wealth and all his children, yet he retained his integrity and faith in God. Later he lost his health and sat upon an ash heap (probably a place for the diseased outside the city) and in his loneliness he scrapped his sores with a broken piece of pottery. He was probably forced to live outside the home because of his diseased body and his wife came and asked him why he did not just curse God and stop his immediate suffering through death. But Job still maintained his faith in God and refused to be captured by his situation.
In our text, Job says that God knows the way we take and that the trials we go through will bring us to greater faith and to God’s glory – providing we are exercised by it. The writer of Hebrews speaks of this – “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” He speaks of chastening which the idea of is to bring about good results in the one being tested (chastened), just as in Job’s case. All too often people are not exercised by the “unexpected” things in life – those tragedies or trials and they become bitter or angry or accusing (to God).
We do not know what lies in the future for us and God knows that so He invites us to commit our way unto Him and trust Him in all the “unknowns’ and “unexpecteds” of life. Job wondered why he was suffering the way he was and he searched if there was any sin in him, but he could not find any, so he retained his righteousness. His friends tried to make him believe that these type things only happen to people because of sin, yet as we read the book of Job, we know that is not true. Job was a scientific experiment if you will. If one puts forth an hypothesis, then it is put through all kinds of tastings to see if it is true or not. It may pass one set of tests and numerous others, but if it fails in one, then it is not considered true. God declared Job to be righteous and upright and faithful to Him. The devil suggested a series of tests to prove God’s hypothesis of Job to be wrong. After all the tests, God’s hypothesis was proved true and Job was restored to his former health, finances and family.
The Hebrew word for future is the word also for “backward” which goes counter to all the commencement addresses calling for students to march into the future. But they had it right and we wrong. We cannot see going backward and so God says, “Put your hand in Mine and trust Me for the future.” Someone once said, “Faith in God is better than a known way.” And so it is. Trust God for this New Year and allow him to be your Guide and Stay whether the way be rough or smooth; whether it be rich or poor, whether it be healthy or diseased, trust Him and let Him be your Guide and mostly your Savior if you have not done that yet.