SCRIPTURE: Job 24
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
They may be allowed to live in security, but God is always watching them. [Job 24:23]
Well put, Job, this is really what seems to go on in the world!
All over the world there are examples of injustice, oppression, violence and crime against people.
We live in a cruel, messed up world; we may enjoy a bubble of relative security here in the west, but most of the world does not enjoy this bubble.
In many places around the world, many people can echo Job’s frustration – why does God allow this to go on????
And yet, interestingly, many of them also share Job’s hope, that they know God is watching, and one day!!!!
Faith and hope in God is not declining in these cruel environments, people are clinging to the Lord for hope!
Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father. [Matthew 18:10]
Jesus’ warning stands today, a warning to every person taking advantage of or cruelly treating any of God’s “little ones”.
The poor workers, the women without rights, the vulnerable young boys and girls, the disadvantaged and the weak.
God is always watching them; their angels are always “reporting” their actions to the Father (a figure of speech meaning that God sees and knows all).
The frustration of Job is shared by many – why does God not do something, why does He et the wicked get away with it!
But the hope of Job is also shared by many – just wait, one day God will put things right.
He sees, He knows, He cares!
The idea that God is always watching can have a double affect.
For those who are oppressed or struggling or desperate, it is a message of hope.
For those who are committing the crimes that oppress others, it is a message of warning.
What affect does this idea have for me – does it give me courage, or make me nervous?
God is not a heartless judge, looking for people to mess up so He can punish them.
He is our heavenly Father, He wants more than anything else to love and bless and enjoy us as His children.
But sometimes what He sees in us makes Him sad, and sometimes it makes Him mad.
And sometimes it makes Him glad.
Knowing that God loves me, and is watching me, I want to make Him glad – not mad, not sad.
PRAYER:
Lord, I know there are things in my life that make You glad, sad and mad! I know You are watching, that You will work things out in the end. Until then, help me to want to do the things that make You glad most of all!
In this reading I am reminded of the hymn
‘that though the wrong is oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.’
The poor seem to get poorer and no one has regard for them. The wicked do their schemes at night thinking that no one sees them. But God is the Ruler and His eyes are on all of our ways – the poor, the wicked, the righteous. One day all will comes before Him face to face and He will ask ‘Did you hear my voice?’ Do this and live. If we listened in our broken ways he will tell us to enter His kingdom but if not then . . .
God is the Ruler yet. Serve Him.
Help me this day to work in Your vineyard Lord. Direct my feet so I will walk in Your SonShine. Help me this day to be an instrument of peace. GodStrong.
This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.
This is my Father’s world, dreaming, I see His face.
I ope my eyes, and in glad surprise cry, “The Lord is in this place.”
This is my Father’s world, from the shining courts above,
The Beloved One, His Only Son,
Came—a pledge of deathless love.
This is my Father’s world, should my heart be ever sad?
The lord is King—let the heavens ring. God reigns—let the earth be glad.
This is my Father’s world. Now closer to Heaven bound,
For dear to God is the earth Christ trod.
No place but is holy ground.
This is my Father’s world. I walk a desert lone.
In a bush ablaze to my wondering gaze God makes His glory known.
This is my Father’s world, a wanderer I may roam
Whate’er my lot, it matters not,
My heart is still at home.