Even So, I Will Hope In Him

Job 13:15
“Though He (God) slay me, yet I will hope in him;
I will maintain all my ways before Him.”
 
                If you know anything of Job’s life, you know that he lost much, yet in the end he remained faithful to God despite his circumstances, in turn being fully restored even more abundantly blessed by the Lord. During his time of trials and testing Job had difficult questions of his own for the Lord, accompanied by poor counsel from his friends and complete desertion by his own wife, yet he did not surrender to the pressures of his circumstances. We are continually faced with adversity of many kinds and we like Job, formulate our own set of questions for God and at times receive poor counsel from friends who may have good intensions, yet lack God’s perfect wisdom regarding what He is doing in and through the painful trials, hardship, and suffering in our lives. We like Job, may not understand our pain, struggle, loss, persecution, confusion, etc. but in these times we have an opportunity to seek our Lord and Savior regardless of the circumstances or the outcome.

                The author, possibly Job himself writes, “Though He (God) slay me,” meaning God has allowed some type of major suffering or adversity into his life. We know from the opening chapters of the book of Job that God had allowed Satan to test the faith of Job, yet the enemy was not allowed to personally harm him. The enemy’s intent was to so shake the faith of Job that he turns his back on the Lord, and therefore, his faith would be proven weak and of no real substance. However, as God has allowed these things to occur in the life of Job, we witness a faith challenged, but not a faith demolished – “yet I will hope (trust) in Him; I will maintain (continue) my ways before Him (God).”

                Job encounters unimaginable loss in his life, unrelenting adversity and testing of his faith, the questioning of his character by his most personal friends, and the abandonment of his own wife who is of little help to him in his time of suffering. But Job remains faithful to God as the Lord promises to remain faithful to him, even though in the end, Job still does not completely understand the purpose of all his suffering. What He does draw from this season of hardship and suffering is a greater understanding of the faithfulness and wisdom of God, who watches over his life, even though he feels “slain” by life’s circumstances. We also may enter into seasons in our lives where by faith we must simply say, “Though God slay me - though He has allowed such difficulty, pain, hardship, loss and adversity in my life, I will continue to trust Him, to walk with Him, and to allow Him to continue to mold and shape me for His glory and purposes.”

                Even through our suffering, God is showing His great love toward us, just as He did in sending Jesus to suffer a horrible death on the cross for our sins in order to redeem us. Out of great suffering in our lives, times of pain, and times of what feel are crushing blows, God is working to reap in us the fruits of righteousness along with a stronger, deeper faith in Him. A faith that says, “Come what may, I am the Lord’s and He is mine, and I will continue to seek Him, so that others may desire to come to know the hope I have in walking with Him.”
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Connecting Faith & Life:

                Father, I praise You this morning because I know You are a God of infinite wisdom and are aware of every detail of my life. I draw comfort and maintain hope from the testimony of Job’s life as You reveal both Your faithfulness along with Your purposes for using suffering in our lives to draw us nearer into a more intimate relationship with You. By Your grace and through faith, I trust You with the journey of my life and the paths You would have me travel. For I know Your promise to never leave me nor turn away from me. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.