Daily Devotions
Defiant Hope
Title: Defiant Hope
Reading for June 4: Job 11-13
Though he slay me, I will hope in him…
Job 13:15
Job had no idea what hit him. One day he was enjoying life, and then the next day everything was taken from him. No time to process. No time to heal. No time to regain his bearings. Just a relentless string of tragedies, one after the other. (Including the loss of all of his children!)
But what came next was perhaps the hardest thing to bear. Following the loss of everything, he was then met by his three friends who came (presumably) to comfort and console him. Job was met with one accusation after another. Their theology was simple. Bad things don’t happen to good people. Job must have sinned. He needed to repent.
Job knew better. He didn’t know why he was suffering so, but he knew he was not guilty of what his friends accused him of doing. And yet he can’t deny that God is in control of all. He knows that God was sovereign over all of his suffering. (Indeed, the devil could only afflict Job as much as God allowed him.)
So this righteous sufferer is left with lots of questions in his mind. Why am I suffering? What have I done to deserve all of this? Why has God done this to me?
But in spite of all of the questions he has, one thing remains fixed and unchanged in Job’s mind: he will continue to hope in his God. And it is this hope, this DEFIANT hope, that inspires us all!
Father, give us the strength and courage to approach every trial with this kind of faith!
