Learn from Job to Worship God in Your Suffering (Part 1)
JOB'S CALAMITY
And then came the calamity that we read about. Calamities that were unexpected, surprising and out of nowhere! The dictionary defines "calamity" this way: "Great misfortune, great disaster, grievous affliction, a catastrophy." And that is where we are. Look at Job 1:13-16
13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."
There was no warning, there was no intelligence report that the Sabeans, or the Chaldeans who came and attacked Job on this day: there was no intelligence report to warn Job and his sons and servants to warn them that there was going to be a terrorist attack and exhort them to be ready. There was no war going on. This came out of nowhere and fell against Job and his family. He must have been absolutely stunned to get this first message. He must have wondered and said, "What? Where did that come from?"
And then Job 1:16 as we continue,
This is incomprehensible, isn't it? Job loses all his livestock (his oxen, his sheep, his donkeys and his camels), he loses almost all his servants and he looses all his 10 children in one day! You talk about calamity, you talk about suffering; all of his wealth gone, all of his prosperity gone, his children gone, his heritage gone, his name in the next generation gone, his legacy gone; talk about suffering: this is it!
And we ask, "what in the world is going on?" You can't help reading this first chapter of Job and asking that question: "What is going on?" And the answer is: "You can't get the answer in this world".
And sow, the word of God here now shifts the scene of this drama and gives us a glimpse of heaven, so that we might understand. and so we come to in Job 1:6-12.
