Job 6:13
Have I any help in me,
when resource is driven from me?
Tag: Suffering Caused Reflection about Resources
Job is suffering. He is the Biblical-Life example of suffering. Job has lost his property, his livestock; his wealth, his reputation, his children, the respect of his spouse and, his feeling of the security and confidence in had in his relationship with God. In these verses he is speaking that his “strength” has been zapped from him. He is as if dead ... the ultimate end of strength and energy. In the above verse he asked the ultimate question: “Now that all my resources are gone, what help do I have?” Suffering in our lives drives all external, earthly and temporal resources away from us. We don’t realize it but we tend to trust (without think they are idols) our wealth, our children, our spouse, our family, our property. But, when those are taken from us, we, like Job, cry out and ask, “Where is my strength? Now, that these are being taken away, what is my hope?” In the above line the ESV translation of the Bible uses the word “resource” in regard to what has been “driven” from Job. The NIV uses the word “success.” The point is, Job had so relied upon his physical and earthly “things” to give him his significance, he now wondered were he would get strength. Here is where the marvelous truth of the New Testament comes in. Note just a couple of verses that Paul states on this subject:
2 Corinthians 4:7-11
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Job was about to learn about the “surpassing greatness” of God’s power in his life. We, as NT believers, need to realize that all the “stuff” and “relationships” in the world are not to replace the “resources” we have in Christ. God is our resources and replaces all things “earth.” Our only hope in suffering is to realize that the suffering stripes away everything we “did” trust in and replaces it with what we “should” trust in .... God’s unconditional, love!!
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