First story—God lets Satan take everything but Job’s life away from him. Job loses his houses, lands, possessions, servants and his sons and daughters. And for a trade, Satan gives him boils. Job’s wife (probably out of pity, methinks) tells him to curse God and die. Job vehemently opposes that idea. Instead, he says that when he was born he had nothing. And nothing’s exactly what he’ll take with him when he dies. He asks his wife if they shouldn’t expect bad things with the good things from God. And get this: while scraping boils off of his arms, Job says, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job literally loved God more than he loved comfort, family, health, or possessions.
Second story—Three Hebrew boys defy the king and stand up when everybody else is bowing down to Nebuchadnezzar’s statue. Ol’ Neb asks them if maybe they’re confused or something. He reminds them that the new law says to bow before the statue whenever they hear the special statue worship music. He also brings their attention to the fiery furnace, the final melting place for dissenters. They tell him that God will take care of them; He will deliver them out of the king’s hand. Then they tell him, and here’s my favorite part, “But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
The three Hebrew boys were literally willing to serve God whether he delivered them or not. It was not a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” deal with God. They served God because they loved him. Period.
Third story—Abraham obeys God and takes his son, Isaac, up to the mountain to sacrifice him to God. He places the child of his old age on the altar, and ties him down. He readies himself to kill the son God had promised him for so many years. Isaac was the child of the covenant. His descendants would be the genealogy of the Messiah. He was the promise of hope for Abraham. And Abraham would have killed him. But God stopped Abraham before his blade reached Isaac’s throat. It was a test.
A test that Abraham passed because he loved God more than he loved God’s promise of salvation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Very profound thoughts. I like how you put things...seriously.
On a not so serious note, Job was quite a man...to even love God more than Heath (assuming you are speaking of the oh so succulent Heath bar)...well, that is awesome. Ok, yes I'm teasing. LOL
Ha! I fixed it. So now people (the millions that frequent this blog everyday) are like, who's this crazy happy place person and why is she prattling on about a Heath bar?
I was thinking about that, and I decided that I wouldn't worry about it. But you should have left it...I thought it was funny. :-) Anyhow..."the happy place" name is supposed to give the impression that we might just be a little crazy...
Post a Comment