Continuing on with my quest to read the Bible chronologically in a year has been challenging. Not because of the content so much as it was my lack of reading. It's challenging to read anything in a year if you're not actually reading.
This week I began reading again. I left off in Job and I continued reading there. I have to admit that Job was beginning to annoy me. All he did was complain and whine and yell. Don't get me wrong, if my children, wealth, status, property, basically EVERYTHING I held dear to me was taken away, I'd probably be doing the same thing. Nonetheless, I was quickly nearing my the end of my attention span, when it all turned around…
First, some young guy tells the old "wise" guys that they're wrong and not doing Job any favors with their lecturing. then, God shows up and gets sarcastic with Job and calls him out for all of his complaining and really puts Job in his place. After that, Job realizes his mistakes and repents. Finally, God forgives Job and returns all of his wealth to him. In fact, God doubled it!
It was a pretty amazing end to the story. But to me, the best part was when I saw how Job realized he was loving God based on rumors he had heard, but now he had experienced it first hand. He actually said
"I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I hae it all firsthand – from my own eyes and ears! I'm sorry – forgive me. I'll never do that again, I promise! I'll never live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor." (MSG Job 42:5-6)
And, Job said BEFORE God returned all of his wealth to him!
That's so exciting to me, because that is the cry of my heart. I want to love God not because of rumors I've heard, but because I have actually experienced Him. That is why I'm going on the WR. I want to EXPERIENCE God like I never have. No more crusts and crumbs for me.
