The Question with only One Response

“What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?” (Job 21:15 AV)

Job makes this utterance out of a heart of desperation.  His situation resulted in a complete emptiness of all human strength.  Emotionally, physically, and spiritually, he had nothing left.  This, after a life of devotion to the LORD is the motive behind the question.  Job was at a complete loss.  It is totally understandable.  Losing everything he had and stuck with nothing more than a wife who wished him dead and friends who thought him evil, it would have been abnormal for Job to feel as his did.  There are other reasons we can ask this question.  The answer is found in God’s response to Job’s musing.  We will not judge Job here.  We will understand, empathize, and realize we can get this low, too.  We all feel this way at least once in our walk with God.  The question may be a rhetorical one.  Yet, this question is a life changing one whether we intend it to be or not.

There could be other reasons we ask this question.  We could ask this question because we serve in the flesh and not in the spirit.  We become burnt out because the Spirit isn’t the power and influence behind our walk with God.  We could ask this question because our motives or expectations are not correct.  We serve God with certain expectations in mind.  We hope for certain results.  This was Job’s particular struggle.  He expected blessings because of his dedication.   He was expecting to see more blessings in life than anything else.  This is reasonable as long as we ignore trials of faith.  We can become disillusioned because we didn’t expect the resistance which comes as a result of faithfulness.   The adversary will not be happy if we are fully engaged in the will of God.  He certainly was not with Job.  When you consider the leeway which God gave Satan compared with what Satan did, one can easily see the devil inflicted as much damage as he could.

The reason this question is so life changing is that once this question is asked, there can only be two responses.  The more common response is to quit.  This is the vast majority of those who experience extreme stress or disappointment.  The other, which Job chose, is to not entertain what we think we perceive and serve God anyway.  We come to this point and decide it really doesn’t matter how walking with God affects us more than it does the glory of God.  Job clearly did not quit on God.  Otherwise, the LORD would not have a discourse with him in a few chapters forward.  Job asked the question.  But his answer was to continue to plug along and let God be God.  He clearly wanted an answer.  But if no answer was forthcoming, he was going to go on anyway.  Go ahead and ask the question.  When you do, be prepared to serve and walk with God even if there is no answer.  It is more than worth it.