God Does Not Kick Us When We Are Down

“Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.” (Job 23:6 AV)

 

Job, in his agony, utters words of which he is not fully aware.  He is not aware of how wise his own words are.  We know this because he keeps speaking.  He continues to try to work it all out rather than be silent and let God speak.  One cannot fault him, though.  Losing everything including his own family had to be so tragic it would send most into a deep depression and even worse.  He utters the words above and he will soon realize just how right he is.  Reading God’s response to Job might be cause for disagreement.  One would think words of compassion and empathy, or maybe even apology; might come from God.  But these words did not come.  Rather, words of rebuke came from God.  Words that pretty much said, “I am God and I do not have to answer to anyone’s curiosity why I permitted anything.”  In other words, God tells Job He doesn’t owe Job an explanation.  This is not necessarily how God answers all who are going through a severe trial, but most of us are not Job.  The sure thing is, when we are going through the mill, God will do the right thing resulting in increased strength to endure.  He will not seek to destroy us.  He will not kick us when we are down.  He will strengthen us that we, with Him as our guide, comforter, and strength, make it through.

There have been a couple of times when I came to the end of myself.  Not too many, but a few.  Usually, these times occur around my spiritual birthday.  These life-altering events are designed by the providence of God to grow me up and a major way.  What I can say of certainty is when the LORD asked me to endure hardship, He never laid on me more than I could bear. With His help, I’ve made it through each and every one.  I have buried family and friends.  I lost everything, financially speaking.  The lives of my children were threatened more than once.  I’ve lost close friends.  I’ve endured challenges of a bodily nature.  There have been many scares along the way.  A couple of times, there were possible cancer diagnoses.  Lawsuits threatened.  More than once, I have had my life threatened.  Add to that times of severe self-doubt and failure to gain victory over faults, and the trying times of my life are frequent.  But those times when I was knocked down do low I didn’t think I could ever get up is what we are talking about here.  Only a very cruel person would kick another when they are down.  This is what Job’s friends were doing.  Not God!  Job believed that with all his heart.  He knew the words of his friends were not of the LORD.  God wouldn’t do that.  But what we want to see is the faith Job had without realizing it.  He knew that if he prayed and did not give up on God, then God would strengthen him.

Job is one of those heroes of the faith which we hope we can emulate, but in reality, we fall short.  Not many saints could endure what he went through and walk with God afterward.  We would go through a whole host of emotions that would push us further from God.  One of those emotions, anger, Job never exhibited.  He was never angry with God because God allowed such travesty.  He may have been confused.  He may have been frustrated.  He may have been a lot of things, but he was never angry at God.  This is one of the reasons the LORD was able to strengthen Job.  Job, in the depth of his wisdom, believed that God would not kick him when he was down.  He knew that if he gave God the benefit of the doubt even though it did not make sense to him, then the LORD would strengthen him in the hour of deep need.  This God does often with the children of men.  He is not a tyrant who seeks to make our lives a horrible experience.  He has allowed mankind to make a mess of things.  Then, He is there to fix them.  When we are down, by either our own hand, the devil’s, or Gods we can rest assured He will strengthen us if we simply wait upon Him.