What a Testimony

"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name  was  Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil." (Job 1:1, NKJV)

How the book of Job both challenges and encourages me all at the same time. It starts and end with great verses with all the tough events in between bearing testimony of a man who loved and served God with all his heart, no matter what happened to him.

Job was a real person who lived in a particular country at a particular time in history.  Lamentations 4:21 reads: "Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz", putting it somewhere in the area of modern-day southwestern Jordan and southern Israel (according to Wikipedia). Further more he appears to have lived after the Flood (Job 22:16) but according to biblical scholars before Abraham (i.e.  1500-2500 years before Christ). 

His story is not a myth of fable but a true historical account "written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures [we] might have hope." (Romans 15:4).

While the name Job is derived from the Hebrew word 'hated' and actually means 'persecuted, God called him 'blameless' (perfect or undefiled) and 'upright' (honest or upstanding), adding that Job feared (morally reverent) Him (God) and shunned evil ( turn off, decline, depart, put away, put down,  withdraw, be without). 

When it came to serving God, there was nothing passive about Job, he revered Him while fleeing evil. The latter even to the point of daily praying for his family just in case any of them had sinned against God. Besides highlighting his relationship with his God, it this also points to how he cared and loved his family.

Challenge: How do I rate on each of these points? How focused am I on serving and pleasing Him? While salvation does not depend on any of my works, does the way I live my life

1. Bear testimony of my relation with Christ?
2. Draw me into a deep relationship with Him?
3. Serve as an example that God can use when talking with heavenly beings? 

May my life be an epistle that when it is known and read by those (heavenly and earthly) around me, that it would declare the same message; for God's glory. (2 Corinthians 3:2).

My final comment: If Job could be all of this pre-crucifixion, how much more not I as a born-again, Spirit-filled child of God?

As the old chorus goes, "Keep me true Lord Jesus, keep me true. There's a race that I must run, there are victories to be won. Give me power every hour to be true".