the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Job 6:1-30
Each discourse from one of his friends gives rise to a reply from Job. He realises that his excessive distress makes him say "vehement words" (v. 3 – JND New Translation). Let us beware of allowing such words to escape our lips when we are excited or angry (Proverbs 29:20). "What is mine end that I should have patience?" asks Job in v. 11 (JND – New Translation). "The patience of Job", to which the epistle of James bears witness, only held good until the sixth affliction. And before he can know "his end", or rather the marvellous "end (purpose) of the Lord", for him, it was necessary that this patience should have had "her perfect work" in him. It is this trial of faith which is going to produce it (James 1:3-4; James 5:11). Like Job we are always anxious to know the end of what is happening to us. But God, in His wisdom, does not usually reveal it to us in advance, so that we may learn true patience, which does not need to understand in order to submit and count on Him.
Job has learned the first lesson: to know that there is no help in himself, that all wisdom is driven from him (v. 13). It is a good thing to have understood that. There is no need for us to have to go through so many afflictions in order to be convinced of that. Let us simply believe what the word of God tells us.
