DAILY MANNA BY W.F.KUMUYI THURSDAY 2ND MAY 2019
TOPIC: DON’T MISINTERPRET GOD’S PATIENCE
BIBLE TEXT: Job 21:1-21
1. But Job answered and said,2. Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations.3. Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.4. As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?5. Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.6. Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.7. Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?8. Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.9. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.10. Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.11. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.12. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.13. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.14. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.15. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?16. Lo, their good is not in their hand; the counsel of the wicked is far from me.17. How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger.18. They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.19. God layeth up his iniquity for his children; he rewardeth him, and he shall know it.20. His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.21. For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?
KEY VERSE:
“Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power.” – (Job 21:7).
DAILY MANNA DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE FOR TODAY
It was a troubling time for righteous Job as he battle to understand why the wicked would prosper and lord over the godly that was poor. It should be the other way round if God were faithful to His promises, he thought. But Job and his friends, who passed judgment on him in his distress were rather hasty in their deliberations and conclusion that God was unfair in the way He shared wealth and other things in life.
The text shows the deception that may accompany prosperity not based on righteousness or fear of God. This made Job to plead with his friends not to deny him patient and fair hearing in this matter. He said after telling his own side of the story, the “comforters” might decide to either console or mock him. He held his stand because he knew men are liable to making errors in judgment. It is only God that cannot make any mistake. He wished to lodge his complaints and wished that his complaints would make his friends to ponder and wonder on the unsearchable power of God to afflict someone that knew no evil. How wise they would have been if rather than apportioning blame of Job, they reverenced God!
We cannot account for what God does in allowing sinners to prosper and godly people to suffer. We are to adore Him for His unsearchable wisdom and power. It is evident in this text that God can, in His providence, allow the wicked to have prosperity not because He cannot judge or punish them but He is being patient with them so that His goodness may lead them to repentance. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Unrepentant sinners will be punished but saints will be consoled eternally.
Indeed, riches and prosperity can never confer joy and peace upon anyone. Only salvation in the Lord can. True and enduring riches lie in knowing and doing what pleases the Lord.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Jehovah is God who is above reproach.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Joshua 22-24
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