Bible Reading for January 11 – Job 29-31

What makes you feel nostalgic? What do you long for from your personal past? Maybe it’s that wonderful feeling of freedom you had when the last school bell rang on the last day before summer vacation. Maybe it’s the way your first love made you feel inside. Maybe you just wish you could give your mama and daddy a hug one more time. Many of us have gotten to the age when we just wish we could get out of bed without hurting in the morning!

In the midst of his suffering, it’s no wonder that Job looked back on his previous years with longing. He also wished things could be like they were in his prime (29:4). But he didn’t want to be happy and healthy once again so he could rock and roll all night and party every day. No, he longed to be able to help the poor and fatherless (29:12). He wanted to defend the innocent against oppression once again (29:17).

Yes, Job longed for the days when God blessed him and when people respected him. But he also longed to be able to do those selfless and caring deeds that pleased God and earned people’s respect. And it was because his life had been so focused on God’s glory and the good of others that he could make that impassioned oath that comprises all of chapter 31, a solemn affirmation of his consistent faithfulness to God and man.

So, maybe we should take another look, not just at our desires for today, but at what we long for from the past. Let’s ask God to give us the desires of Job, the desires of Jesus – a longing not for personal happiness and fulfillment, but a real love for God and for others, a love that will sanctify all our wants and actions.

Job 29:1-17 (ESV)

And Job again took up his discourse, and said:
2 “Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me,
3 when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,
4 as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent,
5 when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me,
6 when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
7 When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square,
8 the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood;
9 the princes refrained from talking and laid their hand on their mouth;
10 the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
11 When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved,
12 because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.
13 The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
17 I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.