"And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes." (Job 2:8)
Job is one of the greatest testimonies in Scripture to faith, hope and trust in Jesus Christ-------------- "in the midst of ashes." As Job sat on the ash heap, so broken, so physically run down and sick that even his own close friends at first did not recognize him, everything in life was telling him, "Quit! Give Up! It's no use!" Job would have nothing of that. Why was this? At the core, Job, as Abraham, had faith and trust in One Who was yet to appear, Jesus, The Coming One. This was true of all Old Testament Believers.
People who spend little time in the Old Testament are robbing themselves of the greatest people of faith in history. Old Testament Believers were saved just as you and I are saved, in the Blood, the Cross, and the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. Someone once put it this way, "They were saved looking forward to the cross. We are saved looking back to the cross." Our faith is based on fulfilled promises. The Life of Jesus while He walked in The Land, His Cross, and the empty tomb, are historic facts testified to by the Apostles, yes, but also by Roman soldiers and even pagan historians. Job, Abraham, Isaiah, David, Simeon, however, believed the unfulfilled promises. In many ways, looking forward takes more faith and trust than looking back. So Paul warns us, "But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you." !
The literal translation of the famous James passage is, "You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end-------- the Lord." Because "the end" for Job was the Lord Jesus Christ, Job and like-believing people through the centuries discovered what Oswald Chambers once said, "Faith in God is a terrific adventure in the dark."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank you for the testimony of Job and the other Old Testament Believers. May I have a "double portion" of their spirit. Amen.
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"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
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