I REMEMBER BACK WHEN
The Book of Job is a difficult, honest and wrenching story. It is perhaps the oldest book in the Bible and makes for some slow reading to get through it.
I recently was struck by chapter 29 when Job recounts the past and says, ‘I remember back when…’
“Oh that I were as in months gone by,
As in the days when God watched over me;
When His lamp shone over my head,
And by His light I walked through darkness;
As I was in the prime of my days,
When the friendship of God was over my tent;
When the Almighty was yet with me,
And my children were around me;
When my steps were bathed in butter,
And the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
When I went out to the gate of the city,
When I took my seat in the square,
The young men saw me and hid themselves,
And the old men arose and stood.”
Many of us can remember the days when felt we were “in the prime of our days,” and when “the friendship of God was over our house.” Perhaps you still do. But some of us also recall days when we did not feel this way. It can still be the way it was back then. We just need to follow Job’s example: (42:5-6)
“I had only heard about you before,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
I take back everything I said,
and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”
Friendship with the Father is restored.
“No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Jesus