Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.”
In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

• Job 1:13-22

On another day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”
He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

• Job 2:1-10

Have you ever had the feeling God was piling on?

For those that do not know that term from American football, you have people on the defensive side of the play who corner the person with the ball.  The ball carrier is strong.  He is not easy to tackle.  One person grabs him, then two more.  This is legal, called “gang tackling.”  Some people try to put a polite spin on it by saying that the entire defensive eleven will meet at the location of the ball for a team meeting.  I have seen more than half of those eleven grabbing some part of the ball carrier to try to take him down.  But then let’s say that the whistle blows, and the ball carrier has seven people holding onto him and he finally falls to the turf.  But the huge defensive nose guard, weighing in at 350 pounds or more wants in on the fun.  The ground shakes as he runs toward all those on the ground.  Then the guard leaps and crashes down upon the helpless ball carrier on the ground.  This is illegal, and it is called “piling on.”

So, Job had a perfectly good reason to say that.  There were gaps between each ‘attack’ as if the whistle had blown.  The oxen and the servants with them were stolen by robbers. Then the sheep and those servants were consumed by fire.  Then the camels were stolen and those servants killed, except for one to tell the tale.  Finally, his children were all killed when a mighty wind ripped through the eldest son’s house while all his siblings were visiting.

Job tore his clothing, shaved his head, and praised God.

Notice that Satan did all this calamity, but he had to ask God for permission.  The hedge of protection around Job was too strong for Satan to penetrate.

Then with additional permission, Satan takes away Job’s health.  Job’s wife suggests that Job should stop taking the high road.  Instead, Job should curse God and die.

Then starts the unfortunate middle of the book of Job.  Job complains.  He wants a face to face account with God.  Job’s friends use every conceivable pop psychology, accusing Job of unconfessed sin for the most part.  As Philip Yancey said in one of his books.  The book of Job is hard to read.  You have two chapters of disaster, and then the bad advice from his friends consumes most of the rest of the book until God really does show up.  But as for those thirty something chapters in the middle, we should only read them as to what not to say to an ailing friend.  God even chastises them.  Odd, how so many people quote those chapters like it was good advice.

But the key again is that Satan does these things with God’s permission, but also within God’s limitations.  So, even if Satan seems to be piling on, it is only within the limitations that God provides.

Why is Job suffering?  As a test of his faith and he passes the test.

I have lived a life of many sorrows, but as I get older and dig deeper into God’s Word, I find that I fall far short of Job and Jeremiah.  Yet, recent events have made me wonder if someone out there is “piling on.”

My wife died about a year ago.  I started feeling ill…  No, not ill, but achy about a month or so after my wife’s memorial service in June.  I thought I was just getting old.  When I would have an overnight bout of extreme illness type pain, I thought it was irritable bowel syndrome.  I did a cleansing diet and then started reintroducing food groups.

But then I had the worst of these illness feelings that drove me to the emergency room in mid-December.  After a few scans, I was rushed into emergency surgery.  They placed a stent in my left kidney due to a kidney stone that was huge, roughly an inch in length, well over two centimeters.  As I stared at the ceiling in my hospital bed, I asked God, “Is this your way of distracting me during the upcoming holidays, the first Christmas and New Year without my wife in nearly fifty years?”

Due to the holidays, the doctor and surgery schedules were delayed.  The next surgery was late in January, breaking up the huge stone without entering my body to do so.  Then two and a half weeks later, the supposed final surgery was performed, thinking all they had to do was to enter with a scope and remove the stent, placed there two months before.  But the stent was stuck, crusted over by kidney stone material.  They finally removed it, but there had been too much trauma, the scope’s camera was having difficulty seeing, and I had been out for too long.  A new stent and do this again in two weeks.  Note that this period of one month and three surgeries includes St. Valentine’s Day and my wedding anniversary.  More distractions?  I have honestly not noticed those important days due to the surgery-recovery routine, and I do not even remember seeing a heart shaped box on the store shelves.

Now, as of this writing, surgery is scheduled in two days, but last week, I had the worst sinus infection that I have had since being a teenager.  A fast dose of antibiotics and I felt great, better than throughout these past eight months.  But the surgeon called me personally.  There was a problem in my urine test, a bacterial infection.  Run back to the pharmacy for a different kind of antibiotic.

The surgeon also said that he might call back tomorrow if I needed to take even more antibiotics.  It took me a long time to realize that while there was one urine sample, it was split for two tests, one being a culture.  The culture takes longer.  If you have that type of infection, the little bugs do not form for a couple of days.  Thus, I must wait until tomorrow, the day before the surgery.

I am tired.  I do not want this.  Does anyone want to get sick and stay sick for months just to have a surgeon use you as a pin cushion making you feel worse (short term, I hope) and even temporarily incontinent?  I doubt if anyone wants that.  I want to be with Jesus, but in staying here, I would like to have this illness feeling go away for a while.

At the end of the book of Job, his fortune is restored, and he has seven sons and three daughters, the eldest daughter being Jemimah.

When I have had a series of bad things happen or a friend complains of the same thing, my suggestion has been, “Pray for your Jemima Moment.”  In other words, the test is over.  You have done well, faithful servant, so here is something to let you know that, at least for now, you can take a deep breath once more.

And so, I pray.  Dear Lord, I beg of You.  I need my Jemima Moment, but Your will be done.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.