Cast Down, But Not Destroyed, Part 1

If anyone in the history of this planet had any understanding of suffering; Job did.

 

At that time, he was the richest man on the face of the earth, and rich, (as scripture characterizes it) “far beyond gold which perishes.” For he was also rich in, (as one comedic old movie puts its) “the fruit of his loins.” Quite admirably, Job had 10 sons and daughters, (and an untold number of grandchildren).

 

And then in one day, all that for which he had labored was literally blown away. Houses and lands and cattle and sheep and

 

… children.

 

(The title of the movie, “Gone With the Wind” is certainly an apt description).

 

And I suppose the context of the story has been used in more sermons than virtually any other topic in the Bible.

 

Job’s wife was so demoralized with the loss of everything they held dear that she told him to “curse God and die.”

 

(And had he done so, it would have been readily apparent that God’s faith in Job to be ill-placed).

 

It occurs to me that I may have never heard it phrased this way before. God’s faith in you or me. But rather, it seems always to be about the faith we, as human beings, exercise towards the Creator.

 

In all of it, however, we are assured that Job refused to heap condemnation on His Lord, and admonished his wife with the following words:

 

 “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak.”

 

Fast forward to the New Testament, and a momentary visit with our brother, the Apostle Paul…

 

A one-time member of the Sanhedrin, “a Pharisee of the Pharisees,” a persecutor of the early Christian church, until our Lord appeared to him in a vision, and

 

… everything changed.

 

And we who have the benefit of, as it were, “second sight,” know Paul as the “13^th disciple,” and the man who literally turned the world upside down on behalf of his Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

Persecuted, (as he, himself, once persecuted).

 

Stonings, hunger, shipwreck

 

The man who penned, but more importantly, personalized the poignant words which follow:

 

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (2^nd Cor. 4:8-10)

 

Struck down, but not destroyed.

 

So reminiscent of the Christian martyrs of Hebrews Chapter 11. Those who looked for a city; whose builder and maker is God.
 

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 18. Copyright pending

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