Who of you can identify with Job? Life is on cruise control.
Yes, there are dips and potholes on the road forcing you to slow down. Yet, you are confident your destiny is up ahead.
Spiritually, you are doing everything you know to do. In fact, your relationship with the Lord has never been better.
Then one day, death erects a roadblock.
Cancer.
War.
Pink slip.
Natural disaster.
Divorce.
Infertility.
Hopelessness greeting you each morning. Reminding you of uncertainty and loss.
The first on the scene? Those ambulance chasing “wh” questions.
Why did this happen?
Whose fault is it?
What do I do now?
When will it end?
Believing that accumulating facts answers the “whys” of life. Many individuals have crowned the pursuit and attainment of knowledge as king.
But the knowledge of man can never be eternal. It must conform to the cyclic nature of the universe— birth, growth, then death. A cycle man cannot alter.
Although man may be able to delay the completion of the cycle for a period of time. It must run its course. This is why it is foolish and dangerous to assume that knowledge can endure forever.
Why do many worship knowledge?
Knowledge provides a false sense of security. It establishes a set of rules that is predictable. Guaranteeing success if followed.
Therein lays the danger.
When change occurs without warning, or there are many changes happening simultaneously. These artificial boundaries interfere with problem solving and forming novel solutions. This can be life threatening as Pharaoh and his subjects learned.
One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush.
Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames. It didn’t burn up.[1]
The Lord said, “I have seen the misery of My people in Egypt, and I have heard them crying out because of the slave drivers. I know how much they’re suffering.
I have come to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians. To bring them from that land to a good land with plenty of room for everyone. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. Where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites live.
I have heard the cry of the people of Israel. I have seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them.
Now go! I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you can bring my people Israel out of Egypt.”[2]
Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh. They told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. ‘Let my people go so they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness.’”
“Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the Lord? Why should I listen to Him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”
But Aaron and Moses persisted. “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they declared. “So let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness so we can offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. If we don’t. He will kill us with a plague or with the sword.”
Pharaoh replied, “Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their tasks? Get back to work!”[3]
So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me?”[4]
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”[5]
Despite nine months of experiencing the wrath of God’s judgment, neither the king nor his subjects would worship the God of eternity.
Relying upon the wisdom of man. They refused to ask themselves.
“Where were our gods when the water of the Nile River turned into blood?
Frogs invaded the countryside?
Lice infected people and animals from head to toe?
Swarms of flies blanketed the land?
Disease was killing our livestock?
Boils and sores concealed human and animal flesh?
Hail destroyed crops?
Swarming locusts?
Three days of total darkness?
The firstborn, both human and animal, all dying in a single night?
Yet, in the Hebraic settlement of Goshen, not a single plague report?”
The Egyptians hung on to the familiar. Unable to discern God’s plan, they remained in a state of disbelief and ignorance. Refusing to repent. Their hearts remained hardened. Incapable of receiving the spiritual revelation that those who live in the shelter of the Most High. Will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.[6]
But this is easier said than done when you are weakened by the winds of adversity and uncertainty.
When you no longer have the strength to stand.
When wave after wave of hopelessness and despair pummel you.
As the winds of death howl at the front door of your heart. It takes all your willpower to resist opening the door and inviting in the darkness. Darkness that threatens your very will to live.
That is where Job found himself— in the darkness. A darkness that welcomed his anguished cries of despair.
“Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.”
Let that day be darkness!
May God above not seek it. Nor light shine upon it. Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it. Let the blackness of the day terrify it.
That night— let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months. Let that night be barren. Let no joyful cry enter it. Let those curse it who curse the day. Who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
Let the stars of its dawn be dark. Let it hope for light but have none. Nor see the eyelids of the morning because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb. Nor hide trouble from my eyes.
Why did I not die at birth? Come out from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me? Why the breasts that I should nurse?
For then I would have lain down and been quiet. I would have slept. Then I would have been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves. With princes who had gold. Who filled their houses with silver.
Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child? As infants who never see the light?
There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at rest. There the prisoners are at ease together. They hear not the voice of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.
Why is light given to him who is in misery? Life to the bitter in soul who long for death, but it comes not? Dig for it more than for hidden treasures? Who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave?
Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden? Whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.
For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease. Nor am I quiet. I have no rest, but trouble comes.”[7]
Many like Job have called this darkness home. Although physically alive, they suffer from soul sickness. Their minds reaction to a situation that it interprets as illogical.
Equilibrium disappears. Bombarded with irrational thoughts. They no longer think coherently. Feeling dazed and confused. Their soul surrenders to the darkness.
What is the strategy that will protect you from the darkness?
We never give up. Though our bodies are dying. Our spirits are being renewed every day.
For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now. Rather we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.[8]
In the midst of the storms of life you will be able to confidently declare. “The Lord alone is my refuge, my place of safety. He is my God, and I trust Him.
For He will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will cover you with His feathers. He will shelter you with His wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night. Nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness. Nor the disaster that strikes at midday. Though a thousand fall at your side. Though ten thousand are dying around you. These evils will not touch you.”[9]
GO DEEPER
Maintaining an eternal mindset prevents you from fixating on the temporary cares and adverse circumstances of life. Decreasing your susceptibility to overreact and surrender to fleshly desires and emotions.
Submitting to Jesus and His precepts births hope. This allows His peace to permeate your life even amidst conflict and uncertainty. Ensuring wise decision-making.
List 3 temporal benefits— rewards of thinking eternally.
What scripture inspires you to persevere? To remain hopeful when your circumstances are bleak?

[1] Exodus 3:1-2 New Living Translation
[2] Exodus 3:7-10 GOD’S WORD Translation
[3] Exodus 5:1-4 New Living Translation
[4] Exodus 5:1-4 New Living Translation
[5] Exodus 6:1 New King James Version
[6] Psalm 91:1 New Living Translation
[7] Job 3:3-26 English Standard Version
[8] 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 New Living Translation
[9] Psalm 91:2-7 New Living Translation
Excerpt from the free e-book, I AM The Eternal Sage.
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