Page 22 - The Divine Quest

The Divine Quest Page 19

Sight, the Enemy of Faith

The apostle Paul was, apart from Christ, possibly the greatest New Testament
example of a man of faith that we have been given. His faith in the character of God
allowed him to walk in many dangerous places, and to suffer many things for the
name of Christ, and yet remain confident in God’s love for him. Through shipwrecks,
beatings, stoning, nakedness, peril, hunger, the treachery of false brethren, the
jealousy and hatred of the Jews, and many other such things, Paul remained
confident in the love of Christ and declared with assurance that nothing could
separate him from it.

It has been the tendency of the church to picture a man of faith as someone who
performs many miracles, and believes God for awesome things. Such things are not
to be discounted, but the greater man of faith is the one who remains steadfast in his
confidence in God’s just, holy and loving character when he is subjected to one
heartache and suffering after another.

In this regard, Paul was not unlike Job who suffered so much. In his suffering Job
refused to curse God, maintaining his trust in Him. Even when Job suffered the loss
of all things, his children, his great possessions, and even his health, and though he
did not understand the reason that God had brought such devastation upon him, Job
did not fulfill Satan’s expectation by failing to trust in God. His words and example
are an amazement when one considers the depth of his grief. Upon hearing the news
of all the calamity that befell him in a moment of time, we read:

Job 1:20-22
Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and
worshiped. He said,

"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
And naked I shall return there.
Yahweh gave and Yahweh has taken away.
Blessed be the name of Yahweh."

Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.

Job’s wife was overcome by her own grief, and she asked her husband why he yet
maintained his integrity, his confidence and trust in God. She urged her husband to
curse God and then die. Job’s response is recorded: