Daily Devotional for Friday, July 19

Israel’s Present Grief

“But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies. Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves,” Psalm 44:9, 10.

When we read of the life of Job and his great patience, we often think that what Job endured was not fair. The book of Job starts off describing the kind of man that Job was: “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil” (Job 1:1). Though Job was a very dedicated man of God and was protected by Him, Satan was still allowed to test Job (Job 1:6-12, 2:1-10). All of Job’s experiences should be used as learning tools for God’s people today.

Israel felt forgotten by the Lord and declared how they suffered as a result of this (Psalm 44:9, 10). They said, “Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter” (verse 22). Their suffering, even though they had done no wrong, was a reflection of the future suffering that Jesus would go through even though He had done no wrong. When we suffer, it is so that we may reflect our Father: “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). We have to remember that no matter what suffering we go through, if we remain faithful and serve him, He will not forget us (Hebrews 6:10).

REFLECTION
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Tim Chambers