Prayer: Father, I like Job, have so much to learn. I ask for new insight today! Amen.
Reading: Job 39 key: the questioning continues.
Attention: The conversation between Adonai and Job continues today. The line of questioning shifts however from the heavenlies to the animals of creation. Here is an overview of the questions Job faces today:
- Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
- Who sent the wild donkey free?
- Is the wild ox willing to serve you?
- The wings of the ostrich flap joyously, but are they the pinions and plumage of a stork?
- Do you give the horse its strength?
- Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars?
- Is it by your command that an eagle soars?
Do you know the answers? Neither did Job.
I want to address the command of God to Job in verse 3 of chapter 38; “Now gird up your loins like a man.” If there is one conflict or paradox in today’s male, it is the definition of a man. God is telling Job, stand up and be a man! Adonai created man first. He gave man specific roles as his identity. How far have we strayed from the original role of the male or man?
Here is what the HIBD (Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary) says about loins:
“Hebrew and Greek terms refer to the hips and lower back. Loins are used in the literal sense of the body’s midsection (Exodus 28:42; 2 Kings 1:8; Isa. 11:5; Jer. 13:1; Matt. 3:4). Tying up one’s long, lower garments about one’s waist or loins indicated readiness for travel (Exodus 12:11; 1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 9:1). In the NT to gird up one’s loins is used in the figurative sense of preparedness (Luke 12:35; Eph 6:14; 1 Pet. 1:13). The OT sometimes uses loins as the seat of physical strength (Nah 2:1). Thus to make someone’s loins shake or loosed is to render the person helpless (Ps. 69:23; Isa. 45:1). Scripture also uses the loins as a symbol of procreative powers (Gen. 35:11; 1 Kings 8:19, Acts 2:30, Heb. 7:5, 10).”
In former public-school days, a teacher would ask all students to stand tall and recite an assignment. God was telling Job, stand tall and answer me if you can. Can you put yourself in Job’s place today? How would you respond if you were being questioned by God?
Action: When I think I have all the answers, I will read chapter 38-9 of Job.
Yield: Submission is doing more listening and less talking with God.
Engaged: A conversation is not a conversation unless one also listens.
Relationship: Allowing God to ask us questions.
Prayer: Father, I am listening! Amen.
Memory Verse: Job 38:3
3 Now gird up your loins like a man;
I will question you,
and you will inform Me!
Music Video: Chris McClarney—I’m Listening
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”