There is a natural tendency to think of oneself as being “good” or somehow better than another, but a bit of honest introspection coupled with the consideration of other, truly more righteous individuals described in the Bible might quickly cure oneself of such delusional notions. Job is one such person to consider.

 Satan destroyed most every aspect of his life, including his body, and yet Job still remained more faithful to God in his time of trouble than many Christians do in their normal, everyday lives. For example, Job put Yeshua’s strict definition of adultery (Matthew 5:27-28) into practice (Job 31:1) well before the Torah was written (not to mention the Tanakh or the B’rit Chadashah).

 One of the many parts of the Book of Job that I found to be extremely noteworthy includes Job 31:24-28 (NASB):

 If I have put my confidence in gold, and called fine gold my trust, if I have gloated because my wealth was great, and because my hand had secured so much; if I have looked at the sun when it shone or the moon going in splendor, and my heart became secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth, that too would have been an iniquity calling for judgment, for I would have denied God above.

From this passage one can see that in spite of his great former wealth, Job put his trust in God, not in the gifts that God had given to him (be they money or the beauty of the creation). Interestingly, Job asserts that to put his confidence in his possessions would be to deny the Giver of those possessions — that is, God.

Have you ever kicked back and thought, perhaps when your worldly possessions were more abundant, something like, “Wow, I have this, that and the other thing. Now, I am set,” rather than thanking God for what He had given you?

 Perhaps now is the time to realize that every talent and ability and everything that we have is from God (e.g., Job 41:11, Psalm 24:1 and James 1:17). Perhaps now is the time to ask God to forgive us for all of the times that we felt proud and boastful in our hearts or articulated such feelings in our words or in our treatment of others and to thank Him for all that we are and all that we have?

 God bless, and shalom,

Darwin and Ani Airola