Unexpected (A SOAP Journal from Job 9 and Acts 13)

Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

Job 9:16

If I summoned him and he answered me,
    I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.

 v.32-34

For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,
    that we should come to trial together.
There is no arbiter between us,
    who might lay his hand on us both.
Let him take his rod away from me,
    and let not dread of him terrify me.

Job’s cry in his distress was that he might be heard by God, yet in the midst of his great pain, shame, and grief he could not believe or expect that God would actually hear and answer him. He longed for there to be an advocate, a mediator who could take away his fear and reconcile his relationship with God. A real-life man of peace. His words remain the profound longing of honest men and women in their pre-relational faith. I'm referring to those people who know that God must exist, and they feel like he is angry with them, and have no idea how to fix it. This is a common condition throughout the ages. Yet God, in His great love for us, has sent the promised savior. As Paul announced in Acts 13:32-33a, 38-39,

And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus… Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe
 on Unsplash

I know that there are times that I ask God to come through with something or to answer my prayers but deep down don’t expect him to do so. And when he does answer, help, comfort, and deliver, then I can doubt that my prayers had anything to do with it. Lord have mercy!

The good news is that he heard the cry of suffering and confused people like Job as well as those sinful and slow-to-believe people like me and sent Jesus Christ. God the Son came in the flesh to save us from our sins, to spread his arms on the cross to put his hand on our shoulder and his other hand on the Father so that we might be restored to a right relationship with the God who loves us.

Lord God, thank you for hearing and answering my prayer in Christ before I even asked it. But Lord, I pray that you would also bless me with faith to believe that you do answer so that I might live my life expecting that you are near and that you are at work even when I can’t see it or feel it. May you not be unexpected. Hallelujah! Amen.