Job: Chapter 14

Garden of the Gods | Colorado Springs, CO

Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All

We all have a determined amount of time on this earth and we are riddled with problems. Once we are born, there is no slowing down the time that we will have life. Our days are numbered and they do not end sooner or later than the time that God allotted for us. Thus, what is the point of worrying about life? Your days are numbered, as are mine. Why even bother to bring someone so feeble and weak into judgment? I am a sinner, I fall short, I am damned without You. I am unclean, how can something perfect be brought of imperfection? No man has ever been made perfect through imperfection. You have restricted man to a set amount of days, none can escape it. Thus, why don't you leave us alone? You are all-knowing, Alpha & Omega, why must you hound us all the days of our lives? You know what we will do with our numbered days. Let us be and allow us to live out our days and enjoy them. Look at your created nature on earth, even the trees have hope, if they are cut down they will sprout again. The roots grow deeply throughout the soil and sprout out new beginnings in the old ground. All it takes is water to fall upon it and it will cease its dying and be granted new life. Yet, your claimed greatest creation (man) dies, and what happens? He is dead and does not have life breathed into him again. Just like a river that loses its water supply, it dries up and clears lakes. Not till Heaven shall man rise again, once a man dies he is put six feet under and cannot be roused out of the deep sleep. Why don't you hide me in the darkness and keep me safe? Remember me after I die! If a man does die, will he live again? Do we know this? We could wait in the darkness forever and never be called home to your presence. Call me to do your work with my hands through your power and strength, I will answer. If I am doing your will, you number my steps and do not keep watch over my sins. All my shortcomings would be cast into the depths of the unknown and you would cover me in your purity. But, instead of this the earth groans beneath me and breaks for the pain that it endures, all hope is lost in the earth and never gained without you interceding. You thrash upon man all of his days and plot against him, you remove his uprightness and break him on the rocks, you leave him shipwrecked without a rudder, man cannot be directed in the way of right without your intervention. Parents never see their children grow into men of God nor witness their decay. Either way, we are dumb to their result. All we do is live for a determined amount of time and then die in pain. There is no joy, there is no happiness, there is merely mourning for one's self in death.

Yes, God knows all things and He has unlimited power beyond anything we can comprehend. He does not sit in waiting for anything to happen, He goes to that moment-in-time if He wishes. He scrolls through our thoughts like flipping through channels, yet He does all these things in a way that is well beyond anything we can fathom. Even thinking about the way He does things is silly, because what is the point of attempting to grasp something that is far beyond the boundaries of the human mind? It is vanity. Yes, we should seek wisdom, but we cannot achieve ultimate understanding. No, we should not worry about what tomorrow will bring because (for those who love God and call Christ King) God is drawing us closer to Him. Sometimes this looks like God blessing us with lives of grand memories and exotic tales of adventure, or it can look like suffering through many trials and tribulations that break us on the rocks as the waves crash. I ask you this, is it better to be blessed with money or blessed with sickness? Well, that sounds like a silly question, doesn't it? However, someone who is wealthy and wants for nothing may not be the most blessed person… Money, power, fame, and praise are all good things if they have the proper perspective on them. Unfortunately, most people use these things to boost their own egos and inflate their pride. If we are wealthy, and we don't have to decide on whether or not we have enough money to purchase something, it can be a bad thing. Anything that makes us lose our need for God is something that is dangerous beyond human understanding. The entire goal of life isn't about 401Ks and stock options, it is about furthering the Kingdom of Heaven by being the body of Christ here on earth. It is far easier for someone who is being humbled in illness to fall on their knees and pray to God and seek healing. There are countless opportunities to share the Gospel simply by grinding out the day-to-day activities with Joy that doesn't make sense to the outside viewer. God gives us opportunities to show others that we love Him more than we love life, how are you doing with this? Don't hear me wrong, money is not bad, it is a good thing that can be used in extraordinary ways, just do not sell your love for God for money, it is not worth it. Earth is not worth it.

Dear Lord, seek my heart and mind. Show me that you are far greater than anything on earth I seek to possess. Show me the perspective I should have with things like; money, careers, friendships, relationships, marriage, church, Bible study, rock climbing, hiking, etc. Draw me closer to you through the things that stir my affections for you. Allow me to endure in this time. Amen. 

All images © 2015 - 2021 Jordan Tackett

Job: Chapter 13

Job Continues: Still I Will Hope in God

Pikes Peak | Colorado Springs, Colorado

Why do you believe the lie that you are better than I? Your pride runs through you like a raging river into a canyon, touching every word you utter. Of course, I know who God is and who I am to Him. Did I not tell you this already? Haven't I lived my life in a way that shows that? I don't need to defend myself before you, I will take my case straight to the Judge and dismiss this jury. Fools! You paint your stories with lies and dismiss the truth out of your own discomfort for your own lives. The greatest wisdom you could show would be to remain silent. Listen attentively to my words as I plead before God almighty. Why would you speak from God's perspective? As if you were able to know it? Will you be the accuser and speak on His behalf? Naturally, you will take God's side and be led astray, assuming God would never punish someone without them deserving it. What will happen when he starts to examine you? God won't search your words, He will search the thought behind the words, He will go to the root of where that word was formed and judge you based upon that, still, believe you can fool Him? He is not a mere man. His magnitude, His presence, His power cannot be contained nor can it be witnessed fully. Simply the gravity of His essence, which He created gravity, by the way, cannot be survived unless He allows it. Even if you could be before Him without succumbing to any of the before mentioned things, His perfection would be too much to handle. We are imperfect beings, we cannot be before our perfect creator unless He allows it. Your defenses are only that which God molds and allows you to perceive. Now that I have silence, hear me speak. I will accept whatever consequences come from my words to the Holy One. God, though you may slay me, I will hope in you. However, that does not mean I won't come to you with this argument. My salvation is not secured in being a "yes man", it is secured because I love the Lord (because He loved me first), and sometimes love has disagreements. Naturally, I will disagree with you, God, because I want to be you. I am imperfect and you are perfect, I am contained within time and space, you are not. Listen, I have prepared my argument and I know that I shall be named right in the end. Is there any among us that will contend with me? If so, I shall stay silent till the grave. Lord, please give me these two things I ask of you, then I will not hide from you. Take away your hand from me and remove the terror I have in my heart for you. Call upon me, then I will answer, or allow my words to you be heard and then respond to them, almighty God. How many are my sins? What is your count? Show me these transgressions against you. Why must you continue to hide the truth from me? Am I your enemy? You have granted me the inheritance that I earned as a child, an unwise soul who was growing in his knowledge of you, do you plan to punish me for all I did as an adolescent? You have placed limits on me and I cannot break free from them. Release me from this spell and allow me to roam freely to praise your name.

God, I bring my complaint before you as Job does. Why have you seemingly cast your hand upon my body in many ways? I am well aware of all the ways that I have sinned against you, and I don’t believe that you "gave me cancer" but I also don't fully trust your will in this. I feel as if you have left me to my own knowledge and allowed me to be wandering through this without your strength. If I am left to my own strength, I will fail. If I am left to merely my friends around me, I will pass away. If I am left only to the prayers of others, I don't trust that I will be spared, regardless of how many prayers from all corners of the world. I need you to intervene, I need you to come alongside me and show the power of You through me. I cannot survive the challenge before me, mentally or physically. It is in You that I must place my hope and trust in and at this time I don't believe you hear me. Perhaps you thought I could handle this trial? I know you say you will never give us more than we can handle, but I believe there is an asterisk with that verse, because we require YOU in those times, if left to our own merit we will perish. I request your presence, I request the sound of your voice in my ear and the guidance that only you can offer.

Dear Lord, I pray that you will guide the path before my feet and lead me in a way that leads to life. I seek the Kingdom that is here on earth, I don't yet long to be on the streets of gold. My work here is not yet complete and I long to see the growth of those around me prior to my departure. Please grant me my request. Amen. 

All images © 2015 - 2021 Jordan Tackett

Job: Chapter 12

Crestone Needle | Colorado

Job Replies: The Lord Has Done This

Clearly, you are those wise people and all wisdom will die with you in your minds. However, I am not a mere heathen who has no understanding of God and His creation, I am not your lesser. Doesn't everyone know that God is Holy and perfect? He is the beginning and the end? Surely all know this, it is hard-wired within them. We are His creation and thus, to some degree, at our core, we understand who He is and who we are in Him. You see me as a jester, same as everyone else around me, though I cried out to God and He answered me, acknowledging that I am a just and blameless man are seen as a joke to all those around me, how is this just? If God sees me as just and blameless, why should I care about the mere mortal minds? It is easy for you to ridicule me, those who are without suffering in their lives, you who have no pain within every area of your life. This life is not treating me fairly, the sinners who serve other gods are not punished and I, who serve the one true God, being ridiculed and shamed before all around me. Ask anyone or anything. All of the creation groans and shows that the hand of the Lord has fallen upon me and is allowing these things to transpire against me. God holds all things in His hands, all things. Contemplate on that notion for a period of time, all things in the universe are under His command within His hands, only His hands. Fathom that idea. Wisdom is not something that we grasp whenever we choose to; it is something that is attained over time. What God tears down none can restore, when He has spoken it has been decided, if He decides a man is to suffer, he shall suffer. Man cannot undo what God has started. Creation cannot cease from what He put into motion before time existed. He is strength and perfect wisdom, both those who deceive others and the great deceiver, Satan, are within His control. He lifts up the fool and shuts the mouth of the kings, he overthrows the mighty without effort. He gives everything to anyone, regardless of their status. He is the reason for all things. He humbles the proud and turns the wise to fools. He brings the deepest of darkness to light merely with His voice and all sin trembles before Him. He blesses the nations and destroys them. He can make the wisest man a wretch who trembles on the ground and staggers throughout the desert in search of water.

There is no doubt in Job's mind, heart, or soul that the Lord has given him this suffering. Job cannot comprehend the "why" behind what is occurring in his life but he knows that God is in control of all things, including this. Job's rebuttal to his friend is not about defending himself but it is an explanation of the power of God and how He is not caught off guard or surprised by anything that occurs in His universe. No atom disappears without His knowledge or approval, if it happens, He put it into motion. There is no escaping this concept and humans are completely lost if they don't understand the true power of Him.

How can we relate this to our lives in 2018? Well, often we find ourselves searching for truth and attempting to understand the "why" behind something that is going on within our lives (especially suffering). Thus, we can learn from Job and his friends that we are not to just believe that God is being surprised by what is happening in our lives, but that God has a plan to restore us to glory and draw us closer and closer to Him regardless of what we must endure getting there. The finish line is being in Heaven with the Holy of Holies and knowing Him as best we can. Therefore, if we understand this concept that God works all things together for good for those who love Him, we can endure any pain, suffering, trial, tribulation, betrayal, sin, etc. because we know that God is using it for our betterment. Now, we may never see the end result, it may be for someone else. Thus, we must have faith that God is truly using ALL things (regardless of whether or not they are good or bad) for our good.

Dear Lord, I pray that you will give me the strength that only you can reflect through me. I am weak and broken, on my knees before you seeking your presence, show me who you are in a way that lifts me up. Allow me to understand you beyond my current understanding and bless me with knowledge of knowing you. Grant me a relationship with you that is not bound by my own feeble understanding but that is blessed with your wisdom. Amen. 

All images © 2015 - 2021 Jordan Tackett

Job: Chapter 11

Zophar Speaks: You Deserve Worse

Crestone Needle | Colorado

I can no longer sit here and listen to this blasphemy! Do you really believe you can speak these things about God, before us, and expect nothing in return? Do you truly believe we will not call you out for your obvious sin? How dare you! Endless you go on and on about how much you are suffering, you haven't even started to suffer in the way you deserve. You tell us that you are wise and pure yet God is punishing you, clearly, you have sinned against Him. You are under the false pride that you are clean in the eyes of God, HA! Oh, yes, Almighty God, please open your lips to Job and show Him how "clean" he is in your eyes. Tell him your secrets of Wisdom and unlock his mind to a whole new understanding. PAH. Don't you know that God is giving you less than you deserve? You know nothing, Job. None can discover the depths of God, none can see His limits because they are endless. His measure of wisdom is beyond our own comprehension, outside the bounds of time and space, not restricted in any sense of the word. If God says someone is guilty, they are guilty, who can escape the creator of the prison, land, country, earth, heavens? He is the judge of all judges and cannot escape justness for it is Him. God knows stupid men and He does not always keep them from their iniquity. He allows them to suffer. You are stupid, Job, and you will not receive understanding unless the very fabric of creation is tampered with and queer things are beheld. Why can't you just prepare your heart and soul and seek Him out? Wash your hands clean of your sins, sacrifice on the altar and allow Him to know you are seeking redemption. Do not even think in a way that is full of injustice. Then, and only then, will you be able to face Him without blemish and He will accept you for what you are. You won't have to fear God once you have cleansed your heart of all impurity. You will be able to forget all of your pain and misery, it will be behind you and only a memory. You will have a light within you that will never go out, brighter than the noonday sun. You will feel safe again because you have hope, unlike now. You will sleep well knowing that you are secure. However, if you continue to have these eyes of wickedness which look at me, you will fail. If this is the case, you should allow yourself to die because death is your only hope. Life is not worth living. Zophar believes that God only punishes those who have sinned against Him. He is under the very popular theory, especially in the time he lived, that good things happen to those in a way that is honoring to God (or gods). Bad things only happen to those who defy God (or gods). It is the concept that we all obey to some level, we want to do good things because we want good things to happen to us. Example: If I lived in this time period, I would be accused of having done unthinkable things, because I have Stage IVb Metastatic Melanoma and have very little chance of living longer than 12-18 months, clearly, I have sinned against God in ways that few people ever do. People would leave me for death and curse me, I would be a bane to society and unfit to be a friend to anyone, lower than cattle in any regard. Unfortunately, we haven't really fallen away from this idea entirely. We still base a majority of our lives on the concept of earning grace or blessings. We strive for excellence in a lot of things that are meaningless without the proper perspective wrapped around them.

• Career? Irrelevant in the grand scheme of eternity.
• Spouse? Pointless unless they spur us towards the cross and reminds us of our calling to be brothers and sisters in Christ to everyone.
• Children? A big distraction that can steal our time away from God if we don't place them into their proper role.
• Money? Easily the worst distraction from who God is and how He cares for us.

Now, put these things into proper perspective:

• Career? A way to honor God in the workplace and shine the light of the Gospel in a way that exudes love.
• Spouse? An unbelievably excellent example of how we can share love in a way that honors God. A marriage marked by trusting God in all things.
• Children? Souls, we can raise that one day to choose to give their lives into the hands of God and trust His will more than their own.
• Money? We can use our money to bless those less fortunate than ourselves and spread the Gospel through the example of giving wildly.

God isn't waiting to strike us when we disobey His law, He gave us the law to show us that we cannot obey it perfectly and fall on our knees and seek His grace, which He freely gives us. God does not give karma any breath.

Dear Lord, I pray that you will continue to give me the proper perspective in life. Draw us towards you so that we might be the best people we can be within a world of sin. Allow us not to seek comfort but to seek righteousness. Amen. 

All images © 2015 - 2021 Jordan Tackett

Job: Chapter 10

Job Continues: A Plea to God

Garden of the gods | Colorado Springs, CO

I have been reading Job 10 for almost a month now. I have been avoiding writing about it for the fear that I too have become very bitter in my heart towards God. The beauty of being openly angry with God shows that we are being open and honest with Him - we should know that being angry at God merely shows our lack of trust in Him, He is therefore I can be, He is everything and knows everything - thus we know we can always trust Him because He knows all things, created all things, so on and so forth.

I hate everything that is happening. My complaints are justified and I do not deserve the life that has transpired during this most recent time in my life. Not only do I feel this bitterness in my soul, not only does it show through my body and mind but I will speak it loudly. Do not continue to turn away from me, tell me why you are angry towards me. Are these things good that you have allowed? You have only turned your work, that is me and my family, and how we reflected the light of your holiness, into a mockery of life. We are broken and dead. Wandering this life naked and afraid, unaware of the transgression's backbone and the why behind it all. Why are you favoring the ways of the wicked? Are you not the Holy God? Alpha and Omega? Or do you see as man sees only with eyes of flesh? Aren't you the one who created all things? Why do you search the days of my life and find the sin which I have repented of as I am called to do? In your hands I was molded and created - by the work of your hands I am now destroyed, how is this glorifying you? You built me cell by cell, bone by bone, muscle by muscle, you allowed my heart to beat and pump the blood through my veins, you keep every synapse in my brain functioning and give me the pure feeling of emotion, you created the earth and asked me to cultivate it for your glory, you gave me life and showed me your steadfast love, until now. Now, you hide from me, you are always watching for me to sin and then you do not forgive me for my absent thought of you and future glory. I cannot escape my sin, it is at the forefront of my mind, why do you allow it to weigh on me so? Even if I were to lift my head and press on you would hunt me down and remind me of how I have failed. You are constantly reloading your ammunition and shooting me down, you find new things to charge me with daily, you renew your vengeance in the night as I try to lay my head down.

Why did you even allow me to be born? I would rather never have existed, I long to have died in the womb and never be seen. Aren't my days few in your eyes? Do you not see my whole life played out before you without time? If this is true, leave me alone! Allow me to die in peace and the slightest bit of cheer knowing that you are no longing to bring grief upon me. The land of darkness is upon me and I cannot escape it. Let me be, that I might find solace in the fact that I am out of your gripping hands of death.

Well, Job… I must admit that I cannot fully comprehend these words you write or how bold you were to say such things to God. I am a coward, I cannot speak these words to God, I can only hide them in my heart and mind while I falsely speak of Faith in Him during my trials. It is something that I can cry out to Him in the darkness of my enduring through this trial, but it isn't as honest as your words. The reality is that I cannot call God out for fear of Him due to my doubt of His sovereign grace. I do not fully believe that I am forgiven for my sins, thus I believe performance is key to my salvation, this is false and should be seen as such. However, my mind, heart, and soul are not on the same page with this idea. I could sit here and type out that I fully trust and believe your plan is the best one for me, but I don't. I do not fully trust you with my life and the current circumstances reveal that in my heart.

Dear Lord, restore the bitterness of my heart and turn my eyes to the truth that all things will work together for my good and your glory. Show me but a glimpse of the future glory that is in store for me, whether it is on earth or in Heaven. Reveal to me the enormity of your son's death on the cross and how it saves my soul which is shipwrecked without hope outside of Him. Ensure in my soul the saving grace and restore my mind to you. Allow me to enter your presence daily with the ratification that you are my Father. Amen. 

All images © 2015 - 2021 Jordan Tackett