Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” In all this Job did…
Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips….
Imagine the devastation that Job had to go through as he went from the richest in the land to the most despised, the poorest, the ugliest, the most sick, and nothing to write home about.
Sometimes, God gives us a word as prophecy and it is unbelievable because it seems impossible. It’s so incredible that no mathematician can make it a reality in this life. We have that in our text today.
We often go through very tough life situations that can have us convinced God is at fault for all of it. In our text today, this king felt the same way.
You see, sometimes we are minding our business doing the thing that God has sent us to do, going about our daily routine, and we get attacked. We get surrounded and confronted by issues.
And the thing is greed is an expression of fear – fear of lack or that we won’t have enough, and sometimes, fear of missing out, or fear of not being valued. This makes us want to accumulate things and hoard, the insatiable nature inherent in the flesh shows it’s ugly head.
Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman became furious, and went away and said,…
“Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my Lord? And didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me and get my hopes up’?” Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready to travel; take my staff and go! Don’t talk to anyone along the way. Go quickly and lay the staff on the child’s face.”…
As painful as it is to want something and not have it, it’s a lot worse to have that thing and lose it. Because when you didn’t have it, you didn’t have a taste of what it was like. All you had were fantasies and maybe hope but when you’ve had it and tasted what it feels like to lose it prematurely hurts.
