Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The simplest, most common thing you can do for anyone is to pray for him, to get up out of bed when you crave sleep, and pour out your soul for that person, taking the time and trouble to put yourself in that person's place, to think about him, to share his burdens, to realize your corporate oneness with him. That's just a little of what Jesus meant, "Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John 15:13).
When you pray for someone, does it induce God to do something that otherwise He would not do? Actually, it's not that God would not do it (He is more than willing all along), but it makes it possible for Him to do something that otherwise He could not do.
That's the reality lesson that the Book of Job teaches: God cannot save the world without "[His] servant Job" (1:8; 2:3); He cannot win the struggle of the great controversy between Himself and Satan without that "servant Job" doing something that even God cannot do.
Job was the "servant" that God needed, making a contribution to the divine economy. He had this quintessential part to play in the cosmic war that no angel could have filled, but he himself had no idea who he was. His task was to defend God and be loyal even to the point of enduring the curse of God--yes, going to hell, yet still maintaining his faith in God (cf. 13:15). The book of Job is full of that truth. He anticipated the sacrifice of the cross.
If the Jews had understood Job, they could never have crucified their Messiah; Job was the biblical Atlas bearing the world on his shoulders. Today God has 144,000 modern "servants" like Job, each holding the line in one of 144,000 categories of defense that God needs when and where He is on trial (Rev. 14:6, 7). Each would rather perish eternally than bring shame on Christ. Christ is the real One for whom you get up out of bed to pray (Isa. 50:4, 5).
It's shocking but true: in His incarnation, the Lord Jesus Christ needs help.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 20, 2007.
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