Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There are many links that bind Job on his dung heap with Christ on His cross, and yes, links that bind him to God's people today.
Job had to endure his trial alone. Even his wife told him to "curse God and die." His three best friends turned against him because they couldn't understand him, and in their supposedly orthodox "Christian" way tortured him even further.
So Christ was alone in His agony on the cross. His closest friends, His mother and His eleven disciples (one had betrayed Him), couldn't understand Him and fled.
So will His people in these last days stand alone, each one. From of "every nation, tribe, tongue, and people" will each be placed in circumstances where his or her faith will be tried as each is forced to stand alone as a witness for Christ.
Job maintained his loyalty to God. In total darkness, with Heaven closed against him, no answers to his prayers, bereft, apparently forsaken by God and by loved ones on earth, Job remained loyal to God.
So Christ with everything against Him, enduring what He knew was the "curse" of God, remained loyal all by Himself.
So will those "144,000" "follow the Lamb wherever He goes" in their darkest hour of trial when again Heaven seems closed against them and no visible or perceived answer to their prayers comes.
The honor of God, the stability of His throne, His credibility, depended on Job choosing to be loyal in his total darkness and despair. As an individual, Job was God's last hope. If he had taken his wife's advice and cursed God and died, God would have been proved a liar and a failure, and Satan would have won the great controversy. Job was supremely important.
More tomorrow about how important you are.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 15, 2001.
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