The permanent foundation that will never crumble, never fade, and can never be taken away.
My grandfather grew up during the Great Depression, and bits and pieces of his stories linger in my memory. Only a few years before, people had been enjoying a prosperous economy. But the prosperity was not a reliable anchor that held because times changed. As my grandfather’s stories detailed, his family longed for the luxury of meat for dinner… and that meat might have included carp or a possum someone had managed to trap. I remember him detailing the people in town who hoped to stumble upon a few pieces of coal that fell from the train as it passed through town to warm their homes.
For the past two weeks, I have been sharing some of my thoughts as I have studied the book of Job. My opening story brings me to my third point. Job’s faith was not in worldly possessions or people. In the first chapter of Job, we learn about Satan’s plot and how quickly Job’s life changed. But we also learn that the situation did not turn out according to Satan’s prediction. Why? Because Job’s faith was not in anything that could be taken away. Job’s faith was in the Creator of all things. In Job 1:21, Job proclaims, “… Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (KJV).
However, in the book of Judges, chapters 17 and 18, we are given an account of a man named Micah. According to Judges 17:5, “…the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim…” (KJV), and then in Judges 17:10, we are told how Micah hired his own personal priest as it states, “And Micah says to him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals” (KJV). But in chapter 18, we read how all these things Micah had placed his faith in disappeared. The Danites came, asked Micah’s priest to join them instead (see Judges 18:19 KJV), and Judges 18:20 says, “And the priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went into the midst of the people” (KJV). As I read Micah’s response to the loss of these things and his hired priest, it seems quite obvious just how much faith he had vested in these worldly things that so quickly vanished. Micah says, “…Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more?…” (Judges 18:24 KJV).
All three of these examples show the temporary and untrustworthy status of earthly treasures. Let us look at the strength and endurance of Job as his heart was devoted to His Heavenly Father who was, is, and always will be.”
“…from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
Psalm 90:2 KJV
