IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

What is God’s Desire for Us?

Date: Apr. 16, 2023

Passage

Job 10:1-22

Job Continues: A Plea to God

10:1   “I loathe my life;
  I will give free utterance to my complaint;
    I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2   I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
    let me know why you contend against me.
3   Does it seem good to you to oppress,
    to despise the work of your hands
    and favor the designs of the wicked?
4   Have you eyes of flesh?
    Do you see as man sees?
5   Are your days as the days of man,
    or your years as a man’s years,
6   that you seek out my iniquity
    and search for my sin,
7   although you know that I am not guilty,
    and there is none to deliver out of your hand?
8   Your hands fashioned and made me,
    and now you have destroyed me altogether.
9   Remember that you have made me like clay;
    and will you return me to the dust?
10   Did you not pour me out like milk
    and curdle me like cheese?
11   You clothed me with skin and flesh,
    and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12   You have granted me life and steadfast love,
    and your care has preserved my spirit.
13   Yet these things you hid in your heart;
    I know that this was your purpose.
14   If I sin, you watch me
    and do not acquit me of my iniquity.
15   If I am guilty, woe to me!
    If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head,
  for I am filled with disgrace
    and look on my affliction.
16   And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion
    and again work wonders against me.
17   You renew your witnesses against me
    and increase your vexation toward me;
    you bring fresh troops against me.
18   “Why did you bring me out from the womb?
    Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
19   and were as though I had not been,
    carried from the womb to the grave.
20   Are not my days few?
    Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer
21   before I go—and I shall not return—
    to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
22   the land of gloom like thick darkness,
    like deep shadow without any order,
    where light is as thick darkness.”

Daily Bread

Key Verse: Job 10:8

Your hands fashioned and made me,
and now you have destroyed me altogether.

Have you ever felt that life could not get any worse? This is how Job felt. He cried out to God in anguish and searched for answers. Why has God done this to him? It appears God was behaving like a mortal and smiling on the plans of the wicked. It simply didn’t make sense to Job. Why would God shape and form him, just to turn around and destroy him? Why would God give him life and show him kindness just to completely crush him? If Job was guilty, he would understand God’s actions. But even if he was innocent, it didn’t matter anymore. Job was already full of shame and affliction. Even if he could somehow raise his head above his circumstances, God would bring him low again.

In verse 18, Job wishes that he had never been born. If only God would give him a moment’s rest before he died! Even in death, there was no hope for Job. Job describes death as a land of gloom and utter darkness. What Job needed was a hope that penetrated the darkness. He needed a hope that lifted him above his sufferings and gave him peace and joy in the midst of his troubles. He needed a hope that overcomes even the power of death. God did not create us just to crush us. He created us to have eternal life in Christ and dwell in his presence forever. We all need this hope.

Prayer: Prayer: Lord Jesus, grant us hope that overcomes.

One Word: One Word: God shaped us for his glory

Daily Bread

Remember Who God is

Psalm 77:1-20

Key Verse: 77:11

I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

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