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Job 30:16
16 And now my soul [nephesh] is poured out [shaphak] upon me; the days [yowm] of affliction [`oniy] have taken hold ['achaz] upon me. KJV-Interlinear
16 'And now my soul is poured out within me; Days of affliction have seized me. NASB
Illness, stress, pressure and such will take their toll sooner or later, if the pressures of life are allowed to continue.
And Job is no better or worse than any other person when it comes to suffering. The powers that be in this world will take advantage whenever it is to their advantage. And the powers that be are not always identifiable.
Often time's things just do not work out. There doesn't have to be an identifiable person or organization to which you can point and say, 'They are my problem.' Sometimes it is just bad karma, for lack of a better word. I could use the words fate, chance, luck, and so forth. But karma is kind of a cool sounding word.
'When it rains it pours,' is another way to look at trouble that can visit you.
Job has already described the attitudes of some people, who will not have any sympathy for you, when times are tough. But his description is not limited to just people. Often times circumstances fall apart for you and your plans, your hopes, everything that should work out for you, just don't seem to work, and for no rational reason. Kind of like someone stepped on you and the smell of dog doodoo is apparent to everyone but you. Or, at least you begin to think that something like that has happened to you.
And the bad luck, the bad life just continues. Stress, worry, pain, and everything that you can imagine, mount up in your life.
This is Jobs description in these next few verses.
Your heart aches. Being human, anyone can be stricken with anxiety, so much so that it can make them nauseous when the mental worries become too much.
Job has been pushed to the edge of life. He has lost his family, his wealth, his health, and even his wife has been less than nice to him. His friends have been sitting nearby, initially waiting for him to die, and then condemning him for living a deceitfully wicked life.
And to what purpose?
As far as Job was concerned, none of this made any sense. But he would figure it all out later. As far as we are concerned, we need to learn that anything we desire or hold dear to our hearts in life, can be taken away from us. Life can fall apart in a heartbeat and there is nothing that we can do to stop it.
But then, life in this world was never designed to continue forever anyway. Our primary purpose in this life is to prepare ourselves for the next life. Bible doctrine and spiritual growth can never be taken away, not by anyone.
This does not mean that we sit back and do nothing. Part of growing up spiritually, is being responsible. And God did not place us in this world for no reason. We have been placed here to utilize our talents, whatever they might be, to learn, to understand, and to grow up. Much of growing up requires learning from life. You cannot learn anxiety or happiness from a book only. Experience is one of the best teachers.
And, we do not have to look very far, nor wait very long before the world gives us examples of a troubled world. The assassination in Pakistan is a good example of the instability and evil in the world, which will never go away, but cannot be ignored.
Even so, regardless of everything that can happen in life to us, if we are prepared spiritually, then nothing in this world can cause real or permanent harm to us.
Jesus Christ controls history.
The world cannot control history. The terrorists cannot control history. Government policies cannot control history. Philosophies, technology, nothing in this world will ever manage to take control over life or history.
So, in this world, the circumstances that we might come face to face with, will never ever get the better of us, if … we stick with our daily study of Gods word.
Whatever we face in life, is there for a reason. Nothing happens by accident. So learn from them, because God probably has something to teach you, which you will need to remember later on in life.
