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Job 30:19-20
19 He hath cast [yarah] me into the mire [chomer], and I am become like [mashal] dust [`aphar] and ashes ['epher].
20 I cry [shava`] unto thee, and thou dost not hear [`anah] me: I stand up [`amad], and thou regardest [biyn] me not. KJV-Interlinear
19 'He has cast me into the mire, And I have become like dust and ashes. 20 'I cry out to Thee for help, but Thou dost not answer me; I stand up, and Thou dost turn Thy attention against me. NASB
The 'mire,' is the lowest depths of misery, depression, gloom, wretchedness and degradation or depravation that one can imagine. It is the worst possible situation that one can find himself in, in life, with no hope, no possible outlook for anything better in life.
And who is it that placed Job in this position? God.
Through His permissive will, God allowed Satan to harass Job and to drive him to this lowest point in life.
Like dust and ashes, Job feels and is in a total state of worthlessness.
God often times allows the world to have at us, just to test our spiritual toughness.
He cries out. He prays. When in a crowd, and the earth and the human race is a crowd, then one has to stand up in order to be seen and heard. Back in those days, standing when offering prayer, raising ones arms in helpless appeal was the honorable and humble practice.
And yet God, seemingly, ignores Jobs appeals. Why is that?
God does not ignore anything in life. Jesus Christ controls history. 'Before you call, I will answer. While you speak, I will hear.'
God made provision for every aspect of your life, in eternity past. And when you actually send up your prayer, He hears and applies his previously established answer in your real time.
God is not a genie. God is not a fast food drive up window. Everything in time, takes time, as God welds His will across the almost infinite possibilities of circumstances and interactions of everyone in your periphery and on the planet, and across generations prior to you and generations to come.
The details of life are so complex that for humanity, even with ten-thousand supercomputers it would be impossible to figure it all out.
Jesus Christ controls history. The politicians, the economists, the environmentalists, the philosophers, no one in history has ever, nor will ever, be able to control history.
Mans plans are based on his sin nature. Gods plans are based on truth.
To follow or pursue ones own plans for life is a fools pursuit. When God is not in your life, then this verse applies. Life places you down in the dumps of despair and ruin. You have nothing, even if you do not realize it, and you will never have anything even if you reject that idea.
The absolute worst possible place that anyone can be in, is in the place where God has abandoned.
To follow Gods plans is something that only the wise can figure out. And that figuring out process comes only from the study of the scriptures ... daily.
Anyone with God in their life, will never be at risk. Anyone without God in their life will never be safe.
