In Job 9:33 we read, “If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together.”
Job had been talking about the utter lost-ness of his position. That no matter how much he tried, no matter how well he kept the law, no matter how perfect he could manage to live (and he did live an innocent life before God), it didn’t bridge that gap between him and God. We find Job’s heart crying out for a mediator between himself and God.
Read all of Job 9.
What is so amazing is that Job had lost everything a person could possibly lose. His family was completely gone, his business and all of his finances had been completely destroyed and then finally he lost his health as well.
And in the midst of this he desired to draw near to God. He wasn’t rejecting God or angry with God. Rather, he looked to see how he might draw near to God in the very midst of his pain and sorrow.
We see in Job’s life a type of prophetic authority that embodied in his life a specific message of God. In his pain he speaks prophetically about a Savior to come. Many, many years later Christ would indeed be that mediator that Job so longed for.
In Job’s struggle despite doing everything right, we are privileged to see a message and prophetic work that is stronger than words. This message of our desperate need for a Savior is poured through the very life of Job and was in fact proven-up in his responses in the midst.
Our own lives can also carry prophetic messages, that something of God that shows through and speaks loud and clear of God in some way.
This was the way with many of the prophets of the Old Testament.
In Hosea 1:2 we find Hosea instructed by the Lord to carry out a message of God through his very life.
Then the Lord said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.”
Ezekiel also acted out a message of God. This was his prophetic assignment:
“Now lie on your left side and place the sins of Israel on yourself. You are to bear their sins for the number of days you lie there on your side. I am requiring you to bear Israel’s sin for 390 days – one day for each year of their sin. After that, turn over and lie on your right side for 40 days – one day for each year of Judah’s sin.” Ezekiel 4:4-6
These are strange assignments. They don’t really make sense and they go against our better judgements. The lesson of Job’s life is the same.
Job revealed a hearts automatic response to God in the hardest of times. Even though life became inconceivably broken and devastated he responded authentically and genuinely toward God. And in this he carried a prophetic message. He revealed a part of God that was given to him to reveal.
This is the same of others throughout scripture. Read about:
- Daniel – Daniel chapters 1-9
- Esther – the book of Esther
- Noah – Genesis 6
They lived lives in the day to day, the experience of such, that would seem confusing and certainly not of God.
Our lives are often the same. It takes faith to look to God in the difficulties and the unexpected. It takes faith to open up the camera lens on our lives so that we can see the big picture.
“And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Romans 5:4-6
It takes living a life that doesn’t always make sense and a courage to find and have this kind of life that carries a unique expression of God.
Walking with the Spirit means that we are open to things beyond ourselves. That we exhibit wisdom in the face of the unaccountable. And that we do not ascribe to Satan what is of God.
“…but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequences.” Mark 3:29
When we walk our days in genuine affection for the Lord, when we walk in obedience to the leading of the Spirit and when we worship the Lord regardless of our days, we have a recipe for carrying out that unique prophetic message that is ours to bear.
Thing is, walking with God in an intuitive fashion is a life lived beyond our understanding and beyond what we can make happen.
The prophetic messages of our lives happen when we simply give over our life to him. Total and complete surrender has the Lord’s finger in the mix of our days, taking what feels oh so very ordinary to what is completely extraordinary.
Praise be to our Lord and King.
“Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven! Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness! Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn; praise him with the lyre and harp!” Psalm 150
“God we ask today for eyes that see your mix in our days. We ask for understanding and wisdom from you. Most of all we ask for courage to walk as you would have us walk, and for patience and understanding and a vision that sees beyond our own experiences. We invite you Jesus into our very lives. We invite you Holy Spirit to refresh us and guide us. Thank-You God.”