Job 9:7
God commands the sun, and it does not rise,
He seals off the light of the stars.
(Written 6/16, Posted 6/18)
This verse led me down the trail to a snooze button. Many of us use the snooze button to stay in bed just a little longer. God could pause the movement of the sun so we could sleep a little longer, but I once realized that the more I sleep, the more I am not doing anything. Yes, sleep provides needed rest, but the two must be kept in balance.
Once again, I inserted God in place of a number of pronouns. Commands was selected over orders, speaks to, and bids. Rise was selected over shone. I felt commands was more worthy of God and I felt not rising was more of a feat than not shining, although either would take a miracle.
Seven versions had He seals up the stars and the one I followed had He seals off the light. Both got me to thinking of clouds, but I felt the light of the stars to be more important to us than the stars themselves.
The way I understand it, Job is going down a list of things that pagan gods have been credited with and giving all the glory to Yahweh, the one true God, our God. I have just read Job 19:25 and one commentary was adamant that Job was dominated by the belief in monotheism, that there is only one God, and He did everything. This verse in 9:7 is evidence of that.
One of the drives in my live has been to be efficient. “Do for a dollar what any “darn” fool can do for $2.” is a phrase that matched my intent. As I have matured, I have realized it is more important to be effective than efficient. I did not pull all nighters in college to study. For one it cost me sleep and for another it was not efficient, nor was it effective in most cases. But I hear stories of people getting out of bed in the night to pray or read scripture or just get stuff done that never seems to get done during the day. I can respect that. More now than when I was younger. God gives us a certain amount of time each day and it is up to us to figure out how we intend to use it. I encourage you to plan to use it all and let your service to God be effective, even if it means getting up early to exercise.