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Study of Job 14:18 – Obstacles

Job 14:18

But as mountains collapse and crumble,

   Rocks are dislodged from their place,

 

Today I read Zachariah 8 and realized I am really close to finishing the Old Testament again and wondered how many chapters were included. Turns out it is 929 chapters. I then wondered what kind of consistency I am on since I started, and I started roughly 1500 days ago. That works out to reading a chapter ever two out of three days. Considering I don’t read much on days I do accountability or Bible Study or go to church, I am being fairly consistent.

Turns out I started reading about the same time I started doing Job a verse at a time. I might finish the New Testament about the time I finish Job as well. I definitely did not plan that out, but I like the symmetry in it.

This morning I started cleaning up some things left undone last night and got distracted and forgot I was about to eat. My first thought was that that was not very efficient of me. My second thought was maybe my striving to be efficient all these years has been an attempt to make up for what my doctor recently told me was ADHD. This week I spoke to a friend down the street who was also recently diagnosed as ADHD and we both agreed that it explained much of the struggle in our lives. Obviously, we have never suffered as much as those who were more extremely impacted by the condition, but the last few weeks as I have attempted to understand what this means, and what to do about it, I have learned that knowledge is powerful in overcoming obstacles.

One of my favorite aspects of reading the Old Testament is how meaningful some verses become when you realize they are pointing the way to Christ. (My kid’s cat’s crying in the background does not help me focus.) I have seen a lot more in Job about Christ than I ever expected.

‘Collapse’ was also ‘falls’, and ‘erodes’. ‘Crumble’ was also ‘wears away’ and ‘cometh to naught’. I’d almost like this to be ‘As challenges erode away and cometh to naught’.

‘Rock’ was also ‘cliff’. ‘Dislodged’ was also ‘removed’ and ‘ripped’.

My first response is to think of the earth being destroyed when God comes in judgement. Not sure how that floats with the dashing of hopes in the next verse, but through my maturing in Christ I know that the world will be destroyed yet I will love with God in heaven. The destruction of the earth for the non-believer has to be terrifying as that signals all their hopes in something else were in vain.

As I seek to get my head around my issues and how to build the routine and goals to allow for improvement, I know that my strength needs to come from Christ and my success needs to be a crown to set before Him. My challenges are not mountains and rocks, and no matter how hard or insurmountable I thing they are, I can learn to obey and be blessed accordingly.

 

Written 10/20/2024, Posted 11/21/24, Job 335

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