Job 19:12
His troops advanced in force,
Laid up their siege-works against me,
Encamped around my tabernacle.
Six weeks in, and I admitted defeat. Probably not best to get into details, but I have been struggling with something for six weeks now, and yesterday, I finally realized my efforts were not going to work. My blood pressure went back down to normal pretty much immediately. I knew I was carrying too much stress for my body, but I was not sure of the source until it was gone. I know God will work His miracles through this situation, but it is not what I was hoping for.
‘Advanced’ was also ‘come on’. ‘In force’ was also ‘together’.
‘Laid’ was also ‘thrown up’, ‘built’, ‘raised’, and ‘paved’. ‘Siege-works’ was also ‘siege ramp’, ‘road’, and ‘way’.
‘Tabernacle’ was ‘tent’ the other seven times.
I read my email this morning for work, and I came across another reason why I was defeated. I asked my Bible study group to pray over the issue. I am confounded by how bad the issue was. I repeat that I know God will work good in the situation, but ‘Wow!”
One of our big issues this morning was what does the word Christian mean. Another was what does the word religion mean. The third was is it wrong for a Christian to not go to church. The vocabulary that people carry in their heads is often at odds with the dictionary ‘definitions’ of words. As it turns out, my 1993 dictionary does not define a Christian as someone saved by Christ, but that is what it means to me. The dictionary actually has four separate definitions for religion, so use it with caution. The last topic depends on the definition of church which again has multiple, distinct options.
Today is the first ‘cold’ day of the late fall/early winter down here. I could not find both of my favorite gloves, so I had to go with the next heaviest. From my earliest days, I could think of little worse than war in the winter. If we project this verse back to its day, war was in summer, the invading force was always overwhelming or they would not have attacked a stronghold, and the idea was to both wait out those in the stronghold and build a way past the defenses. With the stronghold here being a tabernacle, it carries a slightly different idea that could come out as an attack on one’s religion or spiritual condition rather than a physical one. I read today in my devotional the advice to resist the devil rather than fight him as Jesus has already won the victory. This leads me to the conclusion that our struggles in life are not with the weather, not with other people, and not with Satan. Our struggles are to fight ourselves and release our wants for those of God. Easier said than done, but we definitely can’t win against the world without divine intervention, so why would we try to win against our selves without it as well?
Written 10/31/25, Posted 1/5/2026, Job 412/~1070