“…that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin; although you know I am not guilty, no one can rescue me from your hands.” Job 10:6-7
Growing up my two older brothers and I were all scouts. Them being Boy Scouts, and me being the younger, a Cub Scout. And if you’re familiar with formal scouting, you know about badges. Camping, hiking, citizenship, first aid, community service. You needed to earn the badges to advance to the next level whether it be bobcat, wolf, bear or tiger. But as I would choose my next badge, I always found myself picking the fun, the enjoyable, the easier of the badges. I mean, if given the choice, why would I pick the difficult? But eventually if you sought to advance to a Boy Scout, the difficult must be faced. The difficult tasks in life must be faced eventually if you hope to move through life as if it were so many merit badges. And within those badges of life that none want to truly endure, is humility and patience.
Job in his second recourse is not so much answering the attacks of his two friends but attempting to ever better understand why God has placed him in his current dilemma. As he addresses God there is a bitter honesty and revelation that can only come through genuine pain and suffering that points in no specific direction. At one point Job simply declares to God that he is not guilty, and that God knows it. A rather bold assumption considering the sin we all carry, yet an assumption that God himself declared in Job 1:8, “Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." So, if Job is indeed blameless and upright, then why the tremendous suffering and dismal gloom that has been placed upon his life? Folks, whether we think we need them or not, the badges of humility and patience must be continually addressed throughout our lives. And the timing of the administration of those badges can only be seen by Almighty God.
Humility and patience are fruits of the Holy Spirit and are only personally procured through the numerous trials carefully and perfectly placed in our lives. Just like my Cub Scouting, if not forced to acquire all the badges, I would simply pick what I liked and ignore the rest, never advancing beyond the mundane. It is no different with the badges of humility and patience, they are as difficult and bitter to earn as Job accurately describes. Since true, why then would anyone choose to enthusiastically acquire them? You see, God has a plan that we cannot see. He sees what we lack, and what we need in order to become the servant He desires to complete the very specific task He has for us. And to see this change in us take place, He will send us back through the refiner’s fire as many times as possible. Yes, each time through the fire hurts as much as the previous, yet unbeknownst to the gold, it emerges purer each time. If you are in the trial of being refined today, don’t curse the process but instead endure it with grace provided by God’s Holy Spirit. Instead of despising the process, see it as glory that God loves you enough to continue refining you. Glory in that Almighty God loves you enough to grant you the next badge so that you can advance as a more patient, more humble servant within His kingdom.
“But He knows the way I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job 23:10
“but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses…” 2 Corinthians 6:4
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