"Retracing Old Steps" (mp3 Audio)

"Retracing Old Steps" (Job 42:1-6)

No matter what we think about life, none of us really goes very far from where we were born. Of course, we may have many exciting and varied experiences in our life’s journey, in many places throughout the world, but there are only a few lessons allotted to each life (Ecclesiastes 1:9). These lessons take many long years to learn and, contrary to what we may think, often involve retracing old steps.

Life is not the grand adventure that we believe it to be, full of new experiences and exciting happenings. This is all good and wonderful, but an individual life, at its core, is designed by God (Genesis 1:1).

It has, as its purpose, the maturation and development of a soul for His glory (Isaiah 43:7; Romans 8:29). Through the long years of living, and through the circumstances of your life, God is molding you, shaping you, teaching you (Isaiah 64:8; Jeremiah 18:6; Hebrews 12:10-11; Philippians 1:6).

Though we may seem mature in comparison to others, the only valid comparison that can be made is to the plan that God has put in place for us. That is a sobering reality.

Because when we are forced to not look at the lives of others, but to consider where we are on God’s plan for us, then we are faced with the unpleasant realization that although we have made progress in the world and are in a new setting, we are still merely retracing old steps.

Some of us would be surprised to discover that it is not a new lesson, it is the same old lesson. Like a child who is learning his alphabet, God is making us trace the same letters repeatedly, until that letter is formed in us.

Like a bad case of acid reflux, things that we should have learned, were given the opportunity to learn, just keep coming back until we learn them. Just ask Job.

From the time of his losses to the time of his repentance, perhaps a period of years, he was stuck in a perpetual loop; one in which he was forced to retrace old steps. Consider the following four points:

1. Whenever we are disturbed about something, the lesson has begun.

• We learn (about God, about ourselves, about life) through what we are denied.
• We may be denied peace (Isaiah 48:22).
• We may be denied companionship (1st Corinthians 7:7-8).
• We may be denied finances (1st Timothy 6:6).
• We may be denied recognition (Philippians 2:3-4).

2. We are the subjects of our own lessons.

• Job didn’t blame the Sabeans, though they raided and took away his oxen and donkeys (Job 1:14-15).
• Job didn’t blame the Chaldeans, though they took away his camels (Job 1:17).
• Job didn’t blame the weather, though a whirlwind killed his children (Job 1:18-19).
• Job also knew that Satan could not attack without God’s permission (Job 42:2).
• Job knew that God’s purpose was at work in his life (Job 42:2).
• Job’s friends even pointed him to God as a way to peace and understanding (Job 5:8-9; 8:5-7; 11:13-15).

3. We fight old battles in new settings.

• Job had a relationship with God prior to his troubles:
• He was righteous (Job 1:1).
• He was even devout (Job 1:5).
• He was blameless (Job 1:8).
• He was faithful (Job 2:10).
• He was a man of prayer as well (Job 16:17).
• But Job feared that God would not reward him for all of his attributes and godly actions. Job said in Job 3:25 in the ESV: "For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me."
• Perhaps this is why he sacrificed for his children, just in case they had sinned or cursed God (Job 1:5).
• Notably, this is what Satan and Job’s wife wanted Job to do—curse God (Job 1:11; 2:9).

4. Our development or our becoming is complete when God’s purpose is achieved in our lives.

• Over time, and continual retracing of his steps, he finally got it. He was finally able to say the words of Job 42:5: "I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you." Job has grown in the knowledge of God.
• Job's words of repentance in verse 6, the following verse, also indicates that Job has grown in the knowledge of himself:
• When Job was compared to all other men, he was spotless (Job 1:1), a town elder who sat at the city gates (Job 29:7), a man to be revered, one whose wisdom was desired (Job 29:9-10).
• But before God, Job was just a man, and a sinner at that. Whereas he previously cried and suffered through his losses sitting in ash (Job 2:8), in time he learned to repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:9).

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