Job and His Hedge

When you hear trials and tribulations spoken of in church, Job is often the guy we look to. The preacher usually tells us of all the horrible things Job went through and yet, he remained faithful to God.


I've read Job before, but (confession) I usually start skimming because my mind reads "bad thing happened, bad thing happened, bad thing happened, he still loved God." I don't really absorb what this man went through.


So, this week my Scripture focus has been the book of Job. I'm totally hung up on chapter 1. I'm not ready to move past it yet. First, Job 1:6 "One day the ANGELS came to present themselves before the Lord, and SATAN also came with them." Just proof that sometimes bad DOES come with the good and vice versa. God asked Satan where he'd been. "Roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it." Satan ROAMS this earth. I know this, but it just came alive in a new way. I got to thinking about creeps I've seen or heard of being out on the streets and I literally shuttered at the evil that Satan brings to this world. Basically, I gather that Satan was out and about looking for someone to devour, someone to bring down.


God offers Job. Lord, would you offer me? 


God tells Satan that Job is an upright man who fears God and shuns evil. Satan throws out the question, "Does Job fear God for nothing?" My Bible commentary cleared this question up by saying that Satan was asking if there were any strings attached to Job's love for God. Job was a man of many blessings and Satan suggested that God's gifts produced Job's love.


Lord, what produces my love for you? 


This is the part that really trips me up... Job 1:10-11 "Have you not put a hedge of protection around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."


Hedge of protection. That phrase just seemed so "now" for reading Old Testament. How many times have I used those exact words in praying for my family? I beg for protection, safe keeping, good health. My greatest fear isn't spiders, fire, or the dark. It's losing my family. I experienced it as a child, I have always been petrified that I will have to experience it as an adult. 


After ALL that God had given Job- wealth, health, family- he offered Job over to Satan. He just handed him over with the exception that Satan was not to lay a hand on Job himself. As you read on in Job, left and right, literally, Job's God-given gifts were taken away. Words of one disaster couldn't even finish being spoken before words of another disaster came about.


Lord knows I've had weeks where I felt like it was one thing after another. Praise God it was just things like money, snotty noses, broken cars, and jacked up schedules. It could have been one death notice after another, like Job.


Even as a write, I'm so stuck on the phrases Hedge of Protection (vs 10), Blessed/ Cursed (vs 10-11) and  Everything He Has is in Your Hands (vs 12). If God deemed me worthy and genuine enough to remove His hedge of protection, would I still love Him? If the life I've been blessed with suddenly fell apart, would I curse Him? If I felt like everything I had, all that I am, was handed over to Satan, where would my allegiance lie?


This Hedge of Protection idea got me thinking about "when bad things happen to good people." So often, in the life of a believer, God is glorified in tragedy. This is what happened to Job. God knew that Job's love for Him was not wrapped up in the good gifts God had given him, so God allowed those gifts to be taken away. 


How is my love for God wrapped? I'm doing deep soul searching to determine if my love for God is wrapped up in...
... gratefulness for His blessings?
... gratefulness for His salvation?
... awe?
... fear?
... godly things I see going on in other believer's lives?
... growing my business?
... healthy kids and husband?
... my hedge of protection?


I would generally spout off that I love God because of His love for me. That's Biblical, afterall (I John 4:19). This is true. I do not make light of the sacrifice God gave up- His Son- for me. That's something no one else has ever done. But, there's a stirring in my heart that asks "why else do I love God?" 


I'm still searching for this answer. I'm praying it though, asking God to reveal both the genuine and superficial affection I have for Him. I have no doubt that there is love stored up in this notion of a hedge of protection over me. But I see the danger in that as it can be removed in an instant. It's not genuine. 


I feel a bit "wrecked" (as Trey would say) in getting to know Job. It's a bit scary and stirs my faith a bit as I imagine myself in his shoes. I haven't stopped praying for a hedge of protection. But, every time I do, I ask God to loosen my grip on the Hedge and draw me closer to to Him... just Him. No gifts. 


Just Him.