Job......A Guide For Us In The Coming Days?

                A word that I read a lot in describing the book of Job is....'profound.' We all know the story....Job had it all....and then lost it all....and then three friends....(with friends like these....who needs enemies)....three friends came along and basically just tell Job to accept it all and go to God and confess his sins that brought it all on. Then along comes a young guy....Elihu....who lets the old guys go on and on for a while....in respect for their age....and then takes over....and criticizing Job....(rightfully so....for Job was getting more and more self-defensive as time went on)....tells him to just trust in God. Finally....God enters the conversation....and slam dunks the three friends.....never mentions Elihu....and says that Job at least acknowledged the greatness of Almighty God. These things are part and parcel of the blessed main message that Job has been to at first Israel and then the church....but as in many other parts of Scripture....there is often a second message....and that second message in Job....I believe....is in end-times prophecy....and how the church will react as the tribulation comes upon it.
                Now if you are one who believes that the Rapture will take place.....before the tribulation begins....then you may not get much out of this. I am not of that belief....we are going into the tribulation....and it may already have begun! So I take a different tact on Job. I hadn't always....but I do today. Maybe it is because I put so many things on a different grid....an enhanced grid.....transparent....placed on top of the grid before it....a grid that is for this generation....us....the generation upon which Jesus will return. There is prophecy everywhere in God's Word....all over the place in Psalms....and I believe....in Job also. 
                 So Job had it all....as we did at one time....and it was taken away....as it is being taken away from us in the church....and in America.....right now. What are we going to do? It is getting worse....and as the pains got worse and worse with Job.....so much so that even his wife told him to...."Curse God and die"....they are and will continue to get worse for us!
                 This is where the book of Job may come into play for us....as we move into the tribulation? We might at first acknowledge the sovereignty of God in all things....and then....quite naturally....begin to wonder if God has forsaken us? If so....the book of Job will be for us.....as the fallen away church....deluded and deceived....while following false prophets....accuses us....and even family abandons us.
                 Then there is this....the two beasts that rise up in the book....Behemoth....the land beast....and Leviathan....the sea beast. Yes the message is there as we in the church have always interpreted it....that if we cannot contain these creatures....how can we question God who created them? So....there may be....through these beasts....another message for the last days....can we tame Lucifer....and the Dragon....no....but we can through all of this proclaim the greatness and the majesty and the glory of the One who not only created all that there is....but controls all that there is....and will come....even shortly....in power and might....to rescue those who are His!
                 These are only thoughts that go through my mind. The difficult thing about writing in a blog....is that if you and I were sitting in a Starbucks...drinking lattes....and just exchanging thoughts on the end-times....and I were to say the things that I wrote here....it would be no big deal....just conversation.....but put it in a blog post....and it is as if it has become official teaching! What are your thoughts? Do you have a blog? I'd like to see it if you do.....or I would like to sit with you in a Starbucks....(I would prefer a Dunkin).....and we would just talk and talk about the glorious majesties of our God....and pray that in doing so....we might edify one another!