job | He Bids Them Come

Hello again! Before we delve into Exodus, we’re going to add in Job. (Looks like j-ah-b, pronounced like j-oh-b)

There’s an entire book of the Bible for Job, today will just be an overview. Job is about trusting God even through hardships and about God’s sovereignty and faithfulness despite our feelings.

**There is a book called “The Gospel According to Job” by Mike Mason which is a WONDERFUL commentary/devotional which really helps break down the book of Job and I personally found it especially helpful during our years battling infertility.**

Ok, onto the story…

job

Job was a man a long long time ago that loved God. He prayed to God, he served God. God had given Job many nice things…a loving wife, 10 children, lots of servants, a big big house, lots of money and sooooooo many animals.

One day Satan (who used to be one God’s angels but instead became God’s enemy) said to God, “You know…the only reason Job loves you is because you give him so much stuff. If you took all those great things away…I bet he wouldn’t love you anymore.”

“Fine,” God said. “You can take away any of his things…but don’t hurt Job.”

So Satan took away Job’s servants, all his camels and sheep and donkeys and even his children.

Did Job stop loving God? No. Job said, “God gives me things and God can take them away. But I will always praise Him.”

This made Satan angry and again he went to God and said, “Well…if you let me hurt HIM, THEN he won’t love you anymore!”

“Try it, ” answered God.

So Job became sick and his skin was all yucky and very ouchy. But did he stop loving God? No. He STILL worshipped God. Even his wife said, “You should just die! This is too much!” But Job never stopped trusting God. (And even though it seemed like God didn’t care…He still loved Job very VERY much.)

Job had lost EVERYTHING…can you imagine losing all your toys and your house? And even being sick too?

Then Job’s friends came to help him feel better. But they didn’t really help. Instead they said “WOW! You must have been REALLY bad for God to do this to you! What did you do?!”

“I didn’t do anything wrong!” Job said.

“Well God MUST be mad at you. Or maybe you don’t really understand God!” said the friends. ( But THEY didn’t understand what God was doing.)

Job started to wonder if his friends were right…WAS God just mad at him? DOES God care about me?

Then God answered Job from a whirlwind (like a tornado). God said, “Who questions Me? I am God. I have made everything! Every star, every wave in the sea…I am the giver of life…I know where all the stars are…can YOU make lightning? Can YOU know the farthest parts of space or the deepest parts of the ocean?? I AM God.”

Job stopped. He answered God…”I am nothing. How can I answer you? I will not say anything else.” Job remembered that God is in charge and that it’s ok if we don’t understand God’s plan. God knows. And if we know how much He loves us, then it is easy to trust Him. We know God has good plans for us (Jer 29:11) and that He acts in love towards us. So even if we don’t understand what God does, we can trust in WHO HE IS.

Then God yelled at the 3 friends and made them say sorry. They realized they did NOT know God well.

After that, God gave Job back everything he had lost AND MORE! Job didn’t know God would reward him and give him everything back, but he trusted God anyway. So because of his faithfulness, God gave Job even MORE sheep and camels and cows and donkeys. He had even more money and 10 more children. He lived a long happy life after that.

Sometimes confusing or sad things happen and we think God has forgotten about us. Or maybe we even think God is being mean to us. Maybe we think God is being mean because we have done something bad. Maybe we did do something bad…and we can ask God to forgive us. But sometimes…we won’t know why a sad or scary thing is happening. But we can know that God loves us, wants good things for us, wants to help us be more like Him and that we can always trust Him. And sometimes what we think is good for us is NOT what God knows is good for us. We have to trust HIM. Remember, He made all things and knows all things…we can trust Him.

This song is from the “what’s in the Bible” series.

This is the story of Job from “The Brick Testament” –a cute website that tells Bible stories using Legos.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Hello all

Welcome back. We’ll be finishing out November with some odds and ends from the old testament and a brief history of the 400 “silent” years from the old to new testaments.

Today’s story is about a man named Job (found in the book called Job). We did the “marshmallow” version (found on pinterest) as listed below.

Job was a man who loved God. He was also a very rich man. He had lots of money and sheep and cows. He had a lot of children and a wonderful wife. He was a big important person and everyone thought he was great. He talked to God a lot and tried to do everything God wanted him to do. (hand kids a few marshmallows *could use any treat you have* each time you list something good Job had…but instruct them not to eat them yet.)

One day, Satan (God’s enemy), came to God and said, “You know Job only loves You because You give him everything. I bet if You take everything away, he won’t love you anymore!”

So God took away Job’s children (take some marshmallows), and his sheep and cattle. (take more marshmallows) He took Jobs wife away (take more), He even took Job’s health and he became very sick and ouchy. (take the rest of the treats.)

How do you feel now that all your treats are gone? Are you sad? Mad?

Do you know what Job said? He said “I know You gave me everything, and i know You can take it all away. I will still praise You. I will still love You.”

Job was sad, very very sad…but he still trusted God and knew God was in control.

Job’s friends came and do you know what they said? They said “You must have done something REALLY REALLY BAD! This is a bad consequence for your sins!”

But Job hadn’t done anything wrong.

Job needed his friends to be with him and help him feel better, not tell him he must have been bad. How do you help a friend when they are sad?

God reminded Job that HE WAS in charge and that sometimes sad things will happen to us, but God still loves us. Sometimes when sad things happen, God will help us love Him more. Sometimes, it helps us love other people more. Sometimes…we won’t know why God let the sad thing happen…but we can ALWAYS know that He loves us and will take care of us.

And do you know what happened at the end of Job’s story? God gave him even MORE sheep and cows, more children and he was healthy again! (give kids LOTS of treats they can now eat).

We can always know that God loves us and is taking care of us. We might not get everything good while we live here. But if we love God, we know when we die and go to live in heaven with Him that He will share with us ALL the greatest things, better than anything we have now.

Is there anything sad in your life today? Can you thank God for helping you through it and for loving you no matter what?

For our craft today, we traced our hands, palm up and then cut out a heart. We attached the heart using bendy straws so it would stand up on the hands and look like the hands were lifting up God’s name.

We wrote “God” on the heart and Job 1:21 on the hands. “The Lord gives and takes away, but blessed be the name of the Lord.” Which means, God gives us everything we have and He can take it away if He thinks that’s best…but we can love Him no matter what because we KNOW He loves us and is taking care of us.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!