((((Duuun dun duuun dun))))
Ever feel like you are in a shot from the movie Jaws and you are just waiting on the next bite from the mammoth jaws of a shark? You’re bleeding out and not understanding why you can’t just either die or be rescued?
I have been there. Sitting on my surfboard, minding my own business…and a jolt from the “jaws of distress” (Job 36:16) sends me flying off into the water to fend for myself. I kinda picture this being how Job felt. Many times we want to try to understand why we are targeted by suffering, but just like a shark bite…normally it is unexpected and we didn’t do anything to bring affliction in our lives, but sometimes we find ourselves in the “jaws of distress” through our own doing…maybe we lured the shark (AKA the devil) by our own stupid decisions/actions/words.
However, Elihu in Chapter 36 wanted Job to see the purpose of his trials and that God was seeking to bring him into prosperity and comfort (the figurative spacious and unconfined space in verse 16). So many times you can see in Scripture that God doesn’t delight in our distress, but uses it as a way to draw us closer to Him. If you are in open water and a shark is closing in on you, you immediately seek the shoreline.
God is your shore.
It’s easy to ask yourself why did I get bitten when there are other people “chumming the water” (verse 17)…but you just keep swimming toward the shore and focus on the peace and comfort that comes knowing you are safe on the sand.
Safe in His arms.
There is peace and joy that is found in the kindness of God as believer. Just because we have the scars of past bites, we can’t let that keep up from riding the waves again. We can look at those scars as a reminder of God’s love and comfort when we needed it the most. Trials will come, but as a believer, you can always see the shore in the distance and know that those jaws of distress can only go so far before God steps in to offer you the biggest “wave of blessings” for remaining faithful to Him.
