Rēad to Read …Again
Daily Reading: Job 29-31
Job 29:2
Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;
God was still preserving Job. However, his preservation process was like that of a peach that has been canned. Canning is the process of placing food items in jars and heating properly to a specified temperature, it is a way to preserve many different foods. The high heat destroys microorganisms and inactivates enzymes to preserve the safety and quality of the food. The heat causes a vacuum to complete the sealing process of the lids to the glass jars.
Consider the peach. If it had feelings and could communicate when being crammed into the jar and put under high heat the peach may say. “Oh, that I were as in months past when I hung on that marvelous tree that I called home. The only home I’ve ever known, but I was plucked from that home by a power greater than I. I was skinned alive, they called it being peeled. I was cut into pieces, cooked in a pot with sugar, then stuffed into an overcrowded jar which was then heated again, and the pressure was tremendous! Those were beautiful sunny days when I hung on the tree. The sun shone, the bees buzzed, my friends were close by hanging on other branches. We had great communion. Now I’m nothing, I’m doomed, I will never accomplish anything worthwhile.”
All the time that the peach was bemoaning its current state, it did not know that the canner was preserving the purpose of the peach. Its freshness would be extended, and it would become a tasty treat for a hungry soul, fulfilling the purpose for which it was created. It would be stored and placed in a safe environment to guarantee its freshness. It may be a topping for a wonderful dessert. It may be used to give tea a flair of peach taste. It may just be eaten right out of the jar. However it will be used, it will be far more productive a life than rotting on a tree, or falling off the tree to be trodden under foot.
Likewise, was the story of Job. He only thought that God had preserved him in the past, but the preservation process that our hero was going through was a much more intense and long-lasting preservation. Perhaps Job 3:25 can be recalled. For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. He will soon learn that his fears were faced, and he prevailed. He no longer will fear that thing, for God brought him through it, yet not without pain, confusion, and heartache. He was preserved from fear by being delivered from it by His loving Father in heaven.
But like the peach, he could not possibly understand the preservation process. His trial will soon be over. His story will be written and preserved for us to draw strength and wisdom from it in our own preservation story. When addressing his short letter to believers in Christ, Jude wrote this; Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:. As Job was preserved, and perhaps, no doubt a better preservation than Job, so too are those in Christ today. Paul said it like this: And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Thessalonians 5:23) Amen and amen! He is the preserver, we are the peach.
Dr. William T. Howe
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