Five indespensable lessons to learn from Job

It is said that experience is the best teacher, but it also true that one doesn't have to experience a bad thing before he learns,  one can learn from other people's experiences.
Observing the of Job - there are five lessons in the life of Job that are worth looking at.
  • You can run but you can't  hide from your destiny:- Jonah ran as fast and as far as his legs could carry him,  he boarded a ship just to escape God's mission for him.  The Bible records that he flee to Tarshish,  there is more to that that just running.         
                 Jonah 1King James Version (KJV)
1 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

4 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. 
  • Sometimes you don't have to go 360 degree:- Jonah had to learn the hard before he gave up.  Imagine how suffocating  it was in that fish belly, no good air no food to eat. He wouldn't have been in that condition if he had obeyed the instant God sent him.  The funny is that most people are like that, they have to experience the bad first before they will say "okay!  I give up now God here I am" - one doesn't have to experience bad or tough situations before yielding to God. 
  • It is not for a man to decide the destiny if another man:-
        It was not the first time Jonah heard of Nineveh when God told him to go and preach against her sins.  He Knew Nineveh, he knew of her deeds - how her sons and daughters turned against God.  Their cup was almost full and prophet Jonah was just waiting to see their destruction. They deserved to die he must have thought. God however sent him to preach to them so they  will repent. Nineveh was such a great city with so many souls in it that destroying her without warning  was what God  didn't want - Jonah knowing how wicked that city was not willing to go and preach to them so that God will destroy them in their wickedness. If you notice Jonah wasn't happy when God changed his mind towards Nineveh when she repented.
  Jonah 3 King James Version (KJV)
  • And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,

    2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

    3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.

    4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

    5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

    6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

    7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

    8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

    9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

    10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
  • Prophesy may fail but love never fail
    Isaiah 55:9-11King James Version (KJV)
    9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

    10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

    11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
     God's word do not fail, whether it be spoken by Him (directly) or as a prophecy through his servants (indirectly).  Do not misunderstand me when I say prophecy fail by failing I mean the prophecy is not fulfilled and it's not because the words spoken are not powerful enough to cause the desired  change. The problem is not with the power source at all which resulted to the failure - prophecy is like a smart  missile launched against a target, as the smart missile head for destruction, the people that launched it rrealizesthat her enemy has risen white flag, they can abort the mission by simply sending a command to the missile to abort the mission. That is exactly what happened in Nineveh. Jonah however wasn't happy about it - he wasn't happy that God aborted the mission, how can He forgive them just like that? God had to teach him another lesson. 

    Jonah 4 King James Version (KJV)
    But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
    2 And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

    3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

    4 Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?

    5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

    6 And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

    7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

    8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

    9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.

    10 Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:

    11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

     That is to tell you how much God loves us and is ever ready to welcome us into his wide open arms.  
    1 Corinthians 13King James Version (KJV)
    8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.    
  • We are nothing but pencils in the hand of the creator 
 Despite the fact that man has the choice of free will, God can anyone anytime He chooses to.  Jonah ran but couldn't hide.

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