Job 1: 1-22. “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.4 His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.”

This book opens with a fairy-tale type description of a beautiful life and loving family. Job is very wealthy as the Lord had blessed him richly with sheep, camels, oxen, and donkeys. Job would sacrifice for his children in case they had sinned. So Job actively interceded to God for his children regardless of their ages. It shows the deep desire of Job’s heart to not recklessly or purposefully disregard God or deny God in any way by his thoughts, actions, or those of his children’s. This is obviously centuries before Jesus came to earth so an animal sacrifice needed to be made to cover the sins with blood. The physical picture of what Christ did for us on the cross. So never ever take it lightly that we can “just ask God to forgive us of our sins”. May we develop the habit of hunting out sin in our lives and striving to live pleasing to God in all we do, and say, and think.