Mercy to Job?

James 5:11 "Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord--that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful."

What's that? You call it mercy that he lost his CHILDREN, his possessions, his honor, his health? What kind of crazy mercy is that? I am not sure I like that kind of mercy. I am very sure that I don't want to experience it. But oh yes, mercy it is indeed, and in the end, compassion as well. I can relate. Well, only a tiny little bit. But still, it counts for me because it happened to me.

The day my first child was born, I almost bled to death. Now, I don't mean I lost a little bit of blood and they had to give me a transfusion, and then it took me a little while to get my strength back. No, I really did almost bleed to death. And I would have, it God had not mercifully orchestrated events to unfold exactly as they did.

My child, in utero, also could have bled to death the day she was born. In fact, she did have a blood transfusion.

In retrospect, it was the most merciful thing that God ever ordained for my life. Oh, don't get me wrong. It was a horrible experience. I hope I never go through anything that scary again. And I hope I never have to go through the months that followed again either.

But if I had not been through that day and all of the difficult months that followed, I wouldn't have the manifold blessings that I now have as a direct result of those trials. Yes, a direct result.

Here are some of the gifts that God had in store for me in the years after the birth of my first child:

1. humility
2. a servant's heart
3. compassion for hurting people
4. relevance to other traumatized mothers
5. deep faith
6. love for the Body of Christ
7. a heart of flesh
8. a yearning for heaven
9. hunger and thirst for righteousness
10. endurance for the race set before me

I could go on, but you get the idea. Those fruits did not happen overnight. Oh no, I had to spend months and even years in difficulty before they sprang forth. But it was all worth it. And I see the mercy of God in all of it. Yes, really, mercy.

If God had not gotten my attention, I would probably still be drifting through this life. I wouldn't be filled with purpose and joy and awe and love. God was merciful because He wanted more for me than I was providing for myself. He wanted me to get it, to get Him and how mind-boggling He really is. And unless He had forced me to see those things, I don't think I ever would have.

So yes, God's actions toward Job, and me too, were ultimately mercy.

Hebrews 12:5-7

"And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:

"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?"