God's Hedge

"Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in? (Job 3:23)

By the time we get to chapter three, Job has lost everything, including his health. He still retains his wife, but, sadly, she has advised him to "curse God and die." His three "friends" have sat looking at him mournfully now for seven days, without saying a word. Up until this time, the Bible says, he had not “sinned with his lips.” But finally, in the bitterness of his soul, he speaks and curses the day he was born…with great eloquence. "Why even live," he says, "if we're always going to be hedged in by circumstances?" He lumped God's hedge in with all his other miseries.

But he was wrong, for within that hedge of protection was everything good in Job's life.

Does the hedge God has put about you sometimes feel like a prickly bush? As a woman, do you ever feel your role in life is too confining? Does the prospect of not having to answer to anyone seem singularly attractive? (I fear that personal independence is highly over-rated and highly seductive.) I have not always been successful, but I have always tried to assume that God knows what is best for me, and to thank Him for His hedge of protection, no matter what form (pleasant or otherwise) it may take.

Ironically, Satan knew much better than Job what God's hedge really was, especially since it was the only thing that was keeping him at bay. What Job thought to be a curse, Satan knew to be a blessing. Compare his description with Job's:

Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all
that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and
his substance is increased in the land (Job 1:10).

What about you? Are you willing to thank God today for the “hedge” He has placed around you?