Job's other great contribution

Need to know

When was your last close call? Almost late for a meeting? Nearly miss the bus? Return that DVD just before it starts costing more?

Chances are, you didn't say, "Man, I made it by the skin of my teeth." But you should have. Job would have been proud.

Most of you don't think of saintly Job as a wordsmith. You think of him as the epitome of faithfulness and longsuffering-ness. The Scriptures say he was perfect. And he proved it starting that one bad day in the land of Uz.

Remember, he had seven sons and three daughters, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 she asses. It was all taken from him. And then the boils came. And then his friends told him to curse God and die. The guy wouldn't give up.

It was in the midst of all this that he came up with this gem:

Job 19:20
"My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth."

Old Job was lucky to make it through his ordeal with his 2.5-millimeter enamel still intact, and the English language was lucky to get a new phrase that's still in use today by farmers and your mom.

At the end of the Book of Job, the Lord blesses Job with double the animals he had before, seven more sons and three more daughters, and the Scriptures say they were the hottest women around.