This year I approached the book of Job with all that I have mentioned in mind. I looked at it as a book that I knew very little about yet desired to know more and although I am nowhere close to still really getting what really went on in those 39 chapters I have gained a whole lot from the book that I didn't have prior to this reading. I can't wait to read the book again next year to see what new stuff I will gain from the life of this man who went through so much.
Job's story is the great trial of one man. Satan meets with God and is convinced that this man Job is not serving him for nothing. He claimed that if the blessing and hedge that God had placed of Job were removed, he would curse God to the face. God has confidence in Job and allows the devil to go through with his plan, only he could not touch Job. In one day, he is left without all his earthly possessions and the children he had fathered, yet still does not curse God but instead tears his clothes, pours dust and ash on his head and says blessed be the name of the Lord. This however, is not the end of Job's trial. Satan is still convinced that he can cause Job to die and as a result, devises another strategy for destroying Job.
Job 2:4-10 ESV
4 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” 6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
4 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” 6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Up until the end of chapter Job seems strong and unbroken, almost unaffected by the trial he had to face but in chapter 3 we find Job cursing the day of his birth. While we often look to Job as a man of phenomenal patience but forget that Job was as normal as we all are and didn't go through his trial like it was a breeze. As a normal human being Job actually wished that he was dead, even questioning the reason for his very existence. He much like all of us and is only separated from the vast majority because he was one of the few who endured to the end.
This brings me to the thing that takes up the entire book - Conversations among friends. It is often said that in our times of trouble it helps to just have someone there with us. Job did, but I am convinced he needed more than this because as the book progresses we find the conversation did more to discourage Job than encourage him. While we know for sure his friends were not loose on calling sin sin and strongly detesting it, they missed the fact that their friend needed more than a rejection of sin, he needed someone to support him in his calamity.
An interesting turn happens in Chapter 32 of Job; A guy by the name of Elihu begins speaking. I am not altogether sure where he comes from (will have to look into that) but I do know his name doesn't come up in chapter 42 when God speaks out against Job's 3 friends, Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite and I am left with the conclusion he was somehow separated from them as speaking truth. We do know from reading that he doesnt speak until this point because he is the youngest and wishes to respect his elders but he reaches a point where what is in him has to come out. The words he speaks, however are not empty and mere rants of a hot headed man but are instead balanced words of wisdom.
Elihu speaks strongly against 2 things that have kept comming up in the conversation between Job and the 3 friends. The first being the condemnation put on Job, demoralizing him and set to make him repent of a sin he never comitted. Elihu argued that the 3 men, up till this point were unable to give answers against the responces of Job. The second is found in verse 12 and is the fact that Job in all of his resonces saught to justify himself rather than justifying God. Interesting observations which God must have agreed with seeing he had no issue with this man.
I see this story as being so applicable to the church and how we go about doing God's business in the world. While we must echo he words of the apostle of love and stand strong against sin, we cannot allow our stance aginst sin to fail to see people for who they really are, precious and immportant to God, broken and marred by the very effects of sin and in need of some aid and help. Our message must not only be one that rejects sin but it mst be one of hope that Jesus can change the sinner and make even the worst in the word, abound in blessings. We must also be very careful in the midst of all of this to remeber the soverienty of God - The only thing that leaves God justified rather than ourselves. Our goodness will never buy God's blessings just as a seeming lack of blessings does not mean that we have sinned.
This brings me to the thing that takes up the entire book - Conversations among friends. It is often said that in our times of trouble it helps to just have someone there with us. Job did, but I am convinced he needed more than this because as the book progresses we find the conversation did more to discourage Job than encourage him. While we know for sure his friends were not loose on calling sin sin and strongly detesting it, they missed the fact that their friend needed more than a rejection of sin, he needed someone to support him in his calamity.
An interesting turn happens in Chapter 32 of Job; A guy by the name of Elihu begins speaking. I am not altogether sure where he comes from (will have to look into that) but I do know his name doesn't come up in chapter 42 when God speaks out against Job's 3 friends, Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite and I am left with the conclusion he was somehow separated from them as speaking truth. We do know from reading that he doesnt speak until this point because he is the youngest and wishes to respect his elders but he reaches a point where what is in him has to come out. The words he speaks, however are not empty and mere rants of a hot headed man but are instead balanced words of wisdom.
Elihu speaks strongly against 2 things that have kept comming up in the conversation between Job and the 3 friends. The first being the condemnation put on Job, demoralizing him and set to make him repent of a sin he never comitted. Elihu argued that the 3 men, up till this point were unable to give answers against the responces of Job. The second is found in verse 12 and is the fact that Job in all of his resonces saught to justify himself rather than justifying God. Interesting observations which God must have agreed with seeing he had no issue with this man.
I see this story as being so applicable to the church and how we go about doing God's business in the world. While we must echo he words of the apostle of love and stand strong against sin, we cannot allow our stance aginst sin to fail to see people for who they really are, precious and immportant to God, broken and marred by the very effects of sin and in need of some aid and help. Our message must not only be one that rejects sin but it mst be one of hope that Jesus can change the sinner and make even the worst in the word, abound in blessings. We must also be very careful in the midst of all of this to remeber the soverienty of God - The only thing that leaves God justified rather than ourselves. Our goodness will never buy God's blessings just as a seeming lack of blessings does not mean that we have sinned.
We must learn one thing - Whether we are up or down, everything is in the hands of God and he is still worthy of our praise.
