This past Sunday I shared some thoughts on the first five chapters of Job. In many ways, my reflections on Job are a continuation of my message last week from I Peter 1:3-9 on suffering and the Christian faith.
Job is a man who has it all-- wealth, righteousness, children, animals, servants, zeal for God, and a great reputation. Naturally, Job worships and fears God because he recognizes that God has blessed him with all these things. It's sort of like the football player who thanks God after winning the Super Bowl. Not too hard when you are on the winning side, but what happens when you are the loser? This is the question Satan poses to God. Does Job love God for God's blessings or simply because Job loves God? The issue is disinterested love. Do we love God in hope that we will get something out of it-- blessings, wealth, health, eternal salvation? Or, would we love God even if we did not benefit in any fashion? Would we love God simply because he is God?
So Satan and God agree to a little test. First, Satan takes away all of Job's external blessings-- children, animals, and servants. Job is devastated, but he manages to keep faith. Then Satan hits Job with the second wave. He takes away Job's physical health. Job is left sitting on a pile of ashes, scratching his boils with a piece of a broken pot. To make matters worse, Job's wife has lost faith, and she has harsh words for her husband. "Curse God and die," she says. At this point we can imagine Job is barely holding on, but he is holding on. He does not curse God. He remains steadfast in his faith in spite of his horrible circumstances. The story continues with an extended dialogue between Job and his friends. They show up to "comfort" him in his grief. Job's buddies all seem to be self-appointed experts in theology, and they have a lot of "truth" to speak to Job. Unfortunately, their theological truths are meaningless to Job. His friends are convinced that he has sinned against God and needs to repent. In their minds, if you are good, then you get good things from God. On the other hand, if you are bad, then you get bad things from God. Since Job is getting bad things in his life, he has clearly sinned against God and needs to repent. In this kind of theological view, God is a cosmic Santa Claus. Job has made the naughty list and got a giant lump of coal in his stocking. While this line of thinking is quite natural and popular, it just isn't true, not in the least bit. The frightening reality of Job is that the opposite is true.
In Job 2:9-10, Job says that he is willing to accept both good and adversity from God. This is probably one of the most radical statements of the Bible if we really consider it. Job's faith is so strong that he is willing to accept whatever God gives him, even if it looks bad on the surface. I liken Job's statement of faith in God to Christ's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: "Not my will but yours be done (Lk. 22:41-42)." Like Job, Christ was willing to accept adversity from God if it was God's will. These statements by Job and Christ tear through careful systematic theologies about evil, suffering, divine sovereignty, and theodicy. Even though Job struggles to make sense of his situation, he maintains faith in God and resigns himself to living in the hands of God.
The story of Job challenges me in several ways. First, I realize that my interest in God is often very selfish. I'm hoping to get something from God, whether that be blessing in this life or the next. Second, I can see that I really only want good things from God. Since I come to God with selfish motives, I am not willing to accept both good and adversity from God. In reality, I want to tell God what he can give me. This is to treat God like a genie in a bottle, captive to my whims and wishes. Third, and finally, the story of Job tells me that the righteous person should expect to suffer. It is precisely because Job's faith is strong that he is subjected to such a difficult test. He is not facing trials because he is being bad. He is facing them because he is being good. If I am truly following the Lord and obeying him, I should expect to face trials and adversity precisely because I am following him. Will I accept both good and adversity from God? That's the question of Job.
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