Job, the biblical book, is a debate, with Job on one side, struggling with great loss, and three men who think they are his friends on the other.
They debate the reason Job has lost his ten sons and daughters, his wealth in livestock (11,000 in all), and his health.
His friends insist God is punishing Job. Job says, Not so."
Job is right, according to the opening words of the book:
"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil."
After three rounds of debate, with each side asserting its correctness, God appears. He tells Job he's gone overboard in some of the things he said about God. But God's last word -- and God has the last word -- He orders the three friends to make a sacrifice for their sins in their attitude toward Job. And God says Job will pray for them because "you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."
The final word in the book of Job is that God restored Job's losses: He has a new set of children, and he has twice as much livestock.
In last Sunday's Baraca Radio Sunday School Class*, I offered five takeaways from Job:
One: Be slow to judge another person. You can’t know another person’s heart, his or her motives. Job’s friends are so sure they have the answer to his suffering: In a word: SIN! In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks to this in at least two ways. Chapter 7:
"Judge not, that you be not judged. [2] For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. [3] Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? [4] Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? [5] You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye” (Matthew 7:1-5).
When hurricanes blow through an area, it’s not unusual for self-important preachers on TV to say the devastation is God’s judgment on this group or that. Some people may be saying that about the tens of thousands of people in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia who have died or had their homes and everything of value wiped out in the tornadoes. Those men who think they know the mind of God need to read another part of the Sermon on the Mount. In chapter 5, Jesus speaks directly to judgments about the weather:
for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45).
A second take-away: Job was not the sinner his so-called friends said he was. This is a truth we need to remember when sickness, financial difficulty, or other problems pile up on us. We are told in the very first verse of the book, There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil.
And yet, God lets these things happen in Job's life. This is a truth we need to remember when sickness, financial difficulty, or other problems pile up on us. God permits bad things to happen to godly people, but God does not send bad things our way.
If you are a parent or grandparent, you’ve seen things happen to those youngsters. A kid learning to ride a bicycle probably is going to fall. She may hurt herself. But if she learns to ride for herself, you cannot always be at her side to keep her from falling. On a much larger scale, as God’s children, our Heavenly Father lets us take our spills.
A third thing from Job: God did not punish Job for asking hard questions of God and saying harsh things about God. You’ve heard someone say something irreverent and then look up toward the sky, as if expecting a divine bolt of lightning to strike him down. That is usually done as a joke, but many people think that IS the way God does business. You say, “Oh, I can’t question God.” Job does, and God does not punish Job for asking. He doesn’t get his questions answered. At least, not to his satisfaction. But God doesn’t zap him. When something goes terribly wrong in our lives, it would be strange if we did NOT ask questions.
In the fourth place: Job received tangible reward for his faithfulness: More children and more livestock. But we have no guarantee God will reward us materially or financially if we live for Him. Thousands, even millions of people without jobs, without health care, are honest, earnest Christians. So it’s wrong to say, if we live near the Lord, we can expect tangible benefits. We hear preachers on TV declare that God will prosper you financially if you live close to Him, especially if you send them some of your money. That same sort of thinking might say, “If you’re out of a job and the bills pile up, you aren’t living right.” But think a moment: You’ve known people who were deeply devoted to the Lord who were struggling from paycheck to paycheck or who have no paycheck at all. How does this “prosperity theology” apply to them?
Years ago, in a church where I was a member, people were giving testimonies during a financial stewardship emphasis. Paul’s story went something like this: “Before Marge and I started tithing, we had trouble meeting our obligations, bills would stack up.” I thought, “Oh, no. Please don’t say what I think you’re going to say.” But Paul surprised me when he said, “Then we started tithing, and since then, we still have trouble meeting our obligations, bills still stack up.”
A Fifth and Final Thing: At the end of the book, we still have no explanation of why Job suffered as he did. God gives no answer to why bad things happen to good people. But we see a godly man who perseveres even though he does not understand. Jesus addresses that in Luke 13. Some terrible things happened. One was slaughter by government officials. The other was an accident. People were assuming these people who died were particularly sinful. But listen to this account:
[1]There were some present at that very time who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. [2] And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? [3] I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. [4] Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Silo'am fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? [5] I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish."
I once spent a week in South Georgia as camp pastor for the Baptist boys group, Royal Ambassadors. The camp was right on the edge of the marshes. I enjoyed the opportunity to preach each day and get to know some of the campers. But, frankly, I saw little beauty in the marshes.
Sidney Lanier saw things differently. In the 1800s, Lanier wrote about his native Georgia, including “The Marshes of Glynn.” With the poet’s eye, he called the marshland “the heavenly woods and glades.” There in that watery environment, Lanier was particularly taken by water birds who made their nests on that rather shaky foundation -- or lack of foundation. He saw a parable for life in an unsteady environment. He described a bird this way:
As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod,
Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God:
I will fly in the greatness of God as the marsh-hen flies In the freedom that fills all the space 'twixt the marsh and the skies:
By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod
I will heartily lay me a-hold on the greatness of God (Lanier).
Job probably could identify with that. Maybe you can too.
*The Baraca lesson is heard, 9:50-10:50 a. m. Sunday mornings, in Anderson, South Carolina, on WRIX-FM, 103.1. It is online 24/7 at the First Baptist website: www.andersonfbc.org.
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