Job

     Once there was a man who had everything.  He had family.  He had prestige.  He had health.  He had wealth.  But, unlike most people who find themselves with the best this life has to offer, this man had a wonderful relationship with God.  This man's name was Job, and we find his story in the Old Testament book bearing his name.
     As is always the case, this relationship with God greatly upsets Satan.  So the powerful enemy obtains permission to strip Job of all he has.  The account of the battle that follows contains powerful messages about important subjects.
     As Job suffers, his wife encourages him to curse God and die.  Then he is visited by three friends named Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar.  Most of the book consists of discourses by these men and responses from Job.  Finally, a younger friend named Elihu steps in.  The book closes with God setting everything straight.
     One of the first things we learn from the book of Job concerns the nature of life and death.  When all is said and done, life is elusive and, at best, brief.
     "Naked I came from my mother's womb," Job recognizes in verse 21 of chapter one, "and naked I shall return there.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."
     "Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God," the final verse points out.
     "Man, who is born of woman, is short-lived and full of turmoil," Job 14:1-2 instructs.  "Like a flower he comes forth and withers.  He also flees like a shadow and does not remain."
     There is an important message here about the fleeting nature of life and its treasures.  This book also gives us some wise words about wisdom.
     In the first part of chapter 28 Job talks about silver, gold, iron, copper and other treasures that are found in the earth.
     "But where can wisdom be found?" verse 12 asks.  "And where is the place of understanding?
     "Man does not know its value," the next verse continues, "nor is it found in the land of the living."
     "Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;" the final verse concludes, "and to depart from evil is understanding."
     This is identical to the conclusion reached by Solomon in the last chapter of Ecclesiastes.
     Another message of the book involves the power of God.
     "For He looks to the ends of the earth," Job 28:24-27 informs, "and sees everything under the heavens.  When He imparted weight to the wind, and meted out the waters by measure, when He set a limit for rain, and a course for the thunderbolt, then He saw it and declared it; He established it and also searched it out."
     These few verses contain too much to cover now.  They talk of scientific facts unknown to man until recent times.  Air has weight.  Matter is neither being created nor destroyed.  Water travels in cycles.  But the point for us today is the awesome power of God.  This is also stressed in chapters 38-41.
     But one of the greatest messages of Job deals with human suffering.  Like many people today, Job's friends are totally wrong in their theories about suffering.  They insist to Job that he must have done something terrible to merit what he suffers.  Along with this they are mistaken in their assumption that it is God who is sending the suffering.  Look back at the first two chapters.  Is God sending the suffering or is it the devil?  And is it true that suffering on earth is punishment for an individual's wrong-doing?  It is critical that we distinguish between suffering and punishment.
     Jesus says in Matthew 5:45 that God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and that He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  So it is obvious that God does not give us our punishment here on earth.
     In the first five verses of Luke 13, Jesus points this out to some of the people around Him.
     "Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices," this passage records.
     "And He answered and said to them, 'Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered this fate?
     'I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
     'Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, were worse culprits that all the men who live in Jerusalem?
     'I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.'"
     In 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, Paul lists the things that he has suffered, ranging from being stoned, beaten with rods and whipped, to being shipwrecked and going without food and water.  Is Paul being punished for something he has done?  No, he is suffering, but he is not  being punished.
     Revelation 21:4 tells of a time when suffering will be eliminated: when death is eliminated.  Until then, we will suffer.  But it doesn't mean that God is punishing us while we are still on earth.

     What is the real cause of suffering?  The second and third chapters of Genesis teach us that suffering is the consequence of sin.  Each individual does not suffer in proportion to his own sins; he suffers because he lives in a world that has been infected and corrupted by sin.  We all suffer because we live together on this earth.
     "For not one of us lives for himself," Paul explains in Romans 14:7, "and not one dies for himself."
     What else can be said about suffering?
     To be in Christ is to suffer, according to 2 Timothy 3:12.
     To be in Christ is to learn from suffering, as noted in Hebrews 12:5-11.
     To be in Christ is to rejoice in suffering that we experience because we are followers of Jesus, as we learn in 1 Peter 4:13 and Matthew 5:3-12.
     To be in Christ is to look beyond suffering, as stated in Romans 8:18 and 28.
     And to be in Christ is to be able to cry "Abba, Father" when we suffer, as Jesus is able to do in Mark 14:36.  This is what Job does as he undergoes his suffering.
     Still another powerful message from the book of Job is one of patience.  In fact, the "patience of Job" is a saying that is used even today.
     "Behold, we count those blessed who endured," James 5:11 notes.  "You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful."
     Like Job, we are to be patient.  We are to have endurance.  We are to persevere.
     "To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life," Romans 2:7 promises.  Galatians 6:9 and 2 Thessalonians 3:13 also talk about perseverance in doing good.
     "And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulation;" Paul writes in Romans 5:3-5, "knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint; because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
     Hebrews 12:1-4 stresses the importance of endurance through trials and tribulations.  James 1:2-4 explains the benefits for those who endure.
     Romans 11:20-22 recommends endurance in faith and obedience.  Luke 8:15 and James 5:7-8 explain the necessity of endurance in bearing fruit.
     The book of Job has much to teach us about the brief nature of life.  We learn from it about wisdom and about the power of God.  Here are some of the greatest lessons ever about suffering as well as about patience and endurance.  But there is one more lesson that should be learned from this book.  Much of the book consists of the ramblings of men who are totally mistaken about God.  They think they have come to comfort Job.  But their false ideas only add to his suffering.
     Those with false ideas about God fall into two categories.  The first consists of scoffers who accept as fact lies about God, and then go about rejecting God because they don't like what they have accepted.  2 Peter chapter three is one of the passages that discusses this group.  Job does not allow falsehood to influence his belief in God.
     "I know that my Redeemer lives," Job 19:25 states proudly, "and at the last He will take His stand on the earth."
     The second category includes, unfortunately, the vast majority of the so-called religious world.  These are people who claim to believe in God, but who insist on constructing their own ways of obeying and worshipping Him.
     "Will you speak what is unjust for God," Job asks in chapter 13, verses 7-12, "and speak what is deceitful for Him?  Will you show partiality for Him?  Will you contend for God?
     "Will it be well when He examines you?  Or will you deceive Him as one deceives a man?
     "He will surely reprove you, if you secretly show partiality.  Will not His majesty terrify you, and the dread of Him fall on you?  Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay."
     Job's friends think they are so smart.  They think they are instructing Job on the will of God.  God sets them straight in the final chapters.
     Man has so many ideas.  But, like the ideas of Job's friends, they are false.  They are "proverbs of ashes" and "defenses of clay."
     Only the truth will set us free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.lockman.org)