Oh, No, Not Job!

OK, I confess … I’m job-a-phobic. Not ‘job’ as in employment but ‘Job’ as in the book of the Bible about God giving Satan permission to test the depth of a man’s faith.

It stems back to experiences in my young adult years when a friend told me that, soon after studying the book of Job, he was in a skiing accident that put him on his back for six months. God used that time to teach Louie a lot about Himself. Then, shortly after hearing this story, I went to a Bible camp in Colorado and did a week of intensive study in the book of Job. I learned so much – in my head. But God gave me the opportunity at the end of the study to learn at a much deeper level when I received a phone call from home that my dad had passed away unexpectedly.

As we studied Job last week during the Brown Bag Book Club, we pondered God’s response to Job in chapter 38. The writer of our study asked two simple questions:

·   What does God do instead of providing answers to Job’s questions about human suffering?

·   Why do you think God choose this approach to Job?

I’m sure there are textually-, critically-, and hermeneutically-correct answers to both of these questions. But, in the simplicity of my mind, all I could think is that maybe God chose to respond to Job’s questions with His own questions because, really, what answer would have sufficed? What answer would have been enough to cover the depth of Job’s loss and pain? The only true answer was revealed in the hugeness of God’s questions (check out the last few chapters of Job to be reminded of how big our God truly is!).

And Job got it. At least, he ‘got’ what he could in the humility of that moment: “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know…. My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you” (42:3b, 5).

I pray you are taking time to get into scripture for more than just the next Old Testament test or Greek exegesis paper. Have you found a group to study God’s word with? Are you reading devotionally each day? I started in January with a read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan; I’m not-so-proud to say that I may now be on the five-year plan. Either way, my goal is to be in the Word regularly; I hope you’ll join me there.