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| Photo courtesy of Idssmile.com |
I am in the middle of Job this week, reading through this powerfully poignant book about suffering. And wow...it is a doozy. On the outset, Job presents a conundrum for those of us who are pre-conditioned to associate blessings with godliness. The book also challenges our perception of justice and provides insight into God's sovereignty. We see in the opening of the book how Job, a man found to be "blameless" before God, was essentially hand-selected by God to be targeted by Satan, who brings about devastating loss and suffering in his life.
So, starting in chapter 1, we see a blameless, God-fearing man have his children, possessions, and wealth (oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels) taken from him...and then on the heels of that, his health is taken from him (chapter 2)...and all of this is allowed (in fact, incited!) by God. It is not a pretty picture.
There is a very real, raw part in each of us, upon reading this book, that cries out
THAT'S NOT FAIR!
And then the majority of the chapters that follow narrate the discussion Job has with four of his "friends" (Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu) who seek to console and give him advice.
In my humble estimation, their arguments can be boiled down to two words:
BE BETTER
Or put another way: FIX YOURSELF
And isn't that the advice we always hear from the world, from well-meaning and seemingly moral sources?
And I think the suffering Job endures is not only the heartache from all his loss, but perhaps even more so, the anguish of the realization that HE CAN'T FIX HIMSELF.......HE CAN'T BE BETTER. In fact, he sees no unrepentant sin in his life or waywardness in his heart, and that further propels him into despair...so dark and profound that he wishes he had died upon being born so that he'd be spared from such pain and agony.
And throughout the book, Job questions...he questions God, he questions and counters his friend's advice, and so many of these questions and laments echo through the ages, for us to consider, too....
"How then can I answer him [God], choosing my words with him? Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser [judge]." (9:14)
"For he [God] is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is not arbiter between us who might lay his hand on us both." (9:33)
"Have you [God] eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees?" (10:4)
You see in these three questions above, Job longs for a mediator...a God-man of sorts who can sympathize with man and mediate between him and Almighty God so that there can be a reconciliation between the two.
And finally Job cries out, "Where then is my hope?" (17:15)...a question that echoes through the centuries until that baby born is found swaddled in a manger...the Christ child. And in some ways ALL of Job's answers are ultimately answered in CHRIST, for through CHRIST we have a mediator. Through CHRIST, we who are unholy, can enter God's presence. Through CHRIST God's perfect justice is fulfilled as He is the substitute to atone for our sins.
And amazingly enough, God does grant Job insight into Christ. Job sees in the heavens a mediator; "Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, that he would argue the case of a man with God as a son of man does with his neighbor" (16:19-21). And God even allows him to look further at Christ's coming...not the babe in a manger, mind you, but it is actually Christ's 2nd coming and the fullness of resurrection that Job can see when he speaks out, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!" (19:25-27)
And while Christ fulfills most of Job's (and his friends') questions (for even his friend Eliphaz asks, "Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?" (4:17)), we also see CHRIST IN JOB.
See it with me...
a man blameless and upright before God, and yet targeted for God's wrath...
a man whose misery was often increased by his friends...
a man who was mocked and spit upon...
a man who ultimately submitted to God in his suffering...
a man who prayed for his friends and God forgave them...
In fact, it startled me how clearly the following passage depicts Christ as Job is speaking of his own experience:
"He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
he has gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10 Men have gaped at me with their mouth;
they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass themselves together against me.
11 God gives me up to the ungodly
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;
13 his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground..." (Job 16:9-13)
"...He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit." (Job 17:6)
And while Job doesn't get all of the answers to his questions by the end of the book, he does get something better...a fuller knowledge of God himself. Job can now say through his suffering, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." (42:5-6)
And isn't that the point? Through it all...the good times and bad, the valleys and the mountaintop experiences, isn't the point for our existence to KNOW God in a more intimate way and make Him known? And this intimate knowledge of God always exposes us for who we are...limited, fallen sinners, in need of the hope and mediation of a Savior...and our only response, like Job, is awe and repentance.
Interestingly, Job's wealth and possessions are restored two-fold at the close of the book and the Scriptures state, "The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first" (42:12). Job is also given sons and daughters (10 in fact, the SAME number he lost, which is an interesting detail I think points again to the resurrection). But I don't think all of that matters as much to Job at this point. I think that at the end of his suffering, Job would have agreed with the Apostle Paul, who stated,
"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." (Phil 4:7-11)
Because I think what Job gained through his suffering as he experienced the Lord and received a glimpse of the resurrection far out weighed the blessings and riches and wealth that were restored!
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