The book of Job explores the question of evil happening to good people. It answers some questions and leaves other questions unanswered. Here are ten things that I have learned from the book of Job.
- God is in control in the midst of evil. In the first chapter of Job, God brags about Job to Satan. Satan responds with a challenge. “Strike everything he has and he will curse you to your face.” The angels are probably standing around watching this exchange in rapt silence.
“Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” replied God. I imagine His voice as powerful and authoritative.
Satan smiles and leaves heaven. The angels watch and whisper among each other. The scene shifts to show Job receiving the terrible news. Servant after servant runs in to tell him of the lose of his animals and children. All he has left is his wife and health. No livelihood. No more children. All gone in moments.
Job’s response? “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away” and fell on his face and worshiped God.
2. Evil will come to everyone Job experienced a level of evil that I hope no one has to suffer through. Yet, we all have lived long enough to know that bad things will happen to all of us. Job shows his understanding with the above response.
3. Words matter. When I was a kid, there was a chant that went “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Yet, we see that Job was seriously hurt by the words of his friends. One of my strongest memories is when my step-father told me, “You are too stupid to be a doctor.” I sometimes remember this event when I am feeling dumb at work. My mind goes crazy with thoughts of how I am too stupid to do almost anything. Any person who was abused as a child remembers hurtful words. Maybe their parents never physically or sexually abused them. So, they believe that they had a good childhood. But, words matter. Our brains remember those words from childhood just as Job felt more and more anguished as he listened to his friends” advice.
4. It is dangerous to assume that God is punishing you for a sin. The friends of Job told him that he had sinned in some way. If he repents, then God will forgive him. While God does punish people for sin, sometimes bad things happen for completely other reasons. We see that Job was a righteous man at the beginning of the book. He attempts to defend himself from his friend’s accusations. As the conversation continues, Job wishes he’d never been born (Job 3:11). and that God would just kill him (Job 6:9)
Later Jesus is asked a similar question. Jesus and his disciples are walking along and they see a blind man.
“His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'” (John 9:2) As you can see, this idea that God brought evil into a person’s life due to sin was very strong in that time.
“‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus.’but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.'” (John 9:3) ironically this is true for Job too. The angels witnessed the amazing faith of Job. We never know who might be encouraged by our faith. For the blind man, Jesus healed him of his blindness. Then the pharisees had him brought before them. So, he had the privelidge of testifying about Jesus in the New Testament.
I think we tend to blame ourselves for the bad things that happen in our lives because we want control over our circumstances. If I am experiencing this because I committed a sin, then I can change this by repenting and living better. If the evil is there for no apparent reason, then I have no control of the situation. I have to trust that God is in control and He loves me.
5. God can handle your anger at Him. Job complains that He can’t take God to court. Even though Job was mad at God and wanted to take Him to court, God didn’t punish him. He instead revealed himself to him by talking to him from the midst of a storm.
6. God doesn’t answer all of our questions. Job demands answers and vindication from God. But, God questions him about where he was during creation. God refuses to answer his questions. He does the same with us when we asked “Why me?” I tend to ask this when something goes wrong in my life. I also wonder why He allowed the haulacaust or 911.
7. The things that God remembers and honors is different than man’s historical records or values. God felt that Job and his experience was important enough for him to be included in His word, the Bible. Our history books would have never mentioned him. We record wars, politics and famous people in our history. Yet, God remembers those who serve Him even in the small insignificant areas of our lives.
8. God created the world. Genesis discusses God creating the world the most. Job reminds us of this fact. As a Lutheran, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America member, I believe that ‘God created the world but don’t attempt to explain how. I just trust his word that He created the world. Perhaps he did it through science. I don’t know.
9. God is all powerful. I have always believed that God is all powerful but the moment that I felt awed by this power was during a rain storm. I was walking to the bus depot in order to ride the bus somewhere. The sky was dark with clouds, rain and lightening. I started thinking about how Jesus was able to speak to the wind and calm it down. Professional fishermen were scared. It must have been a terrible storm to scare fishermen. Yet, Jesus spoke the winds into a calm sea. A powerful God is scary if you forget that God also loves you.
