A Misunderstood Story
“And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”
– Job 1:8
Job is the oldest book in the Bible. To see the story of Job the right way we must see it through the right lenses, the lenses of grace. Why? Because there are too many doctrines out there teaching that sickness, grief, and pain come as a punishment for our sins. In reality, most of it comes out of nowhere, baffling our sense of justice. That’s why the book of Job is so interesting and hard to comprehend, as none of the things he goes through matches his character. Job is not a bad person who is suffering, but rather a man of integrity; in our context, he would be considered a believer, a righteous man who honored God.
All Job’s prosperity is gone in one afternoon - his property and children gone in the blink of an eye. Of course, it makes us wonder, what is going on here? How could the most famous man of his day go through something so horrendous? Often the answers to this world are found outside of it... The answer is found in heaven (Job 1:6-12), where a meeting between God and Satan took place, where God practically puts Job on display and it seems like He set him up for trouble. God chooses to get an open victory over Satan for his own glory in a test that will show the heart of Job at its core.
God sees the heart; we must never forget this truth. The heart is the number one thing God wants to work on with every believer. Further in Job 34, we will realize Job was dealing with self-righteousness, he was full of vanity and pride. Self-righteousness, however, is one of the hardest sins to see. In Job 9:20-22, Job says, “Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse. I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life. It is all one; therefore I say, he destroys both the blameless and the wicked”. God knew since the beginning and allowed him to go through the hardest of trials in order to help him see himself clearly in relation to God!
Perhaps it feels underserving for Job to experience all these calamities. But maybe, the story of Job is recorded for us, so that we can learn to trust God in the middle of our own sufferings, to be prepared in heart and mind not to curse God on a hard day, but rather worship Him in the middle of our deep grief and pain; understanding that in the end, He is dealing with our hearts and writing a story everyone will remember for its redemption: Job 42:10,12 “And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning…”
“We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy”. – James 5:11