The book of Job can be a difficult to book to read through: it is long, dark, repetitious, and contains a great deal of verbal processing. All of the things that make it difficult to read, make it fascinating to study through. Over the last 3 months, as the world has been caught up in so much turmoil, we have been working our way through God’s description of pain, evil, and His sovereignty over all things. Since we finished this week, I wanted to go back and highlight the 10 things that stuck out to me:
1. There is a lot more going on in the world than we often acknowledge
The book began by telling us about gatherings between members of the spiritual world and ended with God describing (in question form) the complexity of keeping the entire world in balance. Both of these shine light on the fact that I have a very small view of the world. I don’t spend enough time thinking about what is happening beyond the physical world or how bound together all aspects of life on this earth is. Pondering the depth of my ignorance is humbling.
2. The powers of Satan and sin are stronger than we are aware of
The book begins and ends with reminders of our weakness. At the beginning, we see that Satan has the ability to inflict Job. When God responds to Job, He gives the examples of the Behemoth and the Leviathan, these reminders of forces greater than us that we cannot contend with. In both of these, the built-in relief is that the God (who rules over Satan and created the great beasts) is able to overcome what we cannot. Pondering my inability to achieve salvation forces me into dependence.
3. Human beings cannot make sense of God
More than anything, God’s answer to Job reveals that in order to understand what God is doing and why He is doing it, we would first need to understand all of the variables that go into His decision-making. This information would then need to be combined with how all of these variables interact and mix with one another. Only after processing all of this, could we begin to imagine alternatives to God’s plan that would be ‘better.’ Pondering through what it would take to contend with the Almighty makes me feel extremely limited.
4. We often hear God’s answers incorrectly
We expect God to speak in a certain way. We ask questions and want Him to simply answer us. God knows what we need and answers us to bring us to Himself. There are times when I think God is silent, but He is actually speaking. There are times when I misinterpret what He is saying and doing because I am looking for something specific. In the story of Job, God allowed Job to struggle with his friends, He sent Elihu to speak, and then revealed His nature, so that Job would be changed. In all of this, He never directly answers Job’s questions. If Job had gotten stuck on his questions, he never would have heard the much greater things God had for him. Pondering this makes me want to be better at waiting on the Lord and not allowing my desires to dictate His work.
5. Fundamentalism is not fun
By fundamentalism (there are a few different definitions), I mean the rigid systems that we build when we believe that we can know everything. The Bible always balances what God has revealed with the acknowledgement of what He has not. I think specifically of Ecclesiastes 3.11:
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
When people forget this, they simplify God down to a part of His reality (a part that we can define and defend). This was the god of Job’s friends. They had ways of describing God that made perfect sense to them, but it was not the sovereign, Creator of the universe. While these fundamentalist tendencies seemed to work for them, it fell apart when faced with the true God. Pondering this makes me wonder where I have simplified God in order to make Him easier for me ‘control.’
6. Suffering well sometimes means yelling at God
The book of Job is filled with lament. In lament, we see Job going to God with his anger and frustration. My reverence for God sometimes causes me to shield Him from my truest emotions (I realize the irony of not sharing with He who knows ALL). I don’t want to be mad at God, so I keep a part of myself from Him. The wisdom literature models lament for us well, partially to assure us that God desires us to come to Him with everything. Pondering this makes me want to be more personal and open with God.
7. God is always working toward restoration
In much of the book of Job, it is hard to know what God is doing. He seems to have unfairly afflicted Job, He doesn’t step in when Job’s friends misrepresent Him, and questions abound. By the end of the book, we see that God has restored Job, the friends have been brought to task and God has spoken. We also see that God does these things in such a way that it mends the relationships that have been broken. He is bringing Job to Himself. He rebukes the friends and then provides them redemption. He even works out their redemption in a way that heals their relationship with Job. In all of this, we see that we have a God of reconciliation, on ALL levels. Pondering this makes me so much more thankful for all of the grace He has given me.
8. Suffering is a means to sanctification
In the last chapter of Job, he says:
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. | Job 42.5
All that had happened to him was done so that he would be able to know God better. In a way we all know this: we grow when we are challenged. The times of difficulty do much more to form us than the easy times. This doesn’t make us enjoy suffering, but it certainly helps us to see it differently. It has the powerful ability to change us. Pondering this helps me to see the hard parts of life as necessary and good.
9. There is joy in submission
The secret of life is revealed in Job: submission. We are not most satisfied and joyful when we are fully in control, but when we are able to rest and trust. Freedom is not being self-sufficient, but free to choose a safe and good place to submit. What God does for Job, in revealing His character, is allows Job to joyfully trust in His sovereignty. This allows Job to rest. Pondering this makes me wonder what I am holding on to that I can trust God with.
10. Hope is an essential part of flourishing
For much of the book, Job is on the edge of hopelessness. When he doesn’t hear from God, he considers throwing in the towel. His faith holds him. Job suffered more than most of us can imagine and yet he was able to keep going because of the faintest glimmer of hope. Hope is what allows us to believe that the future can and will be better. In God’s promise of complete restoration, we have a living hope that can carry us through anything. Pondering this motivates me to tell more people about the hope that is within me; they need it.
In the end, while Job faces some dark issues, it is a book filled with hope, restoration and a good God who is carrying us through. I pray that we can all stare into the darkness (rather than avoiding the big questions of life), knowing that even when our strength falls short, His never will.