Job was an upright God-fearing man who shows us what it is to have faith in the deepest, darkest of times.
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Transcription:
Job a non-Israelite in ancient history from the land of Uz, that’s just so fun to say, is a story that strikes us all, isn’t it? This upright God-fearing man shows us what it is to have faith. Even in the darkest of times. Job opens with an epilogue of God holding court and agreeing to let Satan do a little experiment before heading into some poetic conversations among Job and his friends, regarding set outcome of that experiment. Basically, Satan says, no way will Job stay with you if you take away all of his blessings. So God says, okay, let’s see. At that point, the readers all tend to ask, Why? Why does God allow good people to suffer? And we think we’ll get that answer if we keep reading, but we never really do the real questions. Job answers are one, is God just, and two does He govern the world according to a set law of justice.
We know that as we move into the poetic conversations among Job and his friends, that he maintains his innocence. Therefore, his suffering cannot be divine justice. Job just says it can’t be divine justice because he’s innocent. So, then either God is not running the world according to justice or is actually unjust himself. Even if that’s true, Job still refuses to curse God as his exasperated wife suggests. His friends argue that he must be lying and simply needs to repent because of course, God operates on a principle of justice. So, they go back and forth like that a while until the section where God responds. But just before God responds, we see an emotionally distraught Job who used to believe God was just, having trouble reconciling that belief with his current situation. So, he eventually demands God explain himself. Just before God takes the mic, one last friend shows up to declare, God is indeed just, and he may have reasons for suffering that we haven’t even thought about.
Enter God. God takes Job on a high level tour of his creation, asking again and again, where were you when all of this happened? Implicating that God’s ways, thoughts and wise are too lofty and wonderful for our finite minds. Under Job’s and his friend’s assumption that God is just, is an assumption that he operates on justice. Further, establishing an assumption that they have a full understanding of all involved in how things should go and be operated. The job of Job is to show the reader that the world is not black and white. There’s so much complexity, and due to that we must always trust and praise God even when we can’t reconcile our circumstances with what we know about him. So, Job repents. Then God once again reiterates that the Friend’s simple explanation was wrong. The world’s so much more complex. The world is big, wonderful and ordered, but it’s also wild and dangerous, and we simply cannot grasp it fully. God then commends Job for responding rightly in his struggle of prayer. So the job of Job is also to show us we are allowed to engage in honest conversation with God. God, may we all actively engage with you about all we encounter in life, holding our understanding open handedly before you and your great self.
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