THE BOOK OF JOB
The Hardest Lesson we can learn
Why do bad things happen to good people
Stes de Necker
For me, the gripping and challenging book of Job is
perhaps the most profound book in the
Bible.
The books from Genesis to Esther are all
narrative books, and are vitally meaningful to us as living parables, as types
worked out in actual history by which we can see what is going on in our own
lives.
Job begins another section, the poetical books
of the Bible, which also includes Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of
Solomon, and the little book of Lamentations, tucked in behind Jeremiah.
Some biblical scholars have
said that the book of
Job is perhaps the greatest poem in all literature. Nothing that Shakespeare has
written exceeds this book in beauty of expression. It is admired everywhere as
one of the most beautiful writings that man has ever known. But it is more than
an expressive, dramatic writing; it has a very great message for all of us.
It is a drama, an epic drama much like The
Iliad and The Odyssey, the poems by Homer from the Greek world.
But the book of Job is also history. Job was
an actual, living person and these events actually took place, but God recounts
them for us in this beautiful style so that we might have an answer to the
age-old, haunting question:
"Why does apparently senseless tragedy strike
men?"
Any time you get into difficulties it is well
to turn to the book of Job. Here is a man who experienced an agony of human
despair and desolation of spirit which accompanied the apparently meaningless,
senseless tragedies that came into his life.
Now, the ultimate answer to that question is
given right at the beginning of the book. Right in the beginning we
are handed certain program notes that explain to us something about the drama,
something which even the actors themselves are not permitted to know.
The
answer given is that senseless suffering arises out of Satan's continual
challenge to the government of God.
So, as the book opens, we find God meeting
with the angelic congregation. Among
them is Satan, who strides in sneering and swaggering, convinced that
self-interest is the only real motive for human behaviour.
We must remember that Satan was once a heavenly angel before he was cast out of Heaven.
(See my article at http://stesdeneckerblog.blogspot.co.za/2015/09/satan-judas-of-heaven.html)
Satan's philosophy is that the question
"What's in it for me?" is the only accurate explanation for why
people do anything.
And here, in the presence of God, he asserts
that anyone who claims that human beings act from any other motive is simply a
religious phony; furthermore, he claims he can prove it.
God says, rather patiently, "All right,
we'll test your theory." Then he selects the man Job to be the proving
ground.
In World War II at the opening of the war
between Japan and the United States, it looked as though this conflict would be
staged in the Pacific Ocean -- very likely the islands of Hawaii, for the
battle began at Pearl Harbor. But very early in the war, as you will remember,
events took a sudden startling turn and without a word of warning the whole theatre of
battle shifted abruptly to the South Pacific.
For the first time, Americans
began to hear of strange names of islands, like "Guadalcanal" and
others, There, in those quiet, obscure, out-of-the way corners of the earth,
the greatest powers on earth were locked in mortal combat. The islands became
the battleground for the great fight between empires.
And something like this happened in the story
of Job. Here is a man going about his private affairs, unaware that he has
suddenly become the center of God's attention.
For the time being all of God's activity has
focused upon him, and he has become the battleground for a conflict between God
and Satan in which God is planning to pull the rug out from under Satan, and to
reveal him as the phony that he is.
Job is that battleground, and Satan
immediately moves in with shock troops.
In chapter 1 we read that, one by one, the
props are pulled out of Job's life. It is a though some Western Union telegram
boy delivers a series of messages to Job about terrible catastrophes. Hard on
the heels of the first comes another one, and the messages keep coming in.
First, all Job's oxen have been taken by
enemy raids, and then all his asses have been decimated.
Next, word comes that his sheep have been
killed by a terrible electric storm, and crowding in after that is the news
that his great herd of camels, true wealth in the oriental world, has been
wiped out in a natural catastrophe.
Then comes the heartrending news that his
seven sons and three daughters were together in one home enjoying a birthday
celebration when a great tornado hit and the house was demolished. All of his
children were killed in one fatal blow.
Yet Job
remains steadfast. Covered in dirt and ashes, Job is sitting on the rubbish dump. At the
end of chapter 1 his response to this terrible series of tragic, senseless
accidents is:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and
naked shall I return; the LORD gives, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be
the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21 RSV)
I often
wonder if I would
have responded in that way.
Satan is somewhat taken aback, so he asks God
to change the rules of the game. Satan has decided to attack Job more directly
and petitions God for the right to strike Job's own body. This God grants.
Without warning, Job is suddenly stricken with a series of terrible boils, or
carbuncles.
I remember as
young boy I had a boil on my arm, so I can have deep sympathy
for poor old
Job who was covered in boils all
over his body!
There is nothing more aggravating than a
painful boil which is not relieved by any kind of medication. You can only grit
your teeth and endure agony until the boil comes to a head, and heals itself.
Consider how Job is stricken with these from
the top of his head to the sole of his foot. He hardly knows what to do, but is
determined to wait it out. As the malady continues, his wife is the one whose
faith succumbs. She turns on him and says, "Are you still holding fast to
your integrity? Why don't you curse God and die?" Job has to stand alone,
but he is determined to be faithful.
Then comes the final test, when he receives a
visit from three of his friends.
At this point the whole book slightly shifts
its focus. We now are no longer looking only at Job but also at his controversy
with these three friends, and their discourse occupies the major part of the
book.
From their very human point of view, they attempt
to answer that same haunting question, "Why do senseless tragedies afflict
men?"
The major part of the book, written in
beautifully poetic language, records the attempts by these men to come to an
answer. And the three friends' answers are all the same. They answer the
question of Job's problems with smug, dogmatic assurances that only one
explanation is possible: he has committed some awful sin. They try to break
down Job's defences with
arguments.
Job’s friends
are not necessarily wrong in their explanation. There are
tragic events, catastrophes, heartache, pain, and suffering, which do occur
because of sin. Any time that we violate the laws of God's universe, including
the laws of health, there is an immediate and sometimes violent physical
reaction and much suffering comes from that.
But the problem in Job’s friends' arguments lay in their
dogmatic assertion that this is the only explanation possible for all kinds of
suffering.
They each take three rounds with Job. Each of
them presents three arguments, nine arguments in all, and each plays the same
tune.
They try various approaches. First they try
sarcasm and irony. Then they appeal to Job's honesty.
Then they accuse him of
specific crimes and misdeeds. Finally they act hurt and go away, miffed and
sulking, pride fully
appealing to Job' s conscience not to insult them anymore.
All the time they are attacking his integrity
with the argument that if God is indeed just, then the righteous are always
blessed and the wicked always suffer; therefore, if an individual is suffering,
it must be because there is something wrong in his life. This is their
argument. To these men, the explanation is a simple matter of cause and effect
and is quite logical. It is neat and
tidy and explains everything; that is, unless you happen to be
the sufferer.
At first Job is slightly irritated with these
friends. But then he becomes angry and, finally, sarcastic.
In the opening lines of his reply, he
delivers a cutting piece of irony: "I am sure you alone are the people and
wisdom is going to die with you." (Job 12:2) "You've got all the
answers, you've solved all the problems, you know everything. So there's no use
talking to you any longer!" With bitter sarcasm he replies that their
explanation of his suffering is in error. Resentful, he openly entreats them to
understand.
He says he can't confess sin because he is
genuinely unaware of anything he has done that has offended God. Moreover, he
can't believe in justice any longer because their arguments that the wicked
always suffer simply are not true. He points out that many people who are very
wicked, notoriously wicked, are prospering and flourishing and living in ease,
and nothing horrible is happening to them.
Furthermore, he says, he doesn't know what to
do because God won't listen to him; he doesn't even have a chance to plead his
case before God, and he complains that God hides from him and cannot be found.
Eventually Job actually shouts at these
friends in the turmoil of his confusion, bewilderment, anger, hurt, and
frustration. He says he is afraid of this God, who is not the God he has known.
He doesn't know what has happened to this dear old friend whom he could always
rely upon.
Job has taken a strange turn in his attitude
now that these awful things are happening to him.
He is uncertain what to think or say.
The glorious thing about this dear man is
that throughout the whole book he is utterly and completely honest.
Confused and bewildered and puzzled by what
is happening, he simply blurts out his thoughts. He refuses to admit things
that he cannot accept: "All these pat answers don't help at all!" In
his desolation he expresses in various ways the ultimate cry of the human
spirit. Some wonderful verses emerge from this discourse by Job.
Stripped as he is to his very soul, he cries
out again and again with some of the deepest expressions of the human heart. In
chapter 9 he says of God, “For
he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial
together.” (Job
9:32 RSV)
In Hebrew, his words are literally, 'Would that there were an umpire between us, oh that there were a daysman, a mediator between us who might lay his hand upon us both.' (Job 9:32-33)
That is the cry of a heart that recognizes
that God is higher and greater and richer and holier than man, and man can't
reach him. It is the cry for a mediator to come between them.
Then in chapter 14 comes another expression
out of this man's faithful heart:
“If a
man die, shall he live again? All
the days of my service I would wait, till
my release should come.” (Job
14:14)
"If I knew that after I die I would live
again, I would gladly wait until that time to argue my case before God!"
"If a man die, shall he live
again?" This great cry, the
question uttered by so many of
us, wells up from the depths of this man's desolation and
suffering.
Then in chapter 16 Job cries out, “Even now, behold, my witness is
in heaven, and
he that vouches for me is on high.” (Job
16:19 RSV)
Earlier he had cried out for a mediator:
"Oh, that I might have somebody step in between me and God." Now at
last, born of his desperation, "I realize now that the only one who can
adequately argue my case for me is God himself. If any cause of mine is going
to be fairly presented before God, God himself has to do it."
In chapter 19 comes another distressed cry,
in which he sounds this note of awful intensity:
"Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were graven in the rock for
ever!" (Job 19:23- 24RSV)
That prayer was fulfilled in this record, the
book of Job. Then, at last, a ray of light shines in his darkness:
"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon
the earth; and
after my skin has been thus destroyed, then
from my flesh["in my flesh," in the Hebrew] I shall see God."
(Job 19:25, 26)
Out of the dark, deep distress of this man
come these cries which find their fulfilment in
the coming of Jesus Christ. He came to be mediator. He came to give assurance
that man shall live again. He came to stand between man and God. He came to
stand in the flesh upon the earth that man might see him face-to-face.
Now comes the final blow to Job, after all
these so-called friends have had their chance with him and have tried to beat
him down their arguments pounding him again and again like a club, poor Job, bruised, defeated, puzzled,
bewildered, and confused, now
meets with a young man who happened to be standing there all along but who is
only now interjected into the picture. His name is Elihu.
Speaking for youth, he stands up to say,
"You are all wrong. You friends of Job are wrong because you accuse him
unjustly, and Job is wrong because he blames God for his difficulty. He is
accusing God in order to exonerate himself."
Elihu points out the weaknesses in both
arguments but still offers nothing positive to answer the question of Job's
misery.
But suddenly the Lord himself answers Job. In
a whirlwind's fury he comes to him and says, "Do you want to debate, Job?
You have been saying that you want some answers to your questions and that I
have been hiding and am not willing to debate with you. Do you want to debate
your case? All right. First, let me see your qualifications. I have a list here
of forty questions I would like to ask you, to see if you are competent to
understand problems. These are very simple problems, very simple questions, and
if you are able to handle these ABC's, then perhaps you are able to debate with
me the questions you have in your heart."
Then, in chapters 38 through 40, you have one
of the most remarkable passages in all of the Bible.
God takes Job on a tour of nature and asks
him question after question about Job's ability to deal with this kind of thing
or that kind of thing in nature. Gradually these three chapters draw the
picture of a vastly complicated, intricately intertwined universe for which is
required a tremendous superhuman mind to direct all these activities, to keep
life in balance and to answer all the questions that the Lord is asking Job to
answer.
At the end of this overwhelming display of
the wisdom of God, Job falls down on his face and says:
"I had heard of thee by the hearing of
the ear, but
now my eye sees thee; therefore
I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5- 6 RSV)
God's essential argument is that life is too complicated for simple answers!
If you are demanding that God come up with
simple answers to these deep and complicated problems, you are asking him to do
more than you are able to understand. He is simply saying that only God can
adequately deal with the answers to these kinds of questions.
Therefore, man must take the position of trusting him, not
arguing with him.
God has displayed in the most amazing way his
ability to work out complicated situations while keeping human life and the
life of the entire world, with
all their tremendously involved complexities, in beautiful balance.
Now if we really see that, then we must trust God to work out these
complicated problems of our lives.
Job, overwhelmed by the vast might and wisdom
and majesty of God, falls on his face, repents, and learns the lesson that God
wants him to learn. Only God has the right to use men for whatever purpose he
desires. In other words, God does not exist for man but man exists for God. God
is not a glorified bell-boy at whom we can snap our fingers and have him run up
asking, "May I take your order?"
We exist for him. We are God's instruments
for the working out of his purposes, some of which are so vastly complicated
they are quite beyond our ability to understand.
There are many questions which simply cannot
be answered because our calculating minds
are so inadequate.
The last of the book is a beautiful picture
of what James calls the tender mercies of God toward Job (James 5:11).
God says to Job, "Now I want you to pray
for your friends, these three dear men, so stubborn, so sure that they had all
the answers, so well meaning, so sincere, so dedicated, but such utter
blunderers. Pray for them. Job."
Then God said to Job, "How many sheep
did you have?" Job said, "Seven thousand." God said, "All
right, I will give you fourteen thousand. How many oxen did you have?" And
he said, "Five hundred." God replied, "I'll give you a thousand.
How many camels?" "Three thousand." "All right, Job, you
will have six thousand camels. How many asses did you have?" "Five
hundred." "I'll give you a thousand. How many sons and
daughters?" "Seven sons and three daughters." "All right,
you will have seven sons and three daughters more, doubled. Twice as many.
Seven sons and three daughters in glory and seven sons and three daughters on
earth."
God restored twice as much to Job and he
lived the rest of his life in blessedness and happiness. The account closes with the words:
And Job died, and old man, and full of days.
(Job 42:17 RSV)
Now the remarkable thing about this book is
the answer we are given: the fact that the backdrop to human suffering is the
age-long conflict of Satan's challenge to God's righteous government of the
universe.
This answer is never given to Job, at least
while he lives. At the beginning of the book you find God, Satan, and Job. At
the end of the book, Satan has faded out of the picture entirely and God stands
before Job with his arms akimbo, saying, "All right, I am responsible. Any
questions?"
The great lesson of the book is that there
are times when we cannot be told the whole picture. There are times when God
does not adequately explain life to us. There are times when we must trust that
not all suffering occurs because we are bad, but because it can also be the
source of some final good.
The deepest note in the book may be struck when, out
of the desolation of his heart and yet with the Spirit of God within him urging
him on to faith in the midst of his bewilderment and confusion, Job says,
“But
he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10 RSV)
That is the lesson of this book:
Life is too complicated for us to handle
alone. It gets so involved that we can't even be given some of the answers at
times, but God is saying, "If you just take a look at all the problems
that I keep solving on the very simplest levels of life and which even then are
far beyond your ability to cope with, can't you trust me to work this one out
as well?"
Why do bad things happen to good people....?
In
Romans Paul rejoices, "We know that in everything God works for good with those who love
him, who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)
"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." But NEVER will he take away without giving ten times more in return.
We live by
grace and grace alone.
