“Shafted”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Thursday, August 22, 2024

Job 1: 1-22 (Forward, p. 24) CEV p. 525

It is a frequent complaint or charge against God, namely why does God allow evil to exist in the world? Here, in the opening verses of the Hebrew book of Job we confront this issue head on. Job is portrayed as a good and thoroughly righteous man, and yet what befalls him is terrible beyond description. In a single day he loses his livelihood, as represented by his flocks and herds, and his entire family. So, as might well be asked, ‘How in the world might this be considered right or fair? We might deem it appropriate if he was a real ‘rotter’, but he wasn’t, not in the least. How could God ever allow such a thing?”

What makes the scenario sound even worse is that it depicts God as allowing all this to take place. God allows Satan to bring upon Job all these calamities. So, it isn’t as if God Himself caused them—though one of the messengers suggested this (see verse 16)—but certainly He allowed them. (This would suggest that Satan can motivate people to commit acts of piracy and theft, and even use such forces as the wind). Even so, this doesn’t get away from the fact that God allowed him to attack Job in these ways. It seems totally unfair, and totally foreign to what we would consider to be the loving, just ways of God.

So, in an effort to understand what’s going on, let’s step back a moment and hear what has taken place previously. Satan (the accuser) is present in God’s court among all God’s angels, and God points out to him what a wonderful man Job is. “There is no one else on earth quite like him”, He says. But then Satan replies, “Why, of course he’s going to be faithful to you. Look what’s in it for him. You bless him and protect him in every conceivable way. No wonder he’s so loyal. But just take it away and he’ll be like anyone else. He will curse you to your face.”

Given this challenge, God allows Satan to test Job in this way. It may seem unduly cruel but is consistent with what Scripture says elsewhere about testings or temptations (see James 1:12, which talks about our faith being tested). And we do know most definitely that it is God Himself who sometimes allows testings or temptations. After all, the Spirit ‘drove’ Jesus into the Wilderness where He was tempted by Satan.

But let’s look at these instances a bit more carefully. With Jesus, it was an attempt by Satan to derail Jesus’ ministry right from the beginning. It was a test of Jesus’ faithfulness to God, a test to see whether He’d stay true to God and His ways no matter what. And, on this level, is quite similar to what happened to Job. (In James, the testing or temptation comes as we are led astray by our own unconscious or subconscious desires or impulses, but there is none of this in Job! He truly did not bring his sufferings upon himself or deserve his sufferings in any way.)

In this book God never actually explained to Job why this took place, so all that it seems is to be is a cosmic contest between God and Satan, one where Job was the winner and God’s confidence in Job was vindicated. Nevertheless, we might well ask what was the benefit to Job in all that he endured. After all, he had remained faithful to God through it all. So, the best I can do is to make some suggestions:

-Job had a ‘face to face’ encounter with God, as God spoke to him

from the midst of a whirlwind.

-Job got an updated vision of God and His sovereignty over all things.

-Job was humbled by his sheer finiteness and smallness compared to

Almighty God and His actions.

-Job was vindicated in his belief in his own righteous living and was

confirmed in his conviction that his suffering that nothing to do with

sin in his life. His friends, his ‘comforters’, were shown to be wrong.

-Job gained a sense that God was ‘there for him’, present for him and

with him, no matter what.

Personally, I’m not sure that all his sufferings were ‘worth it’, but then who am I to judge.

However, for us, his patient endurance is a strong encouragement, and interestingly, his conviction that He would see God, get a fair hearing with Him, and ultimately be rescued by Him:

“I know that my Saviour (my Redeemer) lives, and at the end he will stand on this earth. My flesh may be destroyed, yet from this body I will see God. Yes, I will see him for myself, and I long for that moment!” (Job 19:25-26).

And so not only is that a great encouragement, but so also is the hope of the resurrection that this portrays!

I’m not sure whether I quite ‘go along’ with the fact of Job’s sufferings, but I guess that he did learn something from them, and, in a similar fashion, so too do we. Sobeit.

Forward notes: “But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face” (verse 11).

“The Book of Job explores some complex moral themes. When Satan challenges Job’s authentic faithfulness to God because of Job’s prosperity, God allows Satan to bring Job tragedy. Job suffers significant loss.

“What happens to our faith when bad things happen? When we lose a job or fail to thrive? Although I met my husband in law school, my work was always the second career in our family. Very often, I failed to get the interview, the offer, the promotion, or the contract. While his career prospered, mine suffered.

“Job recognized that God gave him everything he had and that those things were God’s to take away. Nowhere are we promised only good things from the hand of God. We live in a broken world full of suffering and injustice. While we may feel angry and frustrated at our losses, God is faithful. Great loss gets my attention and enables me to experience the fullness of God’s love.”

MOVING FORWARD: “How do you manage suffering? Are you able to experience God’s love in the midst of it?”