We all go through some form of Job’s experience, but do we get Job’s enlightenment?
During the first part of the pandemic, earlier this year I finished reading the book of Job. And it was pretty interesting reading this during the pandemic with all that was going on. So, let’s talk about Job!
Job’s experience
In the first chapter of Job, we see Satan mixing himself in with the angels as they are presenting themselves to God. God called out to him to find out why he was there and what he has been up to, to which he responds, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” (Job 1:7). Since his downfall, Satan has only had one mission and that is to prevent as many persons as he can from gaining eternal life. We see him doing this in multiple ways, for example: distrust in God and His character, twisting the word of God, normalizing sin in the world and of course hardship and suffering like in Job’s case.
Satan told God, that Job only served him because he was well off. Job had life really good. He was rich, like really rich and he was blameless before God. Not many have achieved the blameless status because it is so easy to sin and keep sinning. Satan believed that if God removed his protection and material blessings from Job then Job would have no reason to continue serving Him. And this is why people relate to Job so much, especially this year.
Job lost all his livestock (which was equated to his wealth) and all his children and all his servants (except the ones that were reporting the bad news). Satan saw that his plans were being foiled when Job’s response was, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked will I depart. The Lord gives and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job chapter 1 verse 21). What a way to respond to loss! Some people calculate that Job’s livestock alone was worth about 5 million dollars. This does not include the land or whatever business he was in, that caused him to be the greatest man in the East. So, can you imagine losing 5 million dollars in one day and your means of income – talk about from the palace to the pit.
Satan then went back to God to let him know that because Job was still being protected, he still had a reason to worship him. God then gave the go ahead for Satan to inflict sickness on Job. God wanted to prove to Satan that, Job understood that worship and devotion to God was not dependent of his wealth or even health. As we see today, a lot of people only believe they are blessed by God if they are wealthy and never get sick. The minute they start losing possession, they believe that God has left them, and they no longer feel the need to worship. Even if this isn’t our thought process, we immediately jump to the fact that Job got double for his trouble and if we stick through it, we too will also get double for our troubles.
Job’s enlightenment
If we only read the first 2 chapters and the last chapter in the book of Job, we miss the entire story. After the loss that Job endured, he had several stimulating conversations with his wife and friends that led him to the ultimate conclusion that: He is a sinner, that he is not deserving of anything good. It seems a little harsh, but chapter 38 to 41, God responds to all Job’s complaints. Here, we too realize that we are sinful human beings, who only by God’s grace are alive. God created the world and placed everything that we would need on earth, but yet we chose to sin and continue in it. We only see a small portion of what is possible in the universe and yet we feel we have the right to demand only goodness in our lives, forgetting what sin deserves!
We often hear the question, why do bad things happen to good people? But who is good? What is your definition of good? Only God is good, and as much as we try, we will always slip up, but God is forgiving, and he gives a chance to repent each day. Thinking that we are deserving of only good things is assumptive. Job concluded that he was talking about things he didn’t understand and things that are too wonderful for him to know (Job chapter 42 verse 3). We can get self-centered and forget the creator of the universe is still in control. One of my favorite responses from God was, “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn it’s place, that it may take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked off it?” Job chapter 38 verse 12-13). The audacity for us to think that we can do what God can, and hence we have the right to call the shots on how God should operate.
The Job experience led him to the enlightenment of who God is. Everything in this world is connected in some way. We don’t deserve anything good, because as humans we aren’t good. So yeah, Job lost everything, but regained so much more than wealth by the end of this book. God is still our protector and he loves us, and he does want good things for us, but let’s not lose sight of who He is and allow pride to take over.