Job
6
The book of Job so fascinated John Calvin that 159 of his 700 sermons centred on it. It is an absorbing account of a choice servant of God who wrestles with his theology in the light of experience. He defiantly clings to three fundamental truths, no matter how contradictory they seem. From his perspective suffering comes from God: God is just: I am innocent. He adamantly clings to faith in God though all the evidence looks contrary. His eyes have grown dim with grief, his blackened skin is peeling and his body burns with fever. He is in the painful grip of suffering. He is not a secret sinner, or a liar, or a hypocrite and he is not being punished for his sin or for anyone else's. He believes God is good and is dumbfounded as to why this is happening to him.
Job is busy justifying himself and at times he wanders almost to the edge of blasphemy. In chapter 19 from verse 6 he states plainly " ... God has wronged me and drawn His net around me. Though I cry, 'I've been wronged!' I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice. He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass; He has shrouded my paths in darkness. He has stripped me of my honour and removed the crown from my head." Job knows he's done nothing to deserve the sky to fall on him and utterly ruin his life.
Picture the scene. Once he was the city's leading citizen, now he's sat on a landfill site, surrounded by refuse. His appearance is abhorrent - running sores and scabs, severe itching, alienated from his friends and family. Job says, "My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own brothers" (verse 17). His loved ones have turned against him and he's been reduced to 'skin and bones'. He pleads for his friends to show some compassion.
Then, suddenly, out of the depths of despair a flash of faith breaks forth. "Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes -I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me."
Now Zophar, one of his colleagues, feels he really must share something and he gives Job another verbal kicking. Zophar's comments in chapter 20 are very dogmatic. In essence he declares, "There's a fate allotted by God to the wicked. It is their heritage. 'The joy of the godless lasts but a moment' (verse 5). 'In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him; the full force of misery will come upon him. When he has filled his belly, God will vent His burning anger against him and rain down his blows upon him' (verses 22-23). If you, Job, have experienced these terrors, then it must be because you're wicked. So admit it and own up."
Job feels no one is really listening to him. He needed acceptance and compassion, more than he needed advice. He needed people holding him, rather than scolding him. I like the phrase 'the theology of accompaniment' - being alongside people who are hurting not because you can supply the answers, but because you care. That's why you can sit where they sit, weep with those who weep and just be there for them. Job has discovered, from personal experience, that bad things do happen to good people. Like others, in the Old Testament, he's annoyed that the wicked prosper. He asks in chapter 21, "Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? (verse 7) Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not on them. (verse 9). They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace. Yet they say to God, 'Leave us alone! We have no desire to know Your ways. (verses 13-14)"
One can sense Job's mounting passion as he warms to his theme. He asks, "How often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? How often does calamity come upon them, the fate God allots in His anger? How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale?" (verses17-18). One identifies utterly with the unspoken answer- not often enough! Job is challenging Zophar to think out of the box. He's too dogmatic. Life doesn't run along the rigid tramlines he has laid down. Job asks, "Have you never questioned those who travel? Have you paid no regard to their accounts - that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, that he is delivered from the day of wrath?" (verses 29-30). The nonsense Zophar has been propounding doesn't help, because it isn't true.
Eliphaz, the voice of experience and religion, joins in the debate once more. He taunts Job, "Can a man be of benefit to God? Can even a wise man benefit Him? What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would He gain if your ways were blameless?" (chapter 22 verses 2-3). Eliphaz assumes that God couldn't care less what Job does. How utterly wrong he is.
At the end of the book it's manifestly clear that Job's faith gained for God a great victory over Satan, who had questioned the entire human experiment.
A central message of Job is 'how we respond matters.' As Philip Yancey writes, "Our choices of faith matter not just to us and our own destiny, but, amazingly, to God Himself." So this is not the time to quit or give up, but to stand and, having done all, stand firm. Your old creed may be systematically destroyed, your precious doctrines shaken to their very foundations, as happened to Job, but trust God and let the living faith within you keep breaking out, against the odds, and for His glory. Did not God promise, "I will honour those, who honour Me?"