Job's Justification

This is our final week in our short trip through the book of Job. It turns out that this gloomy book has a happy ending. After enduring the loss of his family, wealth, and health, moral lectures about his own sinfulness from his friends, and even a few pointed questions from God himself, Job is finally vindicated. Although Job admits that he has spoken about things he did not understand, God's verdict is still that Job has spoken truthfully about God while his friends have not. Job 42 gives the details of Job's vindication and restoration. Job is blessed even more than before. He once again has his health, he is again blessed with 10 children, and his wealth in livestock is double what it was before. Job's restoration as a spiritual authority is symbolized in his sacrifice and prayer on behalf of his three friends which God accepts and his restoration to his former place of honor in the community is symbolized by all those who had known him before his suffering coming and dining at his house. Job was righteous before his suffering, he endured that suffering righteously, and in the end God vindicated or justified Job's faithful obedience as righteous by blessing him even more than he had before.

As I've been working through the book of Job, I've been struck many times by the parallels of Job's suffering with the life of Jesus. I've often wondered if Jesus' own reading of the book of Job as he grew up was instrumental in shaping his own understanding of his messianic mission; if perhaps passages like these in Job and the suffering servant passages in Isaiah led Jesus to the conclusion that he could suffer righteously. As I was reading this last chapter of Job today, I was struck once again by the parallels between Jesus and Job, especially as Paul sums up the story of Jesus in Philippians 2:5-11. The pattern of movement from greatness to obedience in humiliation and suffering to restoration and exaltation as a result of that obedience which we find in the book of Job is the same movement found in the Christ hymn of Philippians 2.

The pattern in both of these stories shows that God will ultimately vindicate those who place their trust in him; Job's fortunes are restored and Jesus is "exalted to the highest place and given the name that is above every name". But this pattern also clearly shows that the kind of trust that God requires is not easy trust that is only present when things are going well. Real faith, real trust is the kind that endures the suffering of Job, the kind that carries a cross.

An Offensive God

The God portrayed in the book of Job is problematic.

This God makes deals with Satan. He allows a righteous man to suffer tremendously through the loss of his whole family, all his possessions, and even his own health. In fact, he not only allows it. It seems God almost encourages this process to take place, dangling Job out in front of Satan like some kind of bait by saying "Have you considered my servant Job?" This is anything but a comfortable image of God. It offends our sense of justice. What kind of God is this who invites affliction upon the most righteous and faithful of his servants? Its not exactly this God that we have in mind when we think of proclaiming the gospel to the world. Its not exactly the kind of God I really want to preach about. Its not the kind of God that I want to think about as I go to visit a dear friend and saint in the hospital who is suffering. Is God simply testing her as he tested Job? And if so, how can I love a God who would be so capricious with his people?

God's answer? It comes in Job 38 -41. The short version: I am God and you are not.

It's not exactly satisfying or comforting. In all honesty, its still offensive. In fact, its a kind of non-answer that changes the question that is being asked. We ask whether or not God is righteous and just. God asks who we are to ask that question.

I believe that God is just in all he does and that he cares deeply about seeing justice done in our world and that one day he will recreate this world in full accordance with his righteousness. But even as important as justice and righteousness are to the character of God, they do not exhaust the mystery of God. God will not be held captive or boxed in by any concept or definition, not even ones as important as justice and righteousness.

Why Me?

Why me? What did I do to deserve this?

Usually, these are words that we hear in the context of suffering and hardship. Often when something bad happens, one of the first things we ask is how a good and all powerful God could let something like this happen.

I don't want to dismiss the problem of evil. I think it is a worthwhile endeavor to seriously ask why a good and all-powerful creator would allow evil to exist in his creation. But I do wonder why we never ask those questions when things are going well. Why is it that we never say "Why me?" in reference to all the good things in our lives.

I have had the good fortune of being born to parents who cared for me very much and who saw that I had every advantage they could provide. I've had the luxury of spending seven years of my life in a classroom where it was my privilege to spend my days pondering the mysteries of God and how I can live in that mystery and help others to find their place in it as well. I have a wife who is selfless and loving in a way that challenges me; a person with whom covenant faithfulness is as easy as it ever can be in this life; a person with whom it is the very definition of blessedness to share life. I have a daughter who constantly surprises me with her ability to find new ways to make me adore her more than I ever could have imagined. We expect that Hannah will have a little brother any day now as well. We all live in a spacious and comfortable home and have no idea what it is like to even think about missing a meal except by choice. I pastor a church of caring and compassionate people who are dedicated to Christ and are seeking to be obedient to him. Why me? Why should I enjoy all of these things? Or any of them? What could I have done or ever do to possibly deserve all of this?

I know there is a lot of legitimate pain and suffering in our world. I'm not trying to paint a rose-colored picture that ignores the dark places of our lives. But why is it that we consider good things the norm? Why do we regard them as things to which we are innately entitled but then lay all of the problems at God's feet or assume that they prove that God can not exist? Why should there be good rather than evil? Why should there be something rather than nothing?

These questions have been on my mind for some time now but they are brought to the forefront as I come to the book of Job this week. Job is caught in this strange cosmic test where God allows the Satan (in the Hebrew of Job, the definite article is affixed to its name) to take away every blessing Job has and to curse him with severe illness to see if he will remain faithful to God. Job proves remarkably true to the test saying that he must accept evil from the Lord as well as good. Later in this book he even makes this unbelievable confession of faith in God even in the midst of all his suffering where he says "Though he slay me, I will hope in him." (13:15)

I imagine that if some mysterious being of temptation called the Satan still has conversations with God like the one in the book of Job, then he must say to God "Of course, Dave Young reverences you. You've given him everything! But take away all that you have given him and then let's see what kind of faith he has!" When I think about my life in comparison to Job's, it seems laughable for me to even talk about trust or faith in God. But it is my hope that God's Spirit is working to form Job's kind of faith in me