God and Satan Give Job a Performance Review
Continuing on in our series on Sunday school stories- we’re going to talk about Job.
Job is described as blameless and upright (the same description Genesis gives of Abraham…you may or may not recall). He has a large family, wealth, livestock (of course wealth and livestock were basically the same thing in those days).
The book of Job begins with God and “the satan” (or "the adversary") have a conversation about Job's unwavering faith. Now, I want to point out here that the satan is talking to God because he is part of some kind of heavenly council. He’s not talking to God from hell or some such thing. Instead it’s more like he’s part of God’s board of directors and, evidently, his role is to challenge God. This tells us that God runs a rather healthy organization- God has built-in some accountability for himself and allows himself to be challenged and questioned. The satan challenges God by arguing that Job's faith is only strong because he has been blessed with prosperity. In other words- the satan wants to find out if Job is actually good, or if he’s just in a good mood because his life is easy.
God agrees to let the satan test Job's faith by taking away all his blessings, except his life. In a series of devastating events, Job loses his children, wealth, and health, as he is afflicted with painful sores. In all this, Job never curses God. However, he first responds by praising God and gets increasingly despondent as the story goes on and, eventually, Job gets quite angry at God and does a good bit of yelling and questioning. But he never curses God.
Three of Job's friends – Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar – come to visit and console him. They engage in a series of dialogues, suggesting that Job must have done something wrong to deserve such suffering. Job defends his innocence, asserting that he has not committed any sins worthy of his immense suffering.
As the dialogues continue, a young man named Elihu enters the conversation and rebukes both Job and his friends. He emphasizes that God's ways are beyond human understanding, and that suffering is not always a direct result of sin.
Think of Job’s friends like modern day Facebook commenters. They are the classic “but what about’ers.” They act like they know what’s going on because, let’s face it, they aren’t the ones going through the problem. If they were around today, they’d send him memes of cats hanging from trees by one paw with the caption, “Hang in there.”
Don’t we see this from our own friends today? We have people telling us that it’s not as bad as it seems, that we just need to put more good vibes into the universe, that things seem bad now but really something better will come down the pike. Spoiler alert: none of these are the message of Job. Additional spoiler alert: God does not approve these messages.
Finally, God speaks to Job out of a whirlwind, presenting a series of rhetorical questions that highlight the vast difference between divine and human wisdom. Job humbly acknowledges his limited understanding of God's ways and repents for questioning God's justice.
Okay so I’m going to give a series of takeaways in a minute but let’s just hit the pause button. God does get frustrated with Job, but it’s not for the reasons you might assume. Job’s faith never wavers- he just expresses utter confusion at how God operates in this story and kind of hints at the fact that God might be bad at his job (job not Job). What God does in this section is to offer Job some perspective. God essentially says, “My job isn’t easy. Do you think you could do it? If so, you’re wrong.”
This alone offers us a unique insight into what kind of God we worship. We think of God as being able to do whatever He wants simply by snapping his fingers. But, apparently, being God is hard work…so a little appreciation for the size and scope of God’s to-do list might be in order!
Additionally- God says quite explicitly in Job 42 that Job’s friends did not speak correctly about God and that Job did speak correctly about God. So let’s break this down.
It is not correct to:
Assume suffering is the product of sin
Blame someone for their own suffering
Suggest that good things exclusively happen to good people and bad things exclusively happen to bad people
Suggest that bad things happen as an appetizer to some later “good” entree
It is correct to:
Question God generally
Question God’s fairness specifically
Demand answers of God
Demand to see and hear God
Express frustration with God
Express discontent
So- be very careful what you say to people who are hurting. If you don’t know what else to say: 1. Silence is often good enough. 2. “I’m here for you,” is also a good option.
Rant over. Let’s keep going.
In the end, God restores Job's fortunes, blessing him with twice the wealth he had before, as well as new children. The story concludes with Job living a long and prosperous life, serving as an example of unwavering faith and the complexities of human suffering. Before this, though, we get the bit about God condemning Job’s friends and God tasks Job with praying for them so that they may be restored.
There is so much to say about this story. I could, and have, write thousands of words on it (I wrote 25 pages on 6 verses while in seminary…if that tells you anything). Instead of having this post go on and on and on…I’m going to give you bullet point takeaways. And, I’m going to invite you to email me if you want to discuss any of them further.
Thoughts and Takeaways from the book of Job in no particular order:
Don’t get distracted thinking about the fairness of the bargain between God and the satan. God is not in the habit of making these kinds of bargains. It is merely the setup for the story, not the story itself. The story itself is about the relationship between God, sin, and suffering.
There is not a direct relationship between sin and suffering. Of course, doing “bad” things can have consequences…but it’s important to realize bad things can also just happen.
Faith and religion are not so simple as: do good and you get good things. You might be a faithful person and experience great loss. There is no way to ensure a low-suffering life through spiritual performance.
God is not a cosmic vending machine that can be manipulated with pious prayers and spiritual disciplines. This is not to say that God wants to withhold good things either- quite the opposite. It is to say that faith is about much more than reward and punishment. It is a true relationship, with up’s and down’s, and not merely the exchange of goods (such as: our prayers in exchange for God’s blessings).
God wins the bet. Humans can maintain faith in the midst of tragic circumstances. This is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.
Job is restored not because he repents at the end of the story but because God is drawing his time of suffering to a close because this is what God has chosen to do. Let’s remember- Job “repents” before anything is restored- and Job has no idea what God is going to do next. So Job is not repenting to get anything back- in fact, his repentance reads more like an acceptance of circumstances to me.
Also, let’s be clear, Job is not repenting of wrongdoing or sin. He’s repenting of his lack of perspective. This is hardly a sin. Job is simply saying to God, “Ah, I see now, yes, the world is much larger than me and I don’t understand everything that happens.”
PPS- what seems to be important to Job in this exchange with God is that, while he had previously heard about God- he now sees God. That evokes a sense of wonder in Job- and allows him to move on from his complaints. It’s interesting to think that Job finally saw God when he was at his lowest point.
There’s plenty more to say…but that’s probably enough for now.
What stands out to you in the story of Job?
