A lot of people know of Job. I try not to say ‘we all’ or group all Christians into an expectation that they have read the Bible – because many new Christians have not read the Bible because they do not know where to start (John or Luke are my suggestions). Most new Christians definitely have not read the entire Bible.
I said in January I would start my Back to the Basics series where I am going to go through the Bible in chronological order (assuming I don’t MASSIVELY mess something up) and kind of paraphrase or explain what is happening in laymen’s terms. Now this obviously isn’t one of those considering it is not labelled as one, but I will likely write an entire blog post dedicated to Job.
The shorthand version – Job was this super awesome servant of God with a fantastic family, fantastic wealth, and fantastic friends (supposedly, but if you read what his friends say to him after spaghetti hits the fan you will realize they really aren’t all that great.) Think like Jeff Bezos level has his life together kind of thing. Although he was Christian and was known for having servants and people extremely loyal to him for his quality of character.
So Job is living his best life. Dedicated to God, surrounded in children and livestock and love and wealth. His book starts out very different from most Biblical accounts because it starts with God in Heaven – not really something we see in dare I say it any other book of the Bible. And God’s talking to the Angels and Satan comes stomping over and God’s like “have you seen Job? He’s awesome.”
And then Satan is like, “he’s only awesome because you coddle him.”
So God’s like, “Oh yeah? Well I know Job would be faithful to me even if things went bad.”
And so Satan was like “wanna put your money where your mouth is?”
(THIS IS A PARAPHRASE TAKEN WITH LIBERTY, NOT THE ACTUAL WORD OF GOD.)
And basically Job lost everything. When I say everything I mean this man is standing, probably proudly overlooking his field and enjoying the sunlight, and a servant runs up saying his servants got dead. Then another runs up as soon as that one finishes speaking saying his livestock got dead. Then another runs up immediately after saying his children got dead.
In a matter of MINUTES, Job’s entire life fell apart. Yay for him though – he got to keep his bitter, cynical wife who told him to curse God and literally die, and some of his questionable friends who basically said ‘you obviously sinned and caused all this to happen so just say sorry to God and move on, or you know just keel over and die like your wife suggested’.
No one else in the Bible has a situation like this where everything goes wrong at once for seemingly no reason. The Apostle Paul was beaten, bruised, tossed in prison, nearly killed, actually killed(?) and then really killed in his life but it was spaced out and because of his ministry.
Job was just straight chilling, enjoying a mojito, and got himself cursed BECAUSE OF WHAT A GREAT SERVANT HE WAS. Imagine literally losing everything because Satan decided to stick his nose in ya business and run his mouth? I can’t.
Either way, a lot happens in Job and I for one find it difficult to follow at times because after the somewhat simple beginning as paraphrased above, it consists of conversations between his wife and friends. All of that being besides the point and for a later in-depth analysis and explanation.
But, in the midst of all this, Job is recorded as being innocent. He did not sin in the eyes of God in what he said. The verse below that this blog is about is the response Job has to his wife when she literally tells him to stop with the integrity and to curse God and just die. (Now admittedly, I don’t know what was going on in her life so maybe she was lovely. He did poor ashes over his head and start cutting himself with a piece of pottery – so it could not have been a good time.)
He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
Job 2:10
Job literally had all his kids die in one day. His entire livestock just up and disappear (whether in death or whatever else does not matter). Lost his wealth. AND to make matters worse when Job still did not curse God after that, Satan goes back to God and says ‘well bro it’s easy to lose other things, but to lose yourself is the true sign’. SO THEN Job gets boils and sores from head to toe.
He goes from living on top of the world one day to literally sitting in a pile of ashes, playing with broken pottery while puss and blood push out of sores all over his body. For no reason than the fact that he was faithful to God. It is truly mind-boggling.
Yet, in all of this Job would not turn on God. Blame Him. Accuse Him. Revoke Him. He would not ruin his own integrity and he would give up on God. It’s so incredible because not only does he refuse to deny God, he defends Him and himself to his friends who we’re not even going to get into.
But I think the truly amazing thing is what he says in response to his wife. His entire life goes to the dark side and his wife tells him to KILL himself and he just looks at her and says “you are talking like a foolish person. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
….
LIKE HOLY COW. The very concept of him not only accepting his circumstances but even going so far as to say they were justifiable is so anti-the-21st-century-mindset.
He knows things are bad and I am sure he knew there was nothing he did to deserve it. Yet he basically said one thing I have always believed (since I was 10), “God gives everything, if He chooses to take it away, He has every right.”
We are so entitled to what we believe we have earned. What we are due. People wax poetry about what they ‘deserve’ and respect, power, wealth. So much time and energy is lost in this constant fight to get what is due to us. I have met people who have so much bitterness in their hearts because they feel as though they have been cheated and ‘deserve’ more. When realistically all we have is God’s. What He chooses to give, we are not entitled to, and what He chooses to take away, we have no right to complain about.
Sure, maybe it sucks but if God chooses to give you wealth, do not be surprised or angry if He decides to take it away.
I think we get into this absolutely awful worldview where we believe God owes something to us. Fundamentally that is not true. If this were a business relationship, as many people make it when they expect God to give them something in return for whatever they believe their ‘services’ are, we are the ones who broke the ‘contract’.
God created us equal with Him. He walked with us in the garden. Gave us more than what we needed. We were Masters of the Earth. In the ‘contract’, we were not supposed to eat from ONE tree in an entire freaking garden. A single tree. Yet, we chose to do that. In doing so we broke the contract.
AND yet we still act as if we have been jibbed when bad things happen. No it’s us that makes bad things happen. If you have ever sinned in your entire life, you help perpetuate the ruin of the world. Which may sound super ridiculous but it is true.
You are not entitled to anything. God does not owe you material riches. In fact, He NEVER promises them. If you ever see or hear a preacher who says as a child of God that God wants you to be rich or have fame, they are lying and are distorting the Word of God to sell you a product.
You want to know what we are promised? Hardships. Persecution. Hatred. Death. In turn, we are also promised that He will never leave us. He will provide for us. He will love us. He will bring us to eternal life.
However, He NEVER says only good things will happen to you. That is some convoluted ideology that progressive Christianity has made up and legalistic leaders have kept in circulation for hundreds of years. It is false and misleading.
When bad stuff happens, it is likely not God’s fault. In this instance with Job, it technically was. He allowed Satan to do whatever he wanted to Job so long as he spared Job’s life. However, He did that because He knew Job would not turn his back and He knew that Job would stay faithful and that He would bless him in turn for his faithfulness. (Now, there is a point where Job does get a little whiny (understandably so) and basically goes ‘why would you let this happen’ to God and that gets shut down REAL quick.)
After Job’s season of darkness, God not only restored what he used to possess but doubled it. He had more children – his daughters were the most beautiful and sought after in the land, and he was so wealthy he gave his daughters an inheritance as well as his sons (the first dowry, I think so?).
The point of this blog is not to tell you to keep a stiff upper lip during suffering because then God will make you wealthy and famous. Not at all whatsoever.
The point I am trying to make is that we are so quick to thank God sometimes for the good we are given but when things turn sour, we are the first to point fingers at Him. How easy is it to rejoice when times are good? When our stomachs are full? Our bank account numbers make us happy? Then something like 2020 happens and we curse the day we were born and turn our backs on God.
We cannot accept the good God gives and then complain about the bad. It’s not how that is going to work. You can try but you’re going to be miserable and your relationship with God will suffer painfully.
Faithfulness, loyalty, love – whatever you want to call it is not shown in the moments a relationship is perfect. It is shown when things are going wrong, when you need to fight for the other person. Our relationship with God is not excluded from this.
God, I am sorry for the times where I have blamed you for things you did not do. For turning my back on you when it was not fair or right and if a human ever did it to me, I would not have forgiven them and I would have been deeply wounded. I am sorry for the times I have basically betrayed you and treated you as expendable, because you are not.
You deserve so much more than I could ever give you. You deserve all praise and worship and you are worthy of all things. Even when things are going wrong you still deserve my praise because you hold me together when I want to fall apart. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for loving me even though I know I am not worth it.
God I pray you would give me your strength and resilience. That I can face the hard times unwavering in my foundation on you. On my own, I am fickle and weak. With you, I am able to withstand anything that comes against me. God I pray you would continue to provide for me as you, thank you for caring enough to fulfill my needs and even for what you give me in addition to that. I know I take advantage of what I have and often forget to thank you. Thank you for having grace and mercy for me Lord.
I pray you would help those in the hard times to find a reason to rejoice. Please be with the hurting, the broken-hearted, and the downtrodden.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
God bless you and keep you!
~ Ashley
P.S. It got a little ranty there but I managed to rein it back – a little anyway… I tried.
A Light in The Darkness 