Conventional wisdom indicates that the Book of Job was probably the first book of the Bible penned. Before Moses ever sat down to write Genesis, the trials Job experienced had long since become a part of the tapestry of time. If scholars are correct then through the book of Job we are presented an important statement on life . . .
We can trust God,
even when we cannot understand His ways.
In the Book of Job, the mystery of God's working with human beings is explored through the suffering of the hero, a good man, who like his friends simply cannot understand why God permits him to suffer if he is truly innocent.
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Most of you are aware, on some level, of my current employment status. Some know more of the situational circumstances than others. I do not intend to delve into those issues... today. Though someday I might.
For now, all you need to know is this:
Job and I have a LOT in common these days.
By Chapter 2, Job has endured the worst day of his life and lost everything that he had, save he and his wife's life. Though he was outwardly unmoved by his troubles, he was in inward turmoil. As the days of agony turned into weeks, his inner doubts and fears must have been excruciating. He was a man who's life had been built on Godly service and honesty. Now the God he had served had turned against him. Certainly the timing and the method of the loss Job suffered made it clear: this was the hand of the Lord.
The question that tormented Job was "Why?" When 3 friends came from their homes to 'console' Job, they were so dumbfounded that they sat with him for 7 days and nights, so moved by his suffering that they could not bring themselves to speak. Then, plagued by the tormenting questions within, Job began a dialogue that continues for the next 28 chapters.
Throughout this dialogue Job consistently insists that he is righteous and blameless of any cause for punishment. His suffering is NOT the result of any wrong actions on his part. But none of his friends will listen to him. They maintained that job MUST have done something to bring this suffering upon himself.
In Job's case, it was not an evil man who suffered at God's hand, but a good man. In the face of this mystery, Job and his friends were forced to examine the foundations of their faith, and to question their very concept of God. And this is what the Book of Job asks us to do: to risk confronting mystery. To be willing to admit that perhaps the idea we have of God may not be God at all!
Job's friends had held fast to their brittle concept of God, sure that God must act to punish sin and reward good... now. Because they admitted no freedom of action for God, they concluded that Job had sinned and his troubles were a divine judgment. Impaled on the agonizing dilemma, Job was forced to go further and further and to question God's justice. Finally he faced the fact that in this world the evil do not always suffer. And that at times the godly may have more difficulties than the ungodly!
When God finally shows up, oddly enough He neither reassured His servant, nor explained the reason for Job's suffering.
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I feel a lot like Job these days.
I feel like many of those who used to be a part of my 'family' have been ripped out of my life. And others whom I thought were part of my family have since shown themselves to be little better comfort than Job's own wife.
I feel like many of those I love, my friends, have either abandoned me or simply don't know what to say when they're around me.
It would seem as though almost everyone is looking out for 'number one' and no one is concerned about me (or the wrong that was done me) because they are too busy looking out for their own interests and futures.
To varying degrees, this bothers me.
But I must endure.
I must endure because I have done it to others many times in the past... and I must endure because God has said that I must endure.
Ya know, the hardest part of this hasn't been the search for a new job. The hardest part has been finding out who your friends and family really are, and what motivates them.
