For the last 3 chapters, it’s quite interesting isn’t it? How God went to great lengths to talk about the Leviathan and the Behemoth. 2 mystery creatures that none of us really know their true identities. But it just emphasizes the wisdom of God and His sovereignty. And in the last chapter, we see how God restores Job, and He did not just restore, he doubled Job’s blessings.
As for the whole book of Job, there are a few key lessons for us.
1) God is sovereign.
The problem with Job’s friends was not that their theology of God was wrong. In fact, many of the things they said were actually right. But they missed out one glaring point, that God is sovereign. Isaiah 55:9 tells us that His ways are higher than our ways. Job’s friends tried to reason out why such affliction had happened to Job and concluded that it was because Job has sinned.
This is a common mistake that all of us have. We picture God with our own human understanding and conclude that if God is fair, He will only deal affliction on those who are evil. This is not true. And Job went to great lengths to show his friends otherwise, that the wicked can also be prosperous. You can refer to Psalm 73 also, where the Psalmist was also wondering why the wicked can prosper.
We need to understand that God operates in ways we do NOT understand. But yet we also see that God does not contradict His character. If you notice, God did not bring the affliction, but Satan did. Hence all that the friends said were actually not wrong; our God is a just God. However God allowed Satan to test Job and to demonstrate that it is possible for a man to walk upright and blameless before God even in difficult times. And now the book of Job serves as an encouragement to millions of Christians over the centuries.
2) We can be blameless before God.
If you read the words of Job, you will notice that though they are hopeless and even depressing, Job never once cursed God. In fact he was angry because his friends questioned his integrity and Job was fed up because he knew he did NOT sin before God and never did even in the time of testing. It is incredible. I asked myself, could I ever stand before God and be so certain that my ways are not offensive and sinful before Him, yet Job was so certain of his uprightness before God.
He went on to justify that it is not true that the upright will not see suffering and that the wicked will not prosper, in fact they do. If there was anything that God holds against Job, it was his questioning and his contenting with God. Job started to behave quite self-righteously (though it is true that he didn’t sin) and wants to question and challenge God for an answer to his plight.
We must remember one thing; God is not obligated in any way to answer us. Yet God in His mercy did. =)
3) Be Compassionate.
Job’s friends are good friends. Don’t forget that they wept with Job in the beginning. What went wrong was they allow their own self-righteousness and arrogance to guide them in their advice to Job. They assume Job had sinned because they thought they knew God and all of God’s ways. And when Job defended himself, their words became more and more piercing, and at one point, they became false accusations when they accuse Job of being merciless to the widows and the poor. Strange thing was, why didn’t they spend the time interceding for Job throughout his plight but instead concentrated on trying to convince Job that he has sinned when none of them had any evidence that Job really did?
It is a good reminder for all of us when we minister to people. DO NOT ASSUME. But more importantly, it is about being compassionate. Being there for them. Praying with and for them. When people are going through difficult times, the last thing they need is someone to make them feel guilty. (Yet it’s something that we often do, myself too without knowing) Be sensitive.
Agape
