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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Job is biblical must-reading. There are two important lessons – one we get, but is difficult to accept. The other lesson is often overlooked entirely.
Job is a faithful and righteous man. The story begins with a conversation between God and Satan. The Evil One says Job only loves you because he is prosperous. Take away his wealth and his health, and he’ll curse you. God accepts the challenge.
Job loses everything he has, and is affiliated with a terrible disease. The thinking of the day was that if bad things were happening to you, you must have done something to make God angry.
Job does not curse God, but he does question why he is being tested. God speaks to Job through a thunderstorm. Job is asked ‘Where you there when I laid out the dimensions of the earth?’ ‘Do you know how I divided the water and the land?’ ‘Do you know how the beasts of the land and sea were made?’ ‘Do you know from where the wind and rain and storms get their power?’
And Job humbles himself. He is not God, and he cannot know God’s purposes. That’s the first lesson of the story.
The second lesson, which is talked about less often, is this: God knows our human nature. He, after all, created us the way we are. God knows that we will be angry, frustrated, ticked off, and are likely to lash out when things don’t go our way. God knows that asking ‘why?’ is naturally human.
Why was I passed over for a promotion? Why are finances difficult? Why do the political candidates I prefer lose? Why is my health poor? Why do bad things happen to good people? Asking those questions to God, even when angry and frustrated, brings us closer to Him. And the two lessons of Job go hand in hand. We are not made to understand the setbacks and frustrations in our lives.
Consider that Job has no idea that he was a part of a grand bargain begin God and the Devil. His thoughts were more about how is health and his flocks might be restored. Job could not know that generations later, through his example and his story, we… you and I… would be taught more about the very nature of the Almighty.
Chris Conley
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