Meditation: Should I Believe Job?
Monday, November 12, 2012 at 02:01AM 
Every word of the Biblical narrative is inspired, but they are not all inspired in the same way.
When that guy in the parable of the Talents tells the Master, “I knew you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed,” we know know the man has it all wrong. Our Lord’s inspired story invites us to consider how a flawed picture of God causes us to make poor choices. Instead, Jesus tells the story to invite us into the Master’s happiness (Matthew 25:14-30) No one would seriously maintain this one man’s description of God was “inspired and true,” would they?
I use this example because lately I have been thinking about Job--the book, and also the man. The scripture assures us Job was a righteous man, and so he was. The scripture tells us he did not sin by charging God with wrong-doing. Too true. When we read the Book of Job, we discover that Job’s friends bring a skewed picture of God, His love, and His justice. We take their words as part of a larger story, not as gospel truth. We know they are wrong. But what of Job?
I wonder if every word he says gives us an accurate picture of God, especially these very famous words:
“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised”
These words are beautiful. Job worships in the midst of heartbreak. But I wonder if we should trust his picture of God.
Did the Lord really take away? Did the Lord inflict suffering in order to win a celestial wager? We do not accept the counsel of Job's friends as godly wisdom. Why should we automatically believe Job that God "gives and takes away?" Today’s post is not an argument--it's a genuine question. Questions like this are the soul of meditation.
I invite you into the discussion--what do you think of Job’s assessment? He is a picture of humility and trust. He ordered his life around the reverent worship of God. I would love to have Job's humble heart and dedicated practices, but perhaps not his theology.
As you join the conversation (leave a comment, and help me meditate), consider two final points. First, when the Lord shows up at the end of the book, he says to Job, “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?” and begins to paint a cosmic picture capable of blowing anyone’s mind. Second, Job finally concludes, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know” and “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”
What do you think? Come meditate with me.
Reader Comments (6)
Ultimately you are being confronted with a Christocentric vs. a Biblocentric view of Scripture and what it means; again I say you will ultimately be given the boot by your Vineyard denomination if you persist in this. If I am right, this will not be a bad thing if it does happen as I think it will.
I say that you are being confronted because you yourself say things like " ...they are not all inspired the same way...".
I have to re-read the whole book of Job to comment further; but I reckon that the message of the book is that God is in control; but not in the sense that the Calvinists mean, wherein He micromanages all the events in the physical universe; but in the sense that His accounting principles are the ones that matter in the longitudinal sense (i.e. including eternity). Free will, and all that.
Good post P. Ray! My personal opinion is that Job had the words right, but he didn't know what he was saying. God does give and take away: He gives righteousness, takes away sin. He gives life and takes away death. He gives mercy and takes away judgment. He gives light and takes away darkness. And the list goes on and on and on.
Thanks P. Ray! I love your posts that shine the truth on the good nature of our Father. Minds are a'changin'!
This is such a great question. For me, Job has been the elephant in the room when trying to work out the Goodness of God, and what "Goodness" entails. Part of me wants so badly to revisit my childhood mind to answer the question, "what is good?" As a child, it's so easy to say what is good and what is bad. Is death good? No. Is sickness good? No. Is murder good? No.
As an adult, though, the rules seem to change. Is death good? Maybe, if the person is suffering. Is sickness good? Sometimes; it strengthens the immune system. Is murder good? It can be, if we go after guys like Kony.
Are we supposed to "become like a child," and return to that initial outlook on death? Or, do we "put away childish things" and essentially say, "God gives and takes away, death must be in His will," and make provisions for it?
Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, right? He healed and delivered everyone who came to him, without reservation. He even resurrected dead people. But, then there is that fig tree he cursed and killed.
Both the Arminian and the Calvinist avoid a side of these questions, and use the other side to attack their perceived theological opponent. And here we are, centuries later, still running in the same circle.
Maybe we just can't figure or reason it out. The only solution I see to the problem (a solution that works every time) actually happened to Job. Seeing God. That fixes the problem, and clearly answers something in Job's mind, though we don't know what. I look at it as an invitation to quit talking about God, and just ask to see Him.
It feels dangerous for all parties involved, though, because it requires us to leave the page and actually feel the music.
To me it says that Job, in the only way he knew how, acknowledged that God is in control. He might not have known or cared about being exegetically accurate, so much as humbly expressing who he is in relation to God. (Sort of like the raw honesty inarticulately expressed in John 9:25)
In addition to many other passages in the bible, the passages you quoted in Job give the answers to your question. God does give and take away, including taking away some things we see as only good. God makes that clear in your quote, "who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge". This proves God takes away by saying it was His plan. God didn't directly act to take it away, but if it was His plan He wanted the devil to take it away and, knowing everything, He knew when He gave satan permission to take those things away that satan would do exactly as he did, which God wanted or it wouldn't have been His plan.
If God is totally sovereign, than He is over things we see as bad as well as what we see as good. He doesn't just ALLOW those things that seem bad, He wills them. The bad things are used for good outcome that can only occur through bad. At the end, Job understands God far better than he would have if he hadn't gone through those trials. I write this at the bedside of my husband, after 5 weeks in hospitals. We have talked about God willing this for our good, which is already being made clear. His relationship with God is more personal than it has ever been and he sees God as more loving than he ever has.
Thanks for writing this Ray. This response may be longer than your post! I've been chewing on this all day. Then about 3 o'clock this afternoon a lovely, beautiful young woman who is a friend of mine, posted on facebook that the baby in her womb will most likely die at birth...just like her first pregnancy. She wrote an eloquent communication and ended it with the lyrics from the worship song "he gives and takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord".
After reeling from the news and while swimming around in her post, I thought to myself: Why did she write this? Is this her theology? The more I think about it, the more I think it is not her theology, but instead, it is surrender. Job's statement was a form of surrender. The place he was in trumped theology. There was no comfort. There was no sense. There was no intellect. There was denial, bargaining, anger, and depression. There was even (eventually) hope and acceptance. There was grieving.
There are times when I catch myself living out of a “wrong” view of God. Living as if God is something my “theology” knows He is not. I will hear myself saying (to myself) “I’m on my own…again…” then, “Kelli, that's not true!”. “You are not alone. Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit are always with you!” And yet, I may remain feeling isolated and alone for some time, desperately trying not to let my lack of faith spill out onto my family or community. Of course, the problem is not with God, but with me. As Eugene Peterson says in his Introduction to Job: "We realize that suffering calls our lives into question, not God’s. The tables are turned.”
Also from the Intro to Job: “Job says boldly what some of us are too timid to say. He makes poetry out of what in many of us is only a tangle of confused whimpers. He shouts out to God what a lot of us mutter behind our sleeves. He refuses to accept the role of a defeated victim.”
And again: “Job does not curse God as his wife suggests he should do, getting rid of the problem by getting rid of God. But neither does Job explain suffering. He does not instruct us in how to live so that we can avoid suffering. Suffering is a mystery, and Job comes to respect the mystery.”
I think about the idea of a “wrong view” of God when I frequently hear someone say that something was “God’s Will”. Or that God “took” someone or something from them. It never sits well with me. As if God is sitting around deciding what difficult circumstance or experience he needs to send me so that I will turn and do what he wants. And yet when something unexpected and tragic happens I may still find myself saying things like “What are you thinking, Lord?” or “Why is this happening?”.
What I believe is that more often, things happen in this world, in our lives, and we are given the opportunity to invite God into our trial. When we do, we grow closer to Him and learn more about ourselves in Jesus. Isn’t that God’s ultimate goal for us? To know Him? To know His Love for us? To share that Love with the world?
In the last three years, I have experienced repeated loss and I have found myself again and again looking to Job for comfort. I know that none of this is “that simple”, but I wanted to share my perspective. I love that you challenge us and our faith, Ray!