Job

Through the years, I have not been good at journaling, but I have had spurts of effective journaling. An entry in my 1981 journal on July 2 goes like this: “Woke up at 6 am. Walked by the boys’ bedroom. Jeremy was in his bed reading the book of Job.”

It was not unusual for me to see Jason and Jeremy reading at all hours of the day and night. But Jeremy had just turned seven a week before this date, and he was reading Job.

Our house was in the middle of three small villages in southeastern Burkina Faso, and there was no place in the country to buy English books. However, it was not like Jeremy did not have anything else to read. We had lots of children’s books, but Jeremy preferred my collection of Louis L’Amour paperbacks and started reading those at the age of 5. He had an insatiable appetite for reading, so I was not surprised that he had delved into Job.

Most people are like me in that we don’t look forward to reading Job.  We are trying to read through the Bible, and we dread reading through books like Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and then there is Job.

Job's story begins with a guy who has everything—health, riches, respect, a happy family, and a love for God. But Job's love, according to Satan, faded as God took away the blessings he had lavished upon him.

We have all referred to the patience of Job, but I believe that Job was not nearly as patient as he is usually thought to be. Throughout the book's long dialogues and speeches, Job is shown as angry with his suffering and far less pious and trusting in God than the conventional impression of him allows.

The Book of Job addresses one of the most frequently posed questions: if God is good, why does He allow evil and suffering to exist in the world?

Here are a few lessons I have learned from Job. Satan cannot bring destruction into Christians’ lives without God allowing it to happen. God is sovereign over what Satan can and cannot do. We should give up trying to figure out why God did this or why God did not do that and why there is so much suffering in the world. It is beyond our abilities as mere mortals to understand.

We must also quit trying to reconcile why the wicked flourish or why God does not punish them on the earth. Whenever those thoughts rack my brain, I like to think about W.A. Criswell’s famous sermon: “Payday Someday!”

God may use hardship, suffering and grief in our lives to test our resolve, to strengthen our passion for Him, and to teach us His way or His truth or His will.

Isaiah 55:8-9 helps me as I struggle to be content in all things no matter what happens: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”