Job: Trusting God without Answers

If you are on pace, then the book of Job has been pushing poetic phrases concerning pain and confusion onto you like a divine salve. Consider:

“Whether for correction or for His land or for love, He causes it to happen.” (37:13)

“If you are righteous, what do you give to Him? Or what does He receive from your hand?” (35:7)

“If He should set His heart to it and gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to the dust.” (34:14,15)

The arguments going back and forth are good hard truth for the soul as well. Job is a classic book to study on how to deal with pain and failure in a godly way. God cares about our pain and our response, thus Job. Hope you made it through! Now back to Genesis.

Job: We Begin in the Deep End

I have one primary goal with these messages. That would be to get you to read through the Bible in a year all the way, JOYFULLY. Most of the groups I have read with would push reading the Bible as duty, something that you are expected to do and you are a failure if you don’t. As Jesus uses failure to show us our need for Him, but uses joy and gratefulness to fuel our good deeds, I would like to opt for the latter. So that is what the messages are for: to motivate you to have a burning heart to read, not a guilty heart to read.

This week we began with the Beginning, and are now almost halfway through Job - a book that seems like it could be put anywhere and be unaffected. I have read much about creationism, that understanding that says the first 7 days are simply 7 days. So we could push into that because I really do love the subject. But I generally only write what I am impressed to write, so I have to write on Job.

“And behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the fours corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” Job 1:19

Confrontations like this make the Bible the most valuable inanimate resource we have. The confrontation being between God doing as He pleases (the Bible not charging Him with wrong), and our response. How can a good God kill a man’s children - grown though they may be? Take your animals, steal your servants, sure. But kill your kids? Apparently our chronological reading starts in the deep end of the theological pool. What could God possibly be up to that was worth the life of Job’s children? I have two, soon to be three, children. If He took them, could I find a good reason? Would I respond like Job or would I put my fist immediately in God’s face?

The long argument between Job and his three friends is over how God acts. Does He always reward the “good” man with land and possessions? That is Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar’s argument. If you do good, you will not suffer [the prosperity gospel, not to mention religion, are definitely not new]. Job rebuttal is that he has done nothing wrong to merit this. He is not a “bad” man. He has cared for the poor and the weak. Yet Job sees his actions as not being the reason God blesses him. He has received good from God, and will he not now submissively receive “evil”? (2:10) Job’s case is that God gave freely, and He now takes away freely. A tough pill to swallow, huh? God gave me a stewardship of children, and at any time He may freely take them. And none can charge the Giver with wrong. Certainly not me. This is a quick comment on this particular truth, one that God often takes a long time to teach. Oh, how much prayer is needed to not grow frustrated with the wisdom of God when I see a moment and He sees forever!

In addition to the fact that God can do as He wills and does not become evil or mean by doing so, other lessons of great value are in this book. God has at least two more purposes, though one might be swallowed up in the other. The smaller one would be that Job would know God in a deeper, soul-cavern way. I’m moving ahead, but Job will say after all is done that before “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You” (42:5). To know God is our life. Read again. To know God is our life. More valuable than my kids who are a song in my life, is the Ancient Singer and Lover (Zephaniah 3:17). He is to be known to Job as the most Valuable, and He is to be known to us as most Valuable.

The larger purpose that envelops the smaller is that God might be seen as Valuable, everywhere. Not just to Job or even to us who are reading, but also to angelic powers - both good and evil. God has a mission to overwhelm His whole creation with an awe. To stun everyone and everything everywhere and max out their understanding. If you thought that God was clever, you have only just begun to understand wisdom. If you thought He was a simpleton, you’ll learn otherwise. If you thought He was always soft, you’ll learn. If you thought He was good, you have only begun to understand. If you thought He was holy, be prepared to be overwhelmed in the Bible and in eternity. As has been said, “we know but the edges of His ways.” Let your appetite be whetted. The Bible is a feast, full of fear and love!

Read Year Bible '12

In 2012 a group of us are going to read through the Bible. Everyone is invited. We’re going to read through in chronological order using Coram Deo’s reading plan found here: http://cdomaha.com/resources.php under Gospel Formation “Yearly Bible Reading Plan.” This is primarily a Hanscom Park deal, but I could never in good conscience tell anyone ever that they should not read the Bible through in a year. So anyone is welcome to join. I already asked my mom. So you can too. (Chronological means we read in the order that things happened, not necessarily the order the 66 Bible books are in).

When I told Doug that I felt like I was reading my Bible all alone, he told me to lead a group through reading starting Jan 1, 2012. So that’s why I’m writing this, and not him.

Hosea commends us to "know, let us press on to know the Lord. For His going out is sure as the dawn; He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth” (lots of verses are similar, this is just one of my favorite.).

Reading the Bible is a unique way of getting to know our God. Nothing compares when it comes to understanding His ways and heart. Prayer helps us know, but in a different way (reading the Bible works best when knit with prayer). Creation tells us certain things, but only so much. Because of this, reading the Bible is essential to knowing Jesus well. And all of it talks about Him, so we ought not to leave anything out. So we are going to read it all through this year.