Job one, Satan nothing
Job 1: God gives, God takes. God’s name be ever blessed.
As round one of Job’s trials concludes we find Job a heartbroken man. Everything’s gone, including his children. Job’s in shock and deep mourning. In this midst of his pain, he falls to the ground — and worships! The test is to see if a man will serve God “for nothing” and, as this round of testing ends, we find Job still worshiping God! His worship doesn’t consist of his shrugging off all that has happened. After all, the pain is real. His actions declare the depth of his pain yet his words carry a philosophic tone. Job declares, “I entered with world with nothing and that’s how I’ll leave.” Does Job serve God for nothing? Job’s answer is “God gives, God takes. God’s name be ever blessed.”
Take Away: Job trusts in the Lord even when everything falls apart. Does that describe us?
Author: GR 'Scott' Cundiff
Devotional on Job
Telling it like it is
Job 3: Why didn’t I die at birth?
All of my life I’ve heard people speak of the “patience of Job” and, frankly, I don’t get it. Just a quick read through chapter 3 reveals that Job doesn’t stoically accept his condition. He’s miserable and he wishes he’d never been born. “May those who are ‘good at cursing’ curse the day of my birth,” he says. As I look at this miserable man I can’t help but appreciate his stark honesty. This guy isn’t given to platitudes. Instead, he tells it like it is, and at this moment in his life, life isn’t worth living. Somehow Christians have gotten the idea that we ought to behave as Job does in chapter one when he sincerely declares “God gives, God takes.” We read that and make it our model for dealing with pain and suffering. However, we need to keep on reading. Soon we find this same man crying out against his own life. Beyond that, to excuse Job as being “out of his mind” in pain is such a horrible put-down of Job. Yes, he’s in agony but he’s still thinking and the things he says reflect exactly what he believes. When we deny ourselves (and Job) the right to be absolutely honest about how we feel we destine ourselves to continue in a shallow relationship with God. You see, when I’m going through a trial God isn’t interested in seeing me put on a brave front and hearing me say all the right things. It’s honesty that he wants and sometimes that includes our telling him, and others, how miserable we are. Such honesty opens the way for God to work in our lives at levels we didn’t even know existed.
Take Away: There’s never a time to pretend things are different than they are before the Lord.
Devotional on Job
How things really are
Job 5: What a blessing when God steps in and corrects you!
If I work my way through the book of Job and pick out various quotes from Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Eliju and then present them to about any Christian I think they’d find the words quite acceptable. On the other hand, I could pick out many things Job says and those same Christians would shake their heads in dismay. How can it be that this old book which has been available to God’s people for so long be so poorly understood? Eliphaz says the same kind of stuff that we say. He reminds Job of his good life and suggests that he draw on that for hope now, in this day of suffering. He tells Job that everyone knows that for God’s people everything will turn out okay. It’s the bad people who need to worry about what the future holds. He even reminds his friend that human beings are born into trouble. In other words, “that’s life.” Job needs to throw himself on the mercy of God who delights in lifting broken people. So now, Job ought to be thankful that God cares enough about him to discipline him. If Job does that everything will be just fine. Eliphaz concludes, “This is the way things are.” The thing that I find spooky here is that if this speech was, for instance, in the Psalms, I’d read it and not think anything about it, just accepting it as truth. It’s only as I realize who it is who says this and then skip to the end of the story that I realize I need to do some serious sifting through this kind of thinking if I’m to actually know “how things really are.” It isn’t that everything Job’s friends say is wrong. Instead it’s that not everything they say is right. This is a book for people who are willing to think about big issues.
Take Away: Beware of things you’ve easily believed.
Devotional on Job
B-B’s and Battleships
Job 7: Even suppose I’d sinned — how would that hurt you?
In this passage Job wonders why it is that God is so serious about sin in the first place. He has a hard time understanding how a puny man’s sins can impact the Almighty. Now that’s an interesting question! If God is merely sitting on his throne making up rules for me to follow this argument has some merit. Job, though, underestimates the relational intimacy the Lord wants to have with us. He doesn’t want to be far above me, looking down from heavenly realms, keeping his distance. Rather, he wants to live in me and through me. When he created me, he made me in his own image. Now, even though that image is marred, there remains something of God in me. If this is true, and the Lord has connected me to his life then my sin will touch him in a direct way. Sin not only destroys my relationship with God but it actually wounds him. Now, I don’t intend to be too hard on Job at this point. After all, I have one big advantage Job doesn’t have. I can turn to the New Testament Gospels and watch God being touched by sin as Jesus hangs on a cross. For God our sin is more than our firing B-B’s at a Battleship and it’s more than an academic issue.
Take Away: Because the Lord connects us directly to his life, we actually have the ability to cause him pain or bring him pleasure.
Devotional on Job
Caution: big issues in play
Job 8: Does God mess up?
We’re still at the beginning of the debate that makes up the most of the book of Job but the battle lines are already drawn. Job doesn’t really disagree with what his friends believe; he just sees himself as an innocent victim of some cosmic mistake. Bildad’s comment that “God doesn’t mess up” is at the heart of all this. Job and his friends believe that when a person has something bad happen to them that it’s because they’re being punished by God. Bildad doesn’t need any other evidence of Job’s children’s sin than the fact that they all died in a tornado. Since he can’t imagine a horrible thing like that “just happening” it has to be that God did it. And, if God did it, he did it for a reason. After all, everyone knows God doesn’t make mistakes. As I’ve said, the purpose of this book to answer the question, “Will a man serve God for nothing?” However, there are other issues in play and the majority of the book is taken up with those issues. This is one of the big ones: how does the reality of bad things happening to good people fit a theology of a wise, loving, and all knowing God?
Take Away: One result of reading this book of the Bible is that the reader has to think about big issues.
Devotional on Job
The most important thing
Job 9: I don’t understand what’s going on.
Job’s reply to Bildad’s lecture about how bad people have bad things happen to them and good people enjoy good things is not to disagree. He says, “So what’s new? I know all this.” Again, (and I know I can quit harping on this) Job’s complaint is that he’s done nothing to deserve all this and that somehow there’s been a mistake in heaven. However, Job is a clear thinker. He understands that the only way a man can be right with God is by God’s mercy. He trusts in God, but he understands that it’s only by grace and mercy that he has a standing before the Lord. The impressive thing about Job, however, isn’t that he has a firm grasp on spiritual truths that won’t be fully revealed until Jesus explains them. The impressive thing is that even when he feels he’s being treated unjustly by God, even when he doesn’t understand what’s going on, and even as he cries out for a fair hearing on this whole matter, he stands firm in his faith. In all this, we’re reminded that faith trumps even knowledge. That’s not only vital for Job, but it’s vital for me too.
Take Away: Faith trumps even knowledge.
Devotional on Job
Not a very pious prayer
Job 11: Should this kind of loose talk be permitted?
When Job finishes responding to Bildad he addresses the Almighty, Himself. His words in chapter 10 are that prayer, but it isn’t a very pious one. Job, in his misery, cries out to God, demanding to know why his life has taken such a terrible turn. He complains that, apparently, he’s accidentally missed some step and is being punished for it even though he has no idea of why. If this is how things are, Job decides, it would be better to never live at all. Zophar, but not God, responds to this prayer of complaint. He’s scandalized; maybe backing away lest the bolt of lightning he’s sure is coming doesn’t hit him too. In his thinking bad things happen to us because we deserve it. This is no time to complain to God, it’s a time to repent and admit wrong doing so God will let up. Listen, Job’s prayer is the right prayer here because it’s his heart’s cry. God doesn’t want to hear us pray little fake prayers that pretend things about ourselves and our relationship with him. He’d rather hear an honest prayer of complaint than a dishonest prayer of contrition. It may be that we Christians have so narrowly defined how prayer should sound that we’ve defused it of much of its power.
Take Away: A dishonest prayer is more posturing than it is praying.
Devotional on Job
Life after death?
Job 13: How many sins have been charged against me?
In response to Zophar’s counsel, Job replies with some choice insults. He doesn’t need Zophar to lecture him. In fact Job already believes all the things his friend has said. Beyond that, Job assures him that everyone believes that stuff. Since Zophar and Job believe the same thing (that bad things only happen to bad people) Job again turns his attention to God. He wants to know exactly what sins have been charged against him. Perhaps there needs to be an audit of God’s bookkeeping system so the error against Job can be found. Still, even as he pleads with God to tell him what he’s done wrong, Job’s reminded of the uncomfortable fact of the unfairness of life in general. It may be that Job has never admitted this to himself before. It’s only as he sits here in absolute misery listening to his friends saying all the same things he’s said many times that he acknowledges that life isn’t as neatly ordered as he has believed. Both good and bad people alike have plenty of trouble come to their lives. It seems to Job that even a lowly ditch digger gets a day off once in a while. Shouldn’t God make life easy for human beings who only have a short life anyway? And, since our lives are so limited, is there something more, beyond this life? Job has no Easter story to draw from, but even in this distant day, he’s considering the possibility of life after death as a way God might “balance the books” of life.
Take Away: We know more about this than Job does; that ultimately the Lord will set all things right.
Devotional on Job
Looking for justice
Job 14: If we humans die, will we live again?
This is one of the most famous statements in the book of Job and it comes as Job laments the unfairness of life. A tree can be cut down and yet be the source of new life, but Job hasn’t seen that with human beings. When a person, good or bad, dies and is buried it appears that it’s the end for them. Is there a possibility of resurrection? Job hopes so. After all, if God is good and yet people who serve him come to tragic ends and that is that, well, something is wrong! This insight doesn’t stop Job from his suffering and questioning, but it’s a brilliant insight concerning human suffering. We may not always see the full picture of God’s justice and goodness now, but the final chapter of his dealings with human beings isn’t written at the grave. If God’s justice isn’t seen this side of the grave, it must be seen beyond it.
Take Away: Without Easter Job has arrived at a theology of a resurrection. Isn’t that neat!
Devotional on Job
I wonder which Internet forum Job visited?
Job 15: If you were truly wise, would you sound so much like a windbag?
Eliphaz’s second speech is pretty much a repeat of what’s already been said: people who ignore God’s rules have nothing but trouble. It’s his response to Job’s prayer of complaint that’s interesting to me. Job says that life is unfair and he wonders if there’s something beyond this life where wrongs are made right. As it is, he says, life for both good and bad people has way too much pain and sorrow. Eliphaz hates what Job’s saying so he calls him a “windbag,” and his words just so much “hot air.” I doubt that Job is all that interested in hearing what Eliphaz has to say after that! This isn’t exactly a deep, thoughtful response, but I can’t help but hear some exchanges between Christians in this. Job has raised some valid points, but instead of responding to them, even in disagreement, Eliphaz insults him and then repeats what he’s already said on the topic. That sounds very much like the exchanges I’ve seen on the Internet. In person, we’re usually a bit more polite, but the end result is the same. How do I respond when a fellow Christian brings up a point and comes to a conclusion that I hate? Do I respond by insulting him and repeating what I’ve already said? Do I attempt to understand why he believes as he does? Eliphaz never imagined an Internet forum, but his style is alive and flourishing today.
Take Away: Learning to really listen to people with whom we disagree is an important part of our spiritual journey.
Devotional on Job
Better to say nothing
Job 16: What a bunch of miserable comforters!
When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, arrive at his side they’re overwhelmed with what they find. They cry out and rip their clothes in mourning. Then for seven days they sit with him, speechless at the horror of it all. It appears that it’s during these days that they come to a decision to go with the status quo because once they start talking they merely state and restate the “folk wisdom” of the day. As they do that, Job turns his fevered face toward them and denounces them as “miserable comforters.” I think they are better comforters sitting there for a week, broken and speechless at what they see than when they start reasoning with Job about all of this. There’s a lesson to be learned here. People who are suffering pain and grief don’t really need our platitudes or our so-called wisdom. Even when we don’t know “why” things are as they are our presence matters. The scriptures tell us to “mourn with those who mourn.” We aren’t called to explain it all but we are told to care and help the broken-hearted by sharing in their sorrow.
Take Away: When we don’t know what to say or do we don’t need to say or do anything – just be there, sharing in the moment.
Devotional on Job
Paddling around in the shallow end of the pool
Job 19: Why do you insist on putting me down, using my troubles as a stick to beat me?
I think I can safely pick up speed in my journey through Job because the themes are now pretty well established. Job insists on his integrity and stubbornly holds to his faith even though he feels God is treating him unfairly. His friends have become his accusers. Ever though they can’t point to a single act of unrighteousness in his life, they point to his terrible afflictions as proof that there has to be unrighteousness. Job characterizes this as their using his “troubles as a stick to beat me.” By now we’re supposed to understand that the suffering has come to Job precisely because he is righteous. It’s this righteousness that sets this chain of events in motion in the first place. The question being answered is “does Job serve God out of love and commitment or is it because of the good things he gets out of it?” Is human righteousness a part of some kind of business arraignment between man and God or is there something deeper going on? Of course, all this is beyond Job’s friends and is beyond Job himself. His friends are so overwhelmed by the terrible scene of suffering before them that they can’t see anything else. I think we’re all in danger of living at that level. We like the easy way out, the conventional wisdom, and cling to easily held beliefs. Sooner or later, God will challenge such an approach to life, taking us deeper even, if necessary, over our groans of protest.
Take Away: Easily held beliefs are often the hardest ones to let go.
Devotional on Job
Our final refuge
Job 19: Still, I know that God lives.
There’s much that Job doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand why his children died in a terrible storm, or why his considerable wealth was taken away on that same day. He doesn’t understand why he’s suffering so and he doesn’t understand why he was ever born in the first place. One biggie is that he doesn’t understand why God won’t answer his plea for a hearing to straighten out this whole mess. There isn’t much solid ground for Job these days. So much of what he has thought of as firm has slipped away, including what he believes about God and how the Lord works in the world. In fact, there remains just one place of solid footing. It’s here that he takes his stand: “I know that God lives.” Thankfully, few people in history have faced the tragedy and loss Job did. However, for all of us, the day comes as we near our last breath when we’re left with only the bare essentials. On that day, I pray that I, too, will find that one remaining firm place to take my stand: “I know that God lives.”
Take Away: When we come to the crucial moments of life we have to decide what is and isn’t essential.
Devotional on Job
Getting away with it
Job 21: They’re given fancy funerals with all the trimmings.
Zophar admits that, for a while, evil people get away with it. However, he says, their good times are always short-lived and then everything falls apart for them. Job is having none of it. He replies that he’s watched things too, and it isn’t very often that such people get their just deserts. In fact, he’s attended their funerals and heard the lies said about them even as their bodies were lowered into the ground. The big theme of Job’s story is “will a man serve God for nothing.” Then, as things play out, we’re confronted with the issue of human suffering. Is it possible that people suffer and it isn’t because God is angry with them? Now, we meet yet another theme. It’s the reverse concern. If it’s true, as Job contends, that sometimes people suffer through no fault of their own, is it also true that sometimes evil people get away with it? Is it possible that some enjoy all the pleasures of sin all the way to old age and never hit the brick wall of God’s judgment? I think that before this ordeal Job was fairly comfortable with Zophar’s philosophy. At least he hadn’t given it much thought. Now, he finds himself dealing with the issue of how unjust life can be. All the time God remains silent, allowing Job and his friends to grapple with it all. For most of us, reading through these discussions is more philosophical than anything else. Once in a while though, these issues become quite serious and they did for Job so long ago.
Take Away: Some people live their entire lives believing things to be true that aren’t. Once in a while though, we’re given the opportunity (or maybe “forced” is a better word) to get a fresh grip on “truth.”
Devotional on Job
False advertising
Job 22: Give in to God…and everything will turn out just fine.
As I read Eliphaz’s third speech I see that he’s hardened during the exchanges with Job. Now, to justify his position he’s telling outright lies about Job. According to this latest version of Job’s life, he’s crushed orphans and exploited the homeless. If Job wasn’t in such misery this would be downright silly. Old Eliphaz isn’t above rewriting the facts if it helps him keep his religious views on track. He even goes so far as to suggest that if a person gives their life to God that everything will turn out just fine! How overboard is that! Wait a minute. I’ve heard people say that. Serve God and have faith and you’ll be healthy and wealthy. I know that if I skip over a few pages I’ll find that it turns out okay for Job, although he’ll live with the memory of his departed children the rest of his days. Since the book of Job is about asking big questions we might as well ask the one before us today. If a person “gives in to God” will “everything turn out just fine”? Since I believe in the existence of heaven, I can answer “yes” in the broadest of terms. However, I don’t think that’s what Eliphaz is thinking about. He says that people who give their lives to God will have a better life here and now. Is that always true? When I think of those who’ve been martyred for their faith, those who’ve been imprisoned and tortured, or those who suffered as Job did I know it isn’t necessarily true. Living for the Lord is a wonderful way to live and the benefits are, well, eternal. However, it’s false advertising to tell people that if they give their hearts to the Lord that everything will be fine this side of eternity.
Take Away: We shortchange the power of the gospel if we sell it as some kind of “get rich” scheme.
Devotional on Job
Believing against the evidence in the justice of God
Job 24: If Judgment Day isn’t hidden from the Almighty, why are we kept in the dark?
One topic that surfaces often in the book of Job is that of “inequity.” Job considers how often it is that the innocent suffer while the wicked get away with their evil. Still, Job’s sure of this: God knows what’s going on. Job doesn’t understand why it is that God doesn’t immediately make things right (he says “God does nothing, acts like nothing’s wrong”) yet he believes God is a God of justice and that sooner or later the Lord will act. This is a huge statement of faith for a man who’s experiencing his own “fate worse than death.” Even though the wicked appear to get away with it all Job says that “God has his eye on them.” Even as Job suffers his own personal torment, he still trusts that, in the end, God will make things right. This is a powerful understanding of the nature of God.
Take Away: We may not understand the here and how but we can understand that, ultimately, the Lord will make all things right.
Devotional on Job
The difference between imperfection and unrighteousness
Job 25: Even the stars aren’t perfect in God’s eyes.
The final statement from one of Job’s three friends (although the fourth speaker, Elihu, is still to come), is a short one and it causes us to wonder if maybe Job has argued them to a standstill. However, Bildad does take us down a bit different track. He argues that only God is truly perfect, and next to him, everything else comes up short. Even the stars of the sky are lacking in God’s eyes. Since that’s true (according to Bildad) God is justified in bringing calamity on anybody, including Job. After all, we’re all less than insects when compared to God. That’s his argument, but it isn’t a very good one. Job replies that he maintains his integrity even in the midst of what he sees as an unjust trial. His argument isn’t that he’s perfect. Rather, it’s that he’s just. Job understands something that many modern Christians fail to grasp. There’s a difference between imperfection and unrighteousness. God looks, not on our performance, but on our intent. My humanity guarantees that I’ll have a sub-par performance. However, by God’s grace, I can live for God and maintain my integrity before him even in the worst of times. Samuel learned this truth before anointing David King of Israel: “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) Job may be struggling with several theological concepts, but he has this one down pat.
Take Away: By the grace of the Lord it is, indeed, possible to have a pure heart in his sight.
Devotional on Job
A longing look back
Job 30: How I long for the good old days.
Job’s longest speech comes after his three friends have had their say. His comments range from direct replies to their statements to his view of the world and the inequities he sees in it. A portion of these thoughts are focused on how things have changed for him. There was a time, he remembers, when he was wonderfully blessed by the Lord, and, he says, “Everything was going my way.” Job handled these blessings well. Instead of it all going to his head, he became a friend to those who were going through loss or who needed help along the way. Those were good days, but remembering them isn’t a source of comfort to Job. Instead, the memories add to his pain as he realizes he’s lost more than wealth and health. As I read Job’s story I note that loss comes in a wide variety of forms. Job is unique because he lost it all at once, but it’s painful to have even a small portion stripped away. That includes loss of influence, which often comes with the passing of years. Those who have given their lives in full time ministry aren’t exempt from this. The day comes when our ideas are no longer sought after and younger voices dominate the conversation about what God is doing “now.” Like Job, it’s natural to “long for the good old days.”
Take Away: As time passes so does our influence. It’s possible to graciously accept that and to simply go on, trusting the Lord with that which is beyond our influence.
Devotional on Job
Serving God for nothing
Job 30: What did I do to deserve this?
Job’s final reply to his friends is his longest speech. He doesn’t summarize so much as restate all he has already said. He’s cried out to God for justice, but can’t get an answer. He’s lived a just life, avoiding immorality, falsehood, dishonesty, and pride. He’s treated people with respect and honesty, caring for the poor and the stranger. Now, in the midst of the trial, all he’s wanted is an audience with God, an audience which has not been granted. Job, like his friends, believes that bad things only happen to bad people. He maintains that he’s lived a life pleasing to God, yet bad things are happening. If he could only sit down with God and work all this out! Were that to happen, he’s sure this mess could be straightened out. Among all the other losses Job has suffered is the loss of his comfortable understanding of God and life. However, even with that taken away (and maybe this is the last thing to go) Job continues serving God. And he does so, yes, for nothing! At this point, Satan’s accusation from the opening paragraphs of this story is proven false. In spite of the suggestion otherwise, a man will love and serve God even when he’s getting nothing out of it; even when it seems God, himself, is breaking the rules; even when all else is taken away. If the book of Job ended with chapter 31, the point of the whole story is made.
Take Away: Yes, it’s possible for a person to love the Lord and trust the Lord even when there appears to be no tangible gain in it.
Devotional on Job
A short look at Elihu
Job 32: And rest assured, I won’t be using your arguments!
I’m not sure what to do with Elihu. He’s the fourth person who comes to speak to Job. When the first three speak, Job interacts with them, responding to the things they say. Elihu, however, has a long monologue. Job doesn’t answer him and, at the end of the book, God addresses the three friends but not Elihu. The experts say that his speech is likely an “add on” to the book of Job, written after the fact. That, though, is confusing too. Why would anyone do that? In spite of the fact that Elihu claims that he won’t be using the arguments of Job’s friends, he actually doesn’t say anything that hasn’t already been said to, and refuted by, Job. As a devotional reader and writer, I’ll leave these puzzling things to others, but I don’t think I want to work my way through his sermon with the same intensity I did with the other speakers. So what will I do with this? Maybe it’s reasonable to focus in on the fact that Elihu doesn’t seem to have been listening very well to what the others said. Sometimes we’re so intent on what we are about to say that we don’t hear what others say. When we do speak, we just restate, in our own words, their thoughts. Or, I can think about Elihu’s waving of the “youth flag;” thinking he’s bringing a fresh perspective, when he’s just as bound by the old way of thinking as Job’s three friends. Being a traditionalist who can’t handle opposing truth is not necessarily tied to one’s age. Finally, I can see here an example of how, if we start with the wrong premise we’re bound to arrive at the wrong conclusion. Like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, Elihu starts off thinking that bad things only happen to bad people. Because of that, he arrives at the wrong conclusion: Job must be a bad person. Okay, enough of Elihu…on to the appearance of the Lord, Himself!
Take Away: Start with the wrong premise, arrive at the wrong conclusion.