Wednesday, May 30, 2018

God promises it will be worth it (Job 42)

It seems like all of my life, I’ve been surrounded by strong women.

My mother was the dominant personality in my house, growing up. She was a World War II veteran, a WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, part of the US Navy). That is quite a story in itself, since her father, a farmer from rural Georgia, disowned her when she told him she was running off to join the Navy. When I started school, she started working for the Federal Government, and eventually retired from the original Department of Energy. She taught Sunday School, led Bible studies, and even after being diagnosed with cancer went to Liberia with my father for a year as a missionary. She was a Southern feminist – what was later referred to as a Steel Magnolia, defined as “a woman who possesses the strength of steel, yet the gentleness of a magnolia.”

My wife has a pretty strong personality. She has faced a lot of tough times before I met her (and certainly afterward!). She developed a business for a local business owner before branching out on her own and running that until we started having kids and decided she should be at home with them. But even then, she became one of the top volunteers in the area for Meals on Wheels, and later went to volunteer for a local ministry but within a week was hired on full time. Despite that fact that she isn’t Southern born, she too has developed into something close to a Steel Magnolia. She’s very much a feminist, which surprises a lot of people.

I have worked for a number of women whom I greatly admire, particularly in my time at BP and later at Georgia Pacific. And I have always tried to treat the women in my various jobs as equals, and been told that I was, in particular, supportive of women in sports media when many of my peers in that male-dominated field were not. I didn’t do it intentionally; it’s just how I was raised.

So maybe I’m not surprised that my hero, Job, is something of a feminist, a man well before his time.

This is another part of the story of reconciliation. Maybe calling Job a “feminist” is too strong of a term, but consider this at the end of chapter 42: “… (Job) also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.”

True feminists might be offended at the reference to Job’s daughters’ beauty, but if you get hung up on that, you miss the truly surprising part of the story.

In what was definitely a patriarchal society, where sons were valued and became heirs while daughters were often treated as property, to be sold off in marriage, in the list of Job’s children only his daughters are named; not his sons.

More than that, Job’s daughters are granted the same inheritance as their brothers, which might have been scandalous for that time. Certainly, in later times it was.

And I wonder how this was perceived by the community, to have Job’s daughters treated as equal heirs to their brothers. What kind of empowerment did this give his daughters that women of that time didn’t typically have? How did that affect the other women of the community, and the daughters of his children to come?

And isn’t Job’s action here just like God, to love equally?

The story of Job is truly amazing. From Satan and God making a bet on the integrity of Job, to God showing up to speak to Job.

How did Job change? Did he change? On the one hand, I think I’d be pretty proud – “Well, you know, the other day when I was talking with God …” But I get the impression this encounter didn’t leave Job proud. I think he was left humbled, a changed man.

Job is not the only person to meet God in the Bible. From Adam and Eve's rocky start, through Moses and the patriarchs, all the way to the disciples of Jesus, many people had the uncommon experience of meeting God. Consider their reactions:

-Adam and Eve cowered in the Garden.
-Moses could barely breathe in front of the burning bush.
-Isaiah said, "I'm a dead man."
-The disciples bowed in their still-rocking boat and worshipped the man who had just ordered a storm to disappear.
-John and Peter left the empty tomb trying to fathom what they'd just discovered.
-Peter, especially, wondered what would happen to him after his denial.
- Saul needed three days to recover from his Damascus Road experience, so shaken that he didn’t eat or drink.

A few closing thoughts on the book of Job.

You know what's obvious, from even a casual observation of these encounters? When people meet God in the Bible, no one is laughing. No one is taking it lightly. No one acts as though a meeting with God is part of a routine schedule. All of them seem to connect with an early proverb: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge . . ." (Proverbs 1:7)

When we grasp the power of God, we're just like Job. All of our questions, all of our complaints, all of our priorities melt into sheer awe. The book of Job is non-stop dialogue, until it's time for Job to react to God. At that moment, Job says little more than, "Oh."

No one is exempt from tragedy. Not even God. Jesus was not given immunity, no way out of the suffering – just a way through it to the other side.

Maybe you think it would better if God would tell us why this happens or that happens. Maybe then we’d be able to handle it with a certain “buck up” attitude. But Satan’s challenge was that Job would fail without outside help or explanation. And God accepted those terms.

Which means that the kind of faith God values seems to develop best when God stays silent, when the fog rolls in and we feel alone and abandoned.

Now perhaps this isn’t much comfort. I get that. But in Ezekiel 14, God puts Jobs on a plain with Noah and Daniel as men of righteousness, men he is proud of, men he holds up as an example of guys who were able to carry the ball across the goal line against all odds, without even knowing the play.

Hebrews 11 says “the world was not worthy of them … and God is not ashamed to be called their God.”

Now, maybe you look at the ending of Job’s life and say, that’s not how it works in the real world. We’ve seen too many people who go through difficult situations without any sense of God showing up, much less God restoring their health and wealth. We see some Christians who suffer, and we see others who prosper, and most of us are right in the middle wondering “Why him and not me?” to both of those situations.

In John 21, after the Resurrection, the Disciples are fishing and Jesus shows up on the beach. You know the story. Anyway, he reassures Peter that he still loves him and restores him to a place of leadership, and then tells Peter about his future.

Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

Then an interesting thing happens. Peter looks over at John – who really did have a special relationship with Jesus - and says “What about him?

The story goes on:

Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”


It’s almost like Jesus is saying, “I’ll tell you the story of your life, but John’s story is none of your business.” In other words, if there is one thing I know from the book of Job, God’s plan is much bigger than I can understand. Why he blesses me and not you, or why he blesses you and not me – that’s not my concern. My concern is, what is my response when Satan stands before God and accusingly points the finger at my life?

Another book I really love is the book of James. And I think the summary James gives Job in 5:11 says it nicely:

“Behold, we call those happy who were steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”

Job was indeed steadfast. To our way of thinking, he was unjustly attacked – unjust in the sense that the only thing he did to deserve it was to live a righteous life, which got the attention of Satan.

As I said before, I want the kind of faith that God is pleased with, but I am afraid of the kind of faith that Satan takes notice of, the way Satan did Job.

I can say this, though. When trouble comes – and it will – regardless of whether it is because of my righteousness (unlikely) or something I did (far more probable), I pray that I handle it in a way that pleases God.

One lesson I have shared with my children is this: whatever you are going through, however hard the times are right now, no matter how serious the situation, one day you will come out on the other side. And when you do, you will have to ask yourself, “Did I handle that in a way that honored God?”

That brings us back to where we almost started. What is the chief purpose of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Nobody said it would be easy.

But God promises it will be worth it.

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