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Anyway, as I was listening to one of the speakers talk about Job I began to sense that it was time for me to think again about my opinion of Job. There was still something much deeper and more profound than I have seen yet up to this point and whatever this next step was it had something to do with my concept of God as well as my understanding of what He thinks about me. After the message had finished I just drove along quietly (that is a relative term in my old car with the windows down) and contemplated what I had just heard while I discussed it with God. As the truth began to really soak into my head and heart I was soon overcome with emotion and had to respond by speaking out loud my feelings of awe and amazement at the goodness of God and the incredible faith that He had in Job. But that is getting ahead of myself a little bit.
Phase 1
To understand the context of where I am coming from I feel I need to explain the first two phases of my understanding of this much-abused book of the Bible. Phase 1 for me was what I suppose is the most typical and widely accepted view of the character and personality of Job that most Christians share. Most people have not spent much time reading or studying this book and what little time they do
spend in it they read the beginning and ending and think they have the gist of the whole story. Usually a few verses are plucked out of context from the middle of Job in addition and presented to make him appear quite noble and heroic (Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him... Job 13:15) and that is pretty much the end of it. For most people it seems like it would be far too much work to spend time trying to figure out all the confusing things his combative three friends have to say to him. Worst of all some of the most egregious ideas they present are sometimes lifted out of context and quoted as sound advice and pious platitudes for addressing our problems today. I have since become very wary of anything quoted from the book of Job and realize that we need to at least check to see which person we are quoting before we think it is useful or valid advice. But again, I am getting ahead of myself.
Generally speaking most people assume that Job is nearly the epitome of the perfect example of what a man of God should look like, think and how to respond to adversity. We make him out to be the hero of the story without any question as to his theology. We base this hazardous assumption on the verse where God declares that Job is a blameless and upright man. (Job 1:8) With a recommendation like that from such a highly reliable source, very few dare to challenge the integrity of anything Job says no matter how confusing or contradictory it may seem to other things we know about God in the Bible. This was certainly my take and opinion on Job from simply accepting what was taught me for most of my life. When I read the book at various times I simply interpreted everything through the filter of the assumptions that had been handed me and ignored anything that seemed too confusing. It makes for a good story and most people are quick to identify themselves with Job when a lot of bad things come into their life with sudden frequency. With Job they feel obliged to say “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” without thinking of what that implies about how God treats us.
Phase 2
My unchallenged ideas about Job went through dramatic transition when a few years ago I listened to a series of messages by James Rafferty that undermined a great deal of my previous assumptions. Then a year or two later I listened to some more talks from Craig Hill that not only reinforced what James had said but took it much farther. During those periods of time I decided to take my own journey back into this book and make a much more thorough and skeptical examination of what was really there. I carefully spent time looking at the content of each of the friends presentations and began to note the differences between them which are sometimes significant. I wanted to get a better picture of their individualities and beliefs. I jotted down many notes in my Bible as I studied and also took a much harder look at the ideas and beliefs that Job was trying to defend. I realized that Job had some very serious flaws in his picture of God and my opinion of him quickly toppled off the pedestal that he had been on for most of my life. Though I did not usually think about it or talk about it very much, in my heart I began to feel a bit of disdain toward Job and wondered how he got such glowing reviews from God in the light of all the dirt that was becoming obvious to me in his ideas about God. As my own picture of God was changing quite dramatically I felt that Job had let me down in his stilted and self-righteous attitudes about his relationship with God. As I more closely examined his questionable testimony I wondered what had led God to make such a statement about Job considering all the false and incriminating notions that Job consequently propounded about God. What was God thinking anyway?
This phase was a very dramatic shift for me and stimulated a lot of discussion, questions and rearranging of beliefs and ideas in my own mind. It was refreshing to see Job in an entirely new light and the story made far more sense for me. I was a little puzzled by the lack of recognition for the fourth friend considering that he seemed to be the only person in the whole story that had a decent concept of God's character. While he was a genuine friend to Job and did not shrink from dismantling the false (but all too familiar) religious theories proposed by the other three, he also challenged Job to reconsider his own self-centered religious ideas and directed him to question his underlying assumptions. He presented God in a light that was so different than any of the others had even considered that by the time he got near the end of his thoughts he had created an atmosphere so conducive to the presence of God that God indeed showed up personally to take over the dialog.
There were a number of other very enlightening insights that I received from listening to these messages as well as in my own study, but that is basically where I have been up until very recently.
Phase 3
For some reason I have been sensing, almost subconsciously, that there was still more to this story. Maybe it was because of a little discomfort with my critical feelings about Job's attitude and my questions about God's gushing recommendation in spite of Job's obvious and serious flaws. This made for a feeling of unresolvedness (is that a word?) in my mind and I didn't really know what to do with it. So I just left it alone until it came to me on this trip and I realized it was time to face it. I still wasn't sure about the nature of even my own questions but I knew there was something I needed to learn. I also sensed that God would use it to say something to my heart, but I was surprised how strong and emotional it was when it suddenly broke onto my consciousness.
What I had to finally admit was that the beliefs that Job was living under and attempting to defend that I was so critical about were really quite similar to some of the feelings that my heart still has about God. This, in spite of the fact that my head has learned many things to the contrary that have made my heart glad and changed my view of God. But what I have to admit is that there is still a part of me somewhere inside still clings to the self-righteous and typical religious ideas about my relationship with God that is so common and that Job needed to be divested of. God wants to take me to another level of trust and wanted to reveal something about Himself to me in this story that dropped a number of puzzle pieces into place that have been assembling over the past few months.
What I suddenly realized was that God knew exactly all about Job's messed up picture of God when Satan showed up and asked for a showdown. God knew Job had some very immature and even incorrect ideas about religion and would say some things that would be quite wrong and even very self-righteous. But the most amazing thing is that God took the gamble anyway and let Satan throw everything at Job while allowing Job to spout off his false ideas about God before the whole universe, even after God declared that He considered Job perfect and upright. (That should make everyone step back and seriously question their preconceived ideas about what God might mean by those words. I suspect our ideas and definitions of perfection need some serious revision in light of this story.)
But the truly shocking part of this revelation to me is the nature of God to act like a seemingly reckless high-roller in a game of gambling. He is actually bragging about Job and putting His own reputation on the line while fully aware of the flawed thinking and self-righteous attitudes and immaturity that Job will demonstrate throughout this experiment. Somehow God looks past all of that and sees that even though Job may even cling to God throughout this experience for all the wrong reasons, he will still cling to God. And evidently that is what gets God excited more than anything else including any amount of correct theology or even glowing testimony in favor of God's character. God was demonstrating an incredible amount of faith in a very flawed man that He would have to come down and make some serious corrections in near the end of the story. Job would have to rethink everything he ever believed about God and reorient his feelings and relationship to God in light of the revelations he would experience. But God put His bet on Job and laid it all out on the table.
In short, the real transition for me was from a focus on Job's achievements to an appreciation of God's faithfulness. In phase 1 I thought of the book of Job as a description of a person who had such a strong spiritual will that he could determinedly outlast anything the enemy could throw at him. He grit his teeth and forced himself to have faith in God even in spite of his perception that all these bad things were coming from God and not from another source. Job was some kind of superhero that I was supposed to emulate as well as a victim who piously refused to give up his belief in God and in the process won God's approval even though God scolded him in the end. That was a tall order to fill, a tough act to follow.
In phase 2 my glossy view of Job's beliefs and character began to be seriously tarnished as I saw more clearly the many lies he believed and promoted about God. In many ways he shared the same confused notions about God that his sorry friends had but just argued them from a different angle. I received much more encouragement from the words of Elihu, the last and youngest witness to show up on the scene, than I did from most of Job's declarations and self-righteous defensiveness. I then viewed the book of Job as a mixed bag of platitudes and occasional nuggets of truth reflecting to a great extent the kind of world I live in. Job was no longer a superhero but more of a religious traditionalist with a strong stubborn streak that somehow God used for His glory.
Now in phase 3 I am starting to see the book of Job as a story about a man with faulty beliefs all too much like mine that God used to magnify His own faithfulness and goodness. The book is not about Job so much as it is about a God who is so proud of His children even in their immaturity that He is eager to brag about them to anyone willing to listen, even His enemies. He is so confident in His own work in their heart in spite of their confused ideas about Him that He is willing to take frightening risks that I would never imagine taking on anyone. This book is not about Job's achievements at all but primarily about a God who is passionate and bold and almost reckless in the risks He is willing to take because of His trust in us. I can't understand a God like that but it sure makes things much more interesting. It reminds me of what C.S. Lewis wrote in one of his parables of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, “Is he safe? Oh no! He is not safe – but He is good.”
As I thought about this in amazement while driving down the highway I asked God if that is what He thinks about me. Does He have that same kind of seemingly reckless faith in me? Does he trust me to cling to Him from a heart still full of confused notions about Him? Then I realized that even my questions tended to put the pressure back on me again. The questions implied that I was expected to perform by demonstrating faith and come through for God because of His faith in me. I can't trust myself to perform and that kind of pressure is overwhelming. What I immediately said was, “God, You are the one with all this faith. You're the one that is doing this work inside of me and I have to trust You to reproduce Your faith by living in me and living Your faith through me.”
I also began to sense that the more I realize this unbelievable notion of God's faith in me, like He had in Job, that I would be enabled to begin to invest that same kind of faith in others. I will be able to believe more and more in God's power to do the seemingly impossible in other people's lives and my faith will grow as I see more clearly the faith in the heart of the Source of all faith – the faithful One Himself.
Tears came to my eyes and about all I could do was worship and sit in amazement thinking about a God who is so full of faith and love for each one of us. This is the extravagantly reckless God who pours out blessings with abandon and desires to ravish our hearts with His passionate love. The limitations for experiencing this are not on His side but on mine. My willingness to believe and to receive is so shallow and dull that I am ashamed.
God, increase my faith. Increase my capacity to perceive and receive Your faith. Thank-you for this moment of light and for touching my heart the way You do. I want much more of You. I am getting more hungry to live in Your presence more often and to be more open to allow You to reveal Yourself through me. Forgive me for my slowness of heart and my lack of faith. I place myself in Your hands to continue Your work of shaping me for Your glory.
