Job had it all, until he didn’t!
For most people, Job is remembered as the wealthy man in the Bible who the devil tried to destroy through intense suffering. It was James who gave us the expression: “The patience of Job” (James 5:11), and centuries earlier, Ezekiel had grouped Job with Noah and Daniel as examples of men who had soul-saving righteousness; in contrast to Ezekiel’s readers (Ezekiel 14:14).
Never before had there been a man of faith and integrity like Job. He was blessed with good health, wealth, property, livestock, and the perfect family. However, it was when most of those blessings were destroyed, that he found out that his wife and friends no longer believed that he had either faith or integrity. In every way they knew how they told him that God only does to evil people what was done to Job.
It must have been the worst day of Job’s life when his wife told him to: “Curse God and die!” At this point, the faith and integrity of most men would have been worn down to the wire. But Job was not ‘most men.’ Instead, he rebuked her foolishness and asked, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:9-10).
We live in an age where suffering is too often considered something that: “Shouldn’t be happening to me.” Someone else is looked to as being at fault, and someone else is expected to pay—no matter who was at fault.
At the end of the Book of Job, Job tells us what he had learned through all the suffering. He said, in the form of a before and after scenario:
“My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you” (Job 42:5).
Our good days and bad days are to be received with the knowledge that God is with us in both. Each day is to be received as bringing opportunities to see God more clearly in all things.
“As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” (James 5:11).
John Staiger
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