Very Bad Good Things
Because no one said life was fair. It’s on purpose. And that’s different.
Let me tell you about my good friend Job.
Himself, along with Jesus, are the examples we are given in scripture of a ‘model,’ of whom to be.
There really aren’t any others.
And, where Jesus is given to us as God become man, purest perfection amidst the mystery of incarnation… Job is simply man.
A really really good one.
Job is given to us as an example of capacity, humility, faith and posture… amidst a very human life that becomes filled with enormous tragedy.
Enormous tragedy that we are given to see that God allows to be sent to him… seemingly as a reward for how good he is.
The first couple chapters of Job read like a direct recommendation to not try so hard.
The God of Job 1–2 reads like a capricious child that doesn’t value his things.
Job 1 8–12
Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless — a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”
Satan replied to the Lord, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. 10 You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! 11 But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”
“All right, you may test him,” the Lord said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.
Ouch.
No thank you.
And so God allows His adversary to attack Job, as a challenge to God…. that Job would lose that shine, that simple perfection of his heart when things didn’t go his way.
Except he doesn’t.
In the space of that tragedy, a human life filling with what seems to be limitless pain and difficulty… children, health, wealth, all wiped out… relationship with dearest friends and wife, all distorted and wounding…
Job finds his edge.
Job doesn’t betray God.
And he and God get to work.
And that’s where the story goes.
Job, through the last several chapters, finds truth about himself and his relationship to God he never could have, or would have, found without the adversity.
I do NOT want to put words in the mouth of Gods best example of human life lived at a fully human level… but I get the sense it was all worth it.
That the horrific, painful, difficult surgery Job went through was the only way to get to the underlying issues that existed between himself and God…. however subtle they might be.
Job 42 :5–6
“I had only heard about you before,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes.I take back everything I said,
and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance”
He was, by the end of it, more like His God, and more like Jesus, than he was at the start.
He had come into better harmony with the family of faith in the persons of men like Abraham or Moses in seeing and knowing God directly.
He had come into closer alignment with Jesus, both because of his character and also in the suffering.
He was magnificent.
God was even more so.
I am the opposite of this.
That’s the thought I wanted to share.
Whereas with our good friend Job, God allowed to him to be brought calamity after calamity to find a needed refinement… all God had to do with me was give me what I wanted.
And I collapsed under the weight of my own poverty.
There, in the space I had everything I had ever wanted, I learned how poor I really was.
Because I’m not Job.
I’m the guy that wants the credit for being him, without ever paying the price.
And God says, “That. We will work on that.”
And it’s really, really good… and I know God in that, intimately.
And I become more like His son.
And He blesses me.
But not because I’m so good.
Because I’m not.
And in the space where He blesses me I can see, clearly, how utterly dissatisfying all the things I wanted were and are.
Because my heart.
Psalm 139:23–24
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
Because of my riches.
Matthew 5:3
“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”
Because of where I stored my treasure.
Matthew 6:21
”For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
And here, now, I am humbled.
But not like Job.
Like me.
Thank you Lord for giving me what I wanted, in pretty much every respect… you have been shockingly generous with me in all of my desires in life.
Had you not done so I do not know that I could have ever seen so clearly what I need.
I wish I was a better servant and friend, I repent of how scared I am, all the time.
I do not know how to change that.
You have done your part.
Please, Lord, help me to do mine.
All scripture referenced is NLT unless otherwise noted. I prefer NLT for postural discussion as it is both reasonably rigorous while retaining a conversational tone.
For study I strongly encourage the use of original language tools, multiple translations, and rigorous critical thought.
Please remember that when you read the Bible in English you are always reading someone else’s theological interpretation of the text.
