WHY ME?
Duke Jeyaraj presents the summary of the message of the book of Job for the Google Generation thereby bringing out reasons as to why bad things happen to good people.
The following lines by Vijay Lokapally, I read, with great interest: It took Tendulkar a year to cross the 100-century mark after having scored his 99th in the 2011 World Cup. During an interaction with the media, he wondered why it took him so long. “Why I got to my 100th hundred, I looked at the bat and looked upwards towards God and said, ‘It’s been a tough time for me, why? Where did I lack in my commitment?’…” (“Tons of Passion”, Frontline, April 20, 2012, page 130).
Perhaps you too have asked questions that began with “Why” to your Maker. Questions like, “Why am I not able to find a suitable, sweet, life-partner?” May be you probed your Creator saying, “Why am I not getting the promotion in my job, despite dishing out good performances, year after year?” It’s quite possible your inquest to God was this: “Why am I not able to become a dad despite being married for a decade?” You interrogate God with these words, “Why is my loved one suffering from that rare disease that is speeding his journey to the grave?” This type of ‘Why Me?’ questions can easily swallow you like how a whale can.
But I have good news for you. The good news is that we meet a person in God’s Word who asked ‘Why me?’ questions just like you. His name? Job. His trouble was so acute he shot this ‘why’ question at God: “Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?” (Job 3:11,12 ESV). He repeats a similar question in Job 10:18. He mouthed another ‘why’ question to God which went like this: “Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy?” (Job 13:24 ESV). Perhaps his bravest ‘why’ question to God was this one: “Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?” (Job 21:4 ESV). In the English Standard Version of the Bible, Job uses the word, ‘Why’ at least 15 times (check out Job 3:11; 3:12; 3:16; 3:20; 3:23; 7:20; 7:21; 9:29; 10:2; 10:18; 13:24; 19:22; 21:4; 21:7; 24:1). The vocabulary of his prayers was high on ‘why’.
A summary of the message of the Bible book of Job will certainly help us during the times we feel like screaming at God and asking, “Why me of all people Lord?!”
Shall we start?
The Bible introduces Job as a man who lived in the land of Uz (Job 1:1). Just as we call Jesus who lived in Nazareth for most part of his life as Jesus of Nazareth, it makes sense to call Job as Job of Uz. And we will use the acronym, J-O-B O-F U-Z to summarize the message of Job while also trying to figure out why bad things happen to good folks.
J-JUST MAN REVEALING BOOK OF JOB
The Bible presents Job as a man who was ‘blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil’ (Job 1:1). According to the ‘Word of the LORD’ that came to Ezekiel, he is named among three proverbial righteous men of all times, with Noah and Daniel being the other two (Ezek. 14:12-14). While talking about the imminent second coming of Christ, the author of the book of James talks of traits we must actively possess like Job did so that we will not be ashamed on the day of the coming of the Lord (Js. 5:8-11). Job’s righteousness was practically expressed in the holy habits like these he possessed: he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings to the Living God on behalf of his merry-making, perhaps-ungodly children (Job 1:5). He was out of bed early when he saw ‘red’ to the lives of his children.
God had this to say about Job – that there was none like him on the earth and that he was blameless and upright man, who truly feared him and turned away from evil (Job 1:8). At the end of the book of Job, God rebuked Job’s friends saying, “You have not spoken what is right, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:7). Job, in other words, pleased God in all his conduct and conversations, through his life and lips.
In Job chapter 31, the several ‘if’ statements that Job used which reveals to us, his iniquity-hating life in greater detail. These ‘if’ statements reveal three things about Job:
- He was a holy man –
This can be understood when one reads what He says in Job 31:9, 10 – “If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door, then may my wife grind another man’s corn, and may other men sleep with her…” In verse 1 of the same chapter what Job said was rendered by Eugene Peterson into modern English in this incredible way: “I made a solemn pact with myself never to undress a girl with my eyes.” This is astonishing when one thinks of what is going on in our world today. India Today magazine (February 27, 2012) had a cover story about porn’s prevalence in India. Here are some excerpts from a news report: Technology has enabled greater access for audiences (to view porn). This report suggests that that three Karnataka ministers who were caught watching pornographic clips on their smartphones while seated in the state Assembly in February 2012 is just symbolic of a wider trend. It turns out that a fair number of Indians are glued to porn. According to Google Trends, the number of searches for porn from India doubled from 2010 to 2012; in 2011, seven Indian cities were among the top ten in the world searching for porn. Greater access to high-speed internet would explain much of that rise. The sharp growth in smartphone owners has also fuelled the porn boom. A survey by the Indian Market Research Bureau revealed that one out of five mobile users in India wants adult content on his 3G-enabled phone. It isn’t adults who are addicted to porn. A survey of public schools in Delhi conducted by Max Hospital revealed 47 per cent students discuss porn every day. The same report talked about how the porn CD business is a business that can’t be hit by recession because ‘people always will buy porn’.
Our news magazines may say ‘people always will buy porn’. But believers who have read what Job said in Job 31:1 will not buy it, will not view it, and will surely shun it. By refusing to undress a girl with his eyes, Job inspires the Google Generation to shun porn where women are actually portrayed undressed in various forms.
2. He was a ‘heart man’ – a man with a heart.
That’s obvious when he says, “If I have denied justice to any of my servants, whether male or female, what will I do when God confronts me? … If I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court, then let my arm fall from my shoulder….” (Job 31:13,21,22). Job was not the kind of individual Outlook magazine spoke about in their cover story of April 23, 2012 on the sad plight of domestic helps (maids): “We pay them poorly. We starve them. We exploit them physically (and sexually). We look at them as lesser humans. What gives us the right to treat our domestic help the way we do?”
3. Job was a man with humility –
The book telling us his story records that he did not rejoice over the fall of his enemy (Job 31:29,30). That was something which even King David could not resist doing. He wanted the children of his enemies to beg for bread, did you know (Psa 109:10)? Job neither did allow gold to hold him nor did he lose his balance because of his fat bank balance, if we put Job 31:24, 25 in today’s context. He was humble. I could see Job in Rahul Dravid who retired in March 2012. Lots of nice things were written about Dravid when he retired. The thing about Dravid that impressed me the most was his humility, the character which Bible’s Job also had. Suresh Menon in his ‘salute’ to Dravid wrote: In his peak years, between 2001 and 2006, it was Dravid’s batting that secured victories in England, Australia, Pakistan and the West Indies. Yet, even in that period, Dravid’s self-deprecatory manner, unusual among Indian players, was remarkable: “People want me to get out quickly so they can watch Tendulkar bat,” he said on one occasion; later he often compared himself to Virender Sehwag to his own disadvantage. Asked if he would make a triple century some day, Dravid replied, “For that you would need a ten-day Test match.” (Outlook, 26 March 2012, page 25).
Job once started a sentence this way: “If I concealed my sin as people do…” (Job 31:33). That tells us that Job was not claiming sinless purity, despite the fact he was a holy man, a ‘heart’ man and a humble man. Earlier he told God, “Why do you not pardon my offences and forgive my sins?” (Job 7:21). A man who assumes that he was sinless would never say such a thing, will he? In Job 7:20, his question could be effectively rephrased this way: “I have not been perfect; but what terrible sin have I committed that deserves this kind of suffering?” Job says in 10:15, “Even if I am innocent, I can’t lift my head!” – another statement of his which shows he was not claiming sinless purity! The New Testament truth is this: “if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (I John 1:8).
If “J” of word “Job” reminded us that he was “Just Man Job”, then “O”, the next letter in his name, reminds us that he was ostracized.
O-OSTRACIZED JOB’S SAD STORY RECORDING BOOK OF JOB
Job was ostracized from at least five different sets of people. Job was separated from five varieties of folks. Here they are:
- Job was ostracized from HIMSELF
The fact that Job started hating himself is seen in the fact that he cursed his day of birth in an elaborate manner which, in turn, told the story of the elaborate pain he was in (Job 3:1-10). He wished his death-day were the same as his birth-day (Job 3:13). He did not say this just one time – he repeated it (see Job 10:18-19). The reason he felt this way was because he suffered terribly. Let us elaborate:
He suffered from SORES (Job 7:5). He had them from head to foot. He was in great physical pain. So Job started hating himself. The sore disfigured his body that his friends could hardly recognize him (Job 2:7).
He suffered from SLEEPLESSNESS. This was his confession: “When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, And the night be ended?’ For I have had my fill of tossing till dawn” (Job 7:4).
He suffered in his SOUL. He was bitter in his soul – this was his candid confession. “I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul” (Job 10:1).
2. Job was ostracized from HIS CHILDREN
Steve Jobs, the late Apple CEO said that his daughter was his heart, beating outside his body. The tragedy that struck Job was that all of his ‘heart-beats’, stopped beating one fine day. A mighty wind struck the four corners of the house Job’s children were gathered in, the roof caved in, and all of them – seven sons and three daughters – were dead (Job 1:18-19). Job had prayed regularly for their protection. It seemed as if those prayers went down the drain. Job was utterly devastated.
Have you been earnestly praying for something of late? Has something which is exactly the opposite of what you have been praying for happened to make you very upset? The biggest fight in your family happened on the very day you fasted and prayed for family peace. Maybe, your husband lost his job, the very day you most earnestly prayed for a promotion for him, in his workplace. Job has been where you have been.
3. Job is ostracized by HIS WIFE
Meena Kandaswamy recently wrote an article that perhaps got the maximum number of letters in response by the readers of Outlook magazine. Let me quote from her article, I Singe The Body Electric, where she is talking about how her husband abused her: “His words sharpen his strikes… And when I tell him that I want to walk out of the marriage, he wishes me success in a career as a prostitute, asks me to specialize in fellating, advices me to use condoms.” Thousands of years ago, Job’s wife spoke words as acidic as those spoken by Meena Kandasamy’s husband, despite no provocation from him. She asked him to curse God and die (Job 2:9). She was asking a man, her husband whose habit was to get up early and offer burnt offerings on behalf of his children whom he felt may have cursed God in their hearts! Man’s first sin was to listen to the sinful advice of his wife! And Job did not follow Adam who followed his madam’s sinful advice at this juncture. Instead he corrected his wife saying, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10). The author of Job writes thus immediately: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10b). It is a sin to obey your family or loved ones when they give you an advice that would displease the Lord like, “Marry that non-believer who is settled in the United States!”, “Pay the bribe and get that government job!”, “Don’t resign your job to serve God fulltime, even though you know full well God has called you for fulltime ministry!”, etc.
4. Job is ostracized by HIS FRIENDS
Celine Dion sang song titled, “My boy-friend left me.” The was a time when Apostle Paul felt this way once: “All deserted me…” (2 Tim 4:16). Job’s problems were worser than Dion’s and Paul’s. If his friends had taken off from him during his testing time, Job could have handled that. Instead they made his condition worse by talking unkind words that further rubbed salt onto his raw wounds. Elihu put words into the mouth of Job when he quoted Job as saying, “My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression” (Job 34:5-6). Job never claimed to be without sin. But Elihu misrepresented what Job said. Elihu further accused Job of sins he never committed such as these: “What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water?” (Job 34:7). In other words, Elihu was saying that Job was the number one in pouring scorn on people like Roger Federer was number one in Men’s Tennis Rankings! He was clearly cooking up something that wasn’t true here. In fact, Job spoke very kindly and very courteously (see Job 31:29, for example). Job felt he was ‘mocked’ by his friends (Job 12:4).
5. Job is ostracized by THE SOCIETY
There was a time when Job was honored by the folk around him. When you read Job 29 you will understand this. Here’s how Job spoke about those glorious days: “Those were the days when I went to the city gate and took my place among the honored leaders. The young stepped aside when they saw me, and even the aged arose in respect at my coming….Everyone listened to me and valued my advice. They were silent as they waited for me to speak. And after I spoke, they had nothing to add, for my counsel satisfied them…I told them what they should do and presided over them as their chief. I lived as a king among his troops…” (vs. 7,8,21,22,25 NLT).
Now the story was different – the society that respected him as if he was a sovereign looked down upon him as if he was no better than a slave. This is how Job spoke about the ugly U-turn in his life: “But now I am mocked by those who are younger than I, by young men whose fathers are not worthy to run with my sheepdogs….And now their sons mock me with their vulgar song! They taunt me! They despise me and won’t come near me, except to spit in my face!” (Job 30:1,2,9,10 NLT).
In SUMMARY, he writes, “My RELATIVES stay far away, and my FRIENDS have turned against me. My NEIGHBORS and my CLOSE FRIENDS are all gone. The members of my HOUSEHOLD have forgotten me. The SERVANT GIRLS consider me a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them. I call my servant, but he doesn’t come; I even plead with him! My breath is repulsive to my WIFE. I am loathsome to my OWN FAMILY. Even young CHILDREN despise me. When I stand to speak, they turn their backs on me. My CLOSE FRIENDS abhor me. THOSE I LOVED have turned against me. I have been reduced to skin and bones and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth” (Job 19:13-20 NLT).
Yet, despite all of these painful experiences, Job is not thinking of suicide. Incredibly, he took time to praise God. He said, “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21). He said later on, “Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity….You have granted me life and favor, and your care has preserved my spirit” (Job 10:8,12). He had the maturity to worship God for who God was and not for just what God gave him.
Initially, at least, three of his friends who came to visit him after the tragedy struck, did the right thing: they ‘sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights’ without saying a word, ‘for they saw that his suffering was too great for words’ (Job 2:11-13 NLT). When things go wrong in our lives, there is a streak of sunshine shining to cheer us up, isn’t it? Don’t become so gloomy that you fail to spot this streak of sunshine!
After we have learnt lessons from the letters, “J” and “O” of the word, “JOB OF UZ”, we will finish off with the letter “B”.
B-BEHIND THE SCENE STORY RECORDING BOOK OF JOB
Behind Job’s suffering is a scene in Heaven. Job is not aware of this scene, but we the readers of the book of Job are. What happened around the throne room of God as recorded in Job 1 helps us understand why Job suffered. But Job has no idea about this. Satan is introduced as ‘the accuser’ in the book of Job (1:6). Ronald Youngblood writes, “As a tempter, (Satan) seeks to alienate man from God (Gen 3; Mt 4:1). As accuser (Satan means ‘accuser’) he seeks to alienate God from man (Zech 3:1; Rev 12:9,10).” He tries to do just that in the book of Job. He tries to alienate God from Job by saying, “Yes, Job fears God, but not without good reason! You(God) have always protected him and his home and his property from harm. You have made him prosperous in everything he does. Look how rich he is. But take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!” (Job 1:9,10). We must notice in Scripture that Satan had to get God’s permission to make Job suffer (Job 1:12; 2:6). So the Bible is clear – God does choose to allow suffering in our lives for reasons best known to him. One reason is clear, however: God allows suffering in our life to sift those who serve him with pure motives from those who serve him with phony motives. When we serve God for who HE is, our motive in serving God is pure. Our motive in serving God is phony when we serve him only for what he gives us. The point of God allowing pain in our lives is to prove a point to the Devil: “My kids love me for a reason and that reason is love! They don’t love me simply because I bless them with gifts!” If God would borrow lines from a popular song, He would tell us this: “Love me for a reason! Let the reason be love! (don’t love me for the gifts I give you).”
Job had no idea about the conversation that God had with Satan about him following which Satan was given the permission by God to execute the ‘job’ of making him suffer! But it is indeed amazing that he says things like the following that clearly reveal to us that he squarely understood that he suffered because God, in his wisdom, had given the green signal for the same:
“I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be stripped of everything when I die. The Lord gave me everything I had and the Lord had taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21).
Job replied (to his wife): “You talk like a godless woman. Shall we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” (Job 2:10)
While responding to his friend Zophar, Job said, “Speak to the earth, and it will instruct you. Let the fish of the sea speak to you. They all know that the Lord has done this.”
What Job stated above – thrice out as we have just seen – was not just an assumption or presumption. Job wasn’t guessing or gassing that it was God who allowed him to journey through the path of pain. It was indeed a right assertion. God himself said that Job did not sin while he asserted the above, at least thrice (Job 1:22; 2:10b; 42:7). This is indeed in line with what the rest of the Bible teaches us. Paul was once stoned so badly that those who stoned him, left him, supposing he was dead. This happened when he had gone to a particular place to preach the Gospel with his buddy Barnabas. Once he regained consciousness, the first thing he told the disciples of Jesus around him was this: “We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God!” (Acts 14:19-22). In other words, Paul was saying this: “Not only me but every true disciple of Christ will have to suffer!” The understanding that God often gives permission for Satan to bring trouble or temptation upon his children is one of the reasons why authors of the Bible recorded seemingly conflicting statements such as the following in the Bible: “Satan rose up against Israel and caused David to take a census of the Israelites” – that is what the writer of I Chronicles writes (I Chron. 21:1 NLT). But the writer of 2 Samuel puts the same event this way: “Once again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he caused David to harm them by taking a census. “Go and count the people of Israel and Judah,” the LORD told him.” (2 Sam. 24:1 NLT). So, what’s the truth? God gave permission for Satan to tempt David to count the people of Israel and Judah. Because this was so, it was both right to say that “Satan tempted David to count the people” and “God told David to count the people”!
In John 9, we meet another man who suffered for a similar reason as Job – the “God” reason! Jesus, speaking about this born-blind said, “He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him” (John 9:3 NLT). Yes, suffering in some mysterious way, ensures that we experience the power of God in our lives. When Lazarus became sick Jesus said something similar, “(This sickness of Lazarus) will become an occasion to show God’s glory…” (John 11:4, MSG). How can suffering lead to God’s glory?
Listen to this story to understand the answer to that question. My wife and I tucked our kids to bed and settled to watch the National Geographic channel program called “Jailed Abroad” in September 2008. It featured the story of a missionary couple by the name of Martin and Gracia Burnham. They were American missionaries who served God in the country of Philippines. They had met and married each other with a singular purpose of serving God together in the mission field he would send them to. God blessed them with three children – all of whom were born in the mission field. On their eighteenth wedding anniversary, they had gone to a beachside island resort in the same country to romance each other afresh and to celebrate their wedding anniversary minus their children. That’s when a terrorist group led by Abu Sayyaf linked with Osama bin Laden kidnapped them and took them in a speedboat along with 18 others. In this group of 18, there was only one more American, apart from the Burnhams. This missionary couple was chained to two terrorists. They kept moving in dense forests as the Philippine Army tried to track them down. They starved for most part of their 377 days in captivity. While they fainted physically, spiritually they did not – they kept believing in God and serving him by sharing the Gospel with their captors. When they did eat something, dysentery was the result. Though the food they ate came out of their bodies like water, their faith during this extreme time of trial was rock solid. Their bodies were cut. Blood oozed out. But their faith in the Lord Jesus did not fizzle out. Their captors demanded $1 million for their release. $330,000 was given to them, yet they did not release them. 3 men in that group were beheaded. Even after this horrific incident, this missionary couple in captivity did not want to kick their Christian faith from their hearts and heads. The terrorists married 4 women in the group against their wishes and violated them. Even this incident did not force this determined duo to divorce their faith from their life during the time of extreme trail. On June 7, 2002, during a cross-fire between the Army and terrorists, a bullet pierced the chest of Martin, the Soldier of the Cross, and he died. Yet, the faith of his wife did not die. She continued to serve God with steely resolve. Injured on her leg in the same cross-fire, she was finally free from captors – nearly after 400 days in horrifying captivity. Max Lucado writing about this incident asks a series of questions you may have wanted to ask even as you read this true story: “Why didn’t God block the bullets? Why did he let her get shot? And why did God let him die?… She was left a widow, and we are left to wonder why. Is this how God honors his chosen? How do you explain such a tragedy? And as you’re thinking of theirs, how do you explain yours? The tension at home. The demands at work. The bills on your desk or the tumor in your body. You aren’t taken hostage, but aren’t you occasionally taken aback by God’s silence? He knows what you are facing. How do we explain this?”
Gracia Martin, the dead missionary’s wife, answers this “why” question in an interview she gave: During the 10th week of my captivity this Bible truth I had taught others all-along strongly came to me: life’s not all about me getting my way; it’s about Him getting His way. I decided that I was going to believe God was good, no matter what…It seemed like God would answer every prayer but to get us out of there. I think we realized that He wanted us in there for a reason. Our prayers really changed at that point – we just wanted God to be teaching us.
Today, Gracia Martin, is stronger in her faith after having been through such a harrowing experience. She leads a ministry that uses aviation for mission work that also involves getting the Gospel to those living in closed Islamic communities. The terrifying trials she underwent being a captive to a dreaded terrorist group for close to 400 days helped in some mysterious way to demonstrate the glory and the power of God in her life!
Job says something amazing in his response to his friend Zophar’s words. He says, “Though he (God) slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15 KJV). “God can take away my very life, turn against me, my very wife, and allow my kids to get killed by the enemy’s knife, yet I will continue to serve him!” – that’s what Job is communicating here. Job trusted God even when he could not trace God, so wrote Selwyn Hughes.
We see a similar response from other Bible characters. Habbakkuk basically said, “I will rejoice in the Lord even when both the sources of my income, which is agriculture (‘though the fig tree does not blossom’) and animal husbandry (‘the flock be cut from the fold’), face a failure and a bleak future with the Babylonian army soon to attack Judah, the country I am living in!” (Read Hab. 3:17,18). This example comes from pre-exilic period. During the Babylonian exile, we have two more examples of exhibition of sterling faith in the face of sour, sapping, scary circumstances. We have the example of Daniel’s friends – Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego – who told the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, that they would not bow before the gods of Babylon or worship the golden image that he had set up, even if the God they served did not deliver them from the burning fiery furnace they were about to be consigned to because of their disobedience to him (Dan. 3:16-18). At a later point, during the same period – the exilic period – Esther sent this loaded message to Mordecai: “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16 ESV). Just ponder a moment upon the last line you just read. It reads, “If I perish, I perish.” It means this: “After I have earnestly fasted and prayed for the safety of myself and my people, there is a possibility that God may still allow my husband, King Ahasuerus to wipe out the Jewish race along with me, a Jew, based on the counsel of the harmful minister Haman, If that happens, that’s fine with me. I am ready to die serving my God!”
What about you? Have you graduated to such a level of faith? Have you grown to such a level of Christian maturity? Will you keep seeking God and continue to serve him no matter what happens? Or will the arrival of cancer cancel out your Christian faith? Or will the rejection of your application for US Visa, imply rejection of all your promises to walk the Jesus Narrow Way? Or will the walking out of your boyfriend or girlfriend lead you to walk out on God? Or will your inability to buy that posh flat result in your Christian faith falling flat? I hope it does not. I hope this study from the book of Job has challenged you, ‘no-matter-what-I-will-still-serve-Him’ kind of faith in Christ.
Job mouthed the following words that give us an insight on how to handle suffering: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-27 ESV). Job admits here that the final answer for the problem of pain will be only known after he dies (‘after my body has decayed’ – that’s how NLT puts Job 19:26). He says, on the Big Final Day when the eyes of his resurrected body meet with his Redeemer’s, his heart would skip a beat and grow faint in sheer joy and eternal bliss (cf. Job 19:17). The thrust of the above passage is this: When Job crossed over to the other side of eternity, the jigsaw puzzle of ‘why bad things happen to good people’ would be finally and fully solved. This will happen as he would meet, face to face, the God who allowed the suffering in the first place.
When we cross over to New Testament, the same truth is re-hammered. “These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us,” Paul wrote concerning his own sufferings to the Corinthian Church (2 Cor. 4:17, MSG). Peter agreed with Paul for he wrote, “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials…..result(ing) in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (I Pet. 1:6-7 NASB). “Sometimes when we go through a period of suffering, we are tempted to think it will last forever, but Peter encourages us to think of it as just for “now”. In the light of eternity all suffering will amount to no more than just a breath or a vapor,” writes Jack Deere.
The ultimate purpose of bitter experiences of our lives is to make us better people – better by being conformed to the image of Christ. We learn this truth from Job who said, “But God knows me. He is testing me and will see that I am as pure as gold” (Job 23:10 Easy-to-Read Version). If we will refuse to fold under the pressure of suffering, that’s when our character turns ‘gold’! A lovely diamond was just a lowly coal that reacted differently to pressure, someone has pointed out!
We have so far studied lessons on why there is suffering using acronym J-O-B. I had promised to use the acronym J-O-B O-F U-Z to outline the message of the book of Job and bring to the forefront, the reasons for suffering. So the next letter we will take up in this journey is “O”.
O-KAY TRUTHS EMPHAZING BOOK OF JOB
Each of Job’s friends, speak three times in the book of Job. Elihu, the fourth friend of Job makes one speech. Job makes ten speeches in total. In the speeches that Job’s friends made, there are some truths that are ‘okay’. While I say this, I am conceding that these friends taught things that are not theologically right as well. But we will come to that at a latter point.
What are the “okay” truths, Job’s friends taught?
First, the truth about ORIGINAL SIN. Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends said this: “Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error; how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth” (Job 4:17-19 ESV). By speaking these lines that he concedes that humans whom he refers to ‘those who dwell in clay’ naturally chose’s sin’s way. His message is simple: angels sinned; humans also sinned; there there is suffering. Eliphaz is right her. His theology is okay here. There would not be any suffering on this planet had not angels sinned in the first place. Because they sinned, they were pushed from the presence of God. One such angel entered a snake in the Garden of Eden. That snake tempted Eve. Eve fell into sin. And so began all suffering. Eliphaz once again stressed this when he said the following another time he spoke. He said then, “What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!”(Job 15:14-16 ESV). Here again, Elihu talks about the inherent sinful nature of man using the words, “one who is abominable and corrupt.” Job also agreed with the assertion that while fallen man is inherently sinful, God is inherently holy. He asked rightly, “how can a man be in the right before God?” (Job 9:2 ESV). So, because all of us have sinned, all of deserve to suffer. When the news media says that a tsunami took away ‘innocent’ lives, it is a lie. No life is ‘innocent’ according to the Bible.
Dhanush, in the song, “Why this Kolaveri Di?’ sings these lines: “White skin-u girl-u girl-u/ Girl-u heart-u black-u/ Eyes-u eyes-u meet-u meet-u/ My future dark.” These lines reveal the hurt of the boy who has been ditched in romance by a “white girl” with a “black heart.” Did you know that the Bible teaches each one of us have “black heart” (and not just girls with white skin)? Prophet Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9). Job’s friend Elihu stresses this in his speeches, we just saw. What Jeremiah and Elihu were stressing is this: everyone’s heart is blackened by sin! And the good news is this: though our sins are like scarlet (or shall we say black as soot?), they can become as white as snow (Isa 1:18). This can happen when those unconfessed sins come under the cleansing blood of Jesus, the Bible teaches (I John 1:7-9).
I would like to bring our attention to another ‘okay’ truth that otherwise-mostly-wrong buddies presented. It is a truth concerning the BEVERITY OF LIFE.
Who’s the shortest man in the Bible? Still scratching your head? The answer – in lighter vein – is Bildad the Shuite (Job 8:1). Still puzzled as to why this is the answer? Bildad the Shuhite can be read as Bildad the Shoe-Height, right?! Now, on a serious note, I would like to say that Bildad said some correct things about life. He said, “Our days on earth are a shadow”(Job 8:9 ESV). The length of our life is unpredictable as the lengh of a shadow is – that’s his message here. And this message is mouthed by Job also in the book of Job. Job said, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle….”(Job 7:6 ESV). “A skilled weaver could sling the shuttle back and forth at eye-blurring speed,” wrote a Bible Teacher. Our life also can come to an end in an eye-blurring speed! At the blink of an eye, an accident, an electric shock, a collapsing ceiling, a terror attack, etc, can snuff out our life – no matter what our age is! Job also compares life to a fading flower (See Job 14:2). Flowers that open up in the morning, fold up in the evening. A man who wakes up in the morning, has no surety that he would live till he goes to bed (‘folds like a flower’) in the night – that’s Job’s point here. We must be consciousness that our life is short and be cut short. The sudden deaths of prince Absalom and king Ahab recorded in detail in the Old Testament reminds us of this. Famous pop star was planning to be in her mentor’s pre-Grammy bash when she suddenly died by drowning in her hotel-room bathtub, having fallen asleep (perhaps due to an alcohol and drug influence) on 11th February 2012. She was just 48. Yes, we can die at anytime, while biking, baking or bathing! And we must be ready face death. The thought that our life, which is usually full of troubles, will be short, is actually encouraging. Enduring a ‘short’ time of suffering while on this earth is not actually a big deal when compared to an eternity without suffering, for Christ-followers.
There are other okay truths which the friends of Job talk about in the book of Job. Sin’s pleasures are short is one such truth, which Job’s buddy Zophar correctly stresses in Job 20:4,5. This is supported by Scriptures such as Hebrews 11:24-25 and Psalm 16:11. Job’s friend, Eliphaz, in Job 22:21-30, issues what is ‘in many ways a commendable call to repentance’, says the NIV Study Bible. Repentance is the first message that John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter and Paul preached.
We are using the words, “JOB OF UZ” as a short-form for the message of JOB. The second ‘o’ of this series reminded us about the “OKAY TRUTHS” presented by Job’s friends. Now let’s go for the letter “F”.
F-FUNNY THEOLOGY PRESENTING FRIENDS PRESENTING BOOK OF JOB!
Job’s friends interpreted God and his way, a bit funnily, a bit weirdly. For example, they were confident that the WICKED DO NOT PROSPER. Bildad, Job’s friend, is very eloquent and electrifying when he makes this point (See Job 8:11-22). He repeats his point (Job 18:5-21). But Job disagrees with this viewpoint correctly (Job 21:1-16). Psalmist Asaph also noted the ‘prosperity of the wicked’ elsewhere in the Bible (Psa 73:3).
The truth is that wicked people may or may not be punished on this earth. Many a time we see that they live a good life and die with honor. In such cases, we can be assured that they who have rejected Jesus and have drunk sin like water, would receive a just punishment for their sins on the day of Judgement on the otherside of eternity. This is what the Bible teaches.
Another piece of funny theology put forward by ‘jokers’ around Job is this one: “You always reap what you sow on this side of eternity!” Eliphaz had this view (See Job 4:8). That’s why he was sure that Job was suffering for the consequence of his sin. Eliphaz, audaciously, even describes the likely ways Job had perhaps sinned (Job 22:5-6). But the truth was that the Job was suffering not because of any sin in his life. Job’s righteousness was attested by God himself. Job suffered because of a cosmic conflict between God and Satan. Eliphaz wasn’t aware that. And he jumped to conclusions to become a ‘miserable comforter’ (Job 16:2).
Yes, one reaps what he sows on this side of eternity itself. For example, Absalom who tried to unseat his father David from the throne, hung in mid-air without a seat to sit-on, even as his father’s friends plunged his heart with spears! He reaped what he sowed even while on the earth! Haman who wanted to unfairly have Mordecai hanged got hung in the gallows he prepared for Mordecai to hang! Harmful Haman was hit with the practical experience of reaping what he sowed even before the Judgment Day. But this does not happen in the case of every wicked man! For them, the punishment (reaping what is sown) is doled out only on the terrible day of judgment! But the punishment given will more than compensate for the wickedness they have committed.
Another wrong teaching Job’s friends leaked was this: GOD IS TOO BIG TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT INDIVIDUALS. Eliphaz basically conveyed that God is far too transcendent to be involved (Job 22:2,3,12,13,14). But Job disagreed with this assertion. He knew that God was involved in his life even though he was incredibly big and busy. He even watched Job swallow his spit (Job 7:19). Other writers of the Bible agree to this. God has a plan for each day of our lives, the Psalmist writes (Psa 139:16).
One of the reasons why Job’s buddies often erred when they spoke could be this one: over-reliance on the visions they saw (see Job 4:12-21). The Bible teaches that even if an angel teaches us something contrary to what is written in the Bible, we must not believe that angel (Gal 1:8).
Job hailed from a town called “Uz”. So we take up the first letter of Uz, which is U to recall yet another lesson from the book of Job.
U-UMPIRE-SEARCH RECORDING BOOK OF JOB!
India toured Zimbabwe in the year 2005 under the leadership of Saurav Ganguly. Greg Chappell was the coach of the Indian side. When it came to choosing the final XI, Greg Chappel said that India should field its best XI for the first Test at Bulawayo. When Captain Ganguly pushed Chappell to be frank in his opinion, Chappell said that he felt that Mohammed Kaif and Yuvraj Singh should be in the XI at the expense of Ganguly based on current form of the three batsmen (Ganguly’s last 100 was in Australia in the year 2003, at this point). Ganguly was upset and stormed out of the room and went straight to his vice captain, Rahul Dravid and reported what Chappell had just told him. Dravid turned to be peacemaker between Ganguly and Chappel. He told Chappell that it wasn’t right to change the captain of the Indian team in the middle of a tour. In the book of Job, Job is looking for a peacemaker, an umpire between him and God.
For Job, God was inaccessible (Job 23:3-9) and silent (Job 30:20; 34:29). So he wants an umpire to arbitrate between him and God! This comes out many times in this book. In Job 23:7, he says, if there was ‘an upright man’ who could argue with God on his behalf, he would be acquitted. We have already seen for his longing for a redeemer (Job 19:23-27). He talked about a witness in heaven who would testify for him from high (Job 16:19). Job’s main complain was this: “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both”(Job 9:33 ESV). That arbiter, that witness in heaven, that redeemer, that upright person who Job was seeking for, is the Lord Jesus Christ! He is the ultimate umpire, the mediator without any muck, who intercedes incessantly for the believer to the Father God. This is the teaching of the New Testament (I John 2:2; Rom 8:34; I Tim 2:5; Heb 7:25).
Now, to the last letter of the acronym, JOB OF UZ we are currently using to grasp the message of Job and the reasons why seemingly innocent people suffer. This letter is “Z”.
Z-ZIPPING OF MOUTH RECORDING BOOK OF JOB
During his speeches, Job asked God to speak to him atleast thirty six times. See Job 13:3 for example. At the end of this book what Job desperately wished became a reality – God, on two occasions, speaks to him from out of a storm. That God spoke to Job from out of a storm reminds me of the C. S. Lewis quote, “God whispers in our pleasures and shouts in our pains. Pain is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world!” In fact, Job prepares us to hear from God. At one point Job basically said, “Only God alone knows the answer for this mystery of suffering!” (Job 28:7,8,12,13,23). God, in response, asks Job a total of over seventy questions. And Job had no answers for each of those questions. He just kept his mouth zipped! These seventy questions were asked in two rounds.
In Round One, the focus was on God’s power as the Creator. He asked Job, “Where were you when I….” (Job 38:4). Job began his response to suffering by lamenting his own birth. But God does just the opposite – he celebrates his creation (Job 38:4-11). God asks Job, “Do you have knowledge or the ability to govern the elements of nature that you experience regularly?” Job was silent. God continued as if to say, “So, here is one question you do not know the answer for. If you can live without the answer for one question, you can live without the answer for another question, the question that goes, ‘Why do I suffer?’” (Job 38:12-38). God gave Job a nickname: “fault-finder!” (Job 40:2). That’s the nick-name that Job shared with Satan! In response, Job put his hand over his mouth, just as princes would do so in his presence during his hey days (Job 29:9).
In the second round of speeches, God shows Job how much he was proud of his pets like the Leviathan (perhaps the Crocodile) and the Behemoth (perhaps the Hippo). God says though the Behemoth is the number one of his creations in the animal world, he could approach the Behemoth with a sword (Job 40:19). In same way, he had every right to approach man, the crown of his creation, with the sword of suffering. He was sovereign. He could do what he wanted and no one had the right to question him! As Isaiah, the prophet says, elsewhere, God’s ways are much higher than our ways. Therefore, God can allow us to suffer for a higher good which we may not understand. This was God’s basic point in the second round of speeches, he gave Job. In response to God’s second round of talks Job speaks. His reply reflects his humility (“I know you can do all things and no plan of yours can be thwarted… I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know…I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” – Job 42:2,3,6 ESV). He reply shows how carefully he listened to God’s Words. I say this because Job quotes God in his reply (“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” which were God’s words in Job 38:2 ESV is quoted by Job in Job 42:3. Not only that, whhat God said in Job 40:7 is also quoted by Job in Job 42:4).
What happened to Job at the end of this book became a fulfillment of what one of his friends talked about earlier on. I am referring to what Bildad the Shuhite said. He said, “If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. And though your beginning was small your latter days will be very great”(Job 8:5-7 ESV). Verses 5,6,7 of Job 8 became a reality in Job’s life! His latter days indeed were very great – he got double of what he originally lost when one considered the properties he regained (Job 42:12).
“And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. And Job died, an old man, and full of days” – those are the last two sentences of Job (Job 42:16-17 ESV). In comparison to the years of his joys, his years of pain were small. This reminds us of the fact that our suffering while were in this world are only for a little while and are small potatoes when compared the eternity of suffering-free joy awaiting us (II Cor. 4:17; I Pet. 1:6). Therefore, let us not loose heart when we are suffering!
(This article appeared as the lead article of the G4 Mission mag’s Issue No. 28 published in July 2012; Duke Jeyaraj, the author of this article, is the founder of G4 Mission. This is a reader-supported Indian ministry. You can use the QR code to support this ministry)
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