In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
On another day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”
He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. - Job 1:1, 2:1-10
There are a few places in the Bible where God makes a choice and that choice causes pain for his children. In this case, he authorizes Satan to go and inflict sores on Job's body, contending that Job only liked God because God always gave him the good stuff in life. In the back of my mind, I am asking: what gives God the right to make that decision?
Well, for one, we do. When we decide to follow Jesus--to become his disciples--we give God the right to do whatever he deems best to achieve his--and our--ultimate goal--to become like Jesus. We would like it to be hand-holding and comforting, but God asks us to go through the same refining process that he asked his son to go through.
And part of this is that God will use how we respond to teach those that are watching. In these verses, in addition to Satan, it says that the angels were there in the throne room of God. God wanted to use how Job responded to teach the unfallen angels the truth about his humans. Were they really hopeless after they had sinned, or was their a path of redemption where, under pressure they would do the right thing.
This wasn't just for the angels, though. We see Job's three friends and Job's wife around him while he is suffering. His experiences and the way he responded served to teach those around him about what was real and the way the world really worked. It was a painful lesson in life's classroom for Job, and his children.
It also means that justice--people getting what they deserve--is not what we think it is. Did Job get what he deserved? He certainly got what he needed--a glimpse of who God really is and what God is really doing. And that was a hard-won revelation--the kind of knowledge that can only come through experience.
I think this is why looking back is the best way to judge our own lives. We want to know how the world works but fundamentally there is no way to know that unless we go through it--unless we live past it. We want the reward from God, but if the reward we want is understanding, then must live it first, just as Jesus did.
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