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The Book of Job
The Book of Job
Will man serve God BECAUSE He is God? This is the question behind the whole story of Job. This was the point made by Satan as he spoke with God about Job. Sure men will serve God WHEN they receive rewards and benefits from such. Will they serve God when there are no worldly benefits? Will they serve God even when it means having to withstand physical and emotional pain? Job did.
This book is not directly about suffering although it adds information that helps in that question also. In this situation we KNOW why Job is suffering. The debate unfolds as those who don't know what was really going on try to pontificate the reason for all of this. We see on a simple worldly level that suffering comes from nature, illness, cruel strangers, greed, friends, self, Satan, and even God.
God? How can we say that? It wasn't God, it was Satan - wasn't it? If God would have said NO, then none of this would have happened. We do an injustice to the whole question when we take God out of the story of suffering. In fact that situation of factoring God into this story is what raises the real question. It sets up the whole question of worshiping and serving God. The great philosophical question is not why do men suffer but why does God ALLOW men to suffer. God doesn't answer that question. Will you serve Him as God anyway? That was Job's dilemma.
The Patience of Job (James 5:11) is not that he did not SIN during this struggle because he did, he was reproved by friends and God, and he repented. Through all of this he remained resolute in his worship of God. Such faithfulness was thus not sinlessness but resoluteness. He would worship God even when he could not understand what (he thought) God was doing. He refused to abandon his worship of God when life got difficult.
There is a lot that goes on in this world that we just are not privy to! God has revealed what we NEED to know but not all that we would want to know. Some of what God does doesn't make sense to our limited knowledge. I would liken that to a child watching some of the things his parents do. She knows the physical action she sees but she doesn't understand what is really going on. In our understanding of God we are in many ways children.
The three friends argue with Job about what is going on. They don't know either. Hence we see an argument that no one knows what is really going on. Yet, they have a lot of truthfulness in their foundation arguments. Some of their statements in fact are quoted in the New Testament as foundational to truth. However, they were applying these thoughts to the wrong situation. They extended the argument beyond what it warranted. Extrapolation does not ALWAYS work!
God is worthy of our worship and service BECAUSE He is God. Those that worship Him WILL receive blessings but such is not the foundation of our worship. If YOUR life went the way of Job's, would YOU still worship and serve God? Interesting question!
Hugh DeLong
