Figuring Out Job, Part 2: This One Needs Some Testing…

Musings of Job from the eyes of a normal, admittedly struggling stay-at-home Christian mom.

I’ll jump right in with the part that has always bothered me the most about the entire book.  The part where God seemingly goads Satan into taking a stab at Job.

The scene:

God: So, Satan, what’s up?  Have you put your eyes on my man Job lately?  I outdid myself.  He is the best of the best!

Satan:  Yeah, right.  All kids love their daddys when they play ball with them, let them have cookies and coke for supper and stay up way past their bedtime.  Crack down and let’s see how the attitude gets.

God:  You play bad cop.  But only time-outs and grounding.

Satan: Whatever.  Everybody knows kids need a good whipping to really make a point.

God: Oh, all right.  But no blood.

My thoughts:

I mean no disrespect to The Word.  But that’s what I have struggled with as I have read this book in the past.  What was God playing at?  Does he play that way with me?  Is He really good?  Can He be trusted to have my back or is it all just a power game?

The Bible I am using has commentary which I enjoy because I get a lot out of reading other people’s thoughts and stacking them up against the truth of what I understood myself (or didn’t understand) from the text.  Chapter 1, verse 8 states the following: “The Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job?  For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.’”  The commentary on verse 8 reads: The omniscient Lord initiates the conversation that leads to Job’s being tested and pays the highest tribute to the character of Job.

In meditating over this, I get three very comforting thoughts:

1. The Lord refers to Job as “My” servant.  Job is HIS child.  That will NEVER change no matter what bad things happen, no matter what attitude Job develops, or no matter what is said or thought along the way…and God knows this.
2. The Lord pays ‘the highest tribute to Job’s character’ as he talks about him to Satan.  GOD personally affirms (not just other people) that Job is blameless, upright, fearing God and turning from evil.  That is quite the testimony from your employer.  I would like to be able to list that on my resume one day.
3. The Lord is omniscient.   Dictionary.com defines this as “having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding; perceiving all things.”  For all of the boasting of the previous point, God still knows Job’s inner heart…the good and the bad.  God already knows the outcome of this seemingly twisted experiment.  God knows that Job is great in many ways, but not perfect.  God wants to make Job even better.  God knows what it will take to not only shut Satan up but to make Job even stronger personally and offer him as a timeless testimony. 

The one comfort as I work through the book of Job?  God knows all this about me and my life too.